The Civic is going to see its first outing this weekend on the track and I'm wondering what everyone is running for their alignment setup? I've searched around a bit and have seen from -1.5 to -5.5 front and same with the rear.

I was thinking -3 front (if stock arms will allow), and -2 rear. I only have stock front sway bar currently and am not running a rear one.

 

Experience level?

 

I have track day and autocross experience but it'll be the first time running an SCCA race weekend.

 

So licensed racer?
Id start with your initial settings and tweak as needed...play with it.
But dont go too crazy. Slow changes.
Start annotating your settings, and changes so you know what way you went, and what direction to try next.
Theres no one way to make a car handle perfect, you have to slowly adjust the suspension to your driving style.

 

Yep, all that ^^^.

There's a bunch that goes into camber settings... springs, bars, shocks, driver style, tire choice, wheel width, etc. Your initial -3/-2 is a good place to start. Watch outside shoulder wear on the fronts especially and then tune based on balance and wear.

 

I'd worry more about putting on a rear sway bar first.
3 front and 2 rear is a good starting point.
FWD without a rear bar means understeer in a big way.

 

Anyone ever change their toe settings in the front?

 

I am a noob, I was told to not touch toe, once I get experience then you can start playing with other alignment settings as it drastically changes handling characteristics of the car. generally static camber for dropping the car is a decent starting point....2-3* in front and 1.5-2* in the rear for a beginner or somewhat new person.

was also recommended to not run a front bar and use a rear sway bar only.

 

Yes... what are you trying to get the car to "do"?

There's nothing wrong with adjusting the toe but it's one of the last places that I'd look when trying to change the balance/handling of a car.

No front bar setups work better for some chassis options than others... it also depends on what you're using the car for. Is it street, track, autox, or a blend of all these?

 

what camber/toe settings would you recommend for a dedicated track EG hatch running sphericals.

 

That's kinda like asking "how much seasoning do I put into this dish"? What and how you season it will depend on what other ingredients are going into the mix and (to a certain degree) your personal preferences. 0/0 toe and 3/2 camber aren't a bad place to start. What you need from there's going to depend on springs, bars, ride height, tires, and driver.

 

20/16kg springs, itr front and rear sway bar, 205/40/17 tires, 1 finger gap height
currently running on 2/1 camber.

what could be the cause of tail sway on sudden brakes?

 

I'm assuming some sort of R-comp or DOT slick given those rates? That being the case, I'd go 0/0 on toe and bump both front camber by 0.5-0.75*. Add a corresponding amount of rear camber if the car feels looser than you like.

The braking tail wag is probably from the compliance bushings... Check with Chris at Kingpin for his spherical compliance bearing upgrade. Should take care of the instability.

FWIW and all that but I think you may have a little too much spring. Not a ton but maybe a couple hundred pounds too much at both ends of the car. I'd also be inclined to throw some more rear bar on it. What sort of dampers are you running?

 

r-comp tires / tein mono

 

Cool deal... my $0.02 regarding camber/toe from above still stands. I've got no first hand experience with Tein though I'll admit to thinking of them as being roughly comparable to all the other JDM y0!!!1 brands.

 

thank you we'll try those settings this weekend.