Alignments! Get your car down the straight and narrow... and maybe some curves.

Hey!... Welcome to #modmonday and today we are talking about alignments! A proper alignment helps your car handles well, won't cause improper tire wear, and can help you get the highest mpgs. 

The Forester keeping things sane with an alignment in the factory specs.

The Forester keeping things sane with an alignment in the factory specs.

Adding a catalog of suspension upgrades won't make that much a difference without a alignment to properly utilize them in harmony and really make the car corner. When ever your replace a suspension you should get the alignment checked, as most likely it is no longer in specification. 

As endless car setups exist, the same is true for alignments. Most of my Subaru alignment knowledge is heavily based on GD and SG chassis's, It can be a guideline to most MacPherson based suspension cars.  My first alignment was stock specs to get a good idea of the factory numbers and what it could use to improve. 

My second alignment for the STi was changing the front camber -1.5 rear camber -1.8 and 0 toe all around. This is a very good setup to keep tire wear in good shape and enjoy the improved turn-in and cornering. This is on stock suspension. 

Next after a full suspension overhaul. I moved front camber to -2.2 and left the rear alone. 0 toe. I was still daily driving this setup and now auto-x'ing as much as possible. I was not seeing excessive tire wear from camber but I was using 200 tread wear tires. You can see some tramlining from this setup. This is a quite neutral setup and the backend of the car will happily follow the front giving it an excellent feeling through turns.

I have added even further camber to my STi as it has become more of a weekend car/auto-x car. Which will probably be a bit much for most street driven cars. 

STi alignment insanity. This keeps it glued in the corners.

STi alignment insanity. This keeps it glued in the corners.

Questions, comments, thoughts? Leave them below! Happy to help you with your setups!

Dan EngstromComment