Hi everyone, so i raced my first event a couple weeks ago with BMW CCA for the NYR, and i placed first in the MS (mini cooper s) class. I am getting an alignment/corner balance this thursday and i would like to know what is the optimal camber for autox/OCCASIONAL STREET USE.

Im running Toyo R888 tires @ the track, i know those tires are good from -1 to 3.0 degrees. BUT what are the optimal settings for the front and for the rear?

 

Optimal camber settings are going to depend on a huuuuge amount of variables. What spring rates? What ride heights? what surface do you run on? what tire size do you run? etc etc.

For a compromise DD/auto-x car I'd probably start around -2 in the front and -1.5 in the rear. Personally our car has much more negative camber than that in the front but it's not a daily.

 

This isn't a daily driver.

Tires: Toyo R888 225/50ZR15
coilovers: Bilstein pss9 with the supplied springs (i cant recall what the spring rates are off hand)

ride height: from axle nut to fender is about 15" when the car is on the ground, in the air its 18".

Surface: Typically asphalt/concrete


I was thinking the same around -2.2 in the front and -1.7 in the rear

 

The answer is as much as possible up front. That won't be enough. LOL I had over 3 degrees up front on the 2011 I ran and it wasn't enough for even tire wear. In the back I had about 1.5-2.5 negative. Toe out in the rear was about 0.08 degrees per side and 0 toe up front.

I had the Hotchkis RACE rear bar on the car (no longer sold and a lot stiffer than the one they sell now) and swift springs. Car was about 1" lower than stock.

Anyway...get -3.0 up front and about half that in the rear as a good starting point. If you find the car rotates too much then your tires are either too old, too cold or you're going too slow.

Happy driving

 

Thanks for the helpful info. I'm hoping to throw on my adjustable end links tomorrow then get the car aligned and corner balanced Thursday. I'm racing on Sunday so I'm on a real tight schedule.

I'm also running the old school hotchkis rear sway bar.

 

If the car isn't a daily then your car seems way high. I'm not sure if this directly translates between R56 and R53 but if I measure from the center of the wheel to the fender in our car (2010 JCW) it's 12 5/8" in the front and 13" in the rear. I'd consider going way lower especially since you have the 15s.

Also, if the car isn't street driven and is strictly an auto-x car then I'd figure out what the PSS9 spring rates are. Because they're probably far less than ideal for auto-x. New springs are pretty cheap. Hyperco springs are generally $81 each.

and this has already been said but I'd max out your front camber. We run a little over -3 (-3.2 last time I had the camber gauge on the car) and have no issues with braking/acceleration and relatively even tire wear. The mini just doesn't have a lot of caster so you have to run lots of static camber to make up for all the camber you lose in roll.

 

I have to remeasure because the initial measure ments i gave above were right after i i installed the coilovers, so im sure the suspension has settled by now, Here are pics of the car, you can see the height in them, its not that high but at the same time its not slammed.






I spoke to the shop who will be doing the alignment on my car and he too recommended high camber, i think ill be going with -2.8 to -3 in the front and -1.5 to -1.7 in the rear. Ill see when im actually getting the car aligned.

Thank you all for all the help, i really appreciate it.