alignment

[mustangtomiata]

I am getting an alignment soon, what is a good street setup that works well at the track and autox? from experience, I get really bad camber wear in the rear...discuss and give me the advice from experience.

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

I ended up with a slightly more aggressive version of the Lanny's alignment from m.net. I'll try and find the print out and get it up here. Or actually, I think I ended up with a less extreme version of what Matthew said he used in the autocross alignment thread.

[amaff]

you probably ended up with toe wear in the rear, not camber. 1.5* all around (or 1.5 front, 1- 1.25* rear) works well. For a street setup, get about 1/16" toe out front and 0 toe rear.

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

You go for more camber in the front than rear Andrew?

[Doppelgänger]

I do too. -1.3 R and -1.8 F with 0* toe all the way around.

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

I think have -1.75 rear and -1.5 front

[amaff]

You go for more camber in the front than rear Andrew?
absolutely
I do too. -1.3 R and -1.8 F with 0* toe all the way around.
you guys should all considering dialing in a half-turn of toe-out on 1 of your tie rods before events. It makes such a huge difference in turn in response.

I'm also running 1/16" toe IN in the rear. Really helps keep it stable. The car slaloms like woah.
I think have -1.75 rear and -1.5 front
You generally want to have a lot of rear contact patch as you want the tires to be able to push you out of a corner, not spin. The fronts obviously do the cornering, so they'll need a little more.

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

Makes sense. Now I really wanna see what I've got going on.

[Otto]

ive always wanted to do it myself, i used to be able to eyeball my old trucks suspension back into spec when swapping out parts

[amaff]

ive always wanted to do it myself, i used to be able to eyeball my old trucks suspension back into spec when swapping out parts

We're going to be building a few stands to do it on the miata early next year, along with ghetto fabbed slide plates

[thx712517]

I run around -1.25 up front, and -2.2 in the rear, with toe zeroed out (or as close as it can) all around and as much caster as I can run without detracting from camber. Seems to do alright, no abnormal wear.

[amaff]

what's your suspension set up? That seems like it may be less than ideal...

[thx712517]

Your normal C-Stock setup. Stock springs, Koni off the shelf shocks, Racing Beat front swaybar with the Mazdaspeed mounts and adjustable end links. If there's more grip to be found in the setup please let me know, I've gotta put an end to Sam Mobley's domination of C-Stock in 2009. All I wanna do is crack into the top three....

[amaff]

what is the car doing? Different setups work for different drivers lol

[thx712517]

Car seems to be doing just fine. I got my best times (when running very old V710s) with 24 psi up front and 18 in the rear, with all shocks at full stiff. It'll understeer bad if I push it too hard, but just about any car will if you screw up your braking point. On the street with all shocks at full soft on my RE-01Rs it'll haul balls, but the front end will start to wash out a bit if you push it too fast in tight corners.

[amaff]

Car seems to be doing just fine. I got my best times (when running very old V710s) with 24 psi up front and 18 in the rear. It'll understeer bad if I push it too hard, but just about any car will if you screw up your braking point.

If you like how the car's driving, I'm not one to tell you to change it...

then again i thought my car was handling fine until I got some real input into the car and realized that it was driving like crap lol. IE: I was comfortable with it but it was dog slow.

If you like how it's handling, that doesn't really give me anything to work with. The best thing I can tell you to do is get a co-driver in the car (preferably one of the fast guys in class) and figure out if it's the car or the driver that's the problem.

I guarantee a bit of toe out in the front will give you a ton more feel in turn in. IIRC 1 turn of the tie rod = 1/4" change in toe. 1/8 - 1/4" will do wonders by itself.

[thx712517]

I'll have to chuck the car on the alignment rack at work and see if I can get one of the guys to do some tweaking. I like the car but I wish I could reduce some of the understeer, but at the same time I like the car to be stable AND understeer so I can floor the throttle in tight corners. I don't know what the cheese I want, so odds are strong it's the driver that needs tuning.

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

I feel the same way as you Kevin, don't want to blame the car and not quite sure what the best balance/alignment is because the car feels good pretty much no matter what the alignment is :lol:

[thx712517]

I shot an email to Shaikh at Fat Cat Motorsports about their bump stops. It seems like an interesting product, we'll have a chat at some point and see if it's worth a shot. I really, really, really want to get into the top three for C-Stock for 2009 and to do that it's going to require some cheesing awesome driving and some damn fine equipment.

[metalman]

FCM bumpstops sure improved my car. Takes the sharp 'suddenly hitting metal' feel that stockers are famous for out of the equation.

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

Yeah I really like the FCM bumpstops too.

[thx712517]

Which ones did you end up getting? I know it'll probably be different for me because of chassis/shocks/springs, but I'm curious to know more about them from an actual owner.

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

I don't know to be honest. When I bought my Bilstein HD's the fella had bought some of the mounts that he had never put on.

I think they are 36mm and 46mm if that sounds right.

[amaff]

forgive me for not having my rulebook completely memorized... but are you allowed to change those in stock class?

[Otto]

We're going to be building a few stands to do it on the miata early next year, along with ghetto fabbed slide plates
oh yea, that sounds exactly like what i was thinking, mind if i come down and help out

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

forgive me for not having my rulebook completely memorized... but are you allowed to change those in stock class?

Yes you can. I remember reading up on a discussion over on the solo boards a few months ago. A bunch of people didn't know about it and now they do.

[Otto]

forgive me for not having my rulebook completely memorized... but are you allowed to change those in stock class?
the compressed length of the shock at the initial point of the bump stop may not be increased from the standard part....may be shortened or substituted for the purpose of installing non standard shock

[amaff]

oh yea, that sounds exactly like what i was thinking, mind if i come down and help out

not at all. It'll be my 1st alignment though, so it may take a while lol. Or do you mean to build the 'stands'?

I'm probably just going to use a couple pieces of 2x12 stacked on top of each other per corner, with linoleum floor ties (shiny sides facing each other) with a dab of grease in the middle as grease plates. $5000 alignment rack for $300 (including the cost of the alignment tools we're buying LOL)

[simontibbett]

I always do my own alignment, def. have more front camber then rear.

I am taking it to a shop to get it done right after Christmas though.

[Otto]

not at all. It'll be my 1st alignment though, so it may take a while lol. Or do you mean to build the 'stands'?

I'm probably just going to use a couple pieces of 2x12 stacked on top of each other per corner, with linoleum floor ties (shiny sides facing each other) with a dab of grease in the middle as grease plates. $5000 alignment rack for $300 (including the cost of the alignment tools we're buying LOL)
yea thats exactly how i was going to do it:lol:

was going to go as cheap as possible!

[simontibbett]

Any of you that do track days or road race have any alignment sheets I can see? I am getting a whole alignment when I get my tires mounted and want it pretty nice lol.

[jesseealexander]

how stiff are your springs matt?

[amaff]

who's matt??

[jesseealexander]

the OP.

i was just asking because how much camber you need depends on the stiffness of the other suspension parts and how much body roll you get.

[amaff]

oh lol I totally missed that hahaha.

[mustangtomiata]

suspension is all stock.

[jesseealexander]

put in as much camber as you can. its gonna roll a good bit on stock springs, and you wont really be able to get much more than 2* f/r. thats what i had on my car, and it felt great.