THSCC Forums

Can any of the current or previous CRX owners in the club give me an idea on alignment settings? The car will be run on 205/50/15 RT615 Azensis for the first half of the season.

I was thinking just start out with the toe set to zero on both ends and work from there. What about camber settings? I really have no idea for a CRX? I would assume somewhere between 2-3 degrees up front and 1.5-2.5 in the back?

Do you feel the car is too ass happy? If so I might would add a smidge of toe in. Is yours an 88?

Your camber is a good starting point. Most basically lower it as far as you can without rubbing and whatever camber they get, they get. Should be between 2-3°

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

The car is an 89. It definately isn't ass happy as it stands now. I would describe it as fairly neutral. I imagine more experienced Honda drivers would actually like the car a lot looser than we have it setup right now. We do have slightly higher rate springs in the rear, but the rear sway bar isn't nearly as big as say a 22mm ST bar. I think the rear bar is from a GSR Integra (16mm)? I would have to ask Dave to be sure.

I kind of figured the camber would be a lower it and take what you get kind of thing.

Thanks for the input.

Zero toe should be fine.

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

While on the topic of alignment is there anywhere that can do a custom alignment on the CRX on short notice? Preferably in North Raleigh area?

The shop I took my Corvette to last summer, while happy to do custom alignments on Corvettes, won't do it for the CRX.

hey Chris, try world class auto 876-8011 they are on tarheel dr. don't know if they do japanese. they have a garage full of german iron.

Depends on what you want to do with the car. If its for autox only (not track) and you want it to turn in a bit more then try some toe OUT in back. Be careful here, it REALLY will loosen up that end of the car. And it will be kind of a hand full under hard braking. For track, zero all the way around or perhaps a total toe out of 1/32 in back will work. Have you tried disconnecting the front sway bar to get it to understeer less?

As for camber, unless you put in some camber bolts you get what you get. I think its more important to get the cross corner weights as close to equal as possible. Ride height will be what it takes to do that and camber will be what ever that gives you.


Good luck.

Ron

Ron/Ryan thanks for the feedback. I found someone to take care of the alignment for me. I am just going to start out with the toe set to zero and go from there. Truthfully I really need to get some decent seat time in the car to find out what I want to do with it. I only got to autox it twice last year and at the last event the rotor button flew off because the screw holding it in backed out. Missed a good deal of the afternoon runs sorting that out.

Steve I think I know the shop you are referring to. I pass it everyday heading into work. I don't think I ever recall seeing anything but MB and BMW's at that place. Emmett was in a pinch and had those folks do an oil change on his 328is once. Ask him about it....HAHAHA

Ummm, handful is an understatement. I do think it can help, but it can be a big sledge hammer to get the car to rotate and it WILL catch you out.



I agree with Ryan. IMHO, I can't recommend starting out with any rear toe out. My car has actually been set up like that for a few years. As I started to drive better and go faster, I found I was unable to trust the car at the limit. Year before last, I think I spun at least once at each event. I had at least one spin that I still can't explain (or at least I can't believe it spun as quickly as it did based upon what I was doing).

But last year, I changed the rear to zero toe and it was a totally new car. I could trust it and was able to push the envelope in ways I couldn't before.

I don't know what class you are running in, but if you are talking about lowering the car to achieve camber, I assume some type of ST* or *SP class. I am sure someone can give you the hot setup for a CRX (paging Jim F.), but my 2 cents is to do the following in this order...

1. Lower to get what camber you can.
2. Corner balance the car if you can.
3. Zero toe all around
4. Rear sway bar ?? (I have no clue what size bar works on a CRX)
5. Consider adding some front toe out after driving it a bit
6. Don't touch the rear toe until you really know the car well

Spring selection (including front/rear ratio) and shock settings are also going to factor into this. But I am assuming that you already have this in place.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

As one of three that will be driving this car this weekend I will make a prediction/guarantee.

The car will be spun more than once.

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Emmett

Chevrolet Cobalt SS

In car video?

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1993 VW Corrado VR6 - DSP15 (RIP)
1986 MB 190E 2.3L 16v - STX (SOLD)
1997 BMW M3 3.2L - BS for now

I totally agree with what Ryan posted. Your final alignment settings should be based on your suspension setup and without knowing that, it's hard to get into too much detail.

As far as toe, I would definitely stay far away from any rear toe out. While that may work on a track, auto-x has way too many fast transitions into hard braking zones for that to work consistently. I use ~1/16" toe in for the rear to get a little stability under braking but I do have an inherently twitchy '88. I'd leave rear toe out to stock cars and places where you are guaranteed to have long straight braking zones. Another trick I've found that really helps braking stability is to run the front ~1/4"-1/2" higher than the rear. It probably causes a bit more wheel spin but the extra confidence you get in curved braking zones more than makes up for it.

I also use ~1/8" toe out in the front which definitely helps the transitional quickness. The toe out in the front hasn't done my street tires any favors as far as wear goes but I hate crawling under the car and changing things.

As the others said, drop the car as far as you can and that will give you all the camber you need. I use rear camber to adjust steady-state cornering/rotation. If your spring rates and sway bars are reasonably well matched, you can use washers on the rear upper control arm to lose negative camber which will help with rotation.

I'm a big believer in getting as much rear bar along with as little front bar on the car as you can. I tried the car with no front bar but didn't like it. It may work well on a track but in an environment with fast transitions, it will make the car very sloppy. The big rear bar will virtually neutralize wheel spin which is also key to eeking out that last bit of time. That’s of course assuming it is actually connected…

I think Richard had a very good point in his last post. Whatever you do, make the car comfortable and easy to drive. If that means it is a little pushy at first, so be it. Learn to deal with it that way and gradually loosen it up until you can't stand it anymore-- then back it up one notch. Even after a year of fiddling with my car, I'm still not at the point to where I feel like I've gotten the most out of the suspension. I keep finding little tweaks that make the car faster and I'm still learning to deal with the dynamics of a FWD car.

Jim

Chris, the rear sway bar is a 14mm. I definitely wouldn't consider the car tail happy. There was one auto-x last year that I had a big problem with the rear coming out under braking but it didn't happen that often at other locations (I want to say it was Sanford but I don't recall). If you're on it fully on the back sweeper this weekend, you'll probably notice the rear coming out slightly but not enough to be an issue unless you tap the brakes. Then again, that depends on how you set it up. I told you before I wasn't happy with the adjustments on the AGX so I typically ran them full stiff in the rear and on 1 or 2 in the front trying to get more rotation. Anyway, wanted to answer that question for you. Looking forward to seeing the car in action again this weekend. Gonna be strange watching it instead of driving it though. See you down there.