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BMR SP080 Alignment Specs?

TheLion

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Title says it all. On PP struts and sway bars. No idea where it's at now, I do have camber / caster plates so I can add more camber than factory specs if necessary and adjust caster as well.

I find it interesting that the factory PP camber specs are -1.03 front and -1.5 rear. I would have expected more camber up front. So i'm wondering if -1.5 front and -2 rear would be a good setup for a lowered car that's in between a fully track optimized or purely street optimized setup: https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=97873&d=1475445237

I also have two sets of wheels and tires. Stock PP wheels (staggered) and RTR Tech 7 19x9.5's with 275/40R19's in a 4 square setup. Car definitely under steers a bit with PP wheel setup but seems pretty flat with the 4 square setup mid-corner. I'd say under steer is moderate with PP wheels / pirellie tires and just barely with Tech 7's and Pilot Sport tires.

I'm guessing there's a bit of toe at the moment as I haven't changed the factory alignment after lowering / cradle lock out / diff bushings etc. been debating on how aggressive I want to get. I prefer a little more responsive as I like canyon carving and there's a lot of those types of roads around here, but I don't want something that super twitchy on the highway either making it hard to drive, so something in between.
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I went off Kelly's (from BMR) recommended specs. And these are my current alignment #s. Still have to install the camber bolts up front and not sure if it's worthwhile to get camber arms for the rear

Car handles a lot better than with stock alignment #s, grips the road so much better

Street Handling - BMR - Kelly.jpg
Most current alignment (lowered).png

 

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On mine I am running -1.7 on front (no plates/bolts, it is what it is) -1.8 on the rear with .1 total toe in on front and .2 on the rear. Pretty happy with it and no noticeable wear so far.
 

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I tried to get mine aligned to those specs at my work yesterday but the tech didn't have any luck with the rear. Anyone have a link or a pic of how to adjust the rear camber? Mine is sitting around -2.5 currently.

I'm guessing the inner bolt on the upper arm needs to be loosened, then pry out on the arm till it's all the way out?
 
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TheLion

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I tried to get mine aligned to those specs at my work yesterday but the tech didn't have any luck with the rear. Anyone have a link or a pic of how to adjust the rear camber? Mine is sitting around -2.5 currently.

I'm guessing the inner bolt on the upper arm needs to be loosened, then pry out on the arm till it's all the way out?
Rear camber is adjusted where the upper camber link attaches to the chassis. So just follow the upper link arm. There's a large bolt that is vertically oriented and the mounting point is slotted, so loosen it up and adjust.
 

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Add 0.25 deg of camber all around to Kelly's recommended specs for a mixed setup
 
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TheLion

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On mine I am running -1.7 on front (no plates/bolts, it is what it is) -1.8 on the rear with .1 total toe in on front and .2 on the rear. Pretty happy with it and no noticeable wear so far.
That's within BMR's spec which is -1.5 (+/-0.30) front and rear -1.25 (+/-0.25). So the actual camber range for the front according to their spec is -1.2 to -1.8 front and -1.0 to -1.5 rear. Looks like according to BMR's spec your out of tolerance.

You'd get a little better straight line traction with less camber in the rear and the vertical-link-H-arm rear suspension architecture allows for a reasonably good amount of camber gain as it compresses unlike the front double ball joint design whose camber is fairly static throughout it's motion arc. That explains why Ford's factory spec for the GT350 calls for more front camber than rear (-1.1 front and -0.75 rear on the GT350). BMR's setup is closer to the GT350 spec.

I honestly wonder if they purposefully neuter the standard GT's suspension a bit to keep a bigger distance in handling. It's literally the same chassis architecture with the GT350 having magnetic dampers, lighter wheels, different spring rates and sway bar rates (sans the engine and manual transmission of course). But suspension wise, it just a highly tuned GT chassis.
 
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TheLion

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Add 0.25 deg of camber all around to Kelly's recommended specs for a mixed setup
Your read my mind! A good in between. I can't imagine a 1/4 degree camber adding substantial amounts of tire wear, but it will allow for slightly higher corner speeds. I would think this would be an "aggressive" street setup.

Mixed Spec:

Front Camber: -1.75 (+/-0.25)
Front Caster: 7.21 (+/-0.50)
Front Toe: 0.05 per side, 0.10 total toe (or 0 total for better corner response but you may get a bit of "dead" center on the highway)

Rear camber: -1.5 (+/-0.25)
Rear Toe: 0.10 per side, 0.20 total toe total not to exceed 0.25 (these are specs for those running the FP Spherical Bearings on both ends of the toe links which I am)
Thrust Angle: 0 of course for any car :-) (BMR CB005 should take care of that!)

Track settings are still quite a bit more aggressive at -2.75 front and -2.00 rear camber so a nice middle ground.

In fact I'm not sure if for those running aggressive wheel off-sets a slightly more aggressive camber might be necessary to prevent the tires from contacting the wheel well. So far I have had 0 issues with fitment of my RTR Tech 7's (+33 offset) on 275/40R19 tires, but I have no clue where my camber is actually at right now. I'm guessing -1.5 to -2.0 range front and about -1.5 ish rear?

I think what's going to be off the most in my alignment is caster and toe based on the way it drives now, but we'll see in a couple of weeks.

BTW @ BmacIL, I am indeed loving the Corsa Sport Cat Back. To me it's a much better balance of volume / tone for a street car I drive fairly frequently (10k to 12k miles a year) including on some longer highway cruising trips. It's plenty loud enough to hear even with the windows up, but it's not face melting loud and not nearly as poppy / harsh in mid-range throttle.

No it doesn't buble and bark quite as much as the Extreme did at low RPM while cruising, but it's still has plenty of burble, pop and bark to hear with the windows down. It's a nice middle ground on all aspecs and sounds great! I think the only other exhaust I would have gone with over the Corsa Sport if I was starting anew (exhast already came on the car when I bought it so it made more sense to swap mufflers then trade an entire exhaust and I was able to do it locally), would be the Ford Performance Touring setup because it's very light weight.

The Corsa Sport is 10 lbs lighter than stock, but the FP Touring by Borla is 30 lbs lighter so there's a little more weight savings. There really is not any performance gains by using a 3", but I do believe the 3" has a deeper tone so it does affect the sound.

I also don't believe there are any performance advantages of the double X-pipe over a single, but again it is for sound, but yes, I think the Corsa Sport is one of the best sounding exhausts out there and gives the GT a bit of an exotic flavor which I really like.
 
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Glad this thread came up. I am about to go get my car aligned tomorrow. I am running SP080's as well and just got new wheels and tires. I have been debating if i will need to get camber bolts to be able to get these numbers. Seems like some say yes and some no. Should i be shooting for more along the lines of 1.5 or 1.7? I am trying to minimize any rub on the fender with the new wider/tall tires.

Thanks for any input
 
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Glad this thread came up. I am about to go get my car aligned tomorrow. I am running SP080's as well and just got new wheels and tires. I have been debating if i will need to get camber bolts to be able to get these numbers. Seems like some say yes and some no. Should i be shooting for more along the lines of 1.5 or 1.7? I am trying to minimize any rub on the fender with the new wider/tall tires.

Thanks for any input
From a clearance stand point more camber will give you better clearance by shifting the top of the tire further inside the wheel well and away from the fender. The front does gain a small amount of camber as it compresses, I think around -0.1 to -0.2 ish as you compress the suspension, not much but a little. As far as I know, according to American Muscle, none of the tire / wheel combos they sell have fitment issues with any of the lowering springs as they test them out, says right on their website.

My only reservation is how well they test them out. For daily driving you may not have rubbing, but I could see in a track application where your experiencing high speed corners, your going to get more suspension compression than most street use and may even hit the bump stops. So far in all of my aggressive street driving I've had 0 issues with clearance on 19x9.5 RTR Tech 7's (+33mm offset, so pretty aggressive) or the factory staggered PP wheels (+45mm front and +52 rear I think?), but I have no idea where my camber, caster or toe is since I've installed the parts as I've been waiting to finish up with the rear toe links (which are still not in, last part, phew!), i'm guessing it's around -1.5 to -2 ish by the looks of it.

But for proper clearance and for safety margine, I think you'd probably need at LEAST -1.5 camber up front and -1.0 in the rear to clear +33mm offset 19X9.5 wheels running 274/40R19 tires in a 4 square setup.
 

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@TheLion that is pretty much exactly what I have my car set at ;) (exception is I'm at 0.00 front toe).
 

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@TheLion Im not running a setup from AM. I am running 20x10 square ET35 with 285/35's for tires. I have noticed that with a good bump in the road, I am getting rub on the fender lip. I think part of this currently is due to the toe being out due to a previously bad alignment. Just trying to minimize the rub. Oddly enough its really only my drivers side thats the issue. My biggest thing at this point is deciding if i should cancel the alignment for tomorrow and get camber bolts or if i can get to a -1.5 to -1.7 without them.

@BmacIL Would you mind giving your thoughts on this as well? Seen you post a ton on alignment stuff and you clearly know what your are talking about! Thanks
 
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@TheLion Im not running a setup from AM. I am running 20x10 square ET35 with 285/35's for tires. I have noticed that with a good bump in the road, I am getting rub on the fender lip. I think part of this currently is due to the toe being out due to a previously bad alignment. Just trying to minimize the rub. Oddly enough its really only my drivers side thats the issue. My biggest thing at this point is deciding if i should cancel the alignment for tomorrow and get camber bolts or if i can get to a -1.5 to -1.7 without them.

@BmacIL Would you mind giving your thoughts on this as well? Seen you post a ton on alignment stuff and you clearly know what your are talking about! Thanks
I would highly recommend camber / caster plates. It gives you an actual range of adjustment other than relying on factory cutout slop for the stock mounting locations. Camber bolts alone don't allow you to tweak the caster which is just as important as the camber. Factory castor setting is 6.91 but BMR is recommending 7.21. I don't think the factory hole tolerances are really going to give you any meaningful caster adjustment and only enough camber adjustment to maybe "even them up".

The factory bolt holes do allow small adjustment, but it's only intended to allow enough adjustment for tolerance stack up errors in manufacturing and to even up both sides, not really to tune settings. So more or less the factory setup is static with just a smidgen of adjustment to account for tolerances, at least in the front.

The rear on the other hand has a reasonable range of adjustment in toe angle and camber angle stock so unless your doing something extreme, I doubt you need anything after market for adjustment purposes as the stock range should give you enough to achieve what you need to. I've skimped out in the past to save a few pennies but usually regretted not being to fine tune the suspension.

A stock 2015 GT is a powerful car and quite a bit more powerful when equipped with a Power Pack 2 or 3. But what good is that power if you can't put it down consistently or the car's handling in corners is sub-par simply because the adjustment isn't optimal? The you've wasted a lot of potential you paid for in both the suspension and engine. All of the 1LE track variants of the Camaro SS come with caster / camber plates from the factory for the very purpose of allowing the suspension settings to be optimized for the particular application.

If you do your own auto work, I would highly recommend a full coil compressor. I bought one off of Amazon for about $110 and it is WAY better than those stupid clamp ones you rent from auto zone (which you can also buy for about $50). Just stick it (the coil compressor) in a table mounted vice, set the strut in it and compress it with a ratchet (cannot use air tools). It's easy, it doesn't mark up the paint on the springs and compresses them easily and evenly without worry about it popping off and being a serious danger to you or damaging the strut.

I did use an electric impact wrench (300 ft-lb) to tighten the top nuts as you do need a special 21mm off-set box wrench to tighten it since you have to hold the top of the shaft while tightening the nut, but an impact wrench allows you to more effectively use friction and you don't have to hold the top of the shaft and it will get tight enough.

Here's what I used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...-a191-51d7-b529-57cf02375a47&pf_rd_i=15709061

You could use this strut nut tool and maybe fit a box end wrench on the strut shaft to hold the shaft and then rotate the socket with a torque wrench: https://www.steeda.com/Steeda-Strut-Nut-Socket--21mm_p_15663.html
 
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BmacIL

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@TheLion Im not running a setup from AM. I am running 20x10 square ET35 with 285/35's for tires. I have noticed that with a good bump in the road, I am getting rub on the fender lip. I think part of this currently is due to the toe being out due to a previously bad alignment. Just trying to minimize the rub. Oddly enough its really only my drivers side thats the issue. My biggest thing at this point is deciding if i should cancel the alignment for tomorrow and get camber bolts or if i can get to a -1.5 to -1.7 without them.

@BmacIL Would you mind giving your thoughts on this as well? Seen you post a ton on alignment stuff and you clearly know what your are talking about! Thanks
Those are some big (diameter) tires for a 1.2" drop. You definitely should already be at least -1.5 deg in the front without them, but if you're already rubbing, you may need more. Bolts would be the most economical and simple way.
 
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TheLion

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Those are some big (diameter) tires for a 1.2" drop. You definitely should already be at least -1.5 deg in the front without them, but if you're already rubbing, you may need more. Bolts would be the most economical and simple way.
They aren't much taller than stock rears or fronts, just wider? Not sure of the tread width of 285/35 on a 20". 275/40R19's are 27.7" diameter, his are 27.9". Only 1/8th in taller, but 285 is pretty wide for front and really pushing it width wise if your not using a smaller diameter 19" wheel in 35 series profile tire, giving you 26.9" diameter that would have plenty of clearance. On a 20x10...I suppose it also depends on the off-set of the wheel.

My 275/40R19's on 19x9.5's (+33mm offset) have no issues with clearance up front with SP080's, I'm thinking 275/40 is as wide as you can run (10.1 tread width) unless your going down in profile to a 285/35 on a 19" (which actually has a tad bit less tread width at 10.0 than the 275/40) and the 275/40R19 will have the most optimal side wall angle to give you proper feed back and side wall flex as it's optimal rim width is 9.5". Each tire will perform best as it's "measured rim width" rather than at the extreme's of it's range of safe rim widths.

It's a good profile and 19's a bit lighter in weight than 20's (by about 3-5lbs per wheel). The RTR Tech 7's in 19x9.5 are 23 lbs, in 20x10.5 they are 26 lbs. Regular low pressure cast wheels are quite a bit heavier (aka stock rear PP wheels which clock in at 32.5 lbs in the same 19x9.5 size). I think factory 20's Foundries are around 34 lbs each?

BTW here's an example of the strut nut tool, the only difference is you use an 8mm box end wrench (I think it was 8, could be 9, but it's easy to test even with strut installed) instead of a hex key for the top of the stock PP struts: http://bimmertips.com/how-to-properly-tighten-torque-strut-nut/

And the general instructions: https://www.bmrsuspension.com/siteart/install/SP083.pdf
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