Ok, we could have done a search, this clears some things up for me I guess:
alignment FAQ
The only thing I take issue with is the "gaining neg camber" with more caster on an NSX, I was told by an engineer that an equal length control arm suspension will NOT gain camber during cornering with more caster, or caster simply does not have that effect on an equal length control arm suspension?
Of interest to me were these comments:
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My guess is that the stock settings provide more margin for panic and bad driver inputs in emergency situations. I've long since learned how to keep my foot in the throttle if the back end is coming out."
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Honda claims that removing the front toe-out will decrease the steering stability at the high speeds needed to earn cookies. I have not tested this, but if you intend to drive at high speed (say, above 135 mph), you might want to consider this caution."
CB72- thanks for posting, I shouldn't have said "expert" but guys with alot of track experience in the NSX and experience with the effect of different alignments on our cars at the track! So, more caster is equated to more steering effort but also more high speed stability?
The NSX is indeed a different breed of sports car. I was used to the S2000, which was pretty straight forward in terms of alignment on a relatively stock set-up for hard track driving. Sorry to the OP if I'm jacking this thread, but the effect of caster on these cars was something I was wondering about since driving mine on the track. In reference to how my car was aligned last time, we ended up with too little front camber for my specific style of driving (-.03) and I am trying to pin-point the handling difficulties I was having both times on-track: understeer, pretty much everywhere. Also we had -2 degrees camber at the rear, toe was factory spec on both front and rear as well as caster...its my understanding that negative camber can shift the grip balance of the car, front to rear, so: hardly any camber in front with a healthy amount at the rear is going to introduce a bias twords understeer? Suspension, alignment, and set up for track driving is tricky business. So many variables to consider, and even then the driver has to be comfortable with how its all working at speed, even on a 91 NSX on Billsteins, stock springs, and RE11's!
As far as toe, the FAQ seemed to confirm most of my understanding of it: in the front-more toe OUT = more turn-in but too much is going to get the rotation happening too early, while toe IN = understeer on turn-in and oversteer mid-corner. At the rear-more toe OUT = over-rotation and this should only be used perhaps on FWD or "drift" cars, while toe IN = passive rear steer for more high speed stability, something BMW has been fond of using on their road cars for a while. Its intersting to me how the Honda engineers chose a hint of toe out at the front on a car that, on paper, should already turn-in sharply, but their decision to do this was more influenced by dialing in a slight understeer during cornering?
