spitfires
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: NEGATIVE CAMBER

To: <spitfires@autox.team.net>, <kimkell@decaturnet.com>
Subject: Re: NEGATIVE CAMBER
From: "Nolan Penney" <npenney@mde.state.md.us>
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 09:49:37 -0400
If you look at the dedicated autocross racers, you'll see many of them do run 
quite a bit of negative camber.  Tends to make them rather undrivable on the 
street, but it does wonders in the turns.  Since you want the tire tread flat 
on the ground in a turn, you use negative static camber to compensate for the 
roll of the car and such.  It's a balance.  I'd start off conservative, and 
work progressively more radical.

Yes you can measure camber in your driveway.  A couple of boards and you've got 
a rough idea of it.  One board going across the driveway  in front of the 
tires.  Two vertical boards attached to it, going up beside the tires.  Measure 
the distance from the vertical board to the tire side, top and bottom, and that 
will let you know roughly where your camber is.  The better you make the wooden 
jig, the more accurate your results.  

By push on the front wheels, I take it you mean the car would plow wide on the 
turns, understeering.  The load of turn will be put across the front and the 
rear.  The more of the load you put on the front, the greater the tendancy to 
plow.  So you either beef up the front to take it (larger tires, more pressure, 
etc), shift the load to the rear (add rear swaybar, remove front swaybar, etc), 
or both.  Again, start conservatively and work progessively more radical.  
Spitfires, with their swing axle rear suspension, make like rather interesting 
when you shift load to the rear.  

For adjusting the camber, you can also use washers.  Nowhere near as precise as 
shims, but effective none the less.

>>> "D T Gebhard" <kimkell@decaturnet.com> 05/31 9:12 AM >>>
Thanks for the info guys! Maybe -2 to -3 is too
much...I just didn't know any better!!! Autox is
the reason for doing this but I still want to drive
on the streets. I'm also looking into putting
competition springs on the front. Are the ones that
VB carries worth the money or should I look to
another source? At the last autox, the front wheels
seemed to have a push on tightest highest speed
corners. This is the challenge that I want to work
on!! The rear spring seem to be somewhat shot so I
plan to leave it alone for now. Rear tires are
showing some neg. camber now.
        Dave
        PS I like the idea of making my own shims.
VB gets something like 2.95 each!
        PSS Is there a way a layman(like myself)
can measure camber?

///  spitfires@autox.team.net mailing list
///  To unsubscribe send a plain text message to majordomo@autox.team.net
///  with nothing in it but
///
///     unsubscribe spitfires
///


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>