TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

The only reason to have driver weight is is for corner weighing. Alignment change is so minimal it's not sorth the hassle.

Also, any stock RX8 can be made to oversteer like a **** at the limit with a simple alignment adjustment.

blu3dragon

iTrader: (1)

As the above 2 posts. Anywhere should be able to make the adjustments. Whether they understand that you want maximum camber and how to achieve that is a different story. Explain that you want custom and not factory specs. Make sure you check what it is set to before leaving. Expect to pay more too. If you are on the factory alignment it might take a couple of passes front to rear to get everything set.

For a track setup, I would aim for maximum (negative) front camber, max front caster without taking any camber away, 0.00mm front toe, rear camber 0.25 to 0.5 less than front camber, rear toe-in to 0.08 to 0.12mm total (0.04 to 0.06mm in each side).

With the low toe settings, tire wear on the street should be reasonable, but do make sure to keep the tire pressures up, as you will wear an inner band pretty quickly due to the camber if you let them drop.

The process should be something like:

Empty out everything that you would not have in the car when on track. Make sure tire pressures are even all around.

Roughly set front camber to max, caster to min. Get toe somewhere close to zero (does not have to be exact as it is not the final setting).
Rock/roll the car

Set rear camber to around 0.5 less than front. Get toe-in close to 0.04mm on each side (0.08mm total). Re-adjust camber if needed once the toe is set.
Rock/roll the car

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If you don't have reasonable camber at this point (let's say -1.5 on each side front, and -1.0 on each side rear for the stock ride height), then stop and figure out what is wrong. You might have a bent suspension arm, or some damaged/worn adjustment bolts, but the 1st thing to try would be loosening and re-tightening all the bolts that go through a suspension bushing with the suspension compressed to make sure they are all seated correctly.
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Ideally, sit in the car at this point.

Go back to the front and more accurately set camber to max, caster to min, toe to 0.00mm (no toe-in or out). Then add caster back until it just starts to affect camber (then you have max caster and camber at the front). Re-adjust toe as needed to get it to 0.00mm
Rock/roll the car

Check & re-adjust the rear if needed.

Sounds like it should be simple, but it never seems to work without a few passes for me.

pcs

iTrader: (2)

Managed to get -1.42/-1.44 (left/right) in the front (they said this is about as close to even as they could get), and -1.20/-1.25 in the rear.

went to the track on Sunday, and... unfortunately, it's been too long since I've driven the 8 on the track to recall a different feel due to the suspension. I also have been doing it just for fun in the past, so I don't have any times to compare things to, hah!

Car felt great though - short of a 3rd gear issue...

blu3dragon

iTrader: (1)

That alignment sounds good.

You should now have a bit more grip, a bit less understeer, and better tread wear on track, but honestly for alignment it is pretty hard to tell without tire temp data or looking at tread wear over multiple events.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

you don't want front caster maxed either, but whatever ...

edited: mistakenly wrote camber, but had intended to write caster
.

pcs

iTrader: (2)

I'm still trying to read through the other sticky on alignment settings in the racing section... my eyes are going a little cross, hahaha

blu3dragon

iTrader: (1)

I'm curious on why not?

ktec

iTrader: (2)

I'd like to know the theory on this as well. A high end alignment shop, West End, maxed out my front to -1.9 front at their recommendation for ideal handling.

James Collins

Wondering if you got anywhere with this been thinking of doing some wheels and tires daily driving and was wondering what sort of suspension to pick up or what good options are as the wheels would be going down to 18s so didn't want a huge gap in the wheel wells so was thinuking coilovers but at the same time I know the stock blister on the R3 are awsome so how would a lowering spring be on the stock blisten?? Anyone know ??

Steve Dallas

Going down to an 18" rim will not change the fender gap if you buy the right size tires (225/45/18). If I had an R3 as a daily driver, I would not change a thing in the suspension. It is one of the most perfect setups from the factory ever made IMHO. Anything you do to it will degrade it. Those of us not fortunate enough to have an R3 have spent a ton of money trying to make the suspension as good as what comes in an R3 from the factory.

Also, you will want to do a lot of research on lowering springs installed in Series 2 cars. Mazda changed [at least] the rear spring perch locations, which makes things very unpredictable since pretty much all aftermarket springs were designed for the Series 1 car.

If you really must lower your car, your best bet is coilovers: either the Bilstein PSS for around $1000 or the Bilstein PSS9 for around $1500 if you must have adjustability. Installing these and lowering the car will change the balance of the car from mild understeer to oversteer, which means you will need to experiment with new sway bars to make it neutral again. You will also need to replace your sway bar end links with adjustable units to relieve the bind that lowering the car puts on them and the sway bars. Finally, you will need to have the car aligned.

Black2010R3

iTrader: (1)

The adjustable sway bar end links are really more of a nice to have than a need to have. They take out pre-load if the car's a little high on one side or something like that. They can be used to shorten the links when lowering to maintain the same bar end position (otherwise lowering points the ends up), but that's not really too important.

pcs

iTrader: (2)

Going back to this, I'm looking at replacing the front and rear Bilsteins, or getting ready to do so. In going through the links above, the struts (item #1) have an option with a side spoiler in the front and a large spoiler in the rear...

Anyone know what the spoilers are referring to, and whether they are needed or not if the strut is the only piece that is being replaced?

If I'm replacing the strut, is there anything else I should be replacing as well?

I figure replacing the struts will last me another good amount of time, and if eventually I want to go with say a fatcat setup, I can send the old set to get revalved / built to spec while driving on the other set...

Thanks in advance!

pcs

iTrader: (2)

I'm ok with the gap from the factory, doesn't bother me.

At this point, I'm sticking with the stock setup (likely for the forseeable future), even when the stock stuff wears out.