Hiboost

iTrader: (9)

So I got my basic alignment done but noticed that compared to before the car is pulling to the right on flat roads and even more so when in the right hand lane of the highway. Left lane travel is about even, maybe still a slight pull to the right. I know that my negative camber and wide tires could be catching the uneven parts of the road, but even when I rough aligned my car with the somewhat high toe out, the car tracked very straight. My suspicion is the higher caster on the right side makes the car turn in better and want to cut to the right. You can even duplicate the effect at slow speeds in a parking lot where the wheel won't center and it wants to hunt to the right. Tire pressures are 35 psi all around and as far as I can tell everything is settled by now.

I scheduled an appointment on Sunday to have them tweak the settings a bit and get it going straight again. I want to be able to let go of the wheel on a smooth, flat road and have the car track straight like it did before. Overall the car feels very stable, it did lose some oversteer feel and turn in so I may have them tweak the fronts for slight toe out but still be well within factory spec.

My goal is to have a stable, good handling car without excessive tire wear that doesn't suddenly break away at the limits unless you do something really stupid.

What do you guys think?

prodigy1210

iTrader: (1)

You really do not need -2.5 camber up front and -1.5 camber in the back. Especially if you are going to drive such a long distance. For longer distances, you are going straight a lot lot more than going around turns. Go back to the stock -1* all around and save some tires.

The caster is off due to something being bent or the person who aligned you didn't perform a proper caster sweep. I would get this rechecked. To compensate for the pull, make the left front wheel down to -2.1 camber.. This will even things out and the car will track straight.. Again.. do this only after rechecking the caster with another caster sweep.

I am going to canada next week and my alignment looked exactly like urs.. In 5000 miles the inside threads of my pilot sports are noticeably worn. I got myself some camber bolt from NAPA and got took my car back to school and realigned it myself all back to -1* ..

You can run -2.5 but its totally unnecessary. You will be more stable with -1* camber in a straight line but more stable around turns with -2.5*.. Tires raped with -2.5.. Its all in your hands

LaXGSR

As a compromise to avoid too much inside tread wear, maybe go -2 front, -1 rear? For the track, you do want as much negative camber as possible though, so it's up to you...

Hiboost

iTrader: (9)

Well those are good points, I used to have -2* front -1* rear camber with my Eibach springs and still got some inside edge tire wear up front, seems that is unavoidable even with zero toe. The car is super stable under braking and acceleration right now with the current camber settings so I may try and leave them. Since my front camber is adjustable, I might see how the toe is effected if I adjust it from -2.5 for the track and down to -2.0 for the street driving if tire wear seems to be an issue.

While the goal to save tires is a nice one, having decent handling on the track is also something I want so I'm trying to strike a balance.

LaXGSR

Yeah, I don't know the rules - are you allowed to swap tires off the track? Be really careful about adjusting camber though - it can throw the toe off quite a bit, and toe will eat up your tires way quicker than negative camber would. If it were my car, I'd probably just leave it at -2.5. I'm assuming you are allowed to change tires anyway...the way I drive, I don't think one set of tires would last through the entire One Lap.

Hiboost

iTrader: (9)

I agree, I would have to verify that switching between 2 and -2.5 wouldn't alter the toe too much or it would just be worse on the tires anyways. We are allowed to use one set of tires that everyone has to purchase from the Tirerack with a special stamping on the sidewall. If the tire wear gets crazy we can get it aligned somewhere along the way to less aggressive settings but I think my settings under the planned "planned" section should still be a good goal.

Hiboost

iTrader: (9)

Update: So I stopped by the place in Sunday and they told me that the older Pirelli tires were likely causing the pull to the right and to switch the fronts left to right to verify. He didn't want to adjust the alignment if the tires were the cause, and then have to correct it again when I mounted my Yokohama AD08 tires later this week.

Well I swapped them left to right last night and it still pulls to the right the exact same amount... Checking the wear at 4 points across the tire and they had identical wear and visually looked very similar. He tried to tell me the caster wasn't the cause and that it can't make the car pull like I was explaining... possibly the camber is off from what the sheet is.

Looks like I'll be going back to have it tweaked once the new tires are mounted and hopefully they can get it going straight down the road. Since it has the same pull to the right in slow speeds in the parking lot they should be able to sort things out.

prodigy1210

iTrader: (1)

A little about pulling..

Camber pull: Pulls to the side with the more positive camber.

Caster pull: Pulls to the side with the more negative caster...

Your car should actually be pulling to the left.

Does this pull occur only when you press the brake?

Hiboost

iTrader: (9)

Good points, and I agree that according to the alignment it should be pulling to the left! haha

The pull is there in all situations as far as I can tell. It's actually MOSTLY when the tires are cold and seems to get better once the tires are up to temp. I have a feeling that when I get the Yokohama AD08 tires installed tomorrow at 7 am we'll know for certain. I didn't really think the tires would be it and it's odd it does it with them swapped left to right and still pulls right. I was out and about today on warmer pavement and the car didn't pull much at all to the right, just a touch.

I tested some stiffer bound and rebound settings and the backroads feel quite good powering out of turns. Should be interesting how it all turns out and I'll report back of course.

spdracerut

iTrader: (2)

I disagree. On my 05 Evo, I ran -3.0 camber front, -1.5 rear and got fairly even wear across the tires. In the One Lap event, I think the car will see a proportionatly high number of track miles relative to street miles as compared to my tire useage (where I still had even wear). Also, while driving in a straight line, as long as the throttle and brake inputs are gentle, it should minimize wear.

One main difference is that I was on stock springs/shocks. So with the suspension Hiboost is able to run, maybe less camber is required as body roll should be reduced. However, I still think -1 degrees will kill the outside shoulders of the tires on the road courses.

S2000s, though a different platform, typically run -3.0 to -3.5 degrees up front, and -2.5 or so on the rear to get even temps across the tires.

82firebird

Good luck with things! I ran into some guys the other day with a gray/orange GTR that were getting ready for One Lap 2010. They were pretty cool guys and gave me their card as I left. I looked them up to find they were the 2009 One Lap champions.

Hiboost

iTrader: (9)

Figured it was time for an update.

Basically the tire wear at -2.5* front and -1.5* rear camber has really been quite reasonable and wear patterns are very even considering. Basically the only higher wear area is the front inside edges but even those aren't wearing that badly. I'm really impressed how nice the car rides on the BC Racing ER coilovers. I even have been driving around on the street with the harsher track shock settings and it's really not all that bad. After turning them back down to street settings it feels like the car is too soft but it still handles quite good.

One thing has pestered me still though, the car tends to pull to the right after making a moderate right turn. I've duplicated this at slow speeds in an open parking lot. Turn left with a moderate turn and it seems to fix it until I make a moderate right turn again before pulling to the right again. When stopped if I crank the wheel to the left and then re-center it, the car tracks straight and will stay "fixed" if I limit myself to slight right turns. As soon as I make a moderate right turn again it goes back to pulling to the right.

I'm thinking there may be something in my steering that is causing the suspension connections to bind or something. I may bring it to the local Cortese Mitsu dealership and see what they can figure out as it just doesn't make sense to me.

spdracerut

iTrader: (2)

Might have a faulty ball joint or slop somewhere else. Loose control arm bolt? Or maybe the bushings are just toast. Anyway, my guess is something is a little loose somewhere.

Hiboost

iTrader: (9)

Makes sense, time to have it checked out, might go aftermarket in any case.