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I've searched a bunch through the forum here and have seen a million different recommendations for all type of cars. I've just purchased some Maximum Motorsport CC Plates and after having done a spring change and swapped to the 285 square setup, I figured I probably should have done the plates when I did the springs so I can set this with some proper adjustment range.

Obviously this car is a massive mile daily driver so what I'm looking for is a pretty good street alignment setting for caster camber and toe. The vast majority of what I see is to "max the caster", run -1 to -1.5 camber, and zero the toe. Is that about what I should be looking to accomplish?
 
You nailed it, max caster, 0 toe, camber dialed to an appropriate level depending on how active you are with motorsports events. Anything more then then 3 events a year -1.5 set it and forget it.
 
I'm at -1.7* camber for street and track. It causes slightly faster wear on the inside front tires, but makes the S197 platform much more responsive in corners
 
I also just installed my MM CC plates. I'm considering two options:

1. Get a slightly aggressive street alignment (say -1.7* camber), marking it on the plates, then when I get to the track push them in to get as much neg. camber as I can get (which is what these cars seem to love).

2. Get the track alignment (say > -2.0* camber) and leaving it.

Considerations:

a. My car is track and very rare street driving only.

b. I sometimes need to drive a good distance to get to my events. I'm about to go to one in which I need to drive two hours, drive the event, and then drive a couple of hours back home. If I have the track alignment, how badly am I going to wreck the inside of my tires? I know it's hard to quantify, but how accelerated is the inside wear from a track alignment? Does it wear the tires faster than the track use? If not, it's moot, yes?
 
IMO, going from -1.7* to -2.0* will make little-to-no difference on a trip to the track, as far as tire wear goes. I DD with -1.7* and my tires lasted more than 12K miles. If you dial it up much (past -2.0*) for the street, you may notice some odd alignment\stability issues.

Tire wear on the track will always be accelerated since you are carving corners at speed. The additional negative camber (-1.5 to -2.0) will have minimal effect compared to the general high-performance 'work' you are asking the tires to do. HPDE crushes tires...there is just no way around it...and softer tires means better traction, means faster wear. The benefit of negative camber is better traction (better tire contact patch) on the front inside corner, especially as weight transfers forward in a turn. Turning the S197 becomes much more 'crisp'.
 
2,198
1,065
Bay Area
I have been running 1.5 on the streets for a few years now. I have been pretty happy with the setting. When I was running 2.0 I noticed some wear. I also run different rims and tires on the street. If you have that option take that into consideration.
 
I think since this is primarily a daily driver I'll likely stick with -1.5° and 0 Toe and see how it works. My friend's dad has an alignment rack close to me so I'm not against the idea of playing around with it because I have access to have it checked often for a reasonably low cost.

Once I'm happy with a street setting I'll likely mark it and then find a track setting and mark that and then I can go back and forth without tooooooo much hassle.
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
I think since this is primarily a daily driver I'll likely stick with -1.5° and 0 Toe and see how it works. My friend's dad has an alignment rack close to me so I'm not against the idea of playing around with it because I have access to have it checked often for a reasonably low cost.

Once I'm happy with a street setting I'll likely mark it and then find a track setting and mark that and then I can go back and forth without tooooooo much hassle.

That's a good place to start. IF you notice inside wear on the street you can always mark this setting and move the adjuster back to the center. While that would go a bit toe-in, it should be nice and stable for the freeway.
 
Thanks for the comments! Track wheels are on the way (I got in on the Apex group buy), so dedicated track tires will solve some of my concerns.

I think for now I'm going to go with the set-it-and-forget-it settings of max caster, -1.7* camber, and .5* toe-out. I'm not doing anything competitive with my car, so any track-side fiddling with the car takes away from just driving and enjoying the event. I'll probably get this done on Monday and my event is on Friday. I'll let you know what happens.
 
The .5* toe-out is a Maximum Motorsports recommendation for track driven cars, but i also don't disagree with you. And that's why I changed my mind, finally settling on:

L/R
Caster: 7.3*/7.4*
Camber: -2.0*/-2.0*
Toe: 0.0*/0.0*

I won't have any tire wear data to report for awhile (I hope), but I will report on street/track handling after my event on Friday.
 
898
544
When I set my car up, a .5* of toe out was approximately 1/8" toe out each side, or a 1/4" total toe out. Both Rob Ribboneetes' and Ground Controls online toe angle calculators back this up.

https://robrobinette.com/ConvertToeInchesToDegrees.htm.

http://www.ground-control-store.com/toe-out.htm

I am currently running a little over 1/8" total toe out, max positive caster, and -3.0 degrees camber. I will probably increase toe out to .5* and camber to as close to -3.5* as I can get on my next alignment. Toe out and positive caster both help with the camber curve from my basic understanding of suspension dynamics.

I do not worry about driving my car on the street anymore. I think I might have put 20 street miles on it last year.

I think for a dual purpose car that sees a lot of track use, I would max out the caster, set toe to 0*, and set camber at -2.0*.
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
-1 to -1.25 is basically factory spec for camber. Leave the caster alone in the stock location.
Go to your alignment shop and have them set the most outboard position of the camber plate for -1 to -1.25 range. This will be your "street" setup.

Then have them dump the plates full inboard (towards the engine) and measure again (probably -2 to -2.5 range). This will be your track setup. Very easy to change when you arrive to the track by lifting the front end off the ground and pushing the camber plates full inboard. When you are done for the day, lift the car up again and pull the plates all the way outboard (towards the fenders).
 
898
544
No, but your alignment shop can tell you when they set the car up in the manner ArizonaBoss describes above. I doubt you will exceed .5* toe out in the "full inboard" camber plate position, but if you do have them adjust the "full outboard" camber plate position to have a little toe in.
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
No, but your alignment shop can tell you when they set the car up in the manner ArizonaBoss describes above. I doubt you will exceed .5* toe out in the "full inboard" camber plate position, but if you do have them adjust the "full outboard" camber plate position to have a little toe in.

f7FdEdG.jpg
 

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