Yes. Positive camber used to be used when roads were typically two-lane and
highly crowned. Now most roads are very flat and banked for water runoff,
rather than crowned, so the camber can be much more neutral.
How much negative camber is always the question. I ran -1.0 on my Sentra
SE-R for street/autocross and liked it. After some skidpad testing I found I
needed more negative camber, so I bumped it to -2.0. The turn-in improved
tremendously and I knocked over a second off my times.
The downside was that I saw a large increase in steering effort (even felt
through the power steering) and I suspect I would have seen increased tire
wear on the inside shoulders had the car stayed around long enough. Thsi was
with 205/50-15's. A wider tire will increase the heaviness of the steering,
so most roadsters probably won't be as affected.
Now I'm running -1.5 on the Maxima (with 245/45-17's) and it seems to be an
excellent compromise. The handling is very impressive for a front-driver of
that size, and the steering still seems reasonably light.
Gordon
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net
> [mailto:owner-datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Andy Cost
> Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 12:32 PM
> To: datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net
> Subject: Positve camber is a no-no
>
>
> I just want to clarify that positive camber is where the top of
> the tire leans out away from the car. Negative camber is where
> the tire leans towards the car.
>
> For good handling you should always have negative camber.
> For good road manners you should have positive caster.
> For good tire wear you should have a tiny bit of toe-in.
>
> My suggestions are:
> -1.5 degrees camber
> +1.5 degrees caster
> 1/8" toe-in
>
> This is for a daily driver car and for good handling.
>
> The tires, swaybar, and spring rate play a big role in how much
> negative camber is enough.
> My 68 street SRL with street tires handles very well with -1.5 degrees.
> My 68 race car on DOT legal radial racing tires does well with
> -2.5 degrees.
> My 68 race car on bias ply slicks does best at -2 degrees.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Andy
>
> 68 2000
> 68 KA24DE
> No Fear (Psalms 34:4)
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