I am purchasing some Tein RA coilovers, I don't want to drop the car too much maybe .75" or so, the drop is not important to me. What I want to know is can I get my wheels aligned back to stock toe and -1.0 camber at all corners with a drop of .75 - 1". Is there any adjustability built into the stock suspension?
I just want to know if camber kits will be necessary for what I want out of the car. The car will get tracked often and autoxed twice a month. I would like to stay in STX in the autox, would camber kits front and rear take me into another class?

Thanks in advance,
Brian

 

You can easily get -1.0. Depending on how stiff the springs are, you can get close to -2.0.

There is no adjustment, other then toe, on the Honda wishbones. For AutoX, more negative the better, just make sure you have enough suspension travel.

 

The car is driven on the street so I dont know how much I would want to go. Would -2.0 promote uneven tire wear if driven every day? Also my car understeers quite a bit more than I would like (completely stock ITR). Running more negative camber in the front and less in the rear would be one solution for it, right? Or am I wrong?

Spring rates on the shocks are 14k front 10k rear (not yet installed).

EDIT: So there is no camber adjustability in the stock configuration?....bummer


[Modified by Cozmo Kraemer, 8:39 PM 1/21/2003]

 

With stock toe it won't wear as bad as with some toe out. Though, -2.0 or more camber and a little toe out up front is the way to go for handling. -1.6 to -1.8 with stock toe should be fine.

Nop.

This is why your car understeers. If those rates are linear, I bet they are not, you can lower you car a good bit and still have enough travel.

Run it down about 1.5", that should give you around -1.4 to -1.6 up front. Okay performance, not too much wear on the street with stock toe.


[Modified by SPiFF, 3:41 PM 1/21/2003]

 

the statement that gets me all riled up. while the spring rate balance _might_ cause a stripped, full-out race car on r-compounds to push in a track situation, it may work very well on a full interior car on street tires. opm's track car setup for a crx shouldn't be adapted to an itr just cause they have the same drivetrain layout.

those rates are linear if i've read their information correctly.

reducing rear camber while increasing front camber is a legitimate way to reduce understeer. i've found that a half degree difference between front and rear camber (ie -1.5fr, -1.0rr) will rotate nicely. however, you have to look at your total suspension setup to determine if this is what you need to do and to what extreme it is required.

most importantly you have to know for sure that the suspension setup is causing the push and not poor driver technique. this is the hard part as it requires you to be brutally honest with yourself. if it definitely isn't the driver, then the order of progession i would recommend is as follows:

first, maximize your roll stiffness balance.

second, maximize your front tire contact patch, be it with increased roll stiffness or more negative camber.

third, reduce rear camber, increase rear toe out, increase or decrease rear tire pressure (relative to ideal pressure) to suite your taste for oversteer.

nate

 

Thanks all for your input. I actually will be getting the Tein RE, coilovers instead of the RA. SO I will have lower perch adjustability.

Here is my plan, I will buy a camber kit for the rear of the car. I will lower the front to a point where I have the desired negative camber, balance the ride height out in the rear then use the rear camber kit to adjust the rear to about .5 degrees less negative camber. I will then go from there, probably purchasing a front camber kit a little while down the road. Do you think this is a good way to go about things I am just starting to learn about it all?

A friend of mine is a MasterTech at Ford he does alignments all day long so he will do what I want. What toe settings should I tell hiim front and rear. Camber will be -1.5 to -1.75 front. -1.0 to -1.25 rear.

Forgot to mention that my wheel tire combo will be 215/45/16 Azenis on 16x7 Slipstreams for autox (stx) and the street. Stock wheels with 205/50/15 Kumho VictoRacer V700 for the track.

Thanks for all the help


[Modified by Cozmo Kraemer, 12:09 AM 1/24/2003]

 

sounds like a most excellent starting point. for toe, start out with 1/16 total toe out front (ie, 1/32 toe out each side) and 0 toe rear. once you get used to your setup you can start to increase the amount of toe out you have at the rear.

nate