Eric Wrote (edited):
Being only a wannabe racer in a wannabe racecar my thoughts were that
negative-camber A-arms etc were further down the track in my car
development and that they would not be the right thing to do for a car
that is driven daily (mostly). I thought tipping the tyres out like
that would promote wear on one side of the tyre.
Now it looks like that small investment would have saved me $400 in
tyres. See, I am one of those that learns by being beaten over the head
(and wallet) as many of my little stories illustrate. There must be a
race-boy class I can take at night school somewhere, surely!?
Now my question... how much camber do I want? How much camber do I
need? How do I find out how much camber I want/need?
-------------->
Eric,
I'm pretty much at the same point you are. I just mounted race tires for
the first time last week. There isn't really anything you can do with a B
for camber other than the slightly longer lower control arms. There, of
course, is nothing to be done on the live rear axel (save a Jag rear end
conversion). Camber on most other cars is adjustable, so the guys I race
with tend to dial up extra negative camber. One typical way of evaluating
camber adjustment and tire inflation is to take temperature readings on the
surface of the tread. Adjustments can be made at the track between laps or
back at the shop. Another method is to use chalk on the edges of the tread
and thereby evaluate how much the tire rolls over in tight turns. I have
concentrated on tire pressure on my B-GT because that is all there is to
adjust! From your experience, I can see how negative A-arms are not just
another mod, but perhaps necessary on any B with race tires, so perhaps I
should be looking into that now - and not later.
You may not have wasted 400 bucks, but rather a little less, because you did
get some portion of the tires' lifespan out of them. Small consolation
perhaps, but that is the industry means of evaluating a tire's wear
performance.
Dean
'74 B-GT - Autocrosser
15x7" Panasports with 205/50/15 Kumho V700 R Compounds
No fender mods!
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