Looking for recommended Alignment Specs for lowered 2001 GT convertible

[WarspitesFolly]

Gentlemen, I am looking for recommended alignment specs for my lowered 2001 GT convertible (daily driver). The car was lowered with the typical parts; maximum motorsports caster camber plates, Steeda bumpsteer kit with X2 balljoints. Springs are Eibach EIB-3530 lowering the car approximately 1.3" in the front and 1.4"in the rear. Not knowing any better, I had the car set to factory alignment specs. Actual alignment specs are shown below. The car is actually a little too light on steering wheel road feel for my taste. It’s OK but its light enough where you do not want to take your eyes off the road for one second or the car will drift due to light positive steering wheel feedback. I suspected a toe out condition as this will cause left to right drift, however the alignment shop says its within factory specs, which it is. I want to take advantage of the caster camber plates for better road feel. I “think” better road feel comes from adjustments to caster and some slight toe in for that planted feel. This is a daily driver so I am not looking for track car recommendations or big sacrifices in tire wear. Some additional tire wear may be OK as nothing comes for free. I am using Continental Extreme Contact DWS, 275/35R18 front and 285/35R18 rear. It’s really a just a nice commuter car. Please accept my thanks for your opinions. Current alignment specs are as follows:

Front Left Caster: 3.9°
Front Right Caster: 4.6° (beyond spec)
Front Left Camber: -0.7°
Front Right Camber: -0.6°
Front Toe, Left: 0.15°
Front Toe, Right: 0.15°
Front Toe, Total: 0.30°
Rear Toe, Left: 0.15°
Rear Toe, Right: 0.25°
Rear Toe, Total: 0.40°
SAI, Left: 17.1°
SAI, Right: 17.5°
Included angle, Left: 16.4°
Included angle, Right: 16.9°
Setback Front: -0.4°

 

[geoffmt]

Muscle mustangs and fast fords magazine recently had an article breaking down alignment specs and what is does. Cant remember off the top of my head what month it was but they were adding the MM caster/camber plates too. I run 1.5 neg camber and I think 5 or 6 deg caster. mine is more track setup, but there is minimal extra tire wear(I don't notice it at all) and its solid and straight at 75mph and at 150mph. not twitchy at all

 

[WarspitesFolly]

Thanks for the info, I will look for the article. Appreciate you thinking about it. I am intrigued about your caster setting. More caster does seem to have its benefits. I believe Mercedes uses a lot of caster as well for positive road feel. I will find the alignment specs, re-align and post results.

 

[WarspitesFolly]

Gentlemen:

After completing some research, I found that Maximum Motorsports has recommended alignment specs in the instructions for their caster/camber plates (p/n MMCC9994). MM recommends Caster set at +4.5° for street cars. Ford allows +4.35° max, so + 4.5° is beyond Ford's specified allowable. I found an alignment shop that would go past the allowed range, but some shops just wont due to liability concerns. MM also recommends -0.5° camber for street cars which is within specs. Lastly, MM recommends +0.5° toe in for street cars which is the max Ford allowable. I used all these values except that toe in is a more conservative +0.25° not the full +0.5°. The car drives much better. My 2001 GT is a convertible and I find that it responds well to positive caster and positive toe in. Previous setting with less + caster and more neutral toe gave the car a left/right wander feel at highway speeds. You can find the MM recommendations at their website below. Download the PDF and refer to page 5. Thanks for reading and commenting!

http://www.maximummotorsports.com/content/install/pdf/front_susp/MMCC9994v4r8.pdf