Alignment recommendation HPDE

[Walt]

Update:

I ordered new takeoff Ford camber plates of a dark horse / mach 1 vehicle. They finally arrived and I will be installing them soon. Half the price of new ones. These + camber bolts will hopefully get me to -3 front camber without cutting.

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[NightmareMoon]

Update:

I ordered new takeoff Ford camber plates of a dark horse / mach 1 vehicle. They finally arrived and I will be installing them soon. Half the price of new ones. These + camber bolts will hopefully get me to -3 front camber without cutting.

Just remember camber bolts (to add scamber) move the wheel towards the strut, so they can cause problems if you're trying to fit a wide front tire.

 

[Bossdog]

I installed the Steeda camber plates and used the Steeds hole saw to enlarge the strut tower opening. Last year I ran track days at -2.7. This year I put in Ford performance springs and told my alignment guy, "as much as they could get" in front negative camber "not to exceed -3". They set the front to -3.2. I guess they only heard " as much as you can get" part.
The Steed hole saw tool worked very well, very clean cut. A fine file, then some sand paper and a bit if touch up paint on the inner rim of the hole, you'd never know it was modified.

 

[Walt]

I installed the Steeda camber plates and used the Steeds hole saw to enlarge the strut tower opening. Last year I ran track days at -2.7. This year I put in Ford performance springs and told my alignment guy, "as much as they could get" in front negative camber "not to exceed -3". They set the front to -3.2. I guess they only heard " as much as you can get" part.
The Steed hole saw tool worked very well, very clean cut. A fine file, then some sand paper and a bit if touch up paint on the inner rim of the hole, you'd never know it was modified.

Why did you not want to go past -3? I heard that some go up to -4 for the best tire wear. How was your wear with -2.7?

 

[Bossdog]

-4 , Best tire ware for track only.
I drive to the track, NCM is 7 hours each way.
I took my street tires off at the track after the 7 hour drive. I’m no tire expert, but the inside of the tire looked to have acceptable wear, nothing concerning.
With -2.7 at the track last year I had more outside where on my track tire than inside ware.
So, all in all, More negative camber with 0.0 toe in the front seems to work fine for driving to the track.
With 285 width tires on the front, the steering is quite dart-ie. it takes a little getting used to, enhanced tram lining as well. But felt very good on track, the car really wants to turn in.
I’ll be running 295’s up front next outing.

 

[luc]

I've heard far too often that even with holding the switch for 10 seconds, the car can still turn it back on if it thinks it needs to. Pulling the fuse is the only way to guarantee the nannies won't interfere.

Disagree on my 17 i more than once I went sideways. I counter steered and stayed on track but was no electronic interference for sure
I always track with everything off because to me i get a much better feel of what the car is doing at the limit

 

[Ewheels]

Disagree on my 17 i more than once I went sideways. I counter steered and stayed on track but was no electronic interference for sure
I always track with everything off because to me i get a much better feel of what the car is doing at the limit

I don't have any personal experience to go off of here. I've never held the switch down before myself.
Just reiterating what numerous people have claimed. I see this fairly frequently on TMO.

 

[luc]

I don't have any personal experience to go off of here. I've never held the switch down before myself.
Just reiterating what numerous people have claimed. I see this fairly frequently on TMO.

Yeah, I also heard that. So not sure what’s going on

 

[Walt]

Would it matter much if I left the rear at stock specs? Meaning -1.5 camber and 0.24-0.30 toe in?

I would be running -3 camber and 0 toe at the front.

Adjusting the front was easy, I tried adjusting the rear but it just isn't doable on jackstands. Local shops don't want to touch it, only some motorsport shops but for a ridiculous amount of money.

Steeda and J&M sell those adjustable camber bolts for the rear, but those look like a pain to install as well. A camber arm is not an option as it would not be streetlegal, I'm already in the grey zone with the front plates don't want to push it any more.

 

[Ewheels]

Would it matter much if I left the rear at stock specs? Meaning -1.5 camber and 0.24-0.30 toe in?

I would be running -3 camber and 0 toe at the front.

Adjusting the front was easy, I tried adjusting the rear but it just isn't doable on jackstands. Local shops don't want to touch it, only some motorsport shops but for a ridiculous amount of money.

Steeda and J&M sell those adjustable camber bolts for the rear, but those look like a pain to install as well. A camber arm is not an option as it would not be streetlegal, I'm already in the grey zone with the front plates don't want to push it any more.

The rears are doable but yes, they are an absolute pain. Try to use a pry-bar or a long stick against the floor as leverage to get a more precise adjustment. It's going to be A LOT of trial and error on jack stands.
Good luck.

 

[NightmareMoon]

I would not leave the front at 1.5, I’d got for more, like 2.0 with some toe in per the spec.

But I also know local shops which will do it for me.

 

[Walt]

I just got back from the alignment shop, the rear was not worth doing on my garage floor and found a shop that had decent reviews and were willing to let me work with them on the car.

To my suprise he got the rear done in 10 minutes and said that the front was harder to get right.

I have Ford Camber plates of a Mach 1, and in combination with steeda camber bolts (SPC) we could only get -2.5 in the front, which was a suprise I thought I would be able to get to at least -2.7.

He got the rear a bit over -2 which I didn't like but he assured me it would not make a real difference and it is even still within factory spec, they allow up to -2.25.

Front:

• Camber:
  • Left: -2.5°
  • Right: -2.43°
• Toe:
  • Left: 0°
  • Right: 0.02°

Rear:

• Camber:
  • Left: -2.05°
  • Right: -2.18° <-- too much?
• Toe:
  • Left: 0.17°
  • Right: 0.11°
  • Total: 0.28°
• Thrust angle: 0.02°

Would you be ok with these specs? Or did he do a sloppy job? Was done on a Hunter alignment machine. I have been told not to go over -2 degree on the rear, which worries me, but is it fine?

Not sure I would've gotten it more precise with my DIY fish line setup

 

[Dana Pants]

I run very near -3 rear camber on purpose. And a difference of less than 0.2 between sides is quite good and likely within measurement repeatability.

 

[Trace]

This is my tire wear from 23 laps around Daytona International. 15 of them were hard. The first 8 were easier.

Here's the write up I did.

SCCA Track Night at Daytona International 6/19/25 | 2015+ S550 Mustang Forum (GT, EcoBoost, GT350, GT500, Bullitt, Mach 1) - Mustang6G.com

the 4 tires (picture) are where they were on the car. The fronts are chewed up more than the rears. What are these tires telling me?

I ran last September the same course in the GT with 285 Potenza's square. They looked like every day wear when I changed them out. None of this rash.

These Michelins look melted :(

 

[NightmareMoon]

This is my tire wear from 23 laps around Daytona International. 15 of them were hard. The first 8 were easier.

Here's the write up I did.

SCCA Track Night at Daytona International 6/19/25 | 2015+ S550 Mustang Forum (GT, EcoBoost, GT350, GT500, Bullitt, Mach 1) - Mustang6G.com

the 4 tires (picture) are where they were on the car. The fronts are chewed up more than the rears. What are these tires telling me?

I ran last September the same course in the GT with 285 Potenza's square. They looked like every day wear when I changed them out. None of this rash.

These Michelins look melted :(

Looks fine to me. You got em working, but they're not chunking and the evidence of heat ripples is minimal.

Better tires are going to look more 'melty' but that's just the tire working for you. The small accumulations of rubber at the edges of tread blocks is pretty normal.

Yeah the fronts take more abuse than the rears (front heavy car, and you can brake harder than you can accelerate)

What tire pressures are you running, and what sizes are they?


Your tires are too new/unworn to really show any wear pattern trends.

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