Geometry Setup

[Gourlay83]

Ballast in the drivers seat isn't important. Suspension is a dynamic thing so all your looking for is consistant base settings. i.e. the car ride height is where you want it, not to much static droop, chamber is equal side to side, but can be different front to back. front toe and rear toe are set equal side for side and your castor is the same side for side. Seloc has a list of standard settings in their Wiki have a look.

Know what you mean Mike but the figures do change when you have weight on the seat. When setting up myt car (you were there). One side changed by 0.5 when I sat in the car.

[mwmackenzie]

mine is getting done on friday morning but I'll not be there to sit in it.... will that be an issue?

http://wiki.seloc.org/a/Geo_Setups

[Mikie711]

All the advice I value with regard to suspension geometry, dampener settings, ride heights etc comes from my experience with the S1 which, as some know, had top drawer kit fitted to it pretty much from the off. After long discussions with many people, most of whom do this sort of thing for a living it became apparent that nearly all of them never ballast the drivers seat. After talking this over with one Mr Randell he explained in terms I couldn't even begin to understand why they don't use ballast. It really doesn't make that significant a difference to the car when it's cornering as all the loads are dynamic and constantly changing depending so many factors.

That and I doubt any of us would be able to tell the difference anyway.

[mwmackenzie]

Phew....Thanks Mikie!

[steviej]

Hi, just out of curiosity where should the front camber be? standard setting says -0.1deg but other threads say -1.0deg, although -0.1 doesnt seem enough does anyone know if -1.0 have a big effect on turn in and/or tyre wear
Everything else i've read seems agreed on
front toe 0 to -0.5 mm (toe out)
Rear toe +1.8 - +2.0 mm (toe in)
Rear camber -1.8 - -2.0 deg
Hoping to have a home geo session with mine next week
Stevie

[Shug]

Depends on overall setup - I've run with up to -1.5 and a good chunk of toe out. -1 is a pretty good road/track compromise on an S2 I believe.

[mckeann]

it all depends what you use the car for. -0.1 is
fine if its a motorway hack, or driven to the shops. -2.5 is great on track with sticky tyres. -1 is a good compromise for twisty road/track on a range of tyres, but the inside edges will wear a wee bit quicker than standard. Turn in is sharper and quicker the more extreme you go, but -1 is ok. -1 is the most you can get on an S2 anyway with no shims, so start there

[steviej]

Thanks for that, sounds like a good place to start, as I hope to use it as B road run, occasional track day car, let you know the results
Cheers - Stevie

[r10crw]

I agree that you would have to be very special to tell whether a car has been setup with or without driver however there is not a shadow of doubt that to be perfect, driver should be in the car. This is of course for corner weighting primarily and matters less for toe/camber adjustment.
Unless the springs are perfect in that they perform linearly regardless of compression then changing the weights on each wheel (with/without driver) will affect braking/cornering and even the neutrality of the bump steer.

[alicrozier]

All the advice I value with regard to suspension geometry, dampener settings, ride heights etc comes from my experience with the S1 which, as some know, had top drawer kit fitted to it pretty much from the off. After long discussions with many people, most of whom do this sort of thing for a living it became apparent that nearly all of them never ballast the drivers seat. After talking this over with one Mr Randell he explained in terms I couldn't even begin to understand why they don't use ballast. It really doesn't make that significant a difference to the car when it's cornering as all the loads are dynamic and constantly changing depending so many factors.

That and I doubt any of us would be able to tell the difference anyway.

Somewhat obviously it makes less of a difference the stiffer the springs are...makes more of a difference on softy road cars.

[tut]

Reckon you could put an elephant in mine and it would not make much difference. Robin reckoned there was no compression on the rears when he pushed down.

tut

[kerryxeg]

Reckon you could put an elephant in mine and it would not make much difference. Robin reckoned there was no compression on the rears when he pushed down.

tut

Tut, Somehow I thought you'd have tried that.


Getting the geo right transformed my car, so well worth figuring out what you think would suit your driving and taking the time to get it right. And in my case it made the car much safer to drive - once the toe out at the rear was removed along with a degree of camber.

Incidentally, how much were they for the geo check, I might get mine checked.

Kerry

[CubanGav]

£65 then £10 for each adjustment.
Mine felt squirmy (for lack of a more professional word) in a straight line before and it's fine now. The only thing bugging me is the tyre wear on the inside fronts but not knowing how many miles are on them I dont suppose its possible to comment.

Gav.

[Shug]

£65 then £10 for each adjustment.
Mine felt squirmy (for lack of a more professional word) in a straight line before and it's fine now. The only thing bugging me is the tyre wear on the inside fronts but not knowing how many miles are on them I dont suppose its possible to comment.

Gav.

Elises do that if not driven hard enough in the twisties or given too many motorway miles

[CubanGav]

Job 1: Have it fixed.
Job 2: Fix roof leak.
Job 3: Learn to drive properly.