Factory alignment specs are notoriously broad. Your car can can be "in
spec" but be nowhere near consistent, let alone anything approaching
what is good for autocrossing.
When aligning for autox yet keeping within factory specs, you usually
want the most negative camber all the way around & the most positive
caster up front. As for toe-in, it depends on the car. In the rear, more
toe-in usually reduces power oversteer. In the front, less toe-in tends
to make the steering more sensitive.
You should think about how your want your car to be different from what
it is right now. Do you get too much push, or too much oversteer? Is the
turnin too fast or too slow? How even is your tire wear?
For example, my car turns in too fast and the steering gets darty at
freeway speeds. Also it has too much power oversteer. So when I get my
alignment done next, I'm going to reduce the positive caster up front
from its current +7 degrees, down to maybe +5 or so. Hopefully that will
slow down the steering and make it a bit less twitchy. And I'm going to
add a bit of toe-in on the rears to reduce the power oversteer.
Hopefully that will let me get more power down while cornering. The tire
wear looks fairly even, so I'm not going to change the camber.
This is based on my own personal experience. Your mileage may vary, salt
to taste.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net
> [mailto:owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of J C
> Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 12:02
> To: ba-autox@autox.team.net
> Subject: Educate me on alignment
>
>
> Okay, I've heard a few other WRX drivers mention that
> a performance alignment makes a really big difference
> so I scheduled an appointment at Custom Alignment in
> Mountain View as I've heard the name mentioned here a
> number of times. My question is as follows:
>
> Should I get a four wheel or just front end alignment?
>
> The car was aligned to factory specs by the dealer not
> too long ago and there's not much that can be adjusted
> on the rear of a WRX to my knowledge. I know this is a
> somewhat loaded question but does anyone know how much
> the toe settings for the rear would differ with a
> performance based alignment vs. the factory specs?
>
> Is there anything else I should consider or be aware
> of? This car is a daily driver so whatever I have done
> needs to be tolerable while driving to an autocross
> :-).
>
> Thanks, Joe "Doing Suspension Noodling" Ciarcia
> Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
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