.. for a mostly street car that does a lot of hiway miles (i.e. must not have excessive tire wear)

I like neutral handling (I hate understeer)

Car is a '97 Civic HX.

Mods are:
-Koni yellows
-H&R OE springs
-Konis perches used set the car between 0.5" and 1" lower than stock
-ST swaybars
-stock 14" lightweight HX rims
-ES100 tires

What camber or camber/caster kit is recommended to achieve the desired alignment?

 

You can probably go -1.5 to -2.0 degrees negative camber. To limit tire wear set the toe out at the far end of the factory spec or just outside the spec in the front. Set the rear toe to zero. Toe is what really wears the tire. Camber with a little toe is OK. A lot of camber and a lot of toe will wear a tire quick.

As low as you have the car a camber kit can be used to even out the camber and in your case (minimal lowering) add negative camber. Skunk2 is often recomended for the front. It replaces the entire upper control arm.

 

With the car lowered 1", you are probably running about 1.5deg negative in front and 1.2 neg in rear, and you won't have excessive tire wear with that camber. That said, just set toe to zero in front to save the tires (or 1/16 toe out to help it turn) and 1/16 toe in at the back (to keep the car stable)........ and run tire pressures that help the car rotate to taste (like 37 front and 30 rear). I can't think of a better place to start than that. But make sure you stay on top of tire pressures once a month or so because that really makes a difference in the handling of the car.
Chris
http://www.redshiftmotorsports.com

 

Thanks all.

Does increasing caster improve the straight ahead feel?

Does increasing caster improve the camber curve (camber change with steering lock and body roll)?

 

>>>Does increasing caster improve the straight ahead feel?
Yes.

>>Does increasing caster improve the camber curve (camber change with
>>steering lock and body roll)?
With steering input, yes. With bump (body roll), no.

Chris
http://www.redshiftmotorsports.com

 

Well I finally got 'round to getting the car aligned, after I started noticing somewhat rapid front tire wear. Now I know why the car is neutral with just the ST 19mm rear sway bar and the factory front sway bar - the camber is greater in the rear:

AFTER:
--------
FRONT LEFT/RIGHT:
Camber: -0.9* / -1.0*
Toe: 0.0* / 0.0*
Caster: 3.3* / 2.8*

REAR LEFT/RIGHT:
Camber: -1.7* / -1.8*
Toe: 0.13* / 0.08*

My caster is high because I swapped the front A-arms left-> right, and have the Superpro caster-increasing lower-inner-rear poly bushings. The caster really improves steering feel and weight, and reduces initial turn-in understeer. The spec I got is only slightly outside the factory spec, which is 0.7 - 2.7*,

Koni yellows are set so that car is about 1" lower than stock with slight rake (*** in the air).

The tech first gave me slight front toe-in (middle of factory spec) and biased to the left supposedly to compensate for crown in the road - but the wheel was cocked to the right and I didn't like the sluggish on-center response at highway speeds. I went back and had him reset the front toe to zero left and right, and that improved things.

I used to have excessive toe out in front -0.67*(!) total. In comparison the zero toe now feels more stable on the hishway, but I miss the responsiveness. Now I again feel like the steering ratio is too slow. I'll accept it to get more tire life.

 

Now for the questions.

I'd like to do two things:
1) Raise the front Konis a bit (by 0.5") - rake looks a bit too much.
2) Put on the front ST swaybar to increase total roll stiffness and make it a bit more responsive - but I don't want to increase understeer.

So..
1) a) Would raising the front add more toe-in or out?
b) Would it bias the car more to understeer or oversteer?

2) I'd need to add front negative camber to reduce the tendency for understeer when I upsize the front swaybar.. or should I decrease rear camber? If possible I'd like to add only a front or rear camber kit, not both

Right now I get a little extra wear on *both* inside and outside edges of tires - that means I wear the insides going straight, and the outsides when cornering from body roll, right? I set tire pressures to 32 all around. Car hasn't been taken to autox or track yet (I take the Miata for that), but I like taking corners fast when it's clear

Cheers.

 

Raising the car would add more toe-in which would make the car understeer more.