SCCA Hawaii 2019 | “Negative Camber” | Race 12
The final race of the regular season was one I was particularly looking forward to – it’s the first time I’d be putting the SPC camber bolts to use since the install.
Why is having negative camber in this case a good thing? An illustration from turnology.com below shows this easily. While in a turn the tire will load evenly on the ground, utilizing its full contact patch for better traction.
Further, it minimizes tire roll over, which is just as bad as it sounds – the tire rolling over on its sidewall, where the compound is not at all effective. I was suffering from this for the majority of the season. It was evident just by looking at the front tires themselves as there was wear on the sidewalls.
The full article here is great at explaining it from a performance standpoint. It’s a great read!
I was eager to see if there was any difference in handling or feeling with the camber bolts. I will say it did feel a lot more “solid” and “stable” through turns, but nothing astronomically different… it served more so as piece of mind that roll over is minimized and the contact patch is being used more to its full potential.
I admit that I wish I had come around to doing it sooner, but that’s what happens when I procrastinate on the matter…
I was able to pull out consistent times for all 4 of my runs – a feat that I haven’t accomplished ever in my autox experience so I felt good about the achievement. They were all in the low 34.0xx range but I felt that a 33.xxx was within reach. I wish I had one more run to do it in.
Here are the runs on my RICECARDRIVER channel. If there are any suggestions other than “drive better” I’d like to hear them!
Enjoy!
