Lowered Vipers; is camber correctable?

[obaa996]

I've got a question for those with lowered cars (Eibachs or equivalent): is the camber correctable after re-alignment? I put some Eibachs on my '94 late last fall, and got it over to the dealership soon afterward for an alignment. I picked up the car, and noticed that it had some pretty noticeable negative camber, similar to those slammed ricers (can't recall if it was the same as before I brought it in), but didn't think too much of it at the time. Last night, I was flipping through the shop manual and saw the alignment specs; camber is supposed to be pretty close to 0, which got me thing that something was not right. Is the camber a visual trick now that the car is lowered, or was something not adjusted right? I imagine that there's some accounting that needs to be done from the stock procedures to correct for the lowering; perhaps it wasn't done? I suppose the easiest way to find out is to see how quickly the tires get shredded, but that's kinda spendy to me...

Thanks!

 

[Ulysses]

Quickest way is to get it back on an alignment rack and see what the camber reads out. There should be no visual trick if the camber is straight up and down. If your seeing a noticeable camber offset, then it probably wasn't done properly. I haven't lowered my Viper, so i'm not sure that camber offset caused via lowering by Eibach's is completely correctable, but the few lowered Vipers I have seen don't seem to have a noticeable camber offset.

 

[Brad Manhattan Beach]

If I were you I would talk to Erik Messley about this. He can give you all of the details and probably refer you to someone. You can email him at [email protected].

I would not trust a dealer to do an aggressive alignment (for street and track) for you. They only know what to do with OE specifications.

I would not push your car very hard before you get the alignment done correctly. The toe settings are critical to the break away characteristics of your car's rear end.

That's my $.02.

 

[Venom500]

I agree with everything Brad said. With the experience I have had with dealers, I would not trust a dealer to do your alignment. Go to the best.

 

[Brad Manhattan Beach]

If you find someone like Erik, they can also corner weight your car (even though it might not have adjustable perches like ACR's). This way your weight distribution is dead on with the drivers weight calculated into it.

Make sure that whom ever does your car's alignment knows the inherent understeer that is dialed into Vipers so that they can adjust your caster correctly. Get rid of the sports shims altogether. I tossed mine the first week that I bought the car and got it aligned.

Finally, I would still rotate your tires side to side on a regular basis. I have almost 2 degrees of camber dialed into my car normally... because I like taking my car to the track whenever I can.

The key is to get your car to behave in a predictable manner (especially through transitions) so you will get plenty of warning as you approach the ends of the performance curve.

Looks and tire wear should be the least of your worries.

Brad

 

[Yves]

Sure hope you didn't take it to Timberline for that.
Shortly before leaving Oregon I bought Eibachs from JonB. He hooked me up with a racing company close to PIR which did the alignment for me. No issues so far.

 

[obaa996]

Thanks for the comments, guys. While I have no issues with the competency of this shop, I think I'm going to stop by another shop to at least get a confirmation on the #'s.

Yves, do you happen to recall the name of the shop you took
yours too? Sounds like a good place to do the double-checking.

Thanks!

 

[Brad Manhattan Beach]

Talk to Erik Messley! He has forgotten more about Viper alignments than most people know. I kid you not, just because a shop does alignments (even track alignments) it doesn't mean they know the correct settings for Vipers.

 

[Yves]

I have the invoice somewhere in Vienna, but I'm in the Alps now for the next 2 weeks.
Give JonB a call.

It's a race shop not so far from PIR. They also worked on this Canadian guy's Competition Coupe.

 

[obaa996]

I'll ping Erik; would be good to hear what he has to say.
I'll ping JonB as well.
Thanks!