I did not want to hijack any of the existing threads so started yet another.
My car, new to me, is a 997.1 gt3.
The set up I inherited was designed to minimize street tire wear I believe. I thought it handled pretty well, but wanted a bit sharper set up for my first track day with the car on Friday.
Old set up
front sway middle hole, rear full stiff.
front camber1.3
caster 8.1
toe .27 total

rear camber -1.3
toe .53 total

new alignment. I asked for 2.6fr camber and 2.2 rear with 0 toe front and .16 rear.

Tech said that he did the most he could do w/o shims and a much bigger investment of time. I was suprised as the book calls for a track setup of -2 degrees fr and rear camber so I assumed that would be readily possible.
Is the tech wrong?

New alignment
front camber -1.8
caster 8.1
toe .02

rear camber -2.2
toe .23 total

I changed rear sway to middle setting as well.
Will try this for first day but would prefer more negative camber and am curious about the shims etc.

Car handles well, runs true and the rear is much more compliant on bad roads. Have yet to get her out towards the limit yet but certainly will at Thill on friday.

Glad to have comments from all the experieced 3 track guys about this setup. thanks.

 

ugh... what kind of tech did you have?
an RS has split control arm front and rear, so what that means is you can get ANY camber you want.

why doesn't he shim the arm? it's not that time consuming if he's remotely decent at all. for three hours, my has top rotated, shimmed and corner balanced.

though at 2.0, that's a lot of camber for street use, tires die fast.

btw, shimming is part of the alignment. if he doesn't shim or rotate to top, what is he aligning?

 

Depends on few things:

1- Are you looking for a compromise (street vs track) or the best set-up for the track ? That will eventually mean that you will need a trailer if you have a long drive to get to your local track.

2- On what tires will you track the car ? Slicks will require much more camber than R-compound tires.

3- Are you ready to make the effort to fine-tune the set-up (sway bar adjustments mostly) by taking not only the pressures but also the temperatures of the tires ? This can't be standard for every similar cars as it will depend a lot on how you drive it.

Your new aligment looks weird as normally you should have more camber on the front wheels than on the rear end.

 

thanks Mooty, I am new to this car and Porsche alignment set up in general and live in a rural area. The nearest pcar race shop is 100 miles away and i figured I could get a base line kind of alignment similar to the oem track set up and work from there. The tech is used to more common vehicles and I did not realize it would be as complicated as it is for someone who does not do track type set up very much.
Live and learn!

 

I was trying to get the set up suggested by GT3 Chuck in an earlier thread and the tech said that was as much camber as he could get in the front.
Next time will have to go to a better shop, but thats a whole day trip.

Do you think I should try and readjust rear camber or drive with it and then adjust accordingly???

 

I am not really a specialist but you should know if it works sooner than later. Check if the wear of your tires is good. That's the easiest way to see if the camber is right or not depending of what kind of usage you do with your car.

 

^^^^ What Mooty said.. your Car, plus rotate the uprights, plus shims = almost unlimited Camber.. PLUS:

If you want a more track oriented Car, go for -2.5 or -3.0 degrees camber up front and -2.0 to -2.5 in rear. The first thing with these Cars is to get the front end turning and gripping. Once you have your Camber set, you will find that you will have increased your caster angle to more than you want, so adjustable caster arms will be on your list. Go with 1/16th toe OUT in front to get the Car to turn quickly.. it will make the Car a tiny bit unstable in a straight line, but the trade-off is worth it (in my opinion).. I set my front sway bar to full soft.

In rear, you want some toe IN, around 1/32nd to 1/16th.. this helps stability under braking as the rear "spreads" under hard braking.. toe-in means that as the rear "spreads" the rear will actually end up straightening out.. Toe-out in rear = BAD!!.. viciously unstable under braking and cornering. Set your rear swaybar to second from full hard.. if you feel like you are oversteering still, soften the rear by one more hole.

What you should be aiming for is maximum grip up front, THEN adjust the rear to match that grip. If you start the rear at full hard on your swaybar, you are starting at MINIMUM grip in the rear.. then if you try to match the front to the rear, you are ending up with the minimum amount of grip available.

Make sure your ride height is correctly set, then as Mooty so wisely said, corner balance the Car with your weight in the driver's seat and 1/2 a tank of Gas..

You should be VERY happy with the results.

 

80schilling you only run 1/32 - 1/16 toe for rear? brave man!

river, i recall you are a sharkey's customers? if you go there next, have him make an appt for u with TC design such that you can wait for the car there. ignore the spec on the manual, just tell TC where you live and how you intend to drive the car. he will have it aligned right.

 

I like my rear end to steer quite fast, yet stay stable under braking.. 1/16th is the perfect balance for me, but then again, my Car is set up to be VERY fast in terms of how quick it steers.. I'm used to riding a Sport Bike that has the front end geometry of a 250cc GP bike and it steers so quickly that it scares the cr@p out of most people that ride it..

 

Mooty and Schilling, thank you both for the help. i think you are right, will take it TC. I may get some other suspension bits installed.

Went to thill today and first 3 sessions had some problems, especially with off camber grip at speed. Spun once on turn 3. At lunch changed rear sway to full soft and voila, the car came alive and everything became so much more fun!!
The car will always be a compromise as I just dont track enough to dedicate, but hopefully can get it set so each experience is fun and builds speed and confidence in the handling.
Years ago i had a sc'ed Viper that had great aftermarket suspension set up, brakes sucked but the car had awesome grip and could eat up corners with confidence. I would like to replicate that feeling of ease and "o holy crap, can we really do this!" feeling.
appreciate the help

 

TC and sharky both got a bunch of suspension bits: control arms, tow linx, upper control arms, monoball bearings etc....

i think once you drive a set up gt3, you will do a lot more track days

 

Thats what I am afraid of....Kaching$$#$!
I see a visit to the sharkster in my near future.

 

u should also pick up a set of track wheels.
CCW is bang for the bux
if you want perfect look, BBS, HRE, jongbloed are better, but also more $