OK, this is the long version, but for those who want to know a bit more, read thourghly!
Toe, camber, grip, car control, and some of their relationships.....DISCLAIMER......suspension, tires, tire pressures, etc. etc.(the list is very long), can all effect the NSX's personality, but some things do the same thing everytime....lets look as those.
Toe. This gets fun! We (the hard core track junkies and instructors) argued the hell outta this one in the late 90's and we eventually agreed to disagree. Some say you need tow, becasue it stabilises the rear end....I say, some of that is true. Lets take it in two parts, front and rear....Here comes the mini toe siminar.....
What does toe do for us? It pre-loads the suspension components by trying to drive the wheels in slightly none parallel lines. The rear tires are tying to come into each other, thus loading positively, the front tires are trying to drive away from each other.....think of a giant pair of hands pulling the tires apart, thus stretching all the suspension components in the front, and the rear tire towards each other, thus compressing the suspension components in the rear.
Toe in, in the rear, plants the rear creating a stable preloaded suspension, thus raises the grip limit for conering due to the lack of slack BUT it also sets the snap release point high, but when you find it...by by baby, your end to end.....reducing the toe in allows the rear to lossen at a lower grip limit (under conrnering, especially on turn in), thus allowing one to get a telegraph message that hey, the rear end is loosening, thus giving one time to respond, or even use this as and advantage in getting the car really balanced, and easy to do whatever the driver wants it to do.....4 wheel drift, oversteer, understeer...you choose, depending on the corner. Ohhh, it also saves loads of money on tire wear!
PS (non compliance rear toe linkage helps her as well, as mentioned already in a previous post) but it is not even on ones radar until you are a serious track junkie with loads of tuning hours in the car. Basically, theirs lots to do before getting to that!
Front in Toe Out gives the car crisp turn in off a stright line, and extremely fast reponse...one thing the NSX got famous for.
So, do we need toe??? I say, maybe not so much as factory specification says, at least, not in the rear, but this is a progressive reduction...not a step change....take it out slowly learning the cars different personalities along the way. Then you decide which one you like best. I like some tow out in the front, as it keeps the car crisp....but I have back off some from the factory specification, which was designed to be very conservative, and safe for less experienced drivers.
Of course, all these things are easier to feel in a controlled track enviroment wher eone can play at the limit, but can also be felt on the street by one with experience.
BTW, there was a comment about the NSX being ass end heavy...NOT TRUE...once my car was set up properly (after many many hours of track tuning), it was as balanced, and fully controlled as any car I have ever driven! Perfectly balanced was the term used by many other NON-NSX owner instructors who borrowed the keys for a session or two.
I turned faster lap times in zero toe in the rear cars, with much more comfortable laps, in which the car can be contolled at all levels, not just driven fast always leary of the max grip snap limit. Well, the passengers never thought of them as comfortable, but I did!
I hope this helps get you started.
When I exited the freeway to go to Mandalay Bay, I was rounding the curve at the South end of Las Vegas Blvd. There was med/light traffic, dry conditions, and I wasn't even really pushing the car (doing about 10 over the limit). About half way through the curve the rear end just shot out from underneath me. I have alot of track experience (not in the X though) so I immediately recognized it and counter steered. I ended up sliding sideways/backwards between two cars in two separate lanes before I could even start to correct it though, and before I knew it I was headed straight for a curb.
Luckily with a quick tap of the brakes and a slight steer I was able to jump back into a lane (two lanes over) without hitting anything/anyone. Scared the bajeezus out of me since I had just bought the car three weeks prior and it only had 3700 miles on it. I thought maybe I had just hit a wet/oil spot in the road, but maybe not. I have alot of experience with oversteer (been doing it on purpose alot of times just for fun since I was about 15), and I attributed the outcome to my great driving skills. But now knowing the severity of this problem and not having any experience drivng an X (or any mid-engine sports car for that reason) I now see that maybe alot of it was luck. I may be throwing the stock wheels back on for a day and taking her to the track... :wink:
