Hey guys,

Since i have access to a pretty neat-o alignment rig i decided to throw the'ol 8 up on the rack to see if i could figure out why i constantly had to apply a slight pressure with my left hand to the wheel to keep the car tracking straight on the highway.

well...

turns out that the toe on the left side was in by almost .15* - in the world of alignments that's a LOT.

once i got the toe reset it has performed BRILLIANTLY!

on a side note, the other day i came into a turn a little "hot" shall we say and the front end just plowed its way throught the turn damn near into the curb on the other side of the road - some quick reflexes and i snapped it back into the propper lane but to be perfectly honest it scared the crap out of me! i wasn't scared of almost hitting the curb i was scared because the tires gave absolutely no warning that they had reached their limits - none at all, it was as if i had pushed my way over an ice patch!

has anyone else come accross this in their 8? this is the 2nd time i've done it - the first i figured was due to a wet spot in the road (rained earlier in the eafternoon) but now that it has happened again i'm wondering if anyone else has noticed similar behavior from the front end of their car.

-it all makes me want to play with the camber a bit so i can find the limits of these tires and maximize their performance for some solo racing!

oh, and BTW, the alignment adjustments are super simple on this car!!! i wish they were all this easy!

Ray

 

Even on dry pavement, if you don't smoothly approach the limits of a tire, you might not get any "warning", you just go sliding.

---jps

 

i had that happen once...you're not really expecting the car to understeer, but it will

 

For what it's worth, if you know your going to hit the curb you can give the emergency brake a *slight* tug to turn some of the oversteer into understeer (it'll bring your back tires around a bit). On the street this should be saved for emergencies only.

 

well, i had my hand on the e-brake just for that purpose... didn't have to tug it but damn it got close!

to tell you the truth i didn't think the car was sliding at first. i didn't think i was going fast enough and i know i certainly didn't drastically alter my steering angle much, no more than i should have to have made it through the turn...

at any rate, i've been digging into some stock sized oerformance tires and there isn't much out there yet other than a few choices that i don't think would be my favorite. sometimes i wish the wheels were 17's or they made my favorite tires to fit this car...

i wonder how some 245's would do up front :-)

Ray

 

try changing the alignment.

Also, E-Brake might have been over kill. Lift-off over steer seemed to have worked. (I'm assuming you let off the gas abruptly to avoid hitting the curve).

I think the front end plowing was the car's weakest link (as far as handling). I solved that with a sway bar.

 

Which swaybar do you have? Specs?

 

Tanabe, though any would be a great improvement...

The Tanabe is 30.4mm according to the website. Racing Beat's bar is 32mm while the stock bar is 27mm. Both are far more rigid too. I have no info on the Mazdaspeed sway bar.

The Tanabe bar lists for more money, but since my local shop had it in stock, the price difference with tax was a wash compared to the RB plus shipping.

 

I take it the tanabe is non-adjustable?

 

non adjustable

 

do we face any issues with subframe tearout? it happened to me on my honda when i never thought it would. i havent even peeked under my car yet, so i have no clue how it's mounted.

 

subframe tearout on a honda? what the hell did you do to make that happen?

just curious...
:-)

Ray

 

What were your exact spec's for aligning the camber, caster and toe???