348 Suspension question.

348C ran up to 3.15 camber on rears and I think 1.4 on the front. You may need different shims? I think if you get more than 2 on front straight line tracking may be affected?

 

I wonder if I have different a-arms?

I have not messured, but I have quite a bit of rear camber. Given it is an old challenge car I would suspect close to 3 deg.

I would think someone like ernie or vern would have more tech info on how to set up the suspension to get you closer to 3 deg.

 

It's not the A arm that is different it is the attachment forks(Aarm to frame)that is different, longer bolt part of the fork. You then have the ability to add more shims to push out the lower A-arm. The challenge cars have different part no. for those. Hope this helps. Regards, Vern

 

The part no. is 157318. Ferrari's price is going to be outrageous if they are still avail. I think it would be easier to make new ones, take off the shorter threaded bolt part(reuse the U shape part) and weld a longer piece in its place 1/2 inch longer would be plenty. The more I think about this I'm not sure I understand why you don't have enough adjustment in the forks you already have. The stock rear settings for camber are -1.8 to -2.2 so getting to the challenge specs. of -3 15' shouldn't take that much. Oh, by the way your not giving away any secrets on your alignment specs that's fairly close to what the 348 challenge manual says. Regards, Vern

 

Richard, Just a thought for you if you are running -3 degrees on the rear for camber thats way to much for street use 1.8 to 2.2 is more than enough. Your going to have some harrendous tire wear at -3 degrees. Regards, Vern

 

Vern,

Yes I've notice outside edge of tire really does not touch ground. I need to get everything re-aligned. It's on my list. Need to find someone to do it.

Any recomendations on a good street, once a year track set up would be appreciated.

Richard

 

I don't think there is really a good setting for max. performance for both applications. Maybe the more aggressive side of factory recomended street settings for camber(-2.10 rear and -.5 frt.) but the optimum toe for either app. is the opposite for street vs. track. You want, in general, toe out for track and toe in for street. I think somewhere in the 1/8 inch toe in for street and maybe 1/4 inch toe out for track use. That is quite a difference, the toe out is going to wear the tires more I would think. The following is just my opinion, there are guys on this site that know a hell of alot more than I do about about settings. The only thing probably for sure is that there isn't a great setting for optimum use for both. You could do a search on the subject as there has been some interesting discussion about it in the past. Regards, Vern

 

Richard, did you get your alignment ironed out? If so, any info you can provide would be helpful. My 348 seems to have a lot more toe out on the rear than what I would expect to be "normal".

 

Not yet. It's in right now for 30K service. The alignment is on the list for this spring maybe. I was on the track last fall and it really did quite well. I wish I had the specs on the set up. I will post if I do get it done.

Richard

 

Thanks. Feel free to PM me if/when you have more info. Good luck on the 30K. Mine will be having that done this spring as well.