Track Alignment / Camber Arms

[krisk]

I’ve read threads in several forums regarding track alignments for the S550 and S650, but I still am looking for some input for my situation. I am hoping some people with much more experience than me can help me out.

Here's some background. I have a 24 GT PP with MagneRide, and I've added several Steeda suspension components including progressive lowering springs, adjustable sway bars and front camber plates. I am new to tracking my car, and I have only taken my car to The FIRM in Starke, Florida. That is where I plan to track my car 90% of the time. Jamie with Steeda in Valdosta, GA did my alignment a couple months back after my first track day, a copy of which I have attached. He did say he didn't set the specs too aggressive since I would also be driving my car on the street. I don't daily drive my car, but I do put a few thousand miles a year on it just driving around, so I don't want to run an aggressive track alignment on the street. I have since purchased the Longacre digital caster camber gauge kit to enable me to adjust the alignment from track to street use, so I don’t have to worry about being conservative on the track alignment just so it’s ok for the street.

My question concerns what the ideal alignment for my setup would be for running at The FIRM. The front camber is no big deal to adjust since I have the camber plates, but I don't have any camber arm installed in the rear. I know camber in the rear can be adjusted from the factory, but I understand it is a real pain to do and is limited to round -2.0. The second part of my question is whether I should add rear camber arms, and if so, what are people's recommendations for brands? I've looked at Steeda (which seems to be the most expensive), MMR and AAD. I like the AAD design because it looks like it would be easiest to switch between track and street specs once I got everything dialed in.

I appreciate any input those with track experience can provide.

Sponsored

 

[JAL]

I’ve read threads in several forums regarding track alignments for the S550 and S650, but I still am looking for some input for my situation. I am hoping some people with much more experience than me can help me out.

Here's some background. I have a 24 GT PP with MagneRide, and I've added several Steeda suspension components including progressive lowering springs, adjustable sway bars and front camber plates. I am new to tracking my car, and I have only taken my car to The FIRM in Starke, Florida. That is where I plan to track my car 90% of the time. Jamie with Steeda in Valdosta, GA did my alignment a couple months back after my first track day, a copy of which I have attached. He did say he didn't set the specs too aggressive since I would also be driving my car on the street. I don't daily drive my car, but I do put a few thousand miles a year on it just driving around, so I don't want to run an aggressive track alignment on the street. I have since purchased the Longacre digital caster camber gauge kit to enable me to adjust the alignment from track to street use, so I don’t have to worry about being conservative on the track alignment just so it’s ok for the street.

My question concerns what the ideal alignment for my setup would be for running at The FIRM. The front camber is no big deal to adjust since I have the camber plates, but I don't have any camber arm installed in the rear. I know camber in the rear can be adjusted from the factory, but I understand it is a real pain to do and is limited to round -2.0. The second part of my question is whether I should add rear camber arms, and if so, what are people's recommendations for brands? I've looked at Steeda (which seems to be the most expensive), MMR and AAD. I like the AAD design because it looks like it would be easiest to switch between track and street specs once I got everything dialed in.

I appreciate any input those with track experience can provide.

This looks pretty ideal to me with street tires (up to, say, 200TW compounds)
I use the same specs, except I have zero toe out in the front and 2 degrees of camber in the back (with stock camber arms).
I drive to and from the track with this alignment and have been doing this for years with no uneven wear.
Of you go to trackmustangsonline.com you will find that this setup is the consensus for our cars.
What is desirable is more front camber, especially as you become better on the track. 3.5 degrees and I see 4 degrees camber up front, + max caster, zero or very slight toe out (wears tires fast but improves driveability/stability).
Your rear looks good to me.
The way to get more camber up front (beyond what camber plates alone will give you) is with SPL adjustable control arms, or by enlarging the hole in the strut tower or both.
I assume you have maxed out the tire width on the car with 305 wide tires all around? It's possible to get wider but this width is the typical go to solution for track Mustangs, unless competing in series that have tire restrictions.

 

[krisk]

This looks pretty ideal to me with street tires (up to, say, 200TW compounds)
I use the same specs, except I have zero toe out in the front and 2 degrees of camber in the back (with stock camber arms).
I drive to and from the track with this alignment and have been doing this for years with no uneven wear.
Of you go to trackmustangsonline.com you will find that this setup is the consensus for our cars.
What is desirable is more front camber, especially as you become better on the track. 3.5 degrees and I see 4 degrees camber up front, + max caster, zero or very slight toe out (wears tires fast but improves driveability/stability).
Your rear looks good to me.
The way to get more camber up front (beyond what camber plates alone will give you) is with SPL adjustable control arms, or by enlarging the hole in the strut tower or both.
I assume you have maxed out the tire width on the car with 305 wide tires all around? It's possible to get wider but this width is the typical go to solution for track Mustangs, unless competing in series that have tire restrictions.

Thank you for the reply and information. What you have said lines up with what I seem to be finding in my research in that these settings are fine, but nearer the lower side of negative camber front and rear.

I think I can probably get the front to around a -3.0 camber, but what I wasn’t sure about if it would be a good idea to increase the negative camber in the front if I didn’t also in the back. From what I’ve been reading it sounds like keeping the rear within 1-1.5 degrees is usually what is done.

I’m running the Continental ExtremeContact Sport 02 with 295/35r19 rear on 19x11 and 275/35r19 front on 19x10. When I bought the wheels I wasn’t thinking about using them on the track, so I may buy another set of 19x11 for the front and run them with a spacer. I would like to run a square setup just for the ability to rotate the tires. I went with 295/35 because the 305/35 are limited in selection and from reading it sounds as though using the widest possible wheel for the tire improves handling on the track.

Again, thanks for the input and I welcome any other suggestions. I’m still unsure of whether I should look to increase the front and rear negative camber at this point or just stick with these settings until I have some more experience.

Also, I just signed up for a track day at Atlanta Motorsports Park for next month, so it will be a new track experience for me.

 

[JAL]

Yes, if you track the car a lot, 4 identical wheels with the same offset and a slide on spacer up front, GT4 studs to enable sufficient thread engagement (OP Mustang has them) and you're good to go. I wouldn't change the alignment before your first track day.
For part of my first season I used bolt-on spacers, but the track folks convinced me to get the proper studs and a slide on spacer for safety reasons.

 

[krisk]

Yes, if you track the car a lot, 4 identical wheels with the same offset and a slide on spacer up front, GT4 studs to enable sufficient thread engagement (OP Mustang has them) and you're good to go. I wouldn't change the alignment before your first track day.
For part of my first season I used bolt-on spacers, but the track folks convinced me to get the proper studs and a slide on spacer for safety reasons.

Thank you!

 

[Junkyard Dog]

Yes, if you track the car a lot, 4 identical wheels with the same offset and a slide on spacer up front, GT4 studs to enable sufficient thread engagement (OP Mustang has them) and you're good to go. I wouldn't change the alignment before your first track day.
For part of my first season I used bolt-on spacers, but the track folks convinced me to get the proper studs and a slide on spacer for safety reasons.

I have done only one track day, but I noticed the "melting" look (for lack of a better term) was on the outside 3-4 inches or so of the tread of my Trofeo RS tires.

My alignment is as Ford set it at the factory.

This is also a transportation car. I drive it to the gym, and sometimes to work. I took my wife out to dinner in it on Saturday. This will never be a trailered track only car.

Do regular track goers have a compromise alignment setting that they use on the track and the street both, or is it better to set the alignment for the track and then again for the street.

I am south of Atlanta, and I do not know of any track specialist type shops that could set the alignment. In addition, all of the tracks are a good distance from me - e.g, Michelin Road Atlanta is almost 100 miles from my driveway.

Also, how much difference does an alignment make for the track? I have no experience with this stuff.

 

[MustangNoob]

Stupid question, but how do you guys adjust your camber plates prior to the event ? and do you need to do alignment? How easy is to set it up back to the street configuration ? and if do you need to re-align again ?
(If alignment is needed every time you adjust the camber via the adjustable plate, that kinda defeats its purpose ?)

 

[Junkyard Dog]

Stupid question, but how do you guys adjust your camber plates prior to the event ? and do you need to do alignment? How easy is to set it up back to the street configuration ? and if do you need to re-align again ?
(If alignment is needed every time you adjust the camber via the adjustable plate, that kinda defeats its purpose ?)

It is not a stupid question at all. I can't answer you, though. I did not adjust anything. I just hit the send button, and away I went, stock camber and all.

 

[RLE55]

Stupid question, but how do you guys adjust your camber plates prior to the event ? and do you need to do alignment? How easy is to set it up back to the street configuration ? and if do you need to re-align again ?
(If alignment is needed every time you adjust the camber via the adjustable plate, that kinda defeats its purpose ?)

When I got serious about road racing (back in 2012), I invested in M&M Camber Plates and Longacre Digital C/C Gauge w AccuLevel™ and Quick Set™ Adapter. This made setting the Camber sooo easy. I pretty much ran -3* camber up front and had the rears set at -1* (done by race shop). Depending on what track I was at, I'd make adjustments as needed (-2 or -3).
Didn't mess with alignment except once a year (before race season began) or as needed depending on over abusing car at events, i,e. hitting curbs a lot, going off track etc.
With the Camber plates and adjustment tool, switching back to road setting is very easy.
https://longacreracing.com/products...32507&pr_ref_pid=7379075498043&pr_seq=uniform
https://www.maximummotorsports.com/Mustang-Caster-Camber-Plates-2015-24-P1480.aspx

 

[MustangNoob]

@RLE55 Thanks. I have the steeda for the front and rear, but never played with them. I guess when I become for familiar with tracking the car and build more confidence I will start adjusting them.

 

[krisk]

Stupid question, but how do you guys adjust your camber plates prior to the event ? and do you need to do alignment? How easy is to set it up back to the street configuration ? and if do you need to re-align again ?
(If alignment is needed every time you adjust the camber via the adjustable plate, that kinda defeats its purpose ?)

As @RLE55 said, you can set the camber yourself fairly easily is you have a measuring device. I also use the Longacre Digital one linked in his post.

The catch is adjusting the camber will also affect toe. In the front it isn’t a major change and you can probably get by making a street to track adjustment such as -1.5 to -3.0 without causing too much of a change in toe. Unfortunately, I have not measured the change in toe due to camber change up front on my car as I’ve had the front dialed in for track and leave it alone. The rear is a different story. I’ve measured the change, and on my car a .1 degree camber change causes .04 degrees of toe change. (More negative camber increases tow in,). So, just a -1.3 to -1.8 camber adjustment will increase toe in by .2. Also, on my car a .1 degree adjustment to increase toe in adds .1 degree of positive camber. This wasn’t an issue prior to the S550 because the rear was a solid axle, not IRS.

My suggestion would be to run around a -1.3 camber in the rear for both track and street and get the rear toe dialed in for that camber. -1.3 is a reasonable setting for both. The rear is a pain to adjust and get dialed in. However, in the front you’ll definitely notice a difference in a street to track camber setting when running on the track, so I would say it’s worth the adjustment. Adjusting front camber is easy if you have camber plates.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

This wasn’t an issue prior to the S550 because the rear was a solid axle, not IRS.

Well, it was not an issue because the read camber could not be changed without bending the axle housing,

I have not measured the change in toe due to camber change up front on my car as I’ve had the front dialed in for track and leave it alone

What front camber setting did you decide upon?

 

[krisk]

What front camber setting did you decide upon?

I’m running -3.3.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

My suggestion would be to run around a -1.3 camber in the rear for both track and street and get the rear toe dialed in for that camber. -1.3 is a reasonable setting for both. The rear is a pain to adjust and get dialed in. However, in the front you’ll definitely notice a difference in a street to track camber setting when running on the track, so I would say it’s worth the adjustment. Adjusting front camber is easy if you have camber plates.

It looks like Ford recommends 1.5° on the non-performance pack and performance pack models both with and without MagneRide for rear camber, plus or minus 0.75°, unless you have the Dark Horse with the handling package, in which case with those massive Pirelli Trofeo RS tires they recommend only 1.14° for some reason.

https://www.mustang7g.com/forums/threads/dark-horse-hp-alignment-settings.158854/

 

[krisk]

It looks like Ford recommends 1.5° on the non-performance pack and performance pack models both with and without MagneRide for rear camber, plus or minus 0.75°, unless you have the Dark Horse with the handling package, in which case with those massive Pirelli Trofeo RS tires they recommend only 1.14° for some reason.

https://www.mustang7g.com/forums/threads/dark-horse-hp-alignment-settings.158854/

I’m running -1.8 in the rear for the track.

Sponsored