I'm thinking about getting some camber plates for my Cooper for next spring. My concern is that I need to drive my Cooper all winter long in the snow. I've read that increased negative camber helps in hard turns - the car leans over and actually makes the tire sit flat to the pavement; but that increased negative camber actually makes straight line braking and accelerating worse, as there's less tire in contact with the ground.

Driving in the snow, there's not enough lateral grip available to get the suspension loaded up and have the increased negative camber be helpful in a turn. So, I think it would be a "bad thing" all around in the snow. But, how bad? Has anyone driven a car (MINI or not) in snow with camber plates installed? Theory is one thing, reality sometimes another.

As an aside, this lack of lateral grip / suspension loading comes in handy when talking about stiffer rear swaybars. I don't think that my Cooper became any harder to drive in the snow when I installed a bigger rear swaybar.

I like the low price of the Ireland Engineering fixed plates. But, if they'd make life miserable in the snow, I would go with adjustable camber plates.

 

I used to run -2.5° to -3° camber in front on both of my Neons that I autocrossed and drove on the street year round. I drove through quite a bit of snow here in Ohio from time to time, and never had a problem with traction due to my negative camber. Running the correct tires for the weather conditions at hand is much more important in my experience than returning to the factory specs for alignment during winter.

-Keith

 

probably no ill effects, just run some snow tires.

 

Yup, I've got the snow tires already.

 

with a little more negative camber, your car has the potentially to be a little grippier in the snow if you have tires that are designed to work in cold conditions. Summer-only tires get much of their grip from mechanical keying. A wide summer-only tire will not work well in the snow at optimum camber angles. Tires are key.

Some of the Q rated snow tires are very good in cold and snowy conditions. However, I feel a tire with a Q rating is something to avoid with this car, and, more aggressive camber settings - the sidewalls are very soft. I can squeeze the tread and bead area together without much effort...no sidewall strength on purpose.