Camber and traction

[spetz]

Hi guys,

Can someone tell me at what amount of front negative camber does diminished traction upon launch and braking become noticeable?

[senna]

There are a huge amount of variables here like Tyre compound, tyre width, surface condition, power levels, etc etc

BUT. I notice it over 1 degree of neg on the front of my civic

[Havocwreaker]

Also depends a lot on the suspension geometry of your car. If you're driving an Accord Euro or an earlier generation Civic, they have double-wishbone links, which don't really need a lot of negative camber dialed in.

[spetz]

Thanks guys,
What about a DC5R for example, how much of a difference would there be between -1 degree camber, -2 and -3?
And how would this reflect on 60ft times if anyone knows?

[DLO01]

Obviously 0 camber is ideal at the strip. Its straight line, no corners, theres no need for camber. So a straight tyre wheel is optimal.

I would have thought as soon as you start to have 'some' camber, even just a little camber, your already going backward in terms of grip off the line, in a straight line. With camber and straight line take off your decreasing the contact patch on the road. That combined with launching and weight transferring to the back of car will also have negative affects as the tyre will be light and riding more up on that 'cambered' edge of tyre, which of course is a smaller contact patch.

Its hard to quote figures without doing actual physical tests on the strip. You can mess around playing with tyre pressure to increase the patch. My view is that any sort of camber and your going to have negative affect, after that, more camber will make it more and more worse as you decrease the contact patch more and more.

[senna]

^^^ You are technically correct, however one aspect to look at is the lifting properties of acceleration - so when you launch the car the front end comes up right?

In this case if you have 0 camber setting at the point of launch the front will lift and push the front end towards positive camber. Considering this there is a certain amount of negative camber that will help your launch since the front wheels will stand up on launch.

The same principal is applied to rwd cars with independent rear suspension, but in reverse ofcourse

[nzjdm]

you all make very good points.

there are just so many factors that come in to making grip. track temp, air temp, tire temp, tire pressure, car design, you, the clutch, and so on,

i think that as a basic step get your self a temp gun there absolutely vital in motor sport, you need to know exactly what your tire is doing before you change setup.
Try temp testing outside middle and inside tire temps after each run, 60, and burn out try paint a picture of what the tire is doing and why

don't just go off 1 run in testing make sure you get some consistency then make changes to suit.... these things take time but if you really start understanding why a car does what it does 90% of your changes will be in the right direction.

and remember formula1 teams don't get it right every time its not an exact science.