[sti robot]

Current suspension setup:

29 mm whiteline sway front (adjustable)
24 mm whiteline in the back (adjustable)
tanabe gf210's (the 05 fitment)
stock top hats
strut bars (inconsequential...I know)

alignment
-1.5 /-1.4 front
-1.1 / -1.0 rear
0 toe all around (I've got to set that tomorrow)

Questions... The rear camber is a bit much right? With those sway settings the car will be a little rotatable but not tail happy right? What should happen if i a) change the rear camber and b) stiffen up the rear sway bar? Which has a bigger impact?

Oh, and the part that will screw me over completely...all season tires (I'll be running them for at least another couple of months.)

[mgsm666]

alignment #'s look good as is...i'm running similar numbers on a stock suspension with a set of falken rt615's:

-1.9 front
-1.1 rear

Your rear camber is perfect as is...don't mess with it. If you take out some of the rear camber, the car is going to be more prone to rotation. Also, if you stiffen up the rear sway bar, that will make the rotation MUCH WORSE!!

By stiffening the rear sway bar, your evening out the balance of the car through turns. Now while that improves the handling of the car (to a point) by reducing body roll, it also makes the car more prone to oversteer.

Especially on all seasons, i'd leave the bars in the middle setting, and then adjust depending on how you like it. The all seasons are really gonna be a killer, and a nice set of sticky tires will make a huge difference.

Hope that helped

~Jesse

[vandersti]

My Neutral set up with KW's

Your camber settings could go much more like -2.5 to-3.0. Now that would take camber plates, and depending on the camber plate that you use it could cause more + caster. Which isn't bad, but could skew your turn in. More caster can help your turn feed back, but you better have a good grip on the steering wheel. It will want to buck back and center to the road. This is just my advice, be aware that every car is different.

VAN

Edit I just noticed your on just springs, I would leave the camber where it is at.

[mgsm666]

^^ with that much neg. camber, the car will get very twitchy under hard braking...i'm very content with a little less than -2, and I daily drive my car, with weekend auto-x's.

~Jesse

[SmoothSTi]

Car isn't twitchy at all under hard breaking. I'm running -2.8 and it's a dream come true! This is at AutoX and the track.

[vandersti]

Originally Posted by SmoothSTi

Car isn't twitchy at all under hard breaking. I'm running -2.8 and it's a dream come true! This is at AutoX and the track.

Agreed.. Keeping the set up I have for now, but plan on hitting the -2.5 to -3.0 camber next season. My car is very neutral. Its hard to explain how it is right now, but it is good. More balancing to come.

VAN

[0000-09-0233]

Originally Posted by mgsm666

^^ with that much neg. camber, the car will get very twitchy under hard braking...i'm very content with a little less than -2, and I daily drive my car, with weekend auto-x's.

~Jesse

where do you get that twitchy thing??
you can be content with your set-up.. that's all that really matters.. if you are happy with it, great.. is it optimal.... to you yep... others.. nope.

to the OP, let me adjust your original post to reflect my settings.
Current suspension setup:

33 mm Strano sway front (custom spherical endlinks)
(may be replaced for the 29mm whiteline/Kartboy)
27 mm whiteline rear
Kart Boy Rear Endlinks
tanabe gf210's (the 05 fitment)
PDE front Camber plates
stock REAR top hats


alignment
-3.3 /-3.3 front Camber
4.6 / 5.1 Front Caster
-1.6 / -1.6 rear
0 front toe
~9/64" toe-out Rear.

Wheels (another important factor)
17x9's +45 using 245/40-17" R-S2's

all I can say is this set-up feels so great. so neutral with predicable oversteer at the limit...

to answer your question. no that isnt too much rear camber

a sorta rule of thumb is to consider having your rear camber set about 1/2 of your front.

If you can fine adjust your camber settings to get a good cross camber.. then leave it there.. although i'd suggest you just bite the bullet for some QUALITY camber plates now. before you have to pay for another alignment..


also note..
if you don't have rear camber bolts, you can loosen the rear strut bolts.. and jack up each rear hub...then re-tighten the strut bolts.. I've seen changed of a 10th of a degree using this method.


Chuck

[mgsm666]

twitchy because with that much neg camber, on tires with a stiff sidewall (like 070's), when you are going straight your basically riding on the corner of the sidewall, and thus, when you nail the brakes, the contact patch is so small and is so far onto the sidewall that the car will get very twitchy.

Just speaking from personal experience with other STi's...again though, a lot of this is personal preference, so you need to find a setting that your comfortable/happy with, and go with it.

Good luck!

~Jesse

[SubaruSTiMike]

OP how do you like the set up? I just bought a set of Tanabe GF210's (05), Cusco RSB 22-26mm, and will be getting a 27-29 FSB. This would be it for my suspension set up for now since I can't afford coilovers. What class do you run and how competitive are you? With these changes I am guessing you're running STU? How do you place? I wanted to do A-Stock but just couldn't afford R-Compounds/Wheels so I just wanted to set up my car so I can enjoy it on a daily basis. Do you find the car being out performed by other cars in that class?

[sti robot]

Originally Posted by SubaruSTiMike

OP how do you like the set up? I just bought a set of Tanabe GF210's (05), Cusco RSB 22-26mm, and will be getting a 27-29 FSB. This would be it for my suspension set up for now since I can't afford coilovers. What class do you run and how competitive are you? With these changes I am guessing you're running STU? How do you place? I wanted to do A-Stock but just couldn't afford R-Compounds/Wheels so I just wanted to set up my car so I can enjoy it on a daily basis. Do you find the car being out performed by other cars in that class?

I like the setup a lot. I didn't even notice the issue noted above in the previous (1) autocross before this one.

I run in a local club with no classing...but if I did SCCA it'd probably be STU. I usually place smack dab in middle of everyone. Other similar cars do not outperform my car...other drivers with similar cars do. For instance I've got a friend with a wagon with a similar setup and he runs consistently a second or two off my time. I think he's a better driver.