How does more camber affect highway tracking?

[SteveR]

I am seeing a little more outside wear on the front tires and am thinking of more negative camber for the front. I don't plan to get a camber kit, so I know the adjustment range is limited. Should I just have them max it out? If I do, will it cause any wandering with highway driving?

[Europrice]

If you drive particularly hard or track the car probably just max any adjustable level of camber out on the front to be honest. Then have the toe set near zero, maybe some toe in to help with stability. The car may tramline more with these settings, meaning it will follow the imperfections in the roadway more. It will however push less and turn in better than a factory alignment setting.

[SteveR]

Thanks. All that sounds good, but I don't want to screw up the highway manners too much. Do you find those settings fairly livable for day to day use in the R8?

[Europrice]

You should be fine. You can run a little more toe to make it more stable in a straight line, but be aware with more neg camber that can chew up the inside of the tire. If it's not a ton of neg camber and it's less of an issue.

[SteveR]

Thanks. I have 4.5mm left on the outside and 5.5 on the inside after 3 track days and 3k road miles. I'd like to improve turn in as much as I can without requiring constant steering on the highway. I figure if I can just adjust enough to even out the wear I'd be happy.

[exhilR8]

I had my negative camber maxed out, without adding any aftermarket stuff, and they could only get about 0.05 degress extra on the fronts, and about 0.34 extra on the rears. Didn't affect the feel or steering at all, and didn't improve the treadwear on the fronts, only a tiny improvement on the rears.

[SteveR]

Good to know, thanks. I guess I'll just max it out in front. Should the rears be adjusted also?

[exhilR8]

Yes, you can just ask the dealer to do a 4-wheel alignment with the maximum negative camber they can get in all 4 wheels. It's not expensive, a couple hundred bucks, tops.