I saw this article [ link at bottom ], I'd like to learn about this -
possible class at the Denver Expo?
possible class at the Denver Expo?
Going Faster For Free
How Real Racers Align A Car
There’s one major difference between tuner cars and true race cars; what makes them faster on track is the setup and testing. Ironically, the setup portion is something that can be done almost for free by just about anyone. Instead of sending our NSX off to some fancy and expensive alignment shop, we decided to spend a long evening with Dan Garder and John McNulty from Scion’s defending national champion, factory-backed road racing team to get a real race-quality alignment.
How Real Racers Align A Car
There’s one major difference between tuner cars and true race cars; what makes them faster on track is the setup and testing. Ironically, the setup portion is something that can be done almost for free by just about anyone. Instead of sending our NSX off to some fancy and expensive alignment shop, we decided to spend a long evening with Dan Garder and John McNulty from Scion’s defending national champion, factory-backed road racing team to get a real race-quality alignment.
Any real racer will frown on putting their cars on a fancy modern alignment rack. Instead, they use a simple setup of strings, plumb-bobs, a camber gauge (which can cost less than some four-wheel alignments) and a machinist’s ruler to get an alignment that’s far superior (even NASCAR still does this). After setting the car’s ride height with the driver’s weight in the car (since there’s no point of corner-balancing a street car), we set the front and rear camber with a camber gauge. You can actually set the camber with the car in the air by taking the difference of the static camber on the ground and the car in the air. Using the rotors as a relative camber reference to the wheels also lets you take the wheels off to set the camber. Dan and John then strung up a pair of strings on each side of the car exactly parallel to the center line and equidistant from front and rear wheel centers. We used a hanger rig, but you can copy the same technique using strings tied to jackstands. By measuring the difference in distance from the front and rear of the rim to the string, you can establish exact toe measurements down to even a 32th of an inch. This method also lets you get a perfect toe alignment with the steering wheel dead center. The best part is that you’re the person doing the alignment, so there’s no limit to the level of anal retention you put into your own car, you just need a lot of time.
