From the Last few weeks of dealing with a Little 89 Si preped for STS and the most recent issue of SportsCar magazine, I'm finally convinced that the proper alignment is probably one of the most important things for performance in the corners. Unfortunatly, I cant say what is the best alignment for us, cause there arnt enough of us messing with it, and proper alignments change with different parts/setups. But, I cant stress this enough, finding the best alignment for your particular set up IS the key to getting every last tenth out of your civic.
so, untill one of us finds a good alignment set up I did some searching around and came up with some settings that other Simmilar cars are running for autocross.
#1 STS Preped Neon.
Alignment (camber) 2.5 to 3 degrees negative in the front. 1.5 to 2 degrees in the rear.
Alignment (toe) Zero toe in the rear and between 1/8" and 1/4" Toe OUT in the front.
#2 STS preped 89 Si
Alignment (camber) 2.5 to 3 degrees negative on the front and 2 at the back
Alignment (toe) 1/8 toe out on the front and 1/16th to 0 toe on the rear.
Toe out on the front and 0 to 1/16th toe in on the back seem the norm, Ive been told that for a street car don't do more then 1/8th inch toe out, or the car will want to wander alot.
Camber seems to be Get as much as you can on the nose Rear, less so.
not much info on caster, but I've been told to try to get as much positve caster as possible within stock specs.
Disclamer: these settings wouldnt be all that frendly to tires.... Toe will eat tires quicker then camber, and from what I've heard you can run up to 2 deg negitive camber with out much extra wear..... not sure if thats true, but then if you were really worried about tire wear you wouldnt be autocrossing.
The problem is that almost all of our cars are DDers. It is hard to run those settings while driving everyday. It is hard to change the front camber because of that stupid steering arm. You drop the camber, you drop the toe. The only way around it is to do your own alignments with tools you can buy from racer mags.
True, however setting up the car with say 1 to 1.5 Deg negitive camber on the front, and maybe .25 to .5 on the rear, and possibly 1/8th inch toe out on the front, and 0 toe on the rear... Probably would be a good place to start, with Minimum extra tire wear.
Rob, you just gotta compromise it, and buy some hard tires for DDing.
Mine right now isn't so great, but I'm gonna get it reset. Probably just the front end since the rear is at -1, 0 toe already. I'm thinking 1.5 or so, no toe and see what that does. I doubt it'll eat tires. The older Civics and Integras had a front camber spec that went to almost -3 deg.
well my tires are only around 20k old and still have a lot tread left. their tread wear is only 300. I can't afford to compromise at the moment as much as I want to, especially with me starting school and buying a house. One day I will get there! That will be when I make the civic a full blown race car .
BTW i got my K1's!!! they are powdercoated black, but they are done nicely. Pics are in my galler.
Thats How I'm doing it, My current street tires are a set of Continental All season Performance tires with a tread wear of 400, should last quite a while even with -1.5 deg camber in the front.
My car is an alignment whore. I think I've aligned it about 6 times in the past year. I ran 2 degrees negative in the rear and 1 degree up front for about 6 months and the tires wore perfectly even. Recently I've been running -2 up front and -1 in back with no problems. Zero toe makes the front darty and the rear ass happy.
Originally posted by Zzyzx True, however setting up the car with say 1 to 1.5 Deg negitive camber on the front, and maybe .25 to .5 on the rear, and possibly 1/8th inch toe out on the front, and 0 toe on the rear... Probably would be a good place to start, with Minimum extra tire wear.
Would this setup work on an 01 EX Coupe? I have been searching for a good setup that works good for everyday driving but lends great help to auto-x with Kuhmo's!
I am having the car aligned next week before the event at Ft. Knox. I will give it a try and let you know the results. BTW, how much toe in on the rear would you suggest?
I've been playing with my alignment over the past couple months. Now, bare with me, I do it myself... and I'm one lazy bastard. Trust me, it takes a while to set up the jig right and double and triple check your results. And this is also for a daily driver/wknd. corner carver.
I'm running 1/8th toe OUT -1 deg. FRONT and 1/16 toe OUT -.25 deg. REAR.
Impressions are as follows...
car hooks up great. turn in is quick and responsive... hence the toe out. However, there is still moderate push on mid phase (steady state turns). Hook turns (90 deg.) box, and transitions are impressive.
btw, I have tein SS and a 22mm rear sway bar. With this alignment, I'd figure reducing the front bar would compliment it.
If its pushing mid corner thats an issue with Rollcouple rather then alignment. SO, your probably right, running an 03 16mm front bar should take care of that.
Ya, that's "roll center" in race car dynamics. I'm also at the limit of the tires. I'd like to run another set of Azenis or some competition radials. I also believe I'm putting my rear sub frame in bending. I'd like to reinforce that area after I play with damping.
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