AE86 Camber Angle

[Wally]

Hey guys,

Anyone roughly know a nice camber angle of normal driving, but gives better handling?

At the moment my alignment is out of whack, and will be getting it balanced and while I'm then may as well tell them the set the camber to a certain figure.

Cheers

[deleta]

id reckon -2 to -2.5 would be nice ay, tho im running -3.5 and it grips like its on rails.

[fergo308]

1.5deg. negative is plenty for average street driving. how much you NEED depends on the tyres you're running (normal street,semi slicks,or full slicks),and how hard you're pushing the car.

there's no point in running 3deg neg if you're just driving miss daisy most of the time. all that's going to do is chop out the inside shoulder of your tyres,and give you LESS grip. 1.5-2deg. negative is more sensible,and a good compromise between higher speed performance,and tyre conservation.


Justin...

[rthy]

I am with Justin, how much camber can be up to the design the tyre.

I am using -1 to -1.5 (xt130 arms) and it works great

[ghetto ke]

Agreed - there is no point in running more than -1.5 to -1.7 for street, even with spirited hills driving. Otherwise your tyres will be rooted in no time.
Circuit/drift you could dial in up to -2.5 to -3, but it will depend on many things like; your damper/spring rates, sway-bars, tyres and how much body-roll/weight transfer you get under load when turning. This is really a matter of your personal preference and comes down to your driving technique and feedback you get from front end.
There is a big misconception that more neg gives better turn in or response, castor and toe is probably equally if not more critical!

[Konakid]

Max out the stock castor rods, run -2.5, win.

Corona arms can achieve about -1.7 which is fine for not too aggressive hills driving. The larger the profile of the tyre, say 60 profile on a 14 inch rim will make the sidewall want to roll more than say a 50 profile on a 15 inch rim. Therefore less camber is needed on a lower profile tyre. Camber depnds alot on swaybars and castor also, as running positive castor increases the positive camber that the inside wheel picks up when the wheel is turned.

Sigma LCA's are crap, go Corona.

[rthy]

I am tottaly with kona, I think corona LCAs are the single best bag for buck upgrade to a sprinter right after lock spacers

[Dish]

I've got corona lca's in mine, stock strut tops, left side is -2.0 and the right side is -1.0. Had something to do with crossmember moving when I got smashed into my right side. Handles really well though.

[dr1ft-pig]

LOL^

serious circuit racers run around the -5 to -7 camber, i will be running about -3 i think, whatever sigma arms and cambertop wound to positive will give is about what i will have, mine is daily driven also, but if only daily and not much spirited driving involved id agree with the rest and say about 1.5 to 2.5 deg neg

[riceburner]

3.0-3.5 castor and 2.0-2.4deg camber is all you'll ever need.

[dori_86]

im running 2.5, with coilovers and corona lca's, like every1 said anymore than 3 for street is probly not needed, but on the other hand it gives great turn in/ response

[RobertoX]

i had 2.7 neg with 195/60/14 ao32r and they wore pretty much evenly at mallala

3.7 deg caster

[beerhead]

Hey guys,

Anyone roughly know a nice camber angle of normal driving, but gives better handling?

At the moment my alignment is out of whack, and will be getting it balanced and while I'm then may as well tell them the set the camber to a certain figure.

Cheers[/b]

Seems like everyone has advice, but don't actually know what your planning for your car. Is it for drift, circuit or daily driver? What rate springs are you running?

I think everyone on AE86DC thinks handling means drift spec, so make sure you say what your keen on.

[Intense]

Whats the standard castor for a sprinter anyway?
My old rx7 originally had +2 castor, std is meant to be +4 and after I got my noltec tops it had +5.5

On +2 the car hardly wanted to countersteer or return to center which really pissed me off, but on +5.5 it was brilliant. Should I try go for a similar amount with my sprinter or is that too much?

[fergo308]

you can pretty much never have too much caster,so go for it.


Justin...

[ghetto ke]

serious circuit racers run around the -5 to -7 camber[/b]

I've seen some V8-Stupidcars running around -4.5 degrees, but they were on slicks and had spring rates softer than some people run in their 86's, all beit in cars that weigh significantly more. Oval circuit Indy Carts run -ve one side and +ve camber on other to account for the constantly banked turns :o

WTF would run -7 unless it was on a speedway car or off-road buggy???

[riceburner]

He said normal driving so 1 would assume street mainly.

True thou everyone has there own ideal setup.

Take an average of all mention settings and set yours like that. See how that goes.

[bradae86]

So what say im after 2 deg neg camber... using what lca's and std struts/strut tops, would i use to achieve this? are they going to be a straight replacement?

[orido]

i think corona lcas give -2 chamber im not certain but im sure i read that on here.

[kaibeecee]

serious circuit racers run around the -5 to -7 camber[/b]

come on buddy, i've not known anyone that grip drives competitively that runs -5 to -7 camber. not a single one - not in IRPA, F3000, jdm series, nothing. sorry but -5 to -7 is ludicrous. -3.0 to -3.5 is realistic for track work.

as for a street driven/occasional push, i'd probably say -2.3 to -2.8 at a max for managability street wise. as said, castor to your hearts content.

[Trucka 115]

im doing s13 conversion with tein coil overs (hight an damper ajustable) with camber tops. what camber would u run. I drive the car at track days an late night runs up the hills when i get a chance.

[johnny_08]

hey samQ or anyone else with corona arms, are u using camber tops aswell?

[Wally]

thanks for your responses guys. lotsa info here.

Btw i do have camber tops also, but i think I may settle with -1.3 or -1.5!

[rthy]

I am using original sprinter camber tops, just about one of my only original parts!

[johnny_08]

ahh ok cool

[70XIN]

4.5degrees castor, 3 degrees camber and 2mm toe out

awesome drift setup

[Konakid]

^^Yep, dope for skids, turn in is unreal! For street camber and toe can be backed off to about -2 camber and 1mm toe out overall, makes the tyres last a bit longer, still has great turn in tho.

[ke70dave]

just remember also, that yes camber works to give extra grip around corners ONLY if there is a small amount of body roll present.

in my car atm (11kg springs, i have 8kg's on order, king springs taken over a month so far..different story) i have maximum negative camber dialed in (i think its only about 2-3 deg though as my car isnt dumped) i find it under steers under uber hard cornering, this is due to the front springs being to hard, and not allowing the body roll over and allow the tyre to grip fully onto the road.

just something else to consider.

[RobertoX]

That is not entirely correct^^ if you look at graphs of tyre force at different camber angles the lateral force of a tyre generally increases as the camber increases (to a point of course). This is measured on a machine where the tyre force is simply measured at a camber angle to the ground.... nothing to do with body roll.

Saying that though, for cornering, with softer springs you will probably want more camber because you will get more body roll. Your logic is good, its just that saying that the camber produces extra grip only with body roll is not right, its about the camber angle of the tyre with respect to the ground at any instant in cornering.

[RobertoX]

just remember also, that yes camber works to give extra grip around corners ONLY if there is a small amount of body roll present.

in my car atm (11kg springs, i have 8kg's on order, king springs taken over a month so far..different story) i have maximum negative camber dialed in (i think its only about 2-3 deg though as my car isnt dumped) i find it under steers under uber hard cornering, this is due to the front springs being to hard, and not allowing the body roll over and allow the tyre to grip fully onto the road.

just something else to consider.[/b]

i have 8kg coilover springs on the shelf..ah well

ill be playing around with a heap of camber settings soon

[ae71neo]

I run about 2.5 castor (standard rods maxxed out), 3neg and neutral toe. I might try some toe out for the next drift day, see how that goes. Would love some more castor, but i have ae86 tops in mine so it eats it all up. I thought i saw somewhere HKS make camber tops with castor adjustabillity aswell?

[Konakid]

I run about 2.5 castor (standard rods maxxed out), 3neg and neutral toe. I might try some toe out for the next drift day, see how that goes. Would love some more castor, but i have ae86 tops in mine so it eats it all up. I thought i saw somewhere HKS make camber tops with castor adjustabillity aswell?[/b]

Definately get some toe out dude, id say 2mm overall for unreal turn in, will make a fair difference.

My stock castor rods give around +3.5, using camber tops though.

[ae71neo]

Yeah, i think i'll give it a go.

I run camber tops too, and i think last time i checked one side had more castor then the other side but on average it was about +2.5.

[ben_shoe]

I run in the realms of +2.8 deg castor, -2.5 deg camber and no toe. Handles real well and dont have any tyre wear issues... Gotta say toe out is awesome for slidin had bout 1 deg but when i went high speed on country roads it felt extremely darty and hard to control so i backed it off. Still turns in awesome in my opinion. Just runnin camber tops.

[Konakid]

Toe is measured in mm, yes the car will fee a bit less stable at high speed, but not unless running more then 2mm

Try .5mm overall at least, it'll be noticiable.

[chapl]

4.5degrees castor, 3 degrees camber and 2mm toe out

awesome drift setup[/b]

my exact setup

very nice indeed.

[ben_shoe]

These were pretty bumpy, cambered roads and i am talking bout above 120.... it really did seem to make a diff.

[Joel-AE86]

I used to run 12kg/mm front springs in my hachi, with 3.5 deg. castor and 3.5deg camber.

It used to turn in like mad, and when driven hard the tyres would wear quite evenly. It wasn't even that bumpy.

My new setup will have 7kg/mm springs, 4 deg castor and 3 deg camber.

[johnny_08]

hey drif86 and chapl are they stock castor arms? im guessing no ay? just wondering casue i have to go to a suspension shop soon and i wanna get the front setup while im there, how bout a nice setup for a daily driven/occasional hard drive setup? same as u chapl and drif86's but .5 toe like kona said?

[ke70dave]

yer they are stock (im pretty sure) either way you can adjust the stock castor rods on 86/70, just wind it as much forward as possible, just gota make sure nothing scrubs

edit: just saw that hes running 4.8deg castor, so i dunno how far stock ones go, maybe they do have aftermarket..