,
The new swaybar link comes very close to the body but does not hit. The shorter link puts the bar at a much better angle than the stock link did on this lowered car making the bar more effective.
The front suspension is all in place now and ready to get aligned. We left the belly pan and splitter off for this.
Darren Nishimura of Westend Alignment handled our car. Westend does the prevision alignment and corner weighting jobs for virtually everyone that races or does track days in Southern California. Darren started by spraying a paint line on the tire.
Next a fine reference line was scribed on both front tires.
Camber is checked and roughed out.
Caster is checked next by measuring camber at about 20 degrees off center left.
2 comments
Mike,
Appreciate all your suspension articles on motoiq.
If I understand correctly the stock alignment spec is:
Camber: 0, Caster: 5°54′, Steering Axis Inclination: 15°31′ , Toe: 0mm
and the modified is:
Camber: 3.5 deg neg, Caster: 8°, Steering Axis Inclination: 11° , Toe: 3mm toe out
The camber, castor and toe all seem pretty conventional (and good) mods for getting good turn in, good mid corner front end grip and a car that is responsive to the wheel without getting to spookiness and instability. I am intrigued, and have to admit my ability to think about the geometry without a model is at its limit.
Is the effort of reducing the steering axis inclination about minimising scrub radius? Or is it something more.
In short, could you explain a little more what your aims and ideas are around “We prefer to run minimal scrub and lead the caster with king pin angle by a few degrees.”?
Tuning JDM and British cars I never found an extra degree of castor I didn’t like, but can admit to never being up for exploring KPI. Though with an adjustable strut top and camber pins on a mcpherson strut its very very doable.
Thanks!
David
Actually reducing KPI increases scrub but it also makes for more wheel tilt in the wrong direction that is countered by the caster.