RE: Performance Alignments

["Lin, Gary" <Gary.Lin@wang.com>]

> After recently installing the Neuspeed adjustable Koni's with the
> Neuspeed
> Sport lowering springs, I had my geometry re-aligned to the specs
> listed
> out on Neuspeed's instructions (if you can call them that).  The guy
> who
> did the alignment gave me a REAL hard time about the specs I
> requested,
> saying, "I've been doing this for 10 years, let me do it the right
> way."
> Well, this is similar to brushing the coat of the cat the opposite way
> with
> me, and I got real irritated. I proceeded to inform him that Neuspeed
> has
> spent countless dollars and hours testing these settings, and this was
> what
> they found to be the best compromise for performance and tire
> longevity.
> He still didn't appear to be to excited about doing it my way. He also
> didn't want to put toe out into it.  Honestly, I come from a
> rear-drive
> past, in racing and street, and toe-out, in my experience, causes each
> of
> the front tires to wander in different directions. My interpretation
> of the
> need for toe-out was to compensate for play in the front-end
> components to
> allow the front wheels to be straight under acceleration. I do not
> have any
> idea why a front-drive system would need toe-out.
> 
> I so far haven't seen anyone other than a race shop or perf shop who
> understands anything about performance alignments.  I have gotten
> responses just like that above, "No, no, you want toe in on a front
> drive for least wear."  Yeah, if I drive like Grandma.  Unh, unh.
> 
> Front toe out (looking from above, forward tire edges pointed away
> from each other) does cause the straight wandering, but helps turn in
> because the inside tire will be cranked over farther than the outside
> one when the wheel is turned, good for autocross or sharp steering.
> Front toe in causes each side's wander to be forced together, end
> result is no wander, but slower steering.  Rear toe usually 0 or in,
> so the rear end follows front.  Rear toe out will make rear end swing
> out like in an oversteer situation because the outside rear tire is
> trying to follow the arc created by the toe angle.  Picture a hook and
> ladder truck and what the steering inputs of the rear driver will
> cause the rear end to do.  The books say front drivers' should have
> front toe out because the torque of acceleration will cause the wheels
> to 'crawl' together around the mounting axis towards straight.
> 
> What does the car do?  Well, around town, it tracks better than it
> ever did
> from the factory... straight as an arrow.  On the expressway, above
> 80, it
> pulls hard to the left.  Also, there is a pronounced tourque-steer,
> more
> than ever at the beginning of a hard punch of the loud pedal. This is
> really nothing more than irritating only if I'm trying to drive with
> one
> hand. The obvious solution is to take it back and make them do it over
> again, but can it be any closer than it already is?  I have heard that
> our
> cars are not usually aligned sharp anyway.
> 
The torque steer now is stronger due to the above mentioned toe out
pointing the front wheels apart.  I would stick with what you have as
settings for best handling.  Caster will also cause a pull or drift on
coasting.

Gary Lin