Sportivo Negative Front Camber

[whitestivo]

First mod has arrived. The whiteline rear sway bar goes on this week (thank you to forum members for your help). My next question is has anyone put on the Whiteline (or other brand) front camber adjustment bolts? They provide 1.5degrees of negative camber on the front. I have installed rear sway bars before with much success, but not adjusted camber. I understand how they should work, just haven't seen, or read anything here about reviews/examples.

FYI - Lowering by any method is out of the question.

[SuperDave]

I knwo someone who runs the camber bolts on their Sportivo and running at the full -1.5 on stock suspension with anti roll bar upgrades. It does stop the shoulder of the tyre being chewed out on the track, on the road you shouldn't have that problem. So in that, it was worth the money for camber bolts to stop the tyre's from wearing out too fast.

[ADDZZ]

That's awesome I was looking into this. How much of an improvement in handling is it?

And does anyone now of any aftermarket products for the rear camber, etc?

[SuperDave]

I can't comment on handling since I haven't driven it and is hard to quantify the drop in lap time. Maybe 0.1s, but track conditions on the day would play just as big a factor. But that low a range of camber adjustment wont affect handling too much unless you don't get a wheel alignment afterwards.

As for rear camber adjustment I haven't found anyone who makes camber plates for the Corolla. One day I'll get in there and see what I can do with it. But at the end of the day the rear of the Corolla doesn't do much except hold the back up, so camber adjustment back there wont do much except look sexy and pull the chicks :P

[MT]

I can't comment on handling since I haven't driven it and is hard to quantify the drop in lap time. Maybe 0.1s, but track conditions on the day would play just as big a factor. But that low a range of camber adjustment wont affect handling too much unless you don't get a wheel alignment afterwards.

As for rear camber adjustment I haven't found anyone who makes camber plates for the Corolla. One day I'll get in there and see what I can do with it. But at the end of the day the rear of the Corolla doesn't do much except hold the back up, so camber adjustment back there wont do much except look sexy and pull the chicks :P

Do you need more reason to do it then?

[ADDZZ]

haha if i was buying a car in order to pull chicks I wouldn't have bought a corolla. I'd have kept my MR2. That seemed to work just fine.

Back on the subject though. I did speak to my local pedders and they were meant to get in contact with their R & D and let me know if there was anything the could do about the rear camber cos mine sucks on the left hand side. They never rang me back and i forgot about it.

[Avenger]

just got this back from my local Pedders dealer

I do have a listing for a Camber Bolt for the front, but I don't have

anything listed for the rear. This doesn't mean that we can't do anything

for your vehicle! We could have a closer look at it when we fit the bolts

and 4Wheel Align your car!

Regards,

Graeme Price.

Franchise Owner

[whitestivo]

I knwo someone who runs the camber bolts on their Sportivo and running at the full -1.5 on stock suspension with anti roll bar upgrades. It does stop the shoulder of the tyre being chewed out on the track, on the road you shouldn't have that problem. So in that, it was worth the money for camber bolts to stop the tyre's from wearing out too fast.

Cheers Super Dave - I'll stick with the swaybar.

From what I understand, if you lower the car, then you get more negative camber on all 4 corners, so for members that want more camber then that's your path.

I'll let everyone know after fitment (saturday) how the mod pulls up. I gained 5km/h a corner in my old S14, and that was already a good base.

[MT]

I knwo someone who runs the camber bolts on their Sportivo and running at the full -1.5 on stock suspension with anti roll bar upgrades. It does stop the shoulder of the tyre being chewed out on the track, on the road you shouldn't have that problem. So in that, it was worth the money for camber bolts to stop the tyre's from wearing out too fast.

Cheers Super Dave - I'll stick with the swaybar.

From what I understand, if you lower the car, then you get more negative camber on all 4 corners, so for members that want more camber then that's your path.

I'll let everyone know after fitment (saturday) how the mod pulls up. I gained 5km/h a corner in my old S14, and that was already a good base.

The sportivo has struts and lower control arms fitted to the front. As the vehicle is lowered, the lower control arm is raised closer to the horizontal position, slightly increasing its length which will produce a very small negative camber change compared to fitment of excentric camber bolts which are able to create a large camber change (back to that in a moment)

The rear suspension on a sportivo is a torsion beam where the camber is a function of the wheel bearing mounting brackets which remain at the same camber setting irrespective of ride height. Hence, no camber bolts available for the rear suspension. Camber change could be made by bending the beam or fitting wedge plates behind the wheel bearing mounts (race mod only, not street legal)

Most manufacturers customise the suspension settings on there cars to give understeer close to the cornering limits so that any ordinary driver will not be caught out by snap oversteer during severe direction changes. Circuit racers add neg camber to the suspension to keep the tyre in full contact with the road during heavy cornering loads and change the settings according to the circuit conditions. So, circuit levels of neg camber are unsuitable for road cars due to tyre wear issues and unintended handling changes.

Fitting a stiffer rear sway bar increases the rear roll stiffness. This may enable the vehicle to achieve higher cornering speeds, but not everywhere... all suspension mods are a compromise.

[Seano]

Fitting a stiffer rear sway bar increases the rear roll stiffness. This may enable the vehicle to achieve higher cornering speeds, but not everywhere... all suspension mods are a compromise.

Is it just recently that you've been advising people with suspension mods especially regarding understeer, or do you do it all the time micky_tee :P

[selyaT]

He gets good advice and passes it on :)

[Leroy]

He gets good advice and passes it on :)

Hahaha - but at least the advice is sound as a pound

[MT]

LOL at the 2 idiots above

Seano - I've been asking questions myself lately and learning a lot about suspension especially. Thought I might as well pass on the knowledge!

[ADDZZ]

I'm just gonna have to get some camber bolts... I like round abouts and the great ocean road waaaaaay too much. My shoulders is wearing out...

[SILVABULLIT]

Camber bolts are good and give you adjustment for the reasons listed above. Lower your car and camber will change.(Top of the class to Micky!!) I modified the leg of the front struts to get camber adjustment. Camber bolts will give you about 1.5 deg negative and with my mod i could get just over 4 deg negative!! Looked tough as set and 4 deg but man your tyres wouldn't last long at all...

As for the rears i have an idea and have looked a way of adjusting rear camber. Will be doing it sometime soon on a certain Sportivo in Brisbane who is willing help with the costs associated with trying it....

[Seano]

LOL at the 2 idiots above

Seano - I've been asking questions myself lately and learning a lot about suspension especially. Thought I might as well pass on the knowledge!

Ah ok makes sense now! Keep up the good work :P

[whitestivo]

RESULTS Rear Swaybar

Whiteline rear swaybar was fitted this morning. Worth every cent and some. Turn in is much sharper, holding 5-8km/h more speed through corners. I'm no expert, but from seat of the pants, before where the front tyres would start to scrub out in the corner, you can take a much more aggressive line, and the understeer is noticeably less. Only cost me $20 to have fitted (recommend Mida$ Indooropilly), and is money very well spent. The steering still feels a little soft under normal driving, so advice on improving this would be great. Tempted to look at a front sway bar due to the huge improvement from the rear.

Sportivo starting to feel like the little rocket it should have been from the factory.

[Dead]

In regards to camber, never do the following:

- Work on coilovers when you're crook from an allergic reaction and tired from work.

I has uber positive camber on the drivers side now. Don't ever employ Nelson to help you either. He sucks.

[SILVABULLIT]

RESULTS Rear Swaybar

Whiteline rear swaybar was fitted this morning. Worth every cent and some. Turn in is much sharper, holding 5-8km/h more speed through corners. I'm no expert, but from seat of the pants, before where the front tyres would start to scrub out in the corner, you can take a much more aggressive line, and the understeer is noticeably less. Only cost me $20 to have fitted (recommend Mida$ Indooropilly), and is money very well spent. The steering still feels a little soft under normal driving, so advice on improving this would be great. Tempted to look at a front sway bar due to the huge improvement from the rear.

Sportivo starting to feel like the little rocket it should have been from the factory.

Leave front sway bar stock. Add a front strut brace and check your front tyre pressures. On stock tyres run at least 36 psi if you are a spirited driver. From there the next step would be better tyres and maybe rim combo. Is the car lowered? Maybe a spring and aftermarket strut combo/good quality coilovers would also be a great addition. Don't buy cheap coilovers cause they're cheap mass produced crap and will cause more trouble than good!!!!