geometry settings??

[MattyP]

I know this subject has been discussed alot but I can't find a staight answer to my situation.
I'm preparing my first ever track car, a 2 door 325i 1988.
I've just fitted the H&R 60/40 cup kit and Anti roll bars, eccentric front control arm bushes, trailing arm bushes and subframe bushes along with an LSD and a set of Toyo R888 tyres.

Can anyone advise me on the geometry settings I should set the car up to.
I know different tracks require different settings for toe and camber etc but I need to have a starting point to work from as I'm not sure how much my mods will have effected things.
I don't have any adjustable camber plates etc for front or rear so I understand my settings will be limited, but as I said a datum point would be nice so as I don't waste my first track day wearing my tyres out because my settings were way off.

Any advise would be great!!

[boybimmerm3]

Here is what my track car geometry is set to to give you a starting guide:

Front castor is : + 9 deg 10'

Front camber is : - 1 deg 30'

Front toe is : + 0 deg 10'

[MattyP]

Thanks for that mate, I'll give those a go and see how it feels.

[karlp]

If you do not have any means of adjustment what are you proposing to do. The rears need adjustable rear bushes (KMac etc). The fronts can either use M3 ofset top mounts or you need adjustable.

karl

[MattyP]

The rears I'm not to sure about but I was under the impression that as I've fitted eccentric tca bushes I wouldn't need to adjust much.

Are the M3 adjustable mounts and the rear adjustable bushes easy to come by? Any idea of price?

[karlp]

My car is a sole track car so all is set up for handling not best tyre wear. If your car is going to be used on the road then 'best' track settings will not be good for the road.

A track car has the camber etc set for good handling around the bends - this in turn makes tyre wear on the straights worse than a road car.
Your choice.

I have KMac rear adjustables (Ԛ£150)
Front eccentric control arm bushes
Adjustable topmounts set to -5 degrees camber. (Ԛ£299)

then the car is set up properly with rear toe and camber etc set.

You need the correct equipment to do this or a friendly garage that you wil adjust under your direction (because they know absolutely nothing - all they have are the road settings).

Get it wrong and handling will be cr*p.

Karl

[MattyP]

Thanks for the advice Karl.
The car will be "road legal" but really only for track use.
I understand what your saying about the tyre wear not being great on the track settings i'm just a bit conserned that the current settings maybe way off for handling and tyre wear.

If I'm able to set things up to the settings (as above) then I'll see how it feels.
Sounds like I'll be needing the adjustable parts as you've suggested to get things right though.


Matt

[karlp]

It really depends on how much you want to spend but in my view suspension is the top of the list and a well handling car will be much more fun to drive.

It is worth spending on the bits I have mentioned - also make sure the rear beam mounting bushes are good.

There is a good guy in essex that can set the car for you (may be others up north) but I take my car fro Southampton to essex because he does a very good job.

karl

[JimmyC]

Said guy can also adjust your camber to a fixed degree using the original top mounts (they wont be adjustable though).

That saves you around Ԛ£300+ which you could contribute to full set up and corner weighting!

He will also know what camber to run on r888's as thats what PBMW cars are running this year, of which he is looking after 3 mine included.

Well worth the journey if you are serious about handling IMO

PM me or Karl if you want a number

[MattyP]

Cheers lads!

[Taffy]

Need adjustable topmounts, you can drill the topmounts but its a bodgit way of doing it at the end of the day, every track is different and conditions change, you don't run the same amount of camber in the wet for instance. If you can't adjust then there's NO point in even worrying about the camber in the 1st place. You can also use spacers on the rear to adjust camber

[JimmyC]

Totally agree but adjustable top mounts seem a bit OTT on a trackday car, and a decent setting based on tyres, suspension etc in my view should be OK for trackday use- would you actually change all this for a trackday?

I had a decent geo on my exige and that was perfect for me at all tracks in all conditions and road use, if I was racing it different story, and extra time could be shaved but I wasn't racing.

Just my view, I will be making do at the start of this season with fixed camber as my funds are no more after the engine blow, and the level i'm racing at and it being my first year racing I dont think it will be that important to me as hopefully a mid runner, possibly a back runner

Need adjustable topmounts, you can drill the topmounts but its a bodgit way of doing it at the end of the day, every track is different and conditions change, you don't run the same amount of camber in the wet for instance. If you can't adjust then there's NO point in even worrying about the camber in the 1st place. You can also use spacers on the rear to adjust camber

[Taffy]

yeah probably not worth the hassle, but the point I was making was that if it's not that important to spend Ԛ£250 on decent topmounts then its not worth worrying about, lowering the car will give negative camber anyway, as long as it's not excessive then you should be ok without having to bother with doing anything.