Opinions on corner balancing
 

Hi all.

I bought my RX-8 primarily for track usage. It’s just an enthusiast ride for me. I won’t be participating in any racing, competitions, etc. I’m joining a member-based Track and just want to have fun and burn some stress. I’ll mostly drive it to/from the track 1-2 times a month and maybe a couple other days a month.

Anyways, I obviously plan to align the car very aggressively, but is it worth getting the car corner-balanced for my purposes?
(Yes, it has coilovers)

thanks!!

I'd say it's worth it because it's a pretty easy and painless process. Borrow a set of scales from someone, level them carefully, and have at it. You will need adjustable anti-roll bar endlinks if you don't already have them.

Balance it with the weight it will run, thats with you too (gym weights). Not so hard. But as John said youll need adjustable endlinks or else your bars will be twisted.

i dont know how much a shop charge to do corner balance, but if you can borrow a set of scales and do it yourself, then it's definitely worth it.

Yes. Corner balance it with the sway bars disconnected, then re-connect them with them sitting level and no resistance on the end links (carefully adjust them to the proper link) to prevent binding.

Many shops claim to know how to corner balance a car, but do a poor job. I always watch them and make sure they do it properly. Done well, it is very much worth doing.

Need to get adjustable end-links on mine before I corner balance, who makes best ones for RX-8?

If you don't want to pay for a corner balance job, simply setting the shock collars at equal heights on left and right corners will get you really close (then adjust rear rake for balance). Don't try to get the fender lip height the same or everything will be messed up.

I ended up with Flyin' Miata MX-5 links on mine. They are reverse threaded and lasted at least a few years. Whitelines were too long for proper adjustment and the ball joints went bad almost immediately. The bolt size on Racing Beat links is larger than stock, so many bars must be drilled to make them fit, which can be a pain. There are lot of good MX-5 links out there, and they will be the right length.

I've done it this way twice, on two different cars, and then later weighed them. Each time I ended up within 1% corner balance by carefully measuring the shock collar heights. This doesn't hold for other cars, but at lease on the RX-8 factory weight distribution seems to be very good. So, for non-competition use, I'd do this, and do it carefully. When you want to adjust height afterwards, do it by the same number of turns (or half turns) on each side of the car.

If you have access to some scales, then it is still worth it. I've found using a laser level, floor tiles and wood to level it, and some bin bags as slip plates to be quite successful... However, unless you can borrow some scales, it's probably not worth paying a shop over carefully setting the shock heights. This is of course somewhat dependent on your budget and what a local shop would charge.

Regarding adjustable end links. I don't have those, corner balanced with them disconnected, and there is very little tension through the links (it's quite easy to get them in by hand). I guess I should check how much they changed the corner weights when connected (I didn't check that).

Took a quick look. which ones are better

I assume I would need NC Flyin' Miata MX-5 end links for total of $200 front/back.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ad0ab0eb06.jpg


Looks like racing beat now makes adjustable ones that should fit as well for $190 front/back.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...369eafecae.jpg

I would not recommend Racing Beat. The studs are not oversize on the standard links, just the oversize links (duh) and maybe they changed them since it was quite a few years back, but I bought (and returned) a set of those particular links when they first came in FOB and the center turnbuckle wasn’t a turnbuckle; same std thread type on both sides rather than the proper LH/RH thread type. In order for the rear links to be short enough they won’t have a center turnbuckle adjuster; usually just a combined male-female end set directly connected. Flyin Miata gets close enough with their shortest turnbuckle set though.

GoodWin also sells them, they look very similar to racing beat ones but are not listed as such?

RoadsterSport endlink adjustable range: 112mm (max. length with long stud) to 75mm (min. length with short stud)
* 75mm length is 5mm shorter than even the Racing Beat rear endlinks.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...0a42fb14dd.jpg

I ended up with standard heim joints from McMaster, joined together male/female as Mark says. Downsides are they will tend to wear out faster than the sealed joints and they have less range for misalignment than the sealed ball and socket joints, but they are a lot cheaper and they have plenty of misalignment range for the rear bar.

When you go for your rake adjustment, are you focusing on same delta between front and back on each side? or same height left to right? (so if for example it's an extra 1/8 height on the driver front, also have an extra 1/8 of height on driver rear?)

I don't know what Tamra did but when I played with rake, from a corner balanced car, I'd just raise each rear spring collar the same amount.

Was your corner balanced car roughly same height left to right in the rear?

Yep