Best Toe In/Out setting for 'go kart' driving + good tire wear?

[ants_oz]

Originally Posted by admranger

B/C you said

Um, no I didn't - I'd LOVE for you to show me where you allege I did. I would NEVER recommend toe out on a road vehicle.

[TiAgX5]

I have minimum tow all around, but still within BMW alignment spec.

Even with 255-285 19 tires, the hwy "on center" feel is light, steering is very responsive.

I'm not a typical SUV type driver, been to Barber & Bondurant driving schools and have over 100k DD miles in a 680 hp Viper (in rains every summer day FL, daily slides were expected).

[LVP]

For alignments, I now do dealer only. I also talk to the tech that is going to do it and give specific instructions.
- Front toe and camber to the minimum spec
- Rear camber to minimum spec
- Rear toe set to toe in as little as possible. This will be out of spec. He gets it. My tires now wear evenly.

[TiAgX5]

Even wear here too.

I should mention, the wife really liked the old alignment hwy dynamics of the X (she would regularly do 90+MPH and not be aware of the speed).

With the minimum toe setting, she tells me the hwy "on center" feel is too light and demands more attention at 70 then it used to at 90+.

If you have an operator who likes to check their phone while driving or drive distracted, I would NOT recommend min toe setting.

[bcredliner]

Good tire wear or better handling---pick one.

I like to maximize handling of anything I drive--it's just more fun. Here's what I did to improve handling and still have a reasonable ride on the street:

Dinan camber plates
H&R lowering kit
Ibach front and rear swaybars
Velocity 17mm spacer front and rear
Powerflex subframe bushings
Style 87 wheels-staggered
Dinan strut tower brace
struts and airbags are stock
front and rear bushings are stock
Continental contact extreme contact tires

Alignment specs are alway specific to the individual suspension setup and associated HP/TQ.

In general--Toe out is just less of where it becomes jittery in a straight line
Caster is within spec
Negative camber is slightly more than max spec.

Tires wear on the inside. With sticky tires I was getting 8-10 thousand on the rear and 12-15 thousand on the front. I expect to get significantly more with the Continental tires. Rollover did increase some but not that much. It still understeers but it is very predictive and manageable.

[TurnAround]

Hey, I wanted to get back to you guys on my results. Got the new tires put on Friday, plus the 4-wheel alignment.

We set the front Toe at .11 both sides. The fronts were at .15. They said factory spec range was .08 to .22. I had 'em head more towards neutral and went for .11.
We left the rears where they were, at .15.
There was also a camber issue on the driver's front; It was actually positive by quite a bit, and, has probably been that way since I bought the car, doh! They put in a camber bolt and pulled it back to -.08 I believe, which then matched the right side. The right rear camber was a tad bit too negative, so they brought that up to match the rear left.

The car handles fantastic. I love it. The steering is super light feeling. Like.. more that what you'd notice with new tires anyways. The initial turn-in is quicker, which is what I wanted (ala go kart), but its not so far as to be twitchy at all. At freeway speeds, it simply goes where you point it, and is eager to turn.. if you decide to turn. That's it. No wandering. Even my wife loves it. She just did a 90 minute trip up I-5 on Saturday.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm really glad I inquired, cuz it was totally worth tweaking it!

Oh, and I love these Goodyear Eagle F1 Asym All-Seasons. Highly recommend.

[TiAgX5]

Good to hear.

I'm going to find out how the alignment feels on the racetrack next week, before the Sebring 12 hr race.

Also the first road trip with new settings (almost 2500 miles round trip).