Wats up RX8Club?! I recently installed coilovers and unfortunately i still havent gotten it aligned. Theres a shop that works on primarily Porsches but they said theyd help me out. I want to make sure everything is correct alignment wise and i wanted to have the coilovers set perfectly. I went in earlier today and he said that I needed to find what I want to my height to be set at and where that measurement is being taken from. Im not sure what an adequate ride height is so any help would be greatly appreciated. Also he wanted to know waht I would like my settings to be. Since the car is mainly used as a daily I was figuring something like this....

Front camber: -0.5
Front toe: +0.05
Front caster: 6.5 // 7.0

Rear Camber : -1.0
Rear toe: 0.0
Thrust: 0.0 or 0.01

The main thing I want is a fair ride height. for the front and back. as well as rake?

 

First off there is no perfect setting.

For a daily driver I would start by setting the ride weight at what you think looks good but isnt too low to clear your driveway. Measure the ride height at all 4 corners by taking the measurements from the frame. I would set all 4 corners even, maybe a little rake .25" (rear higher)

Once you have your ride height set, align the car to stock specs or what I recommend is.

Rear:
Camber Minimum you can get or somewhere around -1 to -1.5
Toe: 1/16 toe in.

Front:
Camber: Equal to the Rear camber setting up to -.5 less then the rear. For the track we set the rear -.5 less then the front which reduces front understeer but increases tire wear and can cause the car to oversteer a little. So if you get -1.5 in the rear I would set the front to -1 to -1.5.

Caster: I dont care, just keep it even.

Toe: 1/16 toe in.

Once you have the car aligned, put it on the scales and see what your cross weight is at. You should aim for something near 50% but anything between 49-51 will be fine. I set mine at 50.5% for track driving.

If you make height adjustments you will need to check the alignment again.

Cross weights and alignment should be set with 3/4 tank of fuel, tire pressures correct and the drivers weight on the drivers seat.

 

^Unless like me, I corner balance with 1/4 tank of fuel, for autocross. Other than that do everything Highway said, Possibly corner balance before alignment so that you don't have to re align it.

 

Either way but I usually do everything twice. Alignment will effect Corner balance, Corner Balance will effect alignment.

 

I probably lucked out on mine. I set up ride height with the rear near the top of the adjustment range, and then the fronts near the middle. This ended up giving me just a little under 3/8" rake measured from the pinch weld jack points. Then I got it aligned, and am at -2.1 both front and rear for camber, caster 6.9ish? but even left and right. Zeroed toe in front, and 1/16 toe in the rear. That camber was the least negative we could get it at the shop in the back. Then I corner weighted, and my cross weights ended up at 49.5%. at just over 1/2 tank of fuel with me in car, in driving position. I run the damping adjusters in the front at 3 and the back at 5 (1 being full stiff, 9 being the softest) for track and it feels very neutral.

This is only my experience, and I am not actively being recruited by racing teams, so take it for what its worth.

 

I am sure the car is a lot more free (wants to turn/oversteer) then it was stock.

Our cars have a very good balance from the factory. If you get the car level (left to right) the corner balance will come out near 50% depending on driver weight and modifications.

 

if the shop knows what they are doing the last thing they need is to be directed by someone who doesn't ...

 

True, but even good shops will cut corners to save time if they dont think the customer will know the difference. Trust me, looking back it happened to me the first time I had my car corner balanced. That prompted me to go out and get my own tools/scales.

 

The car is level left to right, it does turn much better than before, but I don't have any issue with excessive oversteer. I did have some understeer initially before the alignment, but that was because I installed the PSS9s and ended up cancelling my apt at the shop for alignment before the track because of work issues.

I'm not sure what you mean by that Team, I live in Savannah, GA though, where dirt ovals, and drag strips rule. If I was looking for american stock car, or drag racing help, there are a number of shops for that. I researched, read through this site and others and went in to the shop looking for something closer to -1.5 all the way around, but -2.1 was as close to that as I could get in the back, and I am within 3 or 4 mm from the top of bilsteins recommended adjustment range in the rear. So I am not sure how much more positive I could get out of that amount of ride height adjustment. Since the car feels good to me, and has good cross weight, I plan on leaving it as for now. If as I get better/faster I find myself wanting to change, I will. For this year, RA is my last event, and I am just happy to go there with a car I know I like, and have fun to end the season.


edit:
I think maybe you were referring to corner balancing at a shop. To clarify, I put it on the scales at the track and was going to work through the corner balancing myself. I had a couple of spreadsheets for calculating ride height/corner weights to cross weights. For me and my level, I am happy enough to have 49.5.

 

Firstit should be obvious that he won't know the difference regardless

Second he has provided enough information for you to give an intelligent response. You don't even know what shocks, spring rates, valving etc. so how is it that you can yammer on about rake etc?

Third my comment was to the OP

 

I had to check the address bar to make sure I wasn't on corner-carvers for a second...