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S197 Alignment Specs

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42
13
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Texas
My new shoes are on (19x10 ET40 + 285/35/19). Yay.

I had an alignment check performed—how do y'all feel about the current specs? As always, I appreciate your input.

Mustang-Alignment-05-30-2023.JPG
 
42
13
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Texas
I would try for more negative camber up front. (Assuming you aren’t getting crazy rollover on hard cornering as it sits) I’m currently sitting at -3.3 degrees both sides. Looks like your rear axle is centered almost perfectly form what I can see. Definitely within spec.
Thank you, Jared. I plan to borrow blacksheep-1's jig to clearance the towers and get -3°. I doubt I will go past that, but you never know ;)
Get all the caster you can get, the more, the better. This creates a phenomenon as " camber gain" in mid corner.
Noted, sir.
 
You won't be able to get more caster than that at the same time you can get -3 camber even with the holes cut out. And camber is more important.

Zero toe for street use, no toe in. If autocross only, slight toe out (negative number on Hunter machines) to help turn in.

DaveW
 
30
31
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Logan, UT
Thank you, Jared. I plan to borrow blacksheep-1's jig to clearance the towers and get -3°. I doubt I will go past that, but you never know ;)

Noted, sir.
I haven't used the jig to clear my towers for more camber. I'm just running koni yellow struts with ground control caster camber plates.
How are you getting that much camber?
^^ I was able to get -3.8 degrees but felt that was a bit much. If you can't get enough clearance, there is the Vorshlag strut tower jig to widen the opening.
 
6,363
8,190
You won't be able to get more caster than that at the same time you can get -3 camber even with the holes cut out. And camber is more important.

Zero toe for street use, no toe in. If autocross only, slight toe out (negative number on Hunter machines) to help turn in.

DaveW
2 edge sword, caster is important because with more caster you gat camber gain in the corner, and since our cars are pushy, that is a huge benefit.
 
2 edge sword, caster is important because with more caster you gat camber gain in the corner, and since our cars are pushy, that is a huge benefit.
yes, of course. I just feel that since the S197 already has 7~8 degrees and getting much more than that is going to require either losing negative camber, or wheel width, camber trumps caster in this instance.

We did testing way back when Hoosier was trying to roll out the first radial slicks in GT-1 sizes and tried high caster (8-10 degrees) lower static camber (-2ish)setups (on SLA cars) and it did not work well at all. Have you played with high caster lower camber setups on the strut cars/modern tires?

DaveW
 
6,363
8,190
yes, of course. I just feel that since the S197 already has 7~8 degrees and getting much more than that is going to require either losing negative camber, or wheel width, camber trumps caster in this instance.

We did testing way back when Hoosier was trying to roll out the first radial slicks in GT-1 sizes and tried high caster (8-10 degrees) lower static camber (-2ish)setups (on SLA cars) and it did not work well at all. Have you played with high caster lower camber setups on the strut cars/modern tires?

DaveW

we ran all the caster we could get (both sides equally of course) and around 3 degrees of camber, with very light springs compared to what most were running, (I wish I could remember the rates, @Fabman might know) we didn't do anything to add more caster than the car was designed with (we didn't open the holes in the shock towers to get caster) but we did for camber.
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