I'm doing my first HPDE with my beater 944 turbo this weekend. I was working on the struts about a month ago and screwed with the camber adjustment on one side, so I said "screw it" and dialed in what appears to be max camber on both sides. I have barely driven it since then. Is max front camber, possibly/probably not very uniform, and combined with stock-looking rear camber (not much) a really bad thing? I'm thinking I'll spend some quality time tonight setting up a level spot in my garage and coming up with a way to check camber with my iphone (ihandy level does in fact work well, I just need a uniform flat wheel surface to check if on) so I can actually set up a reasonable alignment, but how bad could it really be to leave it as-is?
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May 5, 2011 12:42 p.m. pigeon Dork
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May 5, 2011 12:49 p.m. ransom Reader
I have no familiarity with the 944, so I don't know whether or not that's a recipe for scary-oversteer-death-ride (or maybe just improved front grip...)
My first question is about what's happened to your toe as a result of the fistful of negative camber... Or have you already checked/corrected for that?
I'm sure there are folks here who can give a specific idea of how a 944 should be aligned for the track...
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May 5, 2011 1:56 p.m. foxtrapper SuperDork
Many years ago (far more than I care to admit) I was a firm believer in following the manufacturers alignment specs. They were handed down by God, sacred, and never to be deviated from. Thoughts of deviation were reasons to castigate onself.
Then I read this goofy magazine, AutoX, they had this crazy article where they took a perfectly good car, and twiddled with the alignment. Not only that, they did it without a rack. They just messed around with the toe and the camber until the car worked well. Then they went and put it on a rack to see what numbers they had come to.
I was astonished. From then on, I've mucked around with alignments to my hearts content. To date, I've never crashed or died, no matter how screwy my alignment might be.
Uneven camber will cause your car to handle differently one way than the other way. No big deal. Might not even be detectable by you driving it.
Run it, watch the tire wear, adjust accordingly.
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May 5, 2011 2:08 p.m. ansonivan Dork
+3 on the "you'll be fine" front.
Setting the camber so that it's the same for both sides is probably more important than nailing some magical angle.
Toe is pretty damn important, happily you can set that close enough with a tape measure and an assistant. I would stick toe at zero with a whisker of negative if anything.
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May 5, 2011 2:16 p.m. pigeon Dork
Let me rephrase the question - what's bad about too much front camber?
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May 5, 2011 2:29 p.m. 92CelicaHalfTrac SuperDork
pigeon wrote:
Let me rephrase the question - what's bad about too much front camber?
"Too much" will limit your contact patch. You won't be able to get "too much" using stock adjustments, though.
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May 5, 2011 2:40 p.m. Tyler H Dork
Where is your HPDE?
If you set both the front struts to max negative, I bet you still don't have more than -1.5'. No worries.
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May 5, 2011 2:58 p.m. pigeon Dork
Tyler H wrote:
Where is your HPDE?
If you set both the front struts to max negative, I bet you still don't have more than -1.5'. No worries.
Watkins Glen, with the Genesee Valley BMWCCA chapter.
I guess I'll try for a level spot and check the camber, and if it's within .25 degree or so I'll just leave it alone - I have enough other stuff to screw around with before I go...
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May 5, 2011 3:11 p.m. tuna55 SuperDork
In reply to foxtrapper:
Are you sure that you haven't died?
In reply to OP:
We did the Lemons car with aluminum blocks on the control arms. As much as we could get without the nut leaving the bolt. I didn't think it was exactly the same from side to side, and I haven't died in a fireball yet either. During one of the races, the control arm bushing deteriorated to the point where they would just rattle about, giving you whatever combo of camber/caster they felt like at the moment. You just hit the brakes, wait a bit for the rattling to stop, and then turn in. I didn't die that time, either, and we ran like that for a day.
