Road Racer alignment specs?

[Mudge]

What is a recommended alignment for a road raced car, that is still street driven.

In other words I am not looking for -4º camber, but for someone to suggest less than -1º is ridiculous, unless for the rear. I ran -1.5º and wish I went for more, tire wear is not a problem and I dont expect it to be until I get beyond -2.0º

Suggestions on what works well?

[2ManyZs]

The best advice I can give is to purchase a tire pyrometer and set your camber according to your tire temps. You can now buy the hand held non-contact pyrometers for less than I paid for the "old-style"probe pyrometer. Just point it at the tire and you have your temps. It's one of the best investments you can make.

There are so many variables in tire selection, track layout, tire pressures, wheel offsets and widths, spring and shock package that no two cars will ever run the same settings.

Do a run, then check your tire temps in three places across the face of the tread. If the outside edge of the tire is hotter than the inside, then you need more negative camber. If the center of the tire is hotter than both the inside and outside, you need to run less pressure in the tire.

Also your toe settings will have a small impact on the temps, so with a little tinkering you should come up with something that will give you the turn in, over/understeer you want while giving you good tire wear. I always ran with 0 toe in the front, but you can run either + or - 1/16th depending on your track.

FWIW, you will normally run quite a bit of negative camber in the front, and probably only about half that in the rear.

[hmsports]

Great advice 2Many!

I've always ran about -2.5 to -3 up front and -1.5 to -2 in the rear. My rear toe is always dead on but I like to run a little toe out (1/8") sometimes on tighter tracks to help with turn in, but usually run a RCH of toe in most times.

The infrared pyrometers are getting pretty inexpensive now - less than $100.

Go fast, have fun.

[2ManyZs]

As you can see by Rick's settings at Gateway and my settings at Summit Point, every track will require a completely different set-up.

At Summit Point on my 280 I ran 2-2.5 degrees negative in the front and only 1-1.5 negative in the rear. Can't remember which side was which, but it wasn't the same from one side to the other. I ran -2 on one side in the front while -2.5 on the other. It all depends on the track layout, which is why I suggest a tire pyrometer.

I ran 0 toe in the front, and 1/4-1/8th toe out in the rear as I had a locked rear, which required a lot of help with turn in. Which leads us to another item that has a large effect on handling and suspension settings. A car with a locked or welded rear will need different settings than a car with a LSD or even an open stock rear.

This may seem a bit confusing, but if you take your time and use the pyrometer you can get it right if you take your time and do small changes at a time.

[Mudge]

I've heard bad things about the IR pyrometers, and was told to stay away from them.

Also got some feedback on another board, so it looks like I have something to go with finally, thanks

[hmsports]

If you are looking for exact perfectly repeatable readings then the IR pyrometer probably isn't what you want.

For the racing most of us will be doing, the IR pyrometer works quite well. As 2Many has mentioned, what you are looking for are three measurements across the face of the tire. Ideally, the two outside temps should be the same and the inside temp should be about 10 degree hotter.

Tires cool down pretty quickly. The time it takes you to drive from the track, down pit-in and stop at your hot-pit spot can effect temps. Pyrometers that require you to physically touch the tire take longer to get a reading. This extra time can lead to a cool down. Again, we aren't INDY teams and we don't need to be that precise, but getting a quicker measurement is best. The IR pyrometers gives those quicker readings.

I've used both types and for the last four years have used the IR exclusively -- as well as my friends who race formula cars.

My vote is IR.

[2ManyZs]

Another big advantage of the IR type of temp sensors is that you could use them to take temps of the brake rotors (or brake drums)when you come off the track also to see if you need more brake ducting! No more temp paint!

You could also use it to take temps on your headers as an "exhaust pyro" to get a good idea of mixture settings too.

More than one good use for the newer style of pyrometers.:classic:

[Mudge]

I heard that it was more than just a little innacurate, and also being affected by outside heat sources, but yes I saw the side benefits of speed and measuring other things which is why I wanted one. About $200 versus $100, figured sure why not.

[hmsports]

It sounds like a good experiment to test some temp with both the IR and probe type to see how far off the IR might be. One of the drawbacks of the IR on accuracy is you can't be perfectly sure where the reading is being performed. If you aim the gun off a bit you might get a reading from something close. On tires, at least for checking camber and pressure settings, the IR would perform just fine, IMHO.

Now, if you have $300 and a quick pit crew, you might want to get one of the recording probe style that will keep track of all 12 temps automatically for recall later. In fact, some of them record multiple sessions.

[2ManyZs]

Mudge, I was surfing around the racing forums today and found this. Looks to be something that might be interesting if you are in the market for an IR pyrometer...Get your name on his list and if they get orders for 100 of them in bulk, the price is 35 bucks.

http://www.sccaforums.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000655.html

[Mudge]

Wow, the stuff I looked at was $199

Thanks for the info, and the link