Story by Tim Suddard • Photography by Tim and Tom Suddard
A car can’t handle well if its wheels are pointed all over the place, right? That’s where properly aligning the chassis will help. The goal is simple: to maximize the grip of all four tires.
And how do you do that? Ideally with some testing-as we did with our Triumph TR3 vintage racer. …
Forgive me for ingnorance but how does toe out help a rear drive car?
Good, very basic overview. To really do alignment properly, try a tool such as "SmartStrings" invented by long-time & legendary Porsche chassis setup guru: Craig Watkins.
In reply to Automobilist :
We know Craig and have used his tools before. Definitely good stuff.
Is the TR-3/Jag XJ-6 ball joint taper in the upper spindle hole 7 degrees?
Before you poo poo string alignment. Roger Rager used that method when he put a Chevy Bus engine in place of the Cosworth.
He in fact briefly led the Indy 500 driving a 5 year old chassis with a school bus engine as its power plant. I think he finished in the top 5.
I've used string alignment on my 155 mph Jaguar vintage racer.
In reply to Bardan :
That's a good point which I sort of whizzed past because my comp cars have been FWD and AWD. So for RWD it's definitely a secondary level effect. But the slightly different angles because of the differing path lengths in the corner will cause some push if the fronts are exactly parallel, and this is more important on courses where you have significant steering angle on tighter turns. It's interesting that Tim notes that turn-in is improved, so my guess is he's saying that having some pre-turn slip angle pulling the car sideways is worth more than the fact that you had increased drag all along due to those slip angles. Like he quotes Andy, when it doubt trust the clock. This is important only for a racing alignment, as leaving much toe-in or out in a street use situation will result in lots of tire wear.
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