The smelly '94 R-package is scheduled for an alignment tomorrow morning. Been reading through dozens of threads on this issue, and honestly it does make me feel like a noob -- if there's anything resembling a consensus, I haven't found it.

Not interested in track setups. I drive somewhat aggressively on the street, but it's not exactly the Tail of the Dragon around here, and at most I'll be running cheap daily driver tires on 7" RPF1's. Don't care about autocross or track performance, just a fun, lively feel for the street. My wife should be able to drive it on the interstate without crying.

So -- recommendations? Steering effort is a tad high right now, so I'm thinking I will request 3.8 degrees of caster. Other than that, I haven't a clue.

 

Sell r-package to racer, buy super luxury model, take to national tire chain, tell them you want an alignment, wait two hours, drive home.

More realistic, little toe in both ends, all the camber, some of the caster.

 

I'd just back off the camber a bit from the race alignments and go.

Unless you running ALL OF IT, 0 toe on the street is fine.

 

He wants his wife to drive it though. I'd at least do a touch of toe in, in the front.

<- daily drove with 1/16" total toe out, and has driven on the highway with 1/8" out and thought it was "fine".

 

Oh then I'd just run the FM street alignmnet

 

Zero toe at 4 corners: low tire wear, "miata-ness", but still stable.

Keep caster around 4*.

Max camber equally on both sides in the front while meeting you caster goals. You're not going to get much above -1.2* in the front, if both sides will even reach that.

 

He has an r-package, he might be able to get 1.5

 

Thanks guys. Here are my targets for tomorrow:


Rear
Toe: 1/32 inch IN per side
Camber: -1.75 degrees

Front
Toe: 1/32 inch IN per side
Camber: -1.2 degrees
Caster: 4.0 degrees

 

Alignment was done this morning. It was done a regular tire change place but I talked to the ticket writer for a minute about what I wanted and they let me go into the alignment bay to make sure the guy did the settings I wanted.

Mostly I was pleased -- he messed up the front once and had to redo it but he didn't mind targeting my requested settings and did a pretty good job.



Since I was looking at the alignment screen the whole time, I didn't look at the printout until I got home. Then I noticed the "SAI" (Steering Axis Inclination) and "Included Angle" (SAI + Camber).

Should I be concerned about the variation in the SAI and Included Angle?

 

You should have sat in the driver's seat while you were observing.

Do that next time

 

Wasn't an option this Saturday.

Any opinions about the SAI measurements?

 

looks like an alignmnet.

 

Needs less rear camber.

 

Negative, more front camber. Camber doesn't kill tires, excessive toe does.

 

Silly megeoffriau. There are no street miata alignments - they are all flatout.

Edit: I wouldn't worry about the variance. My car has variances as well. You have more rear camber than front, so given stock springrates & swaybars should be quite safe from tail-happiness, so drive on.

 

My assumption was that 1.1 or so was all the negative camber they could muster on his stock setup...