Performance alignment Q

[inverted]

Replacing front struts tomorrow so going for the best alignment I can while I'm at it.

Daily driver, staying within factory specs so I don't take points... Planning on maxxing negative camber, anything else I should consider? Not even sure if front/rear should be different or what... I've been told some toe-out is beneficial but again it's my daily, if you have any suggestions I'd appreciate it =)

[funbunny]

On my I pretty much maxed my neg camber (about -1.5 degrees... I'd do -2.5 if I could) and dial in about 1/8 toe out. I've now set my up the same, so we'll see how that goes.

[Jon]

A good balance would be to go 0 toe on all 4 corners. Front toe out is going to make the car darty on bumpy highways. Do you have adjustable camber links/plates? If not, you'll only be able to use available play to get negative camber.

The gospel for Mazda 3 track alignments (should be comparable to your Matrixrs) is as much camber and caster as possible up front, minimal camber in the rear (less than 2 degrees), 1/8" toe out up front, 0 toe in rear. If you have too much rear camber, you'll only exacerbate the car's natural tendency to understeer. If the rear breaks traction before the front, you rotate, if the front breaks first, you plow.

[motorhead]

http://jalopnik.com/How-To-Drive-Fast/

Read the article on : http://jalopnik.com/5932857/how-to-driv ... g-car-fast

and

http://www.ozebiz.com.au/racetech/theory/align.html on aligning to achieve the above characteristics.

My understanding is that with most FWD cars you go for toe-in because the way the drive wheels pull the car via the front wheels, rather than push the front wheels with the rear ones. Driver preference most always dictates.

[schmoo]

FWD McPherson strut suspensions don't have caster, only camber and toe adjustment.

Alignment preferences are going to vary across cars, drivers, suspension stiffness, and tires. Start with a baseline from other matrix drivers and then experiment, keeping notes and monitoring tire wear.

[inverted]

Thanks as always guys

[Jon]

FWD McPherson strut suspensions don't have caster, only camber and toe adjustment.

Most don't have camber adjustment either. But adding some camber plates can give you both. Or there's the cheap option of slotting the strut tower bolt holes, but that's pretty imprecise.

[sb_600]

FWD McPherson strut suspensions don't have caster, only camber and toe adjustment.

Most don't have camber adjustment either. But adding some camber plates can give you both. Or there's the cheap option of slotting the strut tower bolt holes, but that's pretty imprecise.

He did mention he wanted to stay in the factory specs, so that's not an option.

Jess brought her Yaris to CT Carling and Phil slotted her struts for extra camber. It came out perfect - the imprecision comes from the worker - you get a good guy, you get good results

[qr25de]

Can you even achieve enough toe for it to matter more for performance than uneven wear/contact patch within stock specs? Typically when I tune FWDs, I almost always end up using Toe-In but it depends on the suspension's alignment characteristics throughout it's full travel. From my experience so far, 0 camber, 0 toe at full jounce ends up in good stability and predictability.

[funbunny]

A bit of toe out can improve turn-in. The way the front control arms are bushed in my car, toe out will preload the bushings so there is less hesitation. I would expect newer cars to be better designed and use a smarter bushing method. For example, even the '85 Golfs saw significant improvement in their control arm mounting, so it is quite possible you won't see much benefit on a newer vehicle.

I would expect the the camber gain due to toe to be quite marginal, especially at 1/16", but haven't looked into it.

Keep in mind that at factory settings the car is designed to push.

[el_torpedo]

toe has a drastic effect on the MINI. From the dealer, the front was toed in almost 1/4 inch (it basically didn't want to turn). I set it to 0 degrees and almost drove into the curb on the first right corner because it turned so readily. I also tried a hair of toe out, but it was too unstable on the highway for me. Always making course corrections, because it doesn't want to go straight. Put it back to 0 and have been happy since.
different car of course, so ymmv.