Install Adjustable Camber Plates

Most passenger car suspensions are built with comfort and quiet, no-surprises operation in mind. Engineers weigh road handling and performance against acceptable tire wear when they design suspensions for passenger cars. The good majority of the motoring public drives their cars about with little thought of pushing the limits of tire adhesion. For these reasons, factory suspension adjustments are usually kept within the context of average, everyday driving. If you happen to be one of the road-going hooligans who enjoys a run or two up the canyons on a weekend, tossing your car around autocross cones, or running around a road course—then adding suspension adjustability can be the answer to improved handling. Adjustable camber plates are part of the improved handling equation.

Camber Lean
One of the ways to dial-in improved handling is through negative camber. Camber is the measure of vertical axis of a wheel and tire as it relates to the body of the car. Positive camber puts the top of the tire away from the body. Negative camber puts the top the tire in toward the body. Zero camber leaves the tire and wheel straight up and down related to the body of the car. These measurements change as the car corners. The reason negative camber helps a car to carve a corner is that when the body of the car leans into a corner, the weight pushes on that wheel and tire as well. The tire and wheel with static negative camber ideally moves to a zero camber position when pushed into a corner. Zero camber places the full contact patch of the tire flat in touch with the road surface. Positive camber can cause the tire going into the corner to fold onto its sidewall, and lose traction.

Factory Fresh
The problem for the driving enthusiast is that factory camber is often not adjustable. While older cars came with double-wishbone suspension that allowed for camber adjustment, the good lot of modern cars comes equipped from the factory with a MacPherson strut suspension. The strut does away with the need for an upper control arm, bushings, and so on by mounting the entire upper part of suspension into a strut bearing. The bearing allows for the spring, shock absorber, and wheel spindle attached to it to turn, as does the steering wheel. Stock strut bearings fix the center of the MacPherson strut at a mounting point within the unit-body of a car. Camber adjustability is not an option with a stock strut bearing. This can become a problem when adding lowering springs or other suspension modifications that alter the factory settings.

Positives and Negatives
Adjustable camber plates replace the stock strut bearing with a unit that allows for the previously fixed upper center of the MacPherson strut to be moved toward or away from the body of the car. With a twist or two of a wrench, the plates allow for camber angle to be easily adjusted. Racecars often run with enough negative camber that it can be easily seen while the car is going in a straight line. Passenger cars are usually set with a small amount of negative camber from the factory. The reason is tire wear. Large amounts of negative camber can improve cornering, but accelerate tire wear. As the car is moving straight only half of the tire is making contact. Tire wear is not a problem for those with tire sponsors and pit crews. For the rest of us, camber adjustability is welcome, but should be used wisely.

Resource
CUSCO manufactures suspension components for a vast number of cars, many more modern than the 1982 Toyota Starlet seen here. For more information see http://www.napsusa.com/