Agressive alignment

[aharres]

What is everyone's alignment settings on their car?

Mine is essentially -0.5* camber and 0* toe up front, and -1* camber and 0 toe in the rear.

I was curious if anyone else has experimented with toe out in the rear.

[Stefan Mohammed]

When autocrossing my 850 I did -1.25* camber & 0.40* total toe out in the front and 0.25* toe-in in the rear (mainly because my deltalink bushings were shot in the rear and putting the static toe a bit inwards significantly helped the car from spontaneously rotating). That much negative camber up-front is great for track days but definitely wears out the tires quickly with daily use. The toe out in the front makes the front-end much more sensitive to small bumps in the road and the car wanders much more at higher straight line speeds... but it definitely makes turn-in in a tight autocross track much better. 

If your deltalink bushings are worn, adding some toe-in to the rear helps with how predictably the car handles. Adding toe-out in the rear (with good condition bushings of course) will make the rear want to rotate much faster than it normally would... which can be fun in autocross. For daily use though, 0* toe in the back is perfectly fine imo once your deltalink bushes are good. 

[aharres]

I replaced my delta link bushings in my garage about 2 months ago using oem parts. Took me almost a week and I had to ride with my friend to school haha. When I took it to get it aligned afterwards, the guy said the rear is already good. 0.06* in on the left, and 0.01* out on the right.

[JoshV70]

Are you tracking the car or just daily driving?  If you want, try toe-out 4mm front and 2mm rear overall.  Additional camber up front is always beneficial, too.

[Tightmopedman9]

I'm running `-1.5º camber front, -2.5º camber rear. .17º toe out front (stock setting) and 6.5º castor front. 

I found the large amount of positive castor helped a lot. I kept the toe stock to minimize tire wear. I do not track the car, but the handling in the mountains is quite good. 

I'm considering 1º toe in on the rear to help get the back to come around a bit more, but it's already fairly neutral (AWD suspension)

[andyb5]

George (zappo) is running something like -3* camber up front for autocross.  I can't find his post about modifying his D2 coils to increase negative camber. Hopefully he'll chime in here.

Aaron, I'm assuming that most of your increase in positive caster came from adjusting the Kaplhenke strut mounts, and not by modifying the control arm?  I definitely want to increase the amount of positive caster, but my strut mounts aren't caster/camber adjustable. 

[Zappo]

Nah, not quite that high.  I run -1.5 on the street and -2 to -2.2 for autocross.  I could go more, but with my current tire setup, I am already having rubbing issues at full lock.

I did mod the lower mounting point on the coilovers to allow more camber than just the upper plates will allow.  I don't have castor adjustment, and just a slight amount of toe-in.  

[aharres]

Are you tracking the car or just daily driving?  If you want, try toe-out 4mm front and 2mm rear overall.  Additional camber up front is always beneficial, too.

This is my daily driver. I don't want to sacrifice tire wear for improved performance, but I would like to make some tweaks to improve turn-in and make the car more neutral.

 

I'm putting in my eibach springs next week, and I currently have koni oranges up front, bilstein hd's in the rear, ipd overload springs in the rear, new delta link bushings, poly control arm bushings, delrin subframe bushings, and a strut tower brace.

 

Are the kalphenke spherical control arm bushings a worthwhile upgrade over the polyurethane? How much caster would you gain with that?

[ErikS]

I have -1.5 in the front, street use on KWV2's.

[Speedy!]

This is my daily driver. I don't want to sacrifice tire wear for improved performance, but I would like to make some tweaks to improve turn-in and make the car more neutral.

 

I'm putting in my eibach springs next week, and I currently have koni oranges up front, bilstein hd's in the rear, ipd overload springs in the rear, new delta link bushings, poly control arm bushings, delrin subframe bushings, and a strut tower brace.

 

Are the kalphenke spherical control arm bushings a worthwhile upgrade over the polyurethane? How much caster would you gain with that?

Any more aggressive alignments are going to reduce tire wear and fuel economy.  Volvo set the baseline for optimal wear, economy, road crown, and loads you'll be placing on your car day to day. 

If you're not tracking or competitively  auto crossing your car, I would stay away from the more expensive bushings and stay factory. You add a lot more noise, vibration and harshness with you start swapping to poly, and this is x 100 when you go to solid mounts. 

If you have to play around with alignment, this is what I'd do. Get all your new parts on you want. Take it in to a good shop and have them do a baseline alignment. Go out and drive it and see how it feels. If you want a "little quicker turn in" at home you can change the front toe. 

1) Jack the car up. Measure the length of the front tie rod threads that are exposed left and right, and write it down. This is your base. 

2) Toe out, Shorten the length, toe in, do the opposite. Make small adjustments, equally left and right, and write down the change you make and go out and drive it. Each change, write down your driving impression. I'd stick with front toe changes at first because this will make the most noticeable change in handling. Once you feel happy with the way the car turns in, take it back to the alignment shop and get the new measurements. Congrats, you are now a race engineer . 

Some easily digestible information can be found here. 

http://www.rapid-racer.com/suspension-tuning.php

 

 

​

[aharres]

Any more aggressive alignments are going to reduce tire wear and fuel economy.  Volvo set the baseline for optimal wear, economy, road crown, and loads you'll be placing on your car day to day. 

If you're not tracking or competitively  auto crossing your car, I would stay away from the more expensive bushings and stay factory. You add a lot more noise, vibration and harshness with you start swapping to poly, and this is x 100 when you go to solid mounts. 

If you have to play around with alignment, this is what I'd do. Get all your new parts on you want. Take it in to a good shop and have them do a baseline alignment. Go out and drive it and see how it feels. If you want a "little quicker turn in" at home you can change the front toe. 

1) Jack the car up. Measure the length of the front tie rod threads that are exposed left and right, and write it down. This is your base. 

2) Toe out, Shorten the length, toe in, do the opposite. Make small adjustments, equally left and right, and write down the change you make and go out and drive it. Each change, write down your driving impression. I'd stick with front toe changes at first because this will make the most noticeable change in handling. Once you feel happy with the way the car turns in, take it back to the alignment shop and get the new measurements. Congrats, you are now a race engineer . 

Some easily digestible information can be found here. 

http://www.rapid-racer.com/suspension-tuning.php

 

 

That was a great read. Thank you.