THSCC Forums

This one is for any of my fellow Subie owners. I'm installing some coilovers and camber plates on my 04 WRX. I'm looking for suggestions for alignment settings. I will be autocrossing (stx) mostly at non- Tarheel events due to my location. I'm looking for some good base settings that I can drive on everyday and then change to a more aggressive setting prior to an event. I've searched for hours on various sites and wound up more confused than ever and then it hit me that I was overlooking the expertise that we have in our own club. Any help would be appreciated.

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2003 Matrix XRS notaminivan
2004 Subaru WRX #38
2000 Rally Focus
2007 Honda NFR S2000

What spring rates?

What coilovers?

What tires?

What SIZE tires?

Gimmie some of that information, and how serious you are about a well setup autoX car, and I can get you close (to a neutral car) or one that I have driven .

For instance (on my STi of course):
- 550f/500r rates
- 245/45/17 Azenis
- -2.7/-1.5 camber
- 0/0 toe
- $texas caster

Older setup:
- 289f/219r
- -3.0f/0r
- 0/0 toe
- $texas castor

IFF you talk to Kevin Allen, he will inform you that he can p0wn all with some camber bolts and chicken wire

Let us know some more specifics, and I can help out more.

- dow

be sure to figure out how your toe will change as you mess w/ the camber before/after events and find a way to align/correct it yourself as needed..

After getting a 0-camber 'street' setup with a slamed camber + toe setup 'on track', I am more of a fan of a static setup that never changes. But hey, that is me (for now.. bwhahaha).

I and quite a other few guys ar efamiliar with changes in camber and how that affects toe. The best way to to go through your camber curve at the alignment shop so you can find a compromise setup that works for yourself... but there are a lot of factors to this.

We need more information, but I am sure we can get you to 'what works'.

- dow

Ps. I was running -3.9 degrees daily for a while, and oh yea, my tires have 25K on them and are still going with 2/32nds

Biggly is running about -2 and no toe (and all the caster he can get) on the street then slamming the camber to like -3.5 and letting the toe go out it's natural amount for auto-x. He likes both a lot. Like everyone says, camber doesn't wear out tires, toe does. Don't try to drive on the street very long with mega toe and still have tires left.

(This is with like -1 camber and about 0 toe on the rear)

(And with pretty high spring rates, I forget the exact rate but it's in the 350+ range on both ends, more on the front. Big but not Strano mongo bars.)

--Kevin H.

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2003 WRX (again!)

That was fast. I knew that I needed to list some more info but I didn't want my post to get too long.
Coilovers- Megan Racing ( I was really surprised at the apparent quality for the price )
Spring rates are listed at 8kg front and 6 kg rear
Tires Hankook rs212's 225/45-17's
front camber plates
whiteline front sway bar- I believe it's 20 or 22 mm
whiteline rsb adj 22/24/26 mm
front endlinks Perrin
rear endlinks whiteline
I'm looking for a pretty aggresive STX setup. I like to keep daily tire wear to a minimum.Again any help will be appreciated.

Vern

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2003 Matrix XRS notaminivan
2004 Subaru WRX #38
2000 Rally Focus
2007 Honda NFR S2000

good to hear that working out for ya, brian. i'm running -3fr/-2rear with zero front toe and 1/16th toe in in the rear and i'm leaving it alone. i'm hoping it will wear reasonably w/ my toe settings. i dont want to mess w/ that crap any more than i have to either

After reading some of the replies, a setup that does double duty sounds appealing. I kind of like the idea of set it and forget it.

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2003 Matrix XRS notaminivan
2004 Subaru WRX #38
2000 Rally Focus
2007 Honda NFR S2000

The best thing you could do for your set up is get rid of the kook's. They suck and then suck some more. If you are stuck with the kook's for a while they like lots of camber and lower pressures. They have soft side walls but don't respond well to higher pressures. Start with 32-34psi and -3 degrees camber in the front and adust the rear camber to how you like your car to rotate.

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Silver Honda
Green Ford
Blue/White Suzuki
Red Triumph
Grey BMW

"Never let life be shaped by fear of its end"

No, you're a towel!

I haven't paid anybody to do an alignment in a few years, so I don't know the exact numbers...

but on my WRX wagon, I set the camber at around -2.5° in front & stock in rear. added camber bolts to the front to get more than stock adjustment - all I did was turn the stock bolts and the added bolts all the way negative, then push on the top of the brake rotor and tighten the nuts. Set the toe at zero, done.

Same thing on both RSes that I ran in STS, and on the STi now.

Seems to work, regardless of Ms. Herring's comments. Results haven't been too bad, and current tires (Falken Azenis RT615) are worn pretty evenly after a year and a half of not much daily driving (maybe 10k miles?) and a bunch of autoxes. Rotated regularly, as well as based on what the course setup looks like (lots of left turns = deepest tread/best shoulder on right front)

And if you really want an agressive STX setup, you need much stiffer rear springs than you currently have to make it rotate. I had 350/400 on the RS and its balance was just right, but slightly too soft all around. Didn't want to go stiffer because I didn't want to hate driving it when I wasn't on an autox course.

The WRX wagon had STi pink springs and Konis, and 22mm front/22mm rear bars. Lots of body roll and massive understeer, but with jerky throttle and steering inputs (think rallyx) it did ok.

Marcus. I know you don't like your 'kooks but damn. I think they are a very good tire and an excellent value for the money. Nothing short of an r-comp will have the sidewall stiffness of the RE070s. I have my shaved 'kooks that get put on my WRX for autocross. I will be running stock shocks with STi springs and 26mm front Whiteline bar and 24mm rear Whiteline bar with MRT front camber plates. I am thinking -3 degrees camber front, -1.7 rear with zero toe all the way around.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

Oh, something that has NOT been mentioned is the fact that the RS/WRX setup is slightly different from the STI setup since the WRX/RS do not have a front limited slip. As a result, when you start approaching high spring rates, most 'quick' WRX drivers (or the standard Hoppe-rip setup) was running more rate IN THE REAR than in the front. This is generally a direct switch from what an STi driver would run:

Ex:: My STi == 10kf/8kr Tein Flex setup
WRX Setup == 8kf/10kr Tein flex (for good balance).

That is purely for a balance aspect. I still think running a BIG [edit] front bar will help with inside wheel lift and MacPherson camber loss issues on our cars (FYI -- my FSB is 32mm).

So, with what you currently are running, I am betting that the setup feels slightly pushy. You seem to be counter acting this with a big RSB, but I bet the break away balance would feel better with a 6kf/8kr (as Hackaroo #1 stated) with a bigger FSB and some aggressive front camber to counteract some of the sidewall flex the kooks have (and they generally like to have more camber on the WRXes). I dont know if the spring length on the Megans are the same so a spring change can happen or not, but I am betting you could 'try' it like that (although the rear spring is generally A LOT tallter than the rear). Changing that setup would allow you to run A LOT less rear bar with the car giving away more neutrally intransistion... you can adjust rear bar as needed, but I am sure you would be on the small side of the bar then.

With that said, I am not the WRX-setup expert. I would talk to ol' Tommy boy, or Kevin Allen as they both have a lot of wrench time in with non-front LSD Subarus, and I think they could get your setup a little more neutral without having to use a huge rear bar.

Personally, once I have upped my rates to get rid of the rear bar depedancy, my car has felt MUCH better. The only think I have considered doing is running less front bar now, which I need to check and see with the TnT day coming up.

Of course, you could just buy and STi, and 'dial the hack out'. ;D

- dow

Buying an STi would be dialing in the hack, not dialing it out!

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Rich
http://www.v8mongrel.com/

No no no. It's got 'da knob! You can dial it all right out of there!

Of course, I like to leave mine set to 'full hack'.

It seems to work quite well like that.

- dow

Yes, yes, yes. More LSDs and traction gizmos = less driver = more hack!

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Rich
http://www.v8mongrel.com/