Alignments 1 CAMBER

Camber describes the angle between the tire's centerline and the vertical plane. If the wheels of the car lean inwards, the camber angle is said to be negative, if they lean outward, the angle is said to be positive. It is usually measured at ride height, and angles of -0.5 to -3 are the most common. First of all, positive camber is never used, only negative. Negative camber is necessary because when a car turn into a corner, it experiences chassis roll, which increases the tires' camber angle. Also, because most rubber tires are quite flexible, they get a little deformed in the direction of the center of the corner. If the car doesn't have any negative camber, only the tires' outer edge and sidewall would touch the ground, which isn't beneficial for traction. A tire's coefficient of traction (grip) increases as it's contact surface increases, so the ideal situation would be that the tire would stay perpendicular to the ground at all times, and that it wouldn't deform under heavy side load. Unfortunately, this isn't the case; most of the time you have to find the best compromise. The problem is that if you want maximum forward traction, you have to set the camber to 0, and if you want maximum cornering action you have to set it to a few degrees negative, depending on the softness of the suspension and tire carcass. So you can't have both, but you can try to make the best possible compromise. The easiest way is to set camber so the tires wear evenly across their surface, that way you can be sure every part of the surface is used to the maximum of it's potential. Keep in mind that a car with very soft suspension settings and very little camber change will need more negative camber than a car with a very stiff suspension and In very bumpy offroad conditions however, it can be beneficial to use more camber than would be needed for uniform wear across the surface. The excess camber stabilizes the car in large bumps and reduces the risk of catching a rut and flipping over. Camber can also be used as an adjustment to attain a desired handling effect, but I definitely don't recommend this: a non-optimal camber setting always yields less traction, which inevitably makes the car slow.

2 CASTER

Caster describes the angle c between the kingpin and the vertical plane. In case of a double wishbone-type of suspension, the axis through the centers of the ball links serves as a 'virtual hinge pin'. If the kingpin is leaning back, as in the pic, the caster angle is said to be positive. Negative caster (kingpin leaning towards the front) is never used. Note that the contact patch between the tire and the ground is behind the intersection point of the extension of the kingpin and the earth. (Dimension d) This will cause the wheels to 'trail'. The caster angle will cause excessive camber in the front wheels as they are steered, lifting the front of the car up. This lifting effect is what causes the front wheels to have a tendency to straighten out when there's no steering force applied: when the wheels are pointed straight ahead, the chassis sits at its lowest position, steering the wheels requires some force, to lift the car up. When the force is removed, gravity will return the wheel to their original position. The bigger the caster angle, and the heavier the car, the stronger this effect is. Also, the bigger he caster angle, the bigger the camber difference induced when the wheels are steered. This camber difference is to compensate for the chassis roll and tire squirm when the car is cornering. Hence, a lot of caster will provide more steering in high-speed corners, where chassis roll is more pronounced, and whilst turning in. It will also make the car more stable in rough conditions, and the car's straight-line stabili ty will also be improved. A small caster angle will provide more steering in lowspeed corners, and less turn-in. Note that the caster angle isn't always constant. Cars with double wishbone suspension, where both wishbones aren't parallel, will experience a change in caster angle as the suspension is compressed or extended. If the lower wishbone has less kickup than the upper wishbone, the caster angle will decrease as the suspension compresses, like when the car is turning or braking. This is called 'reactive caster'.

3 TOE ANGLE

The wheels on a car seldomly point straight ahead. The drawing on the left shows a car with toe-out at the front and toe-in at the rear. Toe-in means the tires point inwards, and toe-out means the tires point outwards.

Both front wheels try to pull the car to the side. They won't be able to, because on the other side there's an equally big, opposing force, but the can try. These forces are indicated by the green arrows. So the wheels aren't pointing in the direction in which they are going (white arrow). This creates a slip angle, as explained in chapter 1.

So, in theory, the car isn't going anywhere. But, this in an instable situation: suppose the car hits a slight bump on one side, or it is steered just a little bit. This will induce more load on one of the two front tires. More load means more grip, so the tire can also pull to the side a little stronger. In the case of a small steering correction, the force on the other side will also get smaller, because the weight is transferred, not induced because of a bump. So you end up with one wheel pulling to one side very strongly, and the other wheel pulling the other side, but not nearly as hard. As a result, the two forces don't suspend each other any more; there is a resultant force to one side, which will steer the car. This is bad news, because this will in turn cause weight transfer, worsening the problem. The driver can try to correct this by countersteering, but if it's not done perfectly, you end up with the same effect in the other direction. This will make the car wave from side to side, or in t h e worst case, fishtail. Toe-out causes instability, so there's no point in using it at the rear of your car, it will make it undrivable. But, in the front, there's the stabilizing effect of caster. That's why a little toe-out is sometimes used in front, as long as the car has sufficient caster, instability on the straights won't be a problem. The 'instable effect' will be noticeable though: while turning into corners. Turning in will feel more immediate and more aggressive. At the rear of the car there's some toe-in. This will also create two opposing forces, but this time it's a stable system. If for whatever reason one force would become greater than the other, the car will be steered in the direction that causes weight transfer onto the tire that was losing weight in the first place. So the tire which was losing grip ends up with more weight, and hence more grip. The system stabilises itself, this is also called negative feedback. Toe-in causes stability: it will create an effect that steers the car straight ahead. It's mostly used at the rear, where it will prevent the rear from 'stepping out' when the tires are constantly brought to the edges of the traction circle, and any bump can make them lose grip. To the driver it will feels as is the rear is really 'locked in', as if there's some invisible force keeping the rear on track. There's a downside to this too: in corners, especially low-speed ones, this can take away a lot of steering. The effect can be so big the gripping power of the front tires is hardly sufficient to turn the car. In other words, excessive rear toe-in makes a car understeer. Toe-in at the front does basically the same thing: it stabilises the front. This can be a nice effect if you want to calm down the front of your car while accellerating. It will also make you lose a little steering; turn-in will be far less aggressive. There's something else all sorts of toe do: they take away lag. The opposing forces, small as they usually are, take away all the slop in the suspension, and pre-load the

tire in a lateral way. They slightly deform the tire carcasses, which makes the car react quicker, without any lag. The downside to having lots of toe is primarily the loss of energy, or speed: more speed is being scrubbed off as the toe angle increases, since the tires' slip angle will be equally big. The grippier the track ,the bigger the energy loss will be, so avoid lots of toe when there's a lot of grip. Also, lots of toe will create big slip angles even when the car is running straight ahead. This is not a good starting point, since lots of slip makes a tire lose grip.

The toe angle is measured in degrees, it's the angle between the centerlines of the two tires. Normal values for toe at the front range from -1.5 to +1.5, any more would cause strange handling effects. At the rear, 0 to 3.5 degrees of toe-in are commonly used, a little less for on-road. 4 THE ACKERMANN EFFECT As you might have guessed, the Ackermann effect was 'discovered' by someone named Rudolf Ackermann, back in the days of horse drawn carts. It's all about finding the right angles for the front wheels for the car (or cart) to steer correctly.

This is the situation when the car isn't turning: the lines extending the front and rear axles do not intersect. None of the tires is slipping and all of the axles are angled the same. (0)

This is the same car taking a relatively wide turn. The point where the axle lines intersect is the point about which the car is turning; it's the center of the circular

path the car is following. Notice that if none of the tires is slipping, the inside front wheel is angled just a little more than the outside front wheel. For wide turns, it isn't much, but it's a start.

This is the car negotiating a relatively tight turn. The radius of the circle the car is describing is very small. Notice that there is quite a difference in angle between the two front wheels. The difference gets even bigger when the turn is even tighter. That's the Ackermann effect. As it turns out, making a steering rack that produces the perfect angles to satisfy Ackermann's theory is very hard, if not impossible. However, several elementary types of steering mechanisms produce angles that approximate the ideal very well. After all, there's always some free play in the steering components, and the tires can take up the rest of the rest by means of sidewall deformation.

That theory is nice, and for every day street cars it's nice to have the correct ackermann setting at full lock because it will make your car turn better and smoother in tight corners, like when you're parking or manouvering. But when you're racing the tires tend to slip anyway, so you can fool around with the angles a little. The angle between the two front tires is referred to as 'the Ackermann angle', and it can be varied by adjusting the steering linkages. A large Ackermann angle gives you smooth, predictable steering. You'll be able to round the corners nicely without all four tires trying to force the car in a different direction. A smaller Ackermann angle on the other hand can give you more aggressive steering, especially entering the corners. However, it isn't guaranteed that the front won't wash out now and then. Neither is a smooth cornering radius. It can be useful an high-traction tracks, if your car tends to oversteer in the middle of the corners, and you'd like a little more turn-in. Not to mention the psychological impact on the person driving right in front of you when you're entering corners.