Well, I got the car aligned yesterday. Either the previous owner had all of the suspension off while the car was in his garage or someone was running around with an extremely unsafe alignment. I know the front was mostly off for installing the subframe, but I didn’t expect the rear to be as bad as it was.
Before:
Front Camber
-1.8* -1.3*
Caster
6.9* 5.3*
Front toe
0.16* 0.10* (total toe was 0.26 - both were toed in heavily
Rear Camber
-1.5* -1.7*
Rear Toe
0.06* -0.02* (total toe was 0.04*)
Since I knew the alignment was going to be at least significantly off, I never pushed the car hard with those settings, but I did take one or two long sweepers, entering around 5/10 and stepping it up to 7/10 or so and definitely felt like the car was squirrly and it felt like it had some odd camber gain or toe issues - it just felt different all through the corner and really raised some concerns.
Specs after:
Front Camber
-1.5* -1.5*
Caster
6.0* 6.0*
Toe all around is +/- 0.01 of 0*
Rear Camber
-1.2* -1.2*
After the alignment, I’ve pushed the car similarly and harder as well. Stability is increased tenfold. I haven’t broken the traction limits, but I’m sure it will be progressive and controlled. I’m very happy with the alignment.
Now, obviously I can’t comment at all about tire life or the track effectiveness of this setup yet, but if I had to wager, I’d say with 0 toe and the relatively low amounts of camber, it should be more than fine.
Next order of business is to track down a loud POP under hard braking. It’s from the front end and can be felt in the steering as well as distinctly heard. I’m hoping that if I tighten the brake calipers, it will go away. Any other ideas on what it could be?
Oh yeah, Johnny’s sweet radiator shrouding/ducting holds up to water incredibly well. Cardboard ftw.