Alignment settings help.

[CaptainNate]

Hey all!

Getting Bridgestone Potenza RE002's thrown on my NA with 15x8 +0 wheels (they were cheap, I hated my old ones, judge me for the wheel specs if you must.) on Thursday and I'm seeking a bit of help with the alignment. The guys at bridgestone said they will happily set it up how I ask for it to be setup within the cars limitations. Currently running coilovers with adjustable ride-height and dampening - no caster. They offered to alter the ride height for me as well if it needs it (chassis rails currently sit between 105mm - 115mm, been a while since I checked)

I haven't bothered aligning the wheels yet as I wanted to wear down the Sailuns that came with them, so I'm looking around at different recommended settings but its confusing me to the point where I am lost in the deep, dark interwebs.

Am I wrong at assuming that having these silly-speced wheels set up to Mazdas factory specs would be a silly idea? Car is mostly used as a daily, but see's regular spirited runs through the mountains and will be (hopefully) tracked occasionally.

I've got until Thursday to decide. But no idea where to start! I've seen a few different spec settings on miata.net and on here already.

Give me some proven settings, or at least point me in the right direction!!

[Roadrunner]

Check the 949Racing website.
I'm using their combo street/track alignment and love it (this is for an NB though)

With 8inch +0 offset on an NA, I think your going to be running maximum camber just to fit them in the guards anyway.

[Magpie]

My suggestion would be to start with the OEM settings for alignment. But as stated by Roadrunner the width of your tyres may dictate the camber required.

Zero caster is not a good idea. Larger caster angles improve straight-line stability, however they also cause an increase in steering effort. Therefore zero caster will make the car rather twitchy in straight lines, but give you light steering. Toe also impacts straight line stability but also impacts on turning into corners.

Car height again this will impact the roll centers of your car, however as it is a daily I would not worry too much about the impact of height. My only concern would be adjusting the height by changing the length of the coilover as opposed to adjusting via preload. This again assumes that the coilover length has been setup properly.

I would agree with Roadrunner and pick something from the 949 site and have it adjusted to suit your wheels. You may find other issues during the alignment like worn bushes, stretched alignment bolts or lower control arms that don't allow OEM max settings to be achieved. Whatever you decide make sure you ask to sit in the car when they do the adjustments.

Give me a yell one day and I'm happy to do a corner weight on your car and help you set the correct coilover length. I'm no longer down the Gold Coast, live in Purga now.

[CaptainNate]

Oh! I should have added, I've given up trying to fit them in the guards - I've bolted on some flares instead for those fullsiqJDMrep points.

I may take you up on that offer soon Magpie. We shall see how it goes on Thursday and what they come up with. I'll give them something to work with from 949 and see what they can do from there.

Cheers guys!

[CaptainNate]

Ended up going elsewhere for an alignment - was cheaper. The above specs are what they churned out using the 949racing specs I gave them.

Was aiming for:

Front camber: -2*
Caster: .4*
Toe: 0

Rear Camber: -1.7*
Toe:0

Did a sneaky speed run on the way home. Sits on 140kph (private road, gramdads driveway) without floating around and doing weird things. I've bumped the height back up as well so no more scrubbing when it gets thrown hard in to a corner. Once again the beast is a go-kart! Can't be happier.