Strut tower cut-off for camber adjustment

[Crild]

Here is what I was talking about with camber plate stack height. Here are my Ohlins one side with Vorshlag plates and the other with Ground Control. As you can see there is a pretty significant difference in travel. Now I could also cut the bottoms off my shocks and gain another .65". This would effectively double the travel I had before modification.

Do you actually track this car or?

 

[EVILAUDI]

Yes. This car pulls track duty on the weekends. Drag, autox, spectator racing and big track duty. It's my nice weather fun to drive car and weekend track toy. So not really a daily driver and not really a dedicated track car meaning I won't be gutting and caging it but I also don't mind stiffer suspension. I'm by no means a great driver but this car is very easy to drive fast. The correct springs rates and alignment transformed the car.

 

[EVILAUDI]

The need for more camber stems from the desire to run R-comp tires like Hoosier A7s. I'm not sure how much more the adjustable plates provide over the static plates but I do know they are absolutely maxed out and more solid than the SuperPro or 034 options. Even if I don't get more negative camber I will get more feedback through a solid plate.

 

[Crild]

Yes. This car pulls track duty on the weekends. Drag, autox, spectator racing and big track duty. It's my nice weather fun to drive car and weekend track toy. So not really a daily driver and not really a dedicated track car meaning I won't be gutting and caging it but I also don't mind stiffer suspension. I'm by no means a great driver but this car is very easy to drive fast. The correct springs rates and alignment transformed the car.

Ah mainly auto x and drag. Makes sense why I've never seen this car at the track.

 

[Crild]

The need for more camber stems from the desire to run R-comp tires like Hoosier A7s. I'm not sure how much more the adjustable plates provide over the static plates but I do know they are absolutely maxed out and more solid than the SuperPro or 034 options. Even if I don't get more negative camber I will get more feedback through a solid plate.

Hoosiers are trash. Stick to Michelin or pirelli slicks

 

[EVILAUDI]

Hoosiers are trash. Stick to Michelin or pirelli slicks

I have had nothing but fantastic experiences with new stickered Hoosiers. I primarily participate in time attack events so tires need to be optimal when cold. The RE71R is excellent for a street tire but in a 2 mile road course an A7 will be 2 seconds faster. New slicks are out of my price range and technically I need to run a DOT certified tire to be legal.

 

[burgerkong]

oosiers. I primarily participate in time attack events so tires need to be optimal when cold. The RE71R is excellent for a street tire but in a 2 mile road course an A7 will be 2 seconds faster. New slicks are out of my price range and technically I need to run a DOT certified tire to be legal.

Ignore him, Hoosiers are good tires. For the record Crild, there are a million compounds, you can't generalize and say Michelin or Pirelli slicks and not give any other detail.....

 

[Cliff]

The need for more camber stems from the desire to run R-comp tires like Hoosier A7s. I'm not sure how much more the adjustable plates provide over the static plates but I do know they are absolutely maxed out and more solid than the SuperPro or 034 options. Even if I don't get more negative camber I will get more feedback through a solid plate.

I have a couple of Mk3 driving friends but I don't know what they are running for aftermarket suspension, if anything. I have several friends who drive Mk2's, and of the ones who are running aftermarket suspensions, KW Clubsport appears to be the popular choice. I believe they're getting closer to 3 degrees of camber, and possibly more. Both of these guys actively track their cars (and I'll be seeing them this weekend at Thunderhill here in NorCal).

 

[bfury5]

BC Racing coils are $1050 with camber plates, custom spring rates and lengths, custom shock lengths. Obviously there is no camber plate that can be adjusted without cutting the strut tower, but there are zero issues with the top nut hitting the factory strut hole because it sits under the strut tower. On my car at -2° of camber, I can even leave the dampening adjustment knobs on and they don't come into contact with anything.

To piggyback on this, there's company called Redshift Motorsports who's custom-valving BCs for track cars. I think he started doing Autox revalves first (he's a former FWD national champion), but a guy I run with had him do a set for his time attack CTS-V and he loves them. You basically get all the plus' of the BCs (camber plates, separate preload and height adjustments) with the added benefit of true digressive curve rebound. And he'll do any rates with hypercoil or swift, similar to BC.

 

[victorofhavoc]

Here is what I was talking about with camber plate stack height. Here are my Ohlins one side with Vorshlag plates and the other with Ground Control. As you can see there is a pretty significant difference in travel. Now I could also cut the bottoms off my shocks and gain another .65". This would effectively double the travel I had before modification.

That's a preload issue right there. You're not getting travel because you're too low for the shock. You need to compress the spring until there's some preload (I think Ohlins specs 5mm of preload on the collar).

The need for more camber stems from the desire to run R-comp tires like Hoosier A7s. I'm not sure how much more the adjustable plates provide over the static plates but I do know they are absolutely maxed out and more solid than the SuperPro or 034 options. Even if I don't get more negative camber I will get more feedback through a solid plate.

With the 034 plates I can achieve -2.5 with being lower. You really can't get too much more without sacrificing some tire size. If you're looking to be competitive on a Hoosier, you'll likely want to be running the Hoosier spec for camber which is -3.5 if I recall the documentation correctly.

 

[EVILAUDI]

I wish you were right about the preload but sadly that won't make any difference. On this platform you can't add preload AND adjust height. If you set it up for 5mm of preload the car will sit like a redneck 4x4 truck. I'm not sure I'd say its out of the range of the shock as the adjustment range is controlled by threads on the shock body. I can't really blame Ohlins for the travel consumed by the Vorshlag plates. Either way if I did add the preload to both springs it wouldn't affect static height of either as both would still be the same height.

As for maximum camber and tire size. Getting more camber allows for a bigger tire as it moves the tire away from the fender. If possible running a shorter spring and moving the perch up an inch may also increase clearance. As far as I can tell the limiting factor on camber is the adjustment range of the plate and it's contact with the tower itself. With the GC plates the first thing that makes contact is the upper portion of the dome. In this picture you can see the contact mark where it hits the dome. If we space the plate down approx 1/4" it allows for more negative camber. Or if you cut off the entire dome as shown a few posts up you could likely get max camber without a spacer. You may also be able to grind that portion of the plate as well but odds are you'll still need to cut the tower to make room for the shock shaft.

 

[EVILAUDI]

Here you can better see where the contact is happening...

The maximum achievable camber with this partially modified tower was -2.6 degrees. Once the plate was moved down 1/4" (via horseshoe) the full range of motion was available and camber could be maxed out at -3.1*. If the plate was further modified to lengthen the slots even more camber would be attainable. The limiting factor would then be contact with the lower portion of the shock tower. I don't think we will find anyone to build a new plate any time soon and I don't think I can make the GC plate work because they sloped the outer most edge of the plate. Here is the inside of my shock tower and the redline demonstrates the current contact point of an unspaced plate.

 

[Crild]

If you talked to ohlins before you bought the coils they should of informed you of 5mm lowering from stock ride height with OEM top mounts was the maximum drop allowed by their coils. Adding camber plates or anything into the mix will change all those Dynamics. If you wanted to lower your car AND improve the handling/dampening with coilovers you 100% picked the wrong brand. If you're fine with stock height then they are fine.

As far as the GC plates touching the towers maybe that's why mine made massive clunking noises over every small bump which just reinforces the fact it's a shit design.

At this point I guess you'll have to make it work or imo I would go with MCS dampers with the vorshlag camber plates for the best solution for your needs/wants.

 

[EVILAUDI]

It's funny you should say that because that is Ohlins story today, but it wasn't last year (see below). When purchasing I wanted to lower my car approximately a half an inch and then have a little room to allow for corner balancing. This platform is front left heavy so a corner balance makes a gigantic difference.

At the time I really didn't think there was going to be any issues with bump travel and I didn't really know enough to look at the stack height of the plates. That's kinda why I'm sharing this info because I don't want someone else to run into the same issues I did. I did take a long hard look at MCS but those are 100% race inspired and the valving is not street friendly. They will even tell you that when you ask about compliance. The reason they aren't bottoming out is because they are valved hard enough to chip your teeth (they also have remote reservoirs that provide additional stroke). Bad news for those of us running low profile 20" wheels as tire pinching is a real problem even with the stock magride shocks. MCS would make that an every week situation.

Looking back I know that at least 75% of my issue was caused by the Vorshlag plates. The other 25% was lack of R&D on Ohlins part. On other platforms they are simply fantastic shocks and with the grassroots modifications mentioned above I'm absolutely certain I could make them work. That being said today I committed to be a test mule for the JRI coilovers. If interested I'd be happy to keep folks up dated on that solution though it might be overkill for most.

 

[EVILAUDI]

The MCS/Vorshlag solution also required spacers to make the top adjuster fit into the shock tower. In this picture you can see that they actually stacked multiple camber plate sliders on top of one another to provide the room required and even then it would be a real MF to adjust!