[Jefry]

What are people running for alignment on this car, specifically those who intend to drive on track? I bought some Whiteline camber bolts for the front and my thought is to max it out (staying equal side to side). I don’t believe caster or toe can be changed?

As for the rear end, is there any adjustment? If so, what are people liking?

It will be aligned at a speed shop and I don’t care about accelerated tire wear during daily driving, if either of those things matter.

Bonus question: corner balance yay or nay? I’m 170-175 lbs, so nothing drastic to accommodate.

 

[Vertigyn]

From what I found, factory only allows toe to be adjusted front and rear. I went straight to caster camber plates to get some front adjustability.

I went with front:
Camber: As close to -3* as possible (landed at -2.7 each side)
Caster: as close to 7 as possible landed around 6 I think
Toe: 0
Rear naturally sits between -1 to -1.5 camber (can’t change without other parts).
Rear toe: 0.

 

[Jefry]

Thanks for the advice as always @Vertigyn!

 

[skylinekin]

What other suspension mods do you have? What tires are you running? Are you setting it up for a certain competition class or just fun hpde events?

 

[Jefry]

I am not targeting a class, just driving for fun. Tires are 245/35/18 Conti ECS (once they finally get here haha). No other suspension mods beyond the camber bolts planned until (if?) the driver catches up!

 

[skylinekin]

Gotcha, any additional negative camber up front is going to really help tire life and performance on track. Like you said see what they can get from those cam bolts at stock ride height and if it’s around -2 degrees that would be nice.

As mentioned the track guys running coil overs, camber plates, sticky tires need at least -3 up front and -2 in the rear, most like even more than that.

regarding corner balancing, don’t worry about that now…not really possible on the stock suspension unless you physically move weight around inside the car. You’d need height adjustment to move the weight and adjustable sway bar end links to take tension off the swap bars to do that corner balance correctly.

 

[frenchfriesguy]

Gotcha, any additional negative camber up front is going to really help tire life and performance on track. Like you said see what they can get from those cam bolts at stock ride height and if it’s around -2 degrees that would be nice.

As mentioned the track guys running coil overs, camber plates, sticky tires need at least -3 up front and -2 in the rear, most like even more than that.

regarding corner balancing, don’t worry about that now…not really possible on the stock suspension unless you physically move weight around inside the car. You’d need height adjustment to move the weight and adjustable sway bar end links to take tension off the swap bars to do that corner balance correctly.

100% for reference this is what I ran on a 2015 M4 staggered setup with coilovers/camber plates… I’m yet to drive and track the GR86 but the car is so light it turns in very well but feel (based on drives with decreasing radius off ramps) like mid-corner would improve with more camber

 

[racer01]

I ran 4 track days on SPC camber bolts in lower strut hole and lower bolt installed into upper hole. Basically maxed out "crash bolt" setup which is probably about -2 degrees camber. In my younger days I was very particular and always got alignment and corner balance as close to "perfect" as I could then realized my driving skills were such that it rarely made much of a difference (or more often the fast setup wasn't perfect symmetry anyway).
For this car I just added the neg camber up front and left the rear stock hoping it would cure some understeer. I didn't even touch toe after camber adjustment as with this particular suspension geometry adding camber adds minimal toe in. Not a suggestion just a comment for full disclosure.
I have about 20 yrs and 100+ track weekends of experience and drove the car fairly hard in open track, open passing type track days but the -2 camber wasn't nearly enough. I'd guess -3 to -3.5 on stock suspension would be about right talking to a few others in older BRZ's at the track.
After 500 or so track miles my outer shoulders were beat while the inner tread was good. Discount tire wouldn't flip them so inside was out outside (thanks for supporting track guys....) so they ended up trash with lots of good tread left everywhere except very outer shoulders. I did swap them side to side and ran the Azenis RT660 "backwards" to extend life otherwise the left front wouldn't have made it past 2-3 days at my local tracks (CMP and Roebling in SC and GA).

 

[LateOnTheBrakes]

I put fortune 500s on my car and I'm pretty sure the shop just gave me a bogus alignment sheet. I have the stock spindle bolts and the camber plates maxed out and they said it only gave -0.9* of camber. How much should be possible with those?

 

[Vertigyn]

Sounds similar to when I first installed my RCE T2's. Pre coil overs, I had -2.5 with caster camber plates. Post install, I was at -1. The top spindle bolt on the T2's is oval - you have to push the spindle in. Once done - I was able to get over -3.5* if desired.

I landed at:
Front: -3.5 caster, 7 camber, 0 toe
Rear: -2 caster, 2mm toe in

Performed really well at the track and I was happy with it.

 

[LateOnTheBrakes]

Are you saying the bottom mount of the coilover has slots instead of round holes? I reused my factory knuckle bolts and they were round, not oval.

 

[Vertigyn]

Are you saying the bottom mount of the coilover has slots instead of round holes? I reused my factory knuckle bolts and they were round, not oval.

Correct. The top hole on the coil over (at least the Tarmac) is slotted and not round.
I don’t have a picture of the hole but the below is from the RCE instructions showing the bolt I’m referencing.

 

[LateOnTheBrakes]

Correct. The top hole on the coil over (at least the Tarmac) is slotted and not round.
I don’t have a picture of the hole but the below is from the RCE instructions showing the bolt I’m referencing.
View attachment 16816

I'm pretty sure you're right. It's hard to see in the photos I took before but it does appear they have slots.

 

[LateOnTheBrakes]

Does anyone have the OEM alignment specs for reference? I'm curious if the positive 0.08" toe in the rear of the car is within spec seeing I will have to have the alignment done again.

 

[racer01]

This thread shows a print out of factory alignment spec. As you can see they are quite big ranges.

Alignment Issues?

I got new tires and it needed an alignment badly. I went to get one and they said they can only do a visual alignment since they didn’t have the 2022 models in their system. When I drove the car it was still doing the same thing (veering right when I accelerate and left when I let off the...

www.gr86.org

 

[LateOnTheBrakes]

Thanks. I was mostly curious about whether the rear toe being positive would cause any issues but it seems to be within the range.

 

[LateOnTheBrakes]

Is there an upper limit to what I should be going for with the front camber for daily driving and autocross most weekends? I think with dialing in negative camber at the knuckle and the camber plates it has a range of -2 to -4 degrees. I run falken RT660s.

 

[racer01]

Not an expert in 86 alignments by any means but just slight toe in for the rear like you have has always worked for me in miatas and other similar cars.
I'd personally start at -3 degrees front camber and close to zero toe and monitor tire wear. I have never worn out a set of track or auto-x tires on the inside first as some suggest would happen running that much camber on the street. I have always toasted the outside edge, typically from less than ideal camber in the front.
At least you can rotate with the 86 and seem to have plenty of adjustability on the camber plates if you find what you start with isn't working.
Also the 86 seems to be fairly unaffected with toe changes due to changing camber slightly (1/2 degree or so) and adding more camber makes it toe in. Some friends set up a middle ground (say -2.5 front camber and zero toe) and then move it to -3 or -3.5 for track days. They mark the street setting on the camber plate and adjust back when not on the track, but for me on most cars I have just run track settings on the street.

 

[Blipblorp]

This is what the Speed Academy guys ran on their 1st gen track car.