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Road and track alignment


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Hi, 

 

I'm looking for thoughts on a dual purpose road and track alignment for my Cayman. 

 

The car is full polybushed (with adjustable front arms) on Bilstein B8s and Cayman R springs. I currently have it set to -2.25 (2 degrees 15 minutes) front and - 1.6 rear with 2 minutes of toe in on the front and 5 minutes per side on the rear. 

 

This alignment works well on track (I appear to be using all of the camber on the front) but it is a bit too aggressive for the roads round me which are badly potholed and grooved. It's not unmanageable or dangerous feeling but you do need to be concentrating. 

 

My old boxster ran close to a standard alignment and was more enjoyable on the same roads despite being less capable on track. 

 

I'm thinking of dialing down the front camber to -2 or maybe - 1.8, running just a little toe in and then keeping the rear the same as it is currently. Track tyre wear will be worse but hopefully road manners will improve. 

 

What are other people running and what is the compromise between road manners and track tyre wear like? 

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@Lennym1984

 

It's really trial 'n' error tbh?

 

I'm on standard arms but lowered on H&R's/B4's & spacers with elongated top strut mount holes & my geo is more aggressive than stock but not so that it affects road manners & is fine on track (for me)

 

With your setup I'd be inclined to try -2*0' front but -1*50' rear... Your toe in is similar to mine... See how it feels? :35_thinking:

 

 

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6 hours ago, Mavrik said:

@Lennym1984

 

It's really trial 'n' error tbh?

 

I'm on standard arms but lowered on H&R's/B4's & spacers with elongated top strut mount holes & my geo is more aggressive than stock but not so that it affects road manners & is fine on track (for me)

 

With your setup I'd be inclined to try -2*0' front but -1*50' rear... Your toe in is similar to mine... See how it feels? :35_thinking:

 

 

Thanks, the rear feels okay (and wears okay) so I think I'll probably focus on the front (I have adjustable toe links at the rear so can get away with less camber from an adjustment perspective).

 

I think a little less on front will help on the road but to be honest the roads near me really are appalling and even my jaguar jumps around on them 

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57 minutes ago, sevenfourate said:

Following with interest as lowering in the New Year.

 

Road only settings if anyone has any input.....

 The issue you'll have is on the rear where you'll have to run more camber to bring the toe into spec. Otherwise you may want to look at the Cayman R geo. It looks okay for a fully road based car

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6 hours ago, Lennym1984 said:

 The issue you'll have is on the rear where you'll have to run more camber to bring the toe into spec. Otherwise you may want to look at the Cayman R geo. It looks okay for a fully road based car

 

If Cayman R Geo is slightly more aggressive than a standard 987 (?); and achievable on stock mechanics (Non adjustable drop links or top mounts etc) and after a 25mm drop........then it sounds like that will suit me perfect.

 

Would anyone know if R settings are likely to change a stock 987’s handling traits ? Ie: Make it (More ?) understeer or oversteer biased....

 

Thankyou for that info.

 

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Edited by sevenfourate
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36 minutes ago, sevenfourate said:

Would anyone know if R settings are likely to change a 987’s handling traits ? Ie: Make it (More ?) understeer or oversteer biased....

 

It won't make much difference. There is a lot of rear camber to balance out the increased front camber so I'd guess that it'll still tend towards understeer at the limits. If you are reaching those limits on the road then you probably have bigger things (like a prison sentence) to worry about

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As Lenny says - the R setup is ideal for fast road use.  There is the recommendation of spacers and another deg or two of extra rear camber but I haven't tried it myself.

 

I've found the stock R setup really balanced for fast road use and reasonable enough on track to not warrant changing it.

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21 minutes ago, Aaron said:

As Lenny says - the R setup is ideal for fast road use.  There is the recommendation of spacers and another deg or two of extra rear camber but I haven't tried it myself.

 

I've found the stock R setup really balanced for fast road use and reasonable enough on track to not warrant changing it.


Awesome ! Thankyou for confirming Aaron.....

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@sevenfourate

I was initially going for the CR setup but tbh it's not that much different from stock... When lowering you'll find setting the geo is a bit more of a compromise between toe/camber with stock arms etc(due to being lowered)

100852635_10217072207342340_4735718699636359168_o.jpg

Edited by Mavrik
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  • 3 weeks later...

To close this off, I ended up going :

 

1.7 camber front, 0 toe, 7.5 caster

1.5 camber rear, 5' toe in per side, 0 thrust (obvs) 

 

The car now feels much more civilised and more like a track capable road car rather than a road capable track car. I'll be interested to see how the front shoulders fare on track but either way it was going to be a compromise one way or another. 

 

I also raised the front end a little using 6mm (vs 3mm I had on there originally) compensation plates. Despite being a tiny increase, the added rubber has improved compliance and the front flaps now clear the aggressive speed bumps near my parents house (never had a problem elsewhere but these ones used to catch) 

Edited by Lennym1984
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