na camber specs

[zoomzoom]

does anyone know what would be a good amount of camber to run on a mostly street na6 that ocassionally runs on track days, and sprints etc?

I am told the standard specs say to run about +0.4* on the front which i thought was a bit conservitive. It doesn't wear the tyres but i am a little worried it can be comprimising the handling somewhat. The rear is at the end of it's adjusment and still running alot of -ve. hoping the right springs will correct this a little.

any opinions/suggestions would be appreciated

Tim

[CT]

Hi Tim, try -1.5 to -2 deg neg camber front, zero toe and at least 4+ caster - the more caster the better. The rear should match or be slightly less than the front in camber but not exceed it. A little toe in on the rear is good practice too, say 1 to 2mm total.

[kitkat]

Hi Tim, try -1.5 to -2 deg neg camber front, zero toe and at least 4+ caster - the more caster the better. The rear should match or be slightly less than the front in camber but not exceed it. A little toe in on the rear is good practice too, say 1 to 2mm total.

in regards to rear camber... is that a rule of thumb, that the rear camber should never exceed the front?

On our NA (havent given it a wheel alignment since we've owned it) its always had a massive amount of rear camber and very little front camber. IMO the car handles very well but it is tail happy (all very predictable). Could the large amount of rear camber be causing it?

[Boags]

CT - this s the first time I have heard anyone say that less on the back is better for an MX5... This confuses me no end, as I'm of a mind to trust you...

I thought -1.5* front and -2* rear was about right.

Boags

[CT]

More rear camber is an American thing and in my testing and opinion is a POS. I would ever run more rear camber than front camber on a car with independent rear suspension. 1/2 a degree either way is really not that noticeable to most punters but it would give the end with more camber, more mid corner grip at that end which effectively removes the balance the MX5 is designed with. Most guys then compensate with big bars to \"even out\" the handling. The MX5 suffers from low speed oversteer generally and I reckon more rear camber makes it more difficult to control. The Lanny alignment on the US forum is designed to counter the low speed oversteer but I found and tested it to promote medium speed undesteer at the track - not really ideal.

I counter to say that handling is subjective and the quality of your tyres affect it more than your alignment in some cases.

[Slugoid]

I have a question about alignment settings. Before I had a proper alignment, I had around +0.6-0.9mm (assume toe in) at the front. Then it was set to 0mm after a bit of research here. However, I found that the car didn't tuck in as nice as before, but overall wasn't too bad. They didn't really adjust the caster (around 3.5) and camber increased a tad to -1.2 all round.

Could it be my toe-in or combination of toe-in and castor??

PS: about the front and rear camber thing. Parents Accord Euro has more camber at the back than at the front from factory. Maybe it's a front wheel drive I'm not sure. Maybe they dialed in more rear camber to lessen the understeer that's evident in a lot of FWD's.

[CT]

FWDs are totally different so don't even consider comparing them to a RWD with independent rear suspension and double a-arm front suspension. Some FWDs use a little positive camber on the front to overcome the jacking effect that acceleration has on the front end.

Toe in on the front of an MX5 will slow down turn in and tend to cause initial turn in understeer. Caster must be at least 4 deg positive but the more the better (5-6 is ideal) but the limit is your suspension because increasing caster decreases negative camber.

[Russellb]

Good to here that I'm not the only one who users lest rear camber than front . I have been running about -2.2 front -1.7 rear camber but had to knock the caster back to about 3.
car feels great on the road and the Track .
Just need a bigger Turbo Now

[zoomzoom]

Thanks all for the input.
I think I might play it a little conservitive and go -1.5* front and rear and about +4* castor.
Now I just have to wait for the king springs for the rear which I was going to put in tomorrow, but surprise surprise ipec have misplaced them. So it looks like I will be putting them in sometime next week when they rock up. And I can get the wheel alignment done just in time for QR.

[rodent]

Oh goody,
-1.75F/-1.25R here, and I thought I was doing it wrong even though it still felt \"right\" to me.

On a different note, there's another member here called \"Zoom-Zoom\" and his name is also Tim. Owfreekyizzat!
Welcome Tim/zoomzoom!

[zoomzoom]

oh really how wierd is that. thats pretty cool actually

[zoomzoom]

the mechanic got the car in the air today adjusted the left rear to -1.5 then went to do the right rear, and found one of the bolts was stripped. So she(madaz) is now waiting for the new bolt, wont have it till monday though at least I will have time monday night to help the mechanic do it, i might learn me something the left rear looks great

I was going to get -1.5 all round, does anyone think i should maybe go a little less on the rear? maybe -1.25 and still do the front to -1.5?