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The steering is pretty darn sensitive now, but the 205s in front did most of that already. Not sure if the camber really added very much more steering sensitivity.
My gut feeling is that most of the added stability at highway speed (it's like a rock now) is coming from the fresh dampers, but I suspect some is due to the aggressive camber. Kicking myself for not taking note of the camber bolts before the wrenches started turning. Not so much for trying to get it cambered myself since the stance/squat has changed anyway, but just so I had a general idea where the camber was in relation to the bolt positioning. Shrug, will take a look after the alignment. I love popping the wheels off and back on...
And I wish I had done the struts as soon as I got the car. I've really been missing out.
Unfortunately you cant do it that way and give your car the camber you like without adjusting the toe. Most don't know this.
Once you adjust camber, toe will be effected and it can make the way the car turns different.
That is why you can only adjust camber on an alignment machine so you can adjust toe afterwards and you might have to go back and forth to bring about a compromise.
Failing to do this will make the car handle badly and you will wear out your tires quickly because its not camber that primarily kills tires its toe. Take your car to get it aligned by a person who knows what they are doing or just take the car for a normal alignment and just ditch the camber bolts because most Firestone guys don't want to mess with camber bolts.
Posted : September 10, 2019 11:37 am
Also, if this is all so high-precision, why is the strut tower drilled with holes that are one size too large for the OE strut mount bolts? There is a lot of play there, I would guess there is about 1mm or a bit more. Made the install a lot easier, but not a terribly high-precision design.
Not to sound like I am bickering, just wondering.
Because the cars various chassis components aren't perfect. Wiggle room is needed to get to factory settings.
Understood. "We" just wish the cars could be engineered, constructed better, more thoughtfully/intelligently for the owners. Think parking brake/shifter cables, fuse/relay/fusible link boxes. Having to remove "diapers" to do fluid changes...the ease of changing the air filter. They do these things to try and make us take them in for service/work.
"Think as we think", say many Spyder owners, "or you are abominably wicked, you are a toad". After I'd thought about, I said "I will then, be a toad."
Thank you, Stephen Crane
Posted : September 10, 2019 6:57 pm
dev reacted
Also, if this is all so high-precision, why is the strut tower drilled with holes that are one size too large for the OE strut mount bolts? There is a lot of play there, I would guess there is about 1mm or a bit more. Made the install a lot easier, but not a terribly high-precision design.
Not to sound like I am bickering, just wondering.
Because the cars various chassis components aren't perfect. Wiggle room is needed to get to factory settings.
Understood. "We" just wish the cars could be engineered, constructed better, more thoughtfully/intelligently for the owners. Think parking brake/shifter cables, fuse/relay/fusible link boxes. Having to remove "diapers" to do fluid changes...the ease of changing the air filter. They do these things to try and make us take them in for service/work.
Very true. Also stuff shifts around overtime and if you have a high degree of tolerance stuff doesn’t fit.
You see this with aftermarket parts all the time where fitment issues are common between two identical cars. It would be hell trying to get stuff to line up right and if you are a little crooked trying to approach at an angle because of clearance issues.
Could this be why handmade items are superior.
Posted : September 10, 2019 7:27 pm
As regards getting an alignment:
When I put in my new: KYB struts; a couple of replacement control arms; and new rims with new S-drives; I read up on all of the SC posts regarding alignments.
After all that, I decided to get a 4 wheel custom enlightenment with custom settings (provided, thankfully, by Dev). In the D.C. metro area, there was only one shop who provided that service .... at a cost of $142.
Got the alignment done and, other than some comments on pee-existing dings in the body, the technician made no notes of anything being out of the ordinary.
Fast forward several months and NoCoolName had Itsy-Bitsy up on a service lift doing an engine and transmission swap. While the car was up on the lift, I noticed that one (or more, I just can't remember) of the rear axle control arms appeared to be bent. I pointed the bent arm out to NoCoolName, who put a straight edge on the arm(s) to check, and he verified that the control arm(s) was/were noticeably bent. During the same service visit, we replaced the bent arm(s).
The points of this story are: even when you use well compensated service professionals, they don't always catch everything that is wrong; after having your Spyder serviced, visually inspect and test drive your vehicle to make sure that everything is working as it should.
P.S. When I had the S-Drives mounted on new lightweight Avanti ST-1 wheels, I used a highly recommended tire shop that ONLY used dynamic wheel balancing. In subsequent test drives, Itsy-Bitsy had more tire vibration than the previous set of tires, so I brought the car back to have the balance checked. After testing, the tire company had to re-balance 3 out of 4 tires. According to the tire shop manager, "That happens sometimes."
Posted : September 11, 2019 11:55 am
Sorry for a dumb question, but after the alignment gets all dialed in for The Fog, will it need to be repeated when the new Snow Tires get installed? Is a summer alignment different from a snow tire / winter alignment? Just curious.
Posted : September 11, 2019 4:14 pm
Sorry for a dumb question, but after the alignment gets all dialed in for The Fog, will it need to be repeated when the new Snow Tires get installed? Is a summer alignment different from a snow tire / winter alignment? Just curious.
Most likely not unless the car has extreme camber dialed in. Something like a crazy track alignment might be like driving on skis with really poor braking and a lot of bump steer.
To have a great handling car on the street you don't need much camber to take the car out of the factory alignment spec.
Just get a closer to normal alignment with a touch of camber taking it to the outer maximum and you don't need to do much of anything except to check the alignment every year or two years to make sure toe hasn't drifted.
Most people play with extremes where more of something is not better because you can quickly make it worse.
Posted : September 11, 2019 4:37 pm
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