Camber Complaints

As I have little, very little experience with this, I thought I'd inquire. Since I don't own a Cayman at this time, there has been little to motivate me to look into this. Somethings become more urgent when applied. The grumbles because of camber insufficiency caught my eye. It is true that the adjustments for camber are limited on the Cayman? Is it also true that there might be more adjustments, negative camber in particular, on the 911's and/or upper end cars like the GT3 and Turbo? When I was getting my Supra aligned, the mechanic told me that he couldn't get whatever it was and I didn't know enough to follow him. My understanding was limited. That alignment fellow called another shop for me and between them, they said my car needed a little welding, some tabs or whatever. So, I went ahead and did it and after that no alignment fellow ever complained about it again. Now, maybe I was served well or maybe I was had, but this perpetual complaint that 'if the Cayman was meant to be raced and supported the Cayman would have more neg camber' gets me. If this is so, what can we do about it?

For optimal cornering, you need about -2 degrees negative camber. The reason for this is that when cornering forces push out on the outside front tire, it will roll more of the tread onto the road than occurs with the stock geometry, where cornering rolls the tire onto it's outside shoulder, decreasing the contact patch on the road. This is more likely to results in understeer, or plowing, which is considered to be safer for the average driver. With out plates or slotting the mount, -0.5 (non PASM) to -1 (PASM) is the most you'll get in a stock Cayman. The trade off is in high speed stablilty, where the car is more stable (less wandering?) in a straight line at supra-highway speeds. Not likely you'll notice it much at 75 mph, but may notice it >100 mph. Or so I've read. Greg

Not sure what you're complaining about... Greg is correct in the ballpark amount of adjustment. I have mine set at -1.0 degrees negative camber. If you drive the car on the street, any more than that really, will wear out the inside of your tires pretty quickly. The other cars you mention - the GT3 has a fully adjustable suspension for ride height and has more latitude for geometry adjustments, too. After all, it is the car that homologates the racing GT3s, so it has to have that stuff. The 911 turbo doesn't have much more latitude in the front suspension for camber than the Cayman does. They build these cars to be driven primarily on the street... and the setup is made so that the car performs well throughout the car's performance envelope, and that also means running at a top speed of 171 mph, if you have a place to do it. It's all a compromise. Can you put them on the track - of course, but if you want a true track car, then you'll have to make some modifications to it. brad

sorry, porsche never meant for cayman to be raced. also, you can get as much camber as you want on cayman with coil over and some other changes. you just need a BIG wallet and a good suspension buy. i have had over 4 deg of camber at one point, that said, excessive camber does a car no good. you need a reason for camber. looking cool isn't a good reason.

I'm one of many who've complained about the limited front negative camber available on the CS. As indicated above, one can get about -1.0 degrees at the end of the strut adjustment slots in front, while one can get -1.8 degrees in the rear. The cheapest way to get a little more camber in front is probably to grind away a little more of the slots (three slots per side), but dont get carried away. I know someone (no, it wasn't me) who got -1.5 that way, which I consider a good compromise for road, autocross, and track driving (the front tires wear more slowly than the rears anyway). As indicated above, lowering the car with shorter springs (be careful if it's a PASM car), or an adjustable sport coil-over system designed for the Cayman will also allow more negative camber. Finally, adjustable front camber plates will allow more front camber, plus give fairly easy adjustability for road or track driving. If staying PCA or SCCA Solo 1 "stock" is a concern, any of the above mentioned means of getting more negative camber renders the Cayman non-stock.

Very Good. THANKS FOR THE REPLIES. I am concluding that in general I want the CS I get to remain stock and that PASM equipped will allow a bit more neg camber. For my purposes I doubt I'll need more than -1 degree camber and if I should, then it's time for coil overs and all. Thanks again. This lets me know what the fellow did to my Supra years ago and I think he did me right. At times I miss that car but in comparison to the Avalon, it beat me up. [In all fairness, the Tohiko struts really made the ride stiffer than I needed.] However, in comparison to the Avalon [yep, I'll go that far] I find the Cayman far more comfortable!