I tried a toe adjustment experiment and thought I would share, for the sake of anyone who has not driven a car with significant rear toe-out and then slight toe-in of the rear tires.

With about 1/4" toe out on the rear, the car appeared to be very snappy in back even though it understeered more during tight turns (front tires started singing while the rears remained planted). Power-on oversteer was really there, however. The car was not very fun at speeds over 70mph because it had kind of a fishtailing tendency.

With about an eighth inch of toe-in in back and about a quarter inch of toe out in front, the car seemed to understeer less and the rear seemed to follow the front of the car, instead of doing the opposite. It felt very good and stable, while being very responsive in front. Instead of there being an oscillation of the car when doing a quick turn and then return to straight ahead, the car would stop in its direction of travel when steering pressure was released, instead of fishtailing.

With that settled, it's time to get out the die grinder and change the front camber to remove the remaining understeer from the chassis.

Now the camber adjustment

http://home.att.net/~jeff.g.quinn/camber.jpg


I'm not sure how much camber that gives, but the car sure drives differently now. There is not much understeer left, much less steering effort, and a feeling of the car tracking correctly through turns now.

did you get both sides identical? Did you just leave the old holes open and just tightened the nuts down? I have seen this done before, but am really curios about the accuracy. I have also thought of adding - camber by drilling out the top bolt hole where the strut mounts to the wheel assembly. What made you decide to do it that way?

BTW, this thread is great, people came through with lots of good info

It's only as accurate as the original holes, which are what I based the current setting on. I tried to get the gaps the same on both sides, but I doubt they are even close to identical. Only a real alignment machine could tell.

Surprisingly, that much camber might be all the car needs. That produced a noticeable inward lean to the tops of the tires. The car is sweet like this. It really grooves. But it likes to follow the grooves in the road more now, too! ;)

I think I am going to do this since it will be a long time before I get coilovers and adjustable plates.