most of you are running too much rear camber

 

Isn't alignment mostly a driver preference thing? The numbers seem pretty generic for a car setup the way the RX8 is from the factory.

 

I think that you want to be careful with using a stiffer front sway bar as your solution to oversteer. I used to have the RB front bar with Tokico D-Specs and it would work great but you want to be careful with snap oversteer which can be a bit of a problem during 'at the limit driving' or if you go into a turn too hot. Your back end will just whip out right after the car understeers a little. Just be careful.

 

I've been running -2.7 front, and -2.0 rear...with zero toe front, and 1/16 toe in in the rear. This has consistantly given me the best tire temps on the tracks that I run. When I had more rear camber...the insides were too hot...

So far this works well for me with the tires that I use ( Azenis) That would all change with different tires and wheels....

 

Pretty aggressive camber. What roll bars are you using?

 

Sounds like a track-only setting. Without constant cornering, or with mostly street driving, this much camber is going to eat up the insides of the tires.

Mine is street driven only, with lowering springs, and my settings are as follows:
-.5 Front Camber (minimum I could obtain with my springs)
6 Front Caster
-.75 Rear Camber (minimum I could obtain with my springs)
0 toe F/R

I am very pleased with the handling at these settings - just a touch of understeer with great turn-in and no stability issues at speed. I also am seeing just a little inside tire wear, but nothing major.

If you want to even up some of the inside wear from high camber settings, some toe-in (1/32 to 1/16) at each end will help (wears the outside more to even up). Toe on the rear will add a little stability and may be beneficial, but toe on the front will hurt turn-in response, but it will even out the tire wear some.

 

Cool, so would I be good giving those above specs to my shop? And could someone here give me a good description of caster? I've googled it, but I just can't picture it in my mind.

 

Great spec for the track with an excellent split IMO, tone that down 1 deg front and rear for a great street spec

 

^^^ All the love...I'm honored

I street drive it...but I'm willing to put up with the tire wear. I have track days every few weeks and changing it is even too much for me....

I get a bit of inside tire wear on the street...but with the low toe..it isn't really that bad

 

Here you go - some suspension basics

http://www.ozebiz.com.au/racetech/theory/align.html

 

I am running rb sways front and rears and tein s tech springs. My alignment is set to -1.0 camber in the front (seized camber bolt) and -1.9 in the rear. I forgot what my toe figures were but my car plows on the track, playing with tire pressure still wasn't enough to remove all of it, anymore suggestions before I yank the front sway out?

 

With your camber spec, it won't surprise anyone that you paw though turns.

 

uhh, fix the problem?

 

First you need to check the toe - IMHO it need to be 0 F/R. 0 Toe-in in the front helps create good turn-in. Toe-out will improve turn-in even more at the expense of heavy inside tire wear.

On the camber, you need to bring the relationship between the front/rear more in line. Setting them both to the same setting will create a pretty neutral car (depending on other factors), but most add .25 to .5 degree more camber in the rear to create just a little push (which is a little safer at the limit) and to compensate for the camber increases you get in the front when the wheels are turned due to Caster.

Front Caster needs set as high as possible after you have set your front Camber. This will vary depending on springs and camber, but usually is around 5.5-6.5 degrees. Caster provides a good "on-center" feel (tendency for wheels to straighten and stay that way) and will make the front camber increase at a greater rate when the wheels are turned for better front end grip on cornering.

 

I notice my settings are a bit different from most people's. I'm running 1.1/1.5 F/R negative camber with 6.6 caster and zero toe at the rear. However my fronts are toed in about .09 degrees each. I was a bit skeptical of running front toe in instead of rear, but the speed shop I was at suggested it would be better. So far it has worked out really well, despite my misgivings.

 

By the way, I notice when toe is given in fractions, the units is in inches. If it's in decimals it's in degrees. That makes no sense to me.

 

When toe is provided in inches, they measure the distance at the back of the front wheels and the distance at the front of the wheels - a 1/16" toe-in means it is 1/16" shorter distance in the front of the wheels - as simple as that.

 

as a rough rule of thumb

degrees/2 = inches

example

1/4 deg = 1/8"

please don't try to start an arguement on accuracy, it's a rough rule of thumb that get's more inaccurate as the angle increases, it's good enough for typical alignment purposes though and toe does not require precision accuracy on our cars, being in the ballpark is good enough

 

Thanks. Should be a good rule of thumb.