| CAMBER BASICS |
| First thing we need to clear up about camber is that when racing folks refer to 'camber gain' and 'camber loss' it's opposite of what a lay person might think these terms mean. NEGATIVE CAMBER is when the tops of the wheels are tilted IN and POSITIVE CAMBER is when the tops of the wheel are tilted OUT. That said: |
| NEGATIVE CAMBER = CAMBER GAIN (Generally good) POSITIVE CAMBER = CAMBER LOSS (Generally bad) |
| Also, we refer to camber, basically, in two states: |
| STATIC CAMBER = The amount of camber the car's wheels have at rest (determined by your alignment) DYNAMIC CAMBER = The amount of camber the car's wheels have in a state of motion (ie: cornering) |
| STATIC CAMBER DIAGRAMS (REAR VIEW): |
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| Allright, so why the distinction between STATIC and DYNAMIC camber? |
| Simply put, the forces of driving change the camber of a car's wheels, primarily due to lateral forces (g-forces) generated during cornering. |
| Without going too crazy, DYNAMIC CAMBER GAIN is when a car, that is usually designed for racing, utilizes geometry that produces camber in cornering. This is common in double wishbone suspensions where the upper and lower control arms are different lengths (Lower arm is longer). The purpose of such a design is to offset what is known as deflection. |
| Deflection is when a car enters a corner, and the lateral forces generated cause the suspension to compress (bump). As the body rolls and the wheels go up into the wheel wells, the tires lean and lose camber (positive camber), which is bad for traction, because the tires are now riding on their outer edges, minimizing the amount of contact patch gripping the road. |
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| We're tuning for FORZA MOTORSPORT 3 which means two things: |
| 1- We're not building a car from the drawing board, so we don't have the option to design our own suspension. 2- We're taking stock cars for the most part, and tuning them for racing, so we're relying on our static camber settings to offset the camber we're going to lose in the corners on the race track. |
| The basic concept is simple: |
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| You may have observed from the diagram above / right, that we actually gained more camber on the left (inside) tire. This will happen and although it's not optimal for grip, it's a trade-off we'll take since the right (outer) tire is bearing the majority of the load in cornering. |
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