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Alignment for track and autox

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#2
Max negative camber (-2.6-2.7 with crash bolts), 0 or a little toe out, max caster in the front is what I ran on stock suspension. Tire wear was okay and dependent on the tire.

The rear I didn't touch because it wasn't easily adjustable. I think there are shims available now.

What tire and what size are you looking to use?

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Jerickson88

Jerickson88

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Thread Starter #3
Max negative camber (-2.6-2.7 with crash bolts), 0 or a little toe out, max caster in the front is what I ran on stock suspension. Tire wear was okay and dependent on the tire.

The rear I didn't touch because it wasn't easily adjustable. I think there are shims available now.

What tire and what size are you looking to use?

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I'm having my tires mounted as I type. 215/40-17 Federal 595RS-RR

A local shop is going to align, for the standard rate, just need to give him specs to go with. Since the rear is the torsion beam, I suppose it's pretty locked in lol

So you are saying to max positive caster, max negative camber, and -.5 or -.1 toe?
 


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#4
I have no experience with Federals, so I can't tell you how they'll wear on track. And I can't speak to autocross performance but I imagine it'll be almost the same for track on a stock suspension.

I'd just tell the person doing the aligning to get the most negative camber he could and zero the toe. I don't know how adjustable the caster really was since I've had specialists always align my car and they had all sorts of tricks.

Good luck and have fun!

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Jerickson88

Jerickson88

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Thread Starter #5
I have no experience with Federals, so I can't tell you how they'll wear on track. And I can't speak to autocross performance but I imagine it'll be almost the same for track on a stock suspension.

I'd just tell the person doing the aligning to get the most negative camber he could and zero the toe. I don't know how adjustable the caster really was since I've had specialists always align my car and they had all sorts of tricks.

Good luck and have fun!

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Local track shop quoted $200 to get the car as far track sided as they can. The local tire shop said 79 to put it to my specs or max it out.

I think I'm going to start around 30psi cold all 4 corners and see how it drives and adjust from there.
 


jeffreylyon

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#6
Other than with the slop in bolt holes, caster and camber aren't adjustable. There are lower strut bolts that allow camber adjustment - [MENTION=5976]ron@whoosh[/MENTION] has 'em. Caster is adjusted with an aftermarket offset bushing on the LCA. Toe is easily adjustable. More than -2º is a lot for a car that sees most of its time on the street and is gonna eat your tires.
 


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Jerickson88

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Thread Starter #7
Other than with the slop in bolt holes, caster and camber aren't adjustable. There are lower strut bolts that allow camber adjustment - [MENTION=5976]ron@whoosh[/MENTION] has 'em. Caster is adjusted with an aftermarket offset bushing on the LCA. Toe is easily adjustable. More than -2º is a lot for a car that sees most of its time on the street and is gonna eat your tires.
There's no adjustment at all from the factory?

I was going to zero or -1* on the toe. This isn't a daily car anymore. Haven't put 10 miles on it in over a month.
 


maestromaestro

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#10
Other than with the slop in bolt holes, caster and camber aren't adjustable. There are lower strut bolts that allow camber adjustment - [MENTION=5976]ron@whoosh[/MENTION] has 'em. Caster is adjusted with an aftermarket offset bushing on the LCA. Toe is easily adjustable. More than -2º is a lot for a car that sees most of its time on the street and is gonna eat your tires.
What he said. Aftermarket coilovers generally would allow you to adjust either caster OR camber. You can use camber bolts and tweak caster with the top hat adjustments on the non-OEM c/o. I run -2.5 degrees of camber, whatever the stock caster is, neutral tow.

But, watch your tire temperature on the track and make adjustments to the toe and camber, if you are getting seriously uneven values across the contact patch.
 


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#11
I have probably overestimated how much negative camber you can get without camber bolts. Aftermarket coilovers will help, but I'm not sure we can adjust caster without the bushing. There isn't a lot of choices in top hats for the front shocks for Fiesta STs (at least not in the US). But that's for another thread.

This has all added up to something less than concise, so I'm going to try and sum up what [MENTION=3995]jeff[/MENTION]erylyon and [MENTION=2565]maestromaestro[/MENTION] have said so far:


Track alignment suggestions for a *stock* car:

Front camber: as much as you can, maybe -2° without camber bolts
Front toe: neutral or a little toe out
Front caster: not adjustable

Rear anything: not adjustable

Watch your tire wear and temperature and adjust as needed.



Anything I miss/misrepresent?



Edited for grammar.
 


Last edited:
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Jerickson88

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Thread Starter #12
What he said. Aftermarket coilovers generally would allow you to adjust either caster OR camber. You can use camber bolts and tweak caster with the top hat adjustments on the non-OEM c/o. I run -2.5 degrees of camber, whatever the stock caster is, neutral tow.

But, watch your tire temperature on the track and make adjustments to the toe and camber, if you are getting seriously uneven values across the contact patch.
I'm going to go ahead and get the car aligned (bad wear on old tires)maybe toe out a hair, and just wait till I get coilovers instead of buying bolts.
 


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Jerickson88

Jerickson88

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Thread Starter #13
I have probably overestimated how much negative camber you can get without camber bolts. Aftermarket coilovers will help, but I'm not sure we can adjust caster without the bushing. There isn't a lot of choices in top hats for the front shocks for Fiesta STs (at least not in the US). But that's for another thread.

This has all added up to something less than concise, so I'm going to try and sum up what [MENTION=3995]jeff[/MENTION]erylyon and [MENTION=2565]maestromaestro[/MENTION] have said so far:


Track alignment suggestions for a *stock* car:

Front camber: as much as you can, maybe -2° without camber bolts
Front toe: neutral or a little toe out
Front caster: not adjustable

Rear anything: not adjustable

Watch your tire wear and temperature and assist as needed.



Anything I miss/misrepresent?



Edited for grammar.
I'll take it!
 


maestromaestro

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#14
I have probably overestimated how much negative camber you can get without camber bolts. Aftermarket coilovers will help, but I'm not sure we can adjust caster without the bushing. There isn't a lot of choices in top hats for the front shocks for Fiesta STs (at least not in the US). But that's for another thread.

This has all added up to something less than concise, so I'm going to try and sum up what [MENTION=3995]jeff[/MENTION]erylyon and [MENTION=2565]maestromaestro[/MENTION] have said so far:


Track alignment suggestions for a *stock* car:

Front camber: as much as you can, maybe -2° without camber bolts
Front toe: neutral or a little toe out
Front caster: not adjustable

Rear anything: not adjustable

Watch your tire wear and temperature and assist as needed.



Anything I miss/misrepresent?



Edited for grammar.
[emoji106]

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jeffreylyon

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#15
Aftermarket coilovers generally would allow you to adjust either caster OR camber.
I don't think so on the FiST. The strut tower has 3 holes to you can't rotate the hat 90º to adjust caster instead of camber. I haven't seen any aftermarket hats that allow adjustment in both planes. I believe that there is a top plate that allows that, but you'd have to lop the top of the strut tower off to use it.
 


maestromaestro

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#16
I don't think so on the FiST. The strut tower has 3 holes to you can't rotate the hat 90º to adjust caster instead of camber. I haven't seen any aftermarket hats that allow adjustment in both planes. I believe that there is a top plate that allows that, but you'd have to lop the top of the strut tower off to use it.
You are correct - it is either camber OR caster, not both. That's what I said - you have to pick which one.
 


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Jerickson88

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Thread Starter #19
Is there any benefit to spacers? 5mm or 10mm, give it a wider track?

I'm talking about the hub centric ones and studs from h&r. I'm happy with the stock wheels at the moment, and wasnt sure if anything could be gained from this as well. I'm talking 10mm spacers all 4 corners

I dont have wheels in the budget for a while.

Coilovers, fmic, rmm, ap3 on the list right now.
 


maestromaestro

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#20
Is there any benefit to spacers? 5mm or 10mm, give it a wider track?

I'm talking about the hub centric ones and studs from h&r. I'm happy with the stock wheels at the moment, and wasnt sure if anything could be gained from this as well. I'm talking 10mm spacers all 4 corners

I dont have wheels in the budget for a while.

Coilovers, fmic, rmm, ap3 on the list right now.
Wider track - to the extent you can achieve it without modifying the body - is not going to yield benefits without an increase in the contact patch. I HAD to put spacers to use Enkeis with my BBK, and the Toyos that went on those were 225s. And, they barely fit - with the fender rolling (not that there’s much to roll) and clipping the fender mounting brackets. With “all that” - the side wall was still getting turned into spaghetti.


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