well i started a few years back with mazdaspeed 4 way adjustable. a few months ago i just replaced all my bushings with poly (the red ones) and that made an amazing difference. i still cant corner well though, i have base model sway bars...

i just picked up new racing beat front and rear sway bars from a buddy. was curious if i should just install the front, or if i should install the rear too, i heard that it makes the rear end easy to kick out, but thats not a concern of mine, i wont be tracking the car.


i also wanted to add that i have problems cornering, i think its because when i had an alignment done, they set my camber adjustment plates in the front to 0. which almost looks POSITIVE camber to me!!! definantly feels positive in cornering..


so after i install the sway bars. i was going to go to get an alignment done and i was curious what i should have the front set to. neg 1 or neg 2.. idk much about these settings. i would apriciate some feed back about the sway bars and the front camber!

heres a picture of the front to rear , front almost looks positive. more so in real life

 

Very good looking car! Does look like it has little front camber though. Was it a performance alignment or a chain tire store "alignment"? Toe-out will improve initial turn-in and negative camber will improve mid-turn traction. But then there's a tradeoff between excessive tire wear for performance.

Many opinions on settings, but I can give you mine. It's a weekend driver/track car.
Front camber -2.00 deg. I don't have much issue with camber wear at -2.00, I would like more for track use.
Front toe 0~1/16 inches in. Trade-off between turn-in response and highway stability.
Rear camber -1.5 deg. A little rear grip oriented for track use. Maybe -1.0 for street.
Rear toe 0. Allows DTSS to work if it's there. I'm not sure on non-DTSS settings (1/16 in?)

Sway bars: Racing beat front bar, rear stock TII. Prefer it to full racing beat bars. If you're not concerned about the track, run the racing beat cause they look sweet.

Also, I prefer using a front strut bar to improve initial turn-in as well. What exactly are you trying to 'fix' for the handling of the car?

 

isn't it suspension ? correct me if i'm wrong just saying, anyways nice 7

 

are you under steering mid turn?
From the pics it does look like it has some positive camber.
The setting RXspeed16 posted is pretty much the starting point to create a suspension setup.

I run a little bit more then 1/16 on the toe-out for stability when initiating a drift.

You should post in the suspension/wheel section and see what they say.

Also....everytime I see your car....makes me jealous lol, love the way it turned out

edit : wow lucky 7 post haha

 

yeah its mid turn. i know my rear isnt very adjustable because i dont have a camber plate or anything like that and they said they couldnt get it any more 0 then what it is now.

i think what RXspeed16 said i'll stick with. no need for another post in another section basic stuff is all i need.

no need to be jealous, you should learn what i had to learn and creat your own 7 from your own practice and hard work!!! i can tell you it didnt cost much at all.
my auto spell check doesnt work in title bars. rather stupid... and what can i say, im dyslexic.
it was a "break check alignment" back in the day i did a 4 lug hub to 5 lug hub swap and tii breaks. when i upgraded to wider tires i noticed the poor alignment so i had to take it in to break check. a while after this i was nominated to lead a car cruise threw some twisties.. oh oh oh was that ever bad and embarrassing. turned out my A arm bushing was blown out and so i upgraded with a full bushing kit . took the twisties one more time and still had some trouble controlling into the turns. and on highway onramps and interchanges.

i dont drive the car more then 1500-2000 miles A YEAR! so i dont really care about tire wear. but i do care about being able to handle my car for enjoyable driving experience!

 

omg my front camber was positive .6 on either side. how ridiculous is that!!

he set my settings to the above specified. thank you for all the help the car feels so much better now

 

what an idiot. glad you got everything figured out jess

 

ya i knew something wasnt right with the front end. i mean it even LOOKS positive. and sure enough it was. now i got -1 on either side and after he printed out my alignment sheet he then pulled the front toe in just a bit more!!!

i tipped him 10 bux and he got to drive my car on a test drive, needless to say he was rather happy.

i didnt get to go on a test drive tonight, tomorrow for sure if the weather is clear.

 

its gonna be night and day on the track now

 

i dont track it but i am going to take it up in the hills today.

all i have left to do under the car is replace all th bearings, oh joy.... and i think my rear dif mount is breaking again... damn thing

 

how many times you broke your diff hahaha

Install a pinion snubber and it will help alot.

 

i did install one. doesnt help much now that its dented upward

first one was broken when we installed it. we installed it wrong and it put stress on the rubber i think. i forget what happen but i know it was our fault. and the 2nd one was of a vert, so it was still old and not a new replacement. it doesnt thump but i can feel weight transfer and i can feel it move up.


not broken just yet

 

Nice looking car - I'm not a fan of body kits and wings as rule, but the paint and general quality make it work
Stock spec actually calls for +.2* +-.3* front camber, so the alignment wasn't done particularly wrong, by spec - just a lame spec. I'd avoid the rear bar - I've downgraded my stock 14mm rear bar to a 12mm bar of a base car. Still can kick the rear end out with gas on the street, but less likely to happen by accident on the track (I realize you said you weren't tracking the car, but I was finding I could easily oversteer on the street too). Looking good with the shiny rear bar only lasts until you put an ugly wrinkle in the rear quarter panel from snapping the rear end around trying to pull out into traffic from the mall or something similarly retarded.

I'll offer an alternate suggestion for settings. For street, I'd suggest setting the toe to 0, even though I run about 1/16" toe out on the street myself, and dial it up slightly for autocross. While the turn-in responsiveness is nice, the tramlining in truck ruts on freeways and general dartiness kind of wears out fast.

I actually run very little front neg camber - about -.5*, but I have a lot of caster - about 7-8*, iirc, I'd have to go check my log book, I haven't changed that setting in years. This means the contact patch is flat and optimized for both wear and braking, but there is a lot of negative camber gain as the wheel is turned, helping to optimize contact patch under cornering loads. High caster tends to increase steering effort (not an issue with power steering), and steering feel/feedback. Which for me at least translates to a win all around. And I tend to get to get more runs out a set of r-comps than anyone I know, they usually heat-cycle out before they wear out, and I always finish well in local and regional events, so it's not like I baby it exactly. My fronts in particular wear very evenly, while the rears tend to wear the inside a slightly (-2.0* camber in the rear, 1/8" toe in, no DTSS on my car, highly recommend ditching it, makes the car way more controllable at the limit, although again, you don't track the car so that shouldn't matter).

 

greg thanks for all that info! i dont have caster adjustment plates so i guess im missing out . i know what you mean about the dartiness of the car, i noticed that on the highway. i may dial down the toe in back to 0 in near future.

i have alot of bearing play so its hard to dial in the rear. as well as the front need to be changed too so i couldnt really fine tune it on the machine

car is a long way from done but with all this info it helps me learn and achieve my goals!!!