why is camber cool?

[Jersh]

can someone explain the handling advantages? how and why?

Camber angle helps increases grip. Negative camber puts the tire at a better angle to the road, transmitting the forces on the tire vertically instead of straight across the tire. It also helps with the tire rolling. When you have no camber (0), and you go into a corner the tire will roll causing the inside part of the tread to lift off the road surface. With the right amount of negative camber, you can eliminate this problem and keep a larger contact patch on the road. There are always a few negative to it though. One of them being straight line acceleration. If the camber is set to 0 you will have a larger contact patch than with negative or positive camber. There is a lot more to camber than what I said, I didn't really feel like going in depth with it though. Hope this helps.

[FJ40runr]

Haha that post cracks me the hell up. Basically, the (VAST!) majority of cars here that have camber added to them are purely meant to look cool. No one appears to give a shit whether it makes the car handle better or not. It is stupid to argue that it helps handling in this case.

That said, to make a generalization, camber added will increase grip on most cars. Long story short, most production cars' suspension geometry isn't the best for handling, and to provide the best use of the contact patch (while driven aggressively), negative camber must be added. I think your example is trying to show the inside and outside tires in a turn? What side of the car has all of the weight shifted on it in a turn? Which side tires are we most concerned about having it's contact patch maximized in that same situation? You just proved your own point wrong.

edit: lol now this makes no sense, wheelfetish deleted his post that said negative camber hinders handling.

[Jersh]

Haha that post cracks me the hell up. Basically, the (VAST!) majority of cars here that have camber added to them are purely meant to look cool. No one appears to give a shit whether it makes the car handle better or not. It is stupid to argue that it helps handling in this case.

That said, to make a generalization, camber added will increase grip on most cars. Long story short, most production cars' suspension geometry isn't the best for handling, and to provide the best use of the contact patch (while driven aggressively), negative camber must be added. I think your example is trying to show the inside and outside tires in a turn? What side of the car has all of the weight shifted on it in a turn? Which side tires are we most concerned about having it's contact patch maximized in that same situation? You just proved your own point wrong.

edit: lol now this makes no sense, wheelfetish deleted his post that said negative camber hinders handling.

Thanks for being nice about it. I pretty much paraphrased that entire thing from wikipedia. What I said may have been contradicting in some spots, but that is what I read and then restated using different words. I reaslize that people do it because it looks nice and helps wheels fit better. And I also realize that a lot of people on here don't really care about handling. He asked what camber does, so I googled it and then posted a simple response. I don't know everything about suspensions and how they work, I don't understand offsets and all that stuff. I just know the basics of how things work, no need to rip me a new one for not giving a perfect response on something I don't completely get.

[FJ40runr]

No dude, wasn't even directed at you. Your response totally made good sense, I think it was after that post that he said that drift cars use camber so they don't have grip and then drew up a diagram of how negative camber hurts grip in a turn.

He deleted it before you saw it or I finished my post I guess.

[Minuki]

can someone explain the handling advantages? how and why?

Correct me if i'm wrong on any of this please. I'm just going from what i've learned.

Having negative camber up front in a FWD car allows it to grip better through the corners, as more of the tyre is actually in contact with the road. It also helps with turn in speeds, it's quicker.

Ideally, you don't want much negative camber in a road car as it increases tyre wear and makes the car more "Twitchy" at high speeds.

Don't get me wrong, camber looks cool but can also be very dangerous.

[cobrawannabe]

For me, too much camber looks exactly like a giant bag of smashed assholes. Anything over 2.5 or 3* is just too much for a road car. At that point, it may make your wheels fit in the wheel wells, but that just says that your wheels don't fit. When the function of the car begins to be adversely effected by the form, things start getting stupid.

Of course, that is merely my opinion...

[Petis]

so, by the rational in this thread,this car looks like shit?.......









btw... he has -6* in the rear. Making broad statements about a certain degree of camber looking "stupid" on any car is dumb. It all depends on the car in question.

[cobrawannabe]

IMO, the camber looks like ass. How in the Hell can that car accelerate without smoking the tires all over the fenders? I say the 2.5 or 3* because that's pretty much the useful limit on a street car. Rest of the car looks like sex, though.

It's not stupid, it's functional....

[Petis]

^ I understand functionality when it comes to aggressive driving and what-not, but in the case of my friends s2k and my TSX, we don't ever really drive the dog-shit ot of our cars, due to the ride height, anyway. So having a ton of grip doesn't really matter for us.... with these cars that is. If building a track car, on the other hand, I would most assuredly take maximum grip values into account.

[kramerbuccs24]

so, by the rational in this thread,this car looks like shit?.......
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2699/4377061943_b69eb1a76b_b.jpg [ /img]








btw... he has -6* in the rear. Making broad statements about a certain degree of camber looking "stupid" on any car is dumb. It all depends on the car in question.

^very true. I did say "5* or so" but I 100% get your point

[Tuck&Poke]

i think for the kind of stuff done here, its personal taste and car specific kind of thing, also depending on wheel offset, ride height, etc. The camber should vary to complete the stance depending on your setup and platform.

While there can be performance benefits, they dont apply in this discussion.

[ShanesG]

Personally, I think up to 5* or so looks good then it starts to get excessive/awkward.

This!!!

BTW i think NO camber looks just as stupid as excess camber!!!

[ShanesG]

so, by the rational in this thread,this car looks like shit?.......









btw... he has -6* in the rear. Making broad statements about a certain degree of camber looking "stupid" on any car is dumb. It all depends on the car in question.

IMHO it doesn't look good, not because of the rear camber, but because the rear is at -6 and the front appears like its 0. that looks stupid. Camber should be relatively close front and rear.(eg -4 front -6 rear) not (-2front -6 rear

[kramerbuccs24]

IMHO it doesn't look good, not because of the rear camber, but because the rear is at -6 and the front appears like its 0. that looks stupid. Camber should be relatively close front and rear.(eg -4 front -6 rear) not (-2front -6 rear

^I agree! Also, 100% agree with this:

Drive low...park lower, correct way to roll bags

[Petis]

^ I agree Shane, he does need to pull in the camber up front, but he has natural camber all around at this point.... that's right, no camber kit, just slammed it and filled the gap!