Why negative rear camber for drag racing?

[forcefedjunkie]

I've read many times now that increasing the camber of the rear wheels to -1 to -1.5 degrees is recommended for better traction and reduced wheel hop. Can anyone explain why this would work better than say 0 degrees (tire sitting flat on the ground)? Is the idea to offset positive camber produced by the car squatting when launched? Thanks.

 

[03RedCobra]

Subscribing to thread, because I'm very curious to see if anyone knows this to be advantageous for drag racing.

forcefedjunkie....have couple questions about your set-up....I'm going with pretty much the same setup you have, with the whipple and all. Was wondering how quickly you pegged out the MAF ?? Are you running the 3.5-inch upper pulley with the Whipple ?? You have much of an issue with traction ?? Have you been to the dragstrip with that setup ?? I'm interested in what numbers you are running. Thanks. :burnout:

 

[reilly8282]

my guess is that it has to do with weight transfer, with irs the rear end squats, and for ideal traction you want the tires to be totally parallel with the ground or flat. so with a little negative camber in theory when the car squats it pulls the top of the tires in and just helps the tires to be totall parallel to the ground when all the weight shifts to the rear of the car. Dont know if thats exactly why just my guess!

 

[OZ Dude]

my guess is that it has to do with weight transfer, with irs the rear end squats, and for ideal traction you want the tires to be totally parallel with the ground or flat. so with a little negative camber in theory when the car squats it pulls the top of the tires in and just helps the tires to be totall parallel to the ground when all the weight shifts to the rear of the car. Dont know if thats exactly why just my guess!

Negative camber places the wheels in a position there they are leaning in toward one another / \ When you nail the throttle, the back end will drop and only accentuate the situation, not make the wheels "stand upright". If anything, the more neg camber you have on the back, the more it will make the car squat on launch. The harder the car squats, the more traction you will get and considering we're only talking a couple of degrees, the outsides of the tires won't exactly be sticking up in the air!

I used to run 6 degrees neg camber on the rear of my Z3 which made it squat really hard and grip was sensational. Downside is flipping tires every 3-4k miles and then only getting about 10k miles in total.

Hope this helps...

 

[forcefedjunkie]

Subscribing to thread, because I'm very curious to see if anyone knows this to be advantageous for drag racing.

forcefedjunkie....have couple questions about your set-up....I'm going with pretty much the same setup you have, with the whipple and all. Was wondering how quickly you pegged out the MAF ?? Are you running the 3.5-inch upper pulley with the Whipple ?? You have much of an issue with traction ?? Have you been to the dragstrip with that setup ?? I'm interested in what numbers you are running. Thanks. :burnout:

I don't have the MAFx anymore, and am getting a SCT MAF. I have not run the car at WOT with the stock MAF so I can't answer your question. With the MAFx set at 5.5-5, it would hit 4.92v at WOT.

I haven't made any passes yet, not until this spring. Traction is pretty poor in first gear and second isn't much better at lower rpm's.

 

[03RedCobra]

my guess is that it has to do with weight transfer, with irs the rear end squats, and for ideal traction you want the tires to be totally parallel with the ground or flat. so with a little negative camber in theory when the car squats it pulls the top of the tires in and just helps the tires to be totall parallel to the ground when all the weight shifts to the rear of the car. Dont know if thats exactly why just my guess!

Sounds like a good guess to me. Wouldn't it be POSITIVE camber though ??with the top of the tire tilting outwards, and then when the car squats it pulls the top of the tire in.

 

[no_slow_svt]

one of those things that make you go hmmmmmmmm...............