Has anyone dialed in decent suspension settings for street/long track events?

I'm not looking for *****-out autocross settings, just something that will enable my stock suspension to bite better, reduce understeer (!), and still be nice and progressive at the limit.

You know, something good for the Dragon and for the trip up.
Pettit Racing used to have a "long track" setting which was perfect for the street, but haven't settled on such numbers for the RX-8.

Any suggestions?

 

I got them done in the summer, but, going from memory (I have it written down here someplace).

1.4-1.5 negative camber (as much as it would allow)
0 toe in front, 1/16 in at the rear (personal taste, some like 0 all around, but I felt a little in the rear helped)
6.7 Caster as I recall

Damn.. that's probably not helpful at all.. I'll look for my sheets tonight.

Use those settings on the street and used them at an HPDE at Mt. Tremblant with good results.

 

I'm wondering if you really need to do an alignment, especially after suspension installs. I've heard arguments for both sides.

The argument for not getting an alignment is that cars usually come with too much toe in. When you lower the car, you natually get more negative camber (slight) and the tires will toe out a little from the stock setting. This results in better response, but increased tire wear on the inside of the tire.

I have driven 1 summer with new tires and a 2" drop and noticed that the insides of my tires did wear a little more. The car turns corners like it's on rails and responds very well.

On the other hand, I have not tried any other alighment settings.

Anyone dropped their car and then changed the alignment afterwords?

 

You need to get an alignment....the toe changes quite a bit...and you will chew through tires if you don't. The camber changes don't make as much of a difference...they tend to get better with the drop.

 

You want an alignment no matter what. Even if it's to stock specs. The allowable variance was so big from the factory you would be shocked... not one of the wheels was aligned the same as another on my car.

 

Redshift, I look forward to your confirmed numbers.

Just did a quick lookup for old time's sake, for the 3rd gen RX-7: http://www.fd3s.net/suspension.html#ALI

 

I just got my car aligned last week (after the MS suspension install) for both street/track car, and after much investigation, this is what I came up with:

Camber: F: -1.1 R: -1.6 (I wanted about 0.5 degree difference)
Toe: F: Zero Toe R: 1/8 Total Toe In
Caster: 6.5

The car is handling pretty darn good. I could use a bit more negative camber in the front, let's say -1.3 leaving the rear camber as is but since I also use this car twice a week for commuting, my settings I believe are a decent compromise.

You MUST get an alignment after a suspension install, especially when lowering it. camber is not the big change here but Toe is. If you don't adjust it, you will eat up your tires.

Good luck.
Carlos

 

jwitzer, sorry for the delay. Had a little trouble finding my papers since my girlfriend has turned my home office into her home office.

Anyway:
Camber: 1.3" front and 1.5" rear (this was as much as we could get in both cases)
6.8 Caster
0 toe front and 1/16" rear

I've been daily driving these settings, did a 3000km road trip, 2 HPDEs and 2 lapping days.
I'm happy with them. Car tracks well, is nimble, but the bit of toe in the rear helps keep it from being twitchy, and my tear wear isn't bad.

 

Redshift,

Thanks for the info.

Did you dial in the extra caster for greater on-center feel?

 

I wish I was that smart about it.
When I was researching for baselines I noticed a few people who wanted something more aggressive in the 6.7 to 6.9 range, so, I decided to go with 6.8 to start.
I liked it, so I kept it.