92tsiawd

Couldn't find any good threads on alignment through search. I will be running a few solo 1 events and a bunch of lapping days next year, was wondering what the "ideal" camber and caster I should have. I had my alignment was set to a street setting, that ate the outside of my front tires really badly. My car is a daily driver so I don't want to go with an alignment that's so aggressive that I can't even drive the car in a straight line. Anyone know the limits of the factory spec alignment, might have some rules to confine with also. thanks guys in advance

mwood

I've recently gone through some of the same questions you're asking, although relative to autocross, rather than road course. I think you'll find some of the information in threads regarding tire pressure, autocross set up and a few more. I know it was very hard to get any real information from the STICKY...I think it needs editing, too many thread hijacks!! Given the somewhat limited range of adjustability in a stock RX8, I'm going to guess the autocross and road course set ups are going to look somewhat similar, with toe being the only real variable. Caster could be different, as well, but at the end of the range, the give up on caster for camber is pretty muted.

I'm no expert, but here's my two cents. Whether you're doing time trials/open track or autocross, I think you'll want to max out front camber (-1.4 to -1.6 is common) and run slightly more camber in the rear (-1.8 or so). For front toe, it may well depend on what you like. If you like the feeling of enhanced turn in and can live with the implications, dial in a little (1/8") front toe out. If not, just go with effective zero front toe. Rear toe can be started at zero and, if you feel the car is a little loose in track useage, just toe in the rear a little.

92tsiawd

Yea, I think it will be similar whether road racing or autocrossing. I heard from one of the pros that were at the track that he sets his toe to his camber/10, meaning if he has for example -1.4 degrees camber/10 = 0.14 toe in, he said it somewhat negates the eating of the inside of the tire with the toe correction if it is a daily driver, obviously it will still eat the inside of the tire but not as much. Is there any truth to this?

mwood: is it better to have the rear camber more than the fronts? Does it make it more hunkered down in the rear end so the tail doesn't slide out as much?

GULAMAN

I too am not an expert, but I'd say this is where track vs. autocross diverges a bit. having as much (or more) rear camber as the fronts is a pragmatic idea for tracking the car, to give the car more of an understeer bias.
for AutoX though, I think most folks would want to encourage more rotation and therefore give up some rear negative camber.
I'd be interested to see if some of the SoloII Nationals-level guys here would pipe in on their views.

clyde

They have. It may take a little effort to find it, but it's been discussed many, many times. The only thing that everyone agrees on is max front camber. To save everyone the trouble, this is how the rest breaks out:

On castor, set it to minimum and then start adding some until you start losing camber. Take out a little bit from there and leave it. Front toe...either 0 or out a little bit. Suit to taste. In back...heh...not sure you can find two people that agree. You'll hear everything from minimum to maximum on rear camber and anything from a little toe out to a little toe in. Again, suit to taste.

To get a head start on Koni shock settings, everything from full soft to full stiff in front and rear.

There's more than one way to skin a cat and the RX-8 can be driven quickly in stock class autocrossing with a number of different setups. It's all about finding the best match of setup with the specific driving style with some changes here and there for specific courses on specific surfaces. Unlike some cars, there's no magic bullet setup that "everyone" agrees is the right one.