Allignment/Corner Balance - Track guys help!
 

Need help for more experienced track guys...

I'm going to get the car alligned and corner balanced next week (suspension should be settled by then) and my question is 2 fold;

1. Once I get this done - can I raise and lower the car without throwing off all the settings?

2. Is there a 'holy grail' of camber/toe settings for time attack/auto-x/aggressive street setup that I should note down for a RWD car like this?

I dont want to go thru tires like condoms but I also dont care if I have to buy new ones a little more often than normal, I can afford that...I know it exists for supra's and I know people always recommend a certain toe in the rear for MR2s to reduce snap oversteer, thats basically what I am looking for.

The place I go to that performs this is top notch (Euro Tire) they're acclaimed for the work they do, so I'm sure they'll give me some input - just wanted to touch base with you guys first!

Thanks!

1) The lowering mechanism is separate from the rest of the system.. I think you can change height without changing the settings.

2) no, it depends on what you want to do with the car. Track setups are different than autox.

As long as you dont run a super cambered setup with crazy toe (dont know why you would) you shouldn't kill your tires that horribly fast. Im not all that familiar with setting up Z's yet because I havent had to worry about it... but I asume the logic is the same. A little bit more negative in the rear... Maybe -1.8 front and -2.4 rear?

1) Changing the ride height will absolutely screw up corner balance unless you raise or lower all four corners the exact same amount.

2) There is not end all be all setting even for the same car at different tracks, but a good baseline would probably be -2.5 front, -2.0 rear, 0 toe all around.

Oh corner balance will go to hell if you do that. I shouldve added that to my response :)

I think I have heard of Euro tire. The Pirelli rep and Grand Am mentioned them to me. Let me know how it turns out.

Well I'm going to Euro Tire tomorrow at noon to get this all sorted out!

Yes they are extremely recommended! I think the owners brother works for Grand Am and is a crew member for some racing org. Not sure...I wasnt fully paying attention to that part of the converstation. LOL

On a multi-link front and rear system like the 370Z lowering and raising it won't affect alignment settings as much as say, a MacStrut based front suspension would. But raising it and lowering it will absolutely make your corner balancing numbers JUNK.

If you intend for this to be a track car mostly, around 3 degrees of negative camber front and rear will actually extend your tire life. If you use this car to be a double purpose car, get adjustable camber arms and upper mounts for the front so you can go up to 3-3.5 degrees of negative camber up front for track, and about 1-1.5 degrees of negative camber for street use. Set front toe to neutral or slight toe-out for quick turn-in response (1/16" would be plenty, especially with negative camber) and toe-in the rear slightly for rear end stability at high speed (again, 1/16" would be plenty).