sticky cha cha cha!
A suspension for daily driving and track use
A suspension's primary function is to absorb bumps and keep the tires planted through all the driving conditions you put it through. Of course there are some tradeoffs involved here. And many of you who want to improve the Elantra's handling capabilities will probably want to stiffen the suspension. Conventional wisdom says that extremely high spring rates are the way to go about it, and the tradeoff will be poor ride quality on the harsh streets you drive on everyday. I want to dispel that myth, and offer suggestions for a suspension you'll be happy with for daily driving, 'spirited' driving, and even track use.
Springs & Dampers
When you install lowering springs with stiffer spring rates you should ideally upgrade to a damper with higher rebound damping rates to achieve better control. When you ignore the struts you can wind up with a bouncy, uncomfortable and poorly damped ride. With mild spring upgrades such as Eibach and H&R this may not be entirely necessary since they aren't too bad on the stock struts. But a damper upgrade is something you should at least keep in mind if the ride quality and control doesn't turn out like you hoped.
The other thing you should be concerned about is the effective suspension travel of your suspension. If your car is lowered excessively it can easily bottom out on the bump stops over bumps, which can ruin the ride quality and even cause the car to skip and hop and lose control over a midcorner bump. Along those lines, I haven't even mentioned full coilovers yet and I won't dwell on them too long. But the very nature of all the available height adjustable coilovers is that they reduce suspension travel a lot. Combine that with the fact that they are fitted with much higher spring rates than the lowering springs available, and you're in for an uncomfortable ride. So I've ruled them out for the purpose of daily driving.
As for choosing your dampers, you get what you pay for to an extent. One thing you should know is where the dampers are being developed. It's a difficult task to develop valving for a damper that produces smooth damping curves at different velocities and frequencies. And the best of the best are the companies that do their development on the most demanding roads.
The truth is that many aftermarket dampers are developed in Japan where both their roads and their race tracks are typically very smooth. So they have a certain damper tuning style along with very high spring rates which work fine on their roads but not so well in Europe and America. KYB is one such company based in Japan. I've found that most of their products don't absorb bumps or damp oscillations as well as their European competition. The big advantage of course is they sell a very cheap product which is similar to OEM-quality.
But on the European side of things there are companies like Koni and Eibach. Koni has been developing dampers since 1932 and doing their R&D in The Netherlands. They make the Koni Yellow strut inserts for the Tiburon, which have adjustable rebound. The most practical way to install these would be to buy a used set of '03+ Tiburon struts, then buy the Koni inserts to install in the struts. The only thing different about installing Tiburon struts on the Elantra is that you need to swap the front left and front right strut because the brake line brackets are on opposite sides. This is a lesser-travelled upgrade path because of the extra work involved. But these dampers are a very popular option for many applications because they work great for lowering springs thanks to the rebound adjustability. They are also the most expensive option.
And then there's Eibach who does their R&D in Germany but they are relatively new to damper tuning by comparison. I'm not sure if Eibach actually manufactures their own dampers or not. Eibach may in fact outsource the dampers to be manufactured by another company but they claim to do the development & testing themselves. But they have the Eibach Pro Dampers for the '03+ Tiburon which is a non-adjustable complete strut replacement.
Anti-sway bars
The beauty of tuning with sway bars is that you can reduce body roll without taking much away from the comfort of the car. So if your lowering springs don't reduce body roll enough for your tastes, it's usually a good idea to at least upgrade to the 19mm Tiburon rear sway bar. This will drastically reduce bodyroll and reduce understeer. You may also want to consider the Whiteline rear sway bar, or the 22mm Eibach rear sway bar.
But if you want even more roll resistance you can upgrade the front sway bar as well. Many people don't like the idea of installing a stiffer front sway bar because it'll increase understeer (something this car doesn't need more of). However that's not the whole story. There will be more understeer during turn-in, yes. But steady-state understeer will actually be reduced due to less camber loss. So corner speed can actually benefit from a stiffer front sway bar, you just have to use a classic driving style to take advantage of it. For example, flicking the car to get the back end to step out won't be as effective with a stiffer front sway bar. But in most cases that won't help things anyway. Typically you'd be better off slowing to the right speed for a corner, and trail braking and turning in smoothly to get the most speed out of a corner.
The only front sway bar upgrades available are for the Tiburon so to do this you'd need Tiburon struts which have sway bar mounting brackets on them. You'd have to install the struts left for left and right for right, and you'd need to fabricate brake line brackets since they are on the wrong sides.
Alignment settings
You can realize big benefits in corner speed with some alignment changes, however you probably don't want to sacrifice tire life if this is your daily driver. Contrary to popular belief, the Elantra can actually ride on some pretty aggressive negative front camber as long as you keep the front toe settings at 0. You can set some aggressive front camber settings if you install Eibach camber bolts.
I would suggest settings like these:
Front camber: -1.2 to -2.0 degrees
Front toe: 0
Rear camber: -1.2 degrees
Rear toe: factory
Springs & Dampers
When you install lowering springs with stiffer spring rates you should ideally upgrade to a damper with higher rebound damping rates to achieve better control. When you ignore the struts you can wind up with a bouncy, uncomfortable and poorly damped ride. With mild spring upgrades such as Eibach and H&R this may not be entirely necessary since they aren't too bad on the stock struts. But a damper upgrade is something you should at least keep in mind if the ride quality and control doesn't turn out like you hoped.
The other thing you should be concerned about is the effective suspension travel of your suspension. If your car is lowered excessively it can easily bottom out on the bump stops over bumps, which can ruin the ride quality and even cause the car to skip and hop and lose control over a midcorner bump. Along those lines, I haven't even mentioned full coilovers yet and I won't dwell on them too long. But the very nature of all the available height adjustable coilovers is that they reduce suspension travel a lot. Combine that with the fact that they are fitted with much higher spring rates than the lowering springs available, and you're in for an uncomfortable ride. So I've ruled them out for the purpose of daily driving.
As for choosing your dampers, you get what you pay for to an extent. One thing you should know is where the dampers are being developed. It's a difficult task to develop valving for a damper that produces smooth damping curves at different velocities and frequencies. And the best of the best are the companies that do their development on the most demanding roads.
The truth is that many aftermarket dampers are developed in Japan where both their roads and their race tracks are typically very smooth. So they have a certain damper tuning style along with very high spring rates which work fine on their roads but not so well in Europe and America. KYB is one such company based in Japan. I've found that most of their products don't absorb bumps or damp oscillations as well as their European competition. The big advantage of course is they sell a very cheap product which is similar to OEM-quality.
But on the European side of things there are companies like Koni and Eibach. Koni has been developing dampers since 1932 and doing their R&D in The Netherlands. They make the Koni Yellow strut inserts for the Tiburon, which have adjustable rebound. The most practical way to install these would be to buy a used set of '03+ Tiburon struts, then buy the Koni inserts to install in the struts. The only thing different about installing Tiburon struts on the Elantra is that you need to swap the front left and front right strut because the brake line brackets are on opposite sides. This is a lesser-travelled upgrade path because of the extra work involved. But these dampers are a very popular option for many applications because they work great for lowering springs thanks to the rebound adjustability. They are also the most expensive option.
And then there's Eibach who does their R&D in Germany but they are relatively new to damper tuning by comparison. I'm not sure if Eibach actually manufactures their own dampers or not. Eibach may in fact outsource the dampers to be manufactured by another company but they claim to do the development & testing themselves. But they have the Eibach Pro Dampers for the '03+ Tiburon which is a non-adjustable complete strut replacement.
Anti-sway bars
The beauty of tuning with sway bars is that you can reduce body roll without taking much away from the comfort of the car. So if your lowering springs don't reduce body roll enough for your tastes, it's usually a good idea to at least upgrade to the 19mm Tiburon rear sway bar. This will drastically reduce bodyroll and reduce understeer. You may also want to consider the Whiteline rear sway bar, or the 22mm Eibach rear sway bar.
But if you want even more roll resistance you can upgrade the front sway bar as well. Many people don't like the idea of installing a stiffer front sway bar because it'll increase understeer (something this car doesn't need more of). However that's not the whole story. There will be more understeer during turn-in, yes. But steady-state understeer will actually be reduced due to less camber loss. So corner speed can actually benefit from a stiffer front sway bar, you just have to use a classic driving style to take advantage of it. For example, flicking the car to get the back end to step out won't be as effective with a stiffer front sway bar. But in most cases that won't help things anyway. Typically you'd be better off slowing to the right speed for a corner, and trail braking and turning in smoothly to get the most speed out of a corner.
The only front sway bar upgrades available are for the Tiburon so to do this you'd need Tiburon struts which have sway bar mounting brackets on them. You'd have to install the struts left for left and right for right, and you'd need to fabricate brake line brackets since they are on the wrong sides.
Alignment settings
You can realize big benefits in corner speed with some alignment changes, however you probably don't want to sacrifice tire life if this is your daily driver. Contrary to popular belief, the Elantra can actually ride on some pretty aggressive negative front camber as long as you keep the front toe settings at 0. You can set some aggressive front camber settings if you install Eibach camber bolts.
I would suggest settings like these:
Front camber: -1.2 to -2.0 degrees
Front toe: 0
Rear camber: -1.2 degrees
Rear toe: factory
1 - 20 of 25 Posts
i will have to argue about the harchness of coils...atleat the TEINS...several people have rode in my car and enjoyed the ride...its stiff but not over dramatic even with 17's on...however when the dampers are turned up it will be harsh...but that would only be used on the track/autocrossing.
agreed with the swaybar statement...hence why an adjustable sway bar is probably the best way to go so you can tune to your needs/wants.
agreed with the alingment...althought i heard from a mechanic around my way that used to tune...that you might actually want a little toe out...becuase on acceleration the car has a tendency to toe in...
i guess its time to get more books!
good info!!
what we really need to find is our roll center...because going to low can actually hurt the performance.
agreed with the swaybar statement...hence why an adjustable sway bar is probably the best way to go so you can tune to your needs/wants.
agreed with the alingment...althought i heard from a mechanic around my way that used to tune...that you might actually want a little toe out...becuase on acceleration the car has a tendency to toe in...
i guess its time to get more books!
good info!!
what we really need to find is our roll center...because going to low can actually hurt the performance.
^ Yeah, well the effect on camber curves is the big concern. Macpherson strut designs like we have are not so good when it comes to camber curves. If you lower the car past a certain point, then the remainder of bump travel will cause positive camber gain. And ideally you should have negative camber gain under bump travel to counteract the off-camber effect of bodyroll.only1db said:what we really need to find is our roll center...because going to low can actually hurt the performance.
Some aftermarket companies will make balljoint relocation kits to actually alter connection points which will change the camber curves to better suit a lowered suspension. Unfortunately for the Elantra, no such thing exists. So there's really a tradeoff to be made. Lowering the car too much will make the usable camber curve pretty horrible which can hurt more than the lower center of gravity will help. Finding that point would just be a matter of experimenting with the setup until you get the best lap times on a given track.
The camber curves of a Macpherson strut suspension is explained a little better here...
http://www.iwsti.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70524&highlight=camber
It varies depending on the car. Something like 1/16" total toe out would be fairly reasonable to use and you'd benefit from better turn-in and a better ability to power out of corners. It may be worth it to you to try that setting if you autocross or do track days often. I played with toe out a little on the Elantra and it certainly helps the car rotate.only1db said:agreed with the alingment...althought i heard from a mechanic around my way that used to tune...that you might actually want a little toe out...becuase on acceleration the car has a tendency to toe in...
But I still think 0 front toe would be your best bet to maximize tread life.
yeah i will have to go and read that at some point...what i was able to read was good stuff..
i hav ea couple of books laying around that i never got a chance to read...i guess i will have to start!
i hav ea couple of books laying around that i never got a chance to read...i guess i will have to start!
Great information, this is why I love this site even though my bank account shrinks because of it. I was amaized after I installed my Eibach springs, KYb struts and strut mounts, 19mm sway bar and front strut bar. I noticed nothing is talked about front strut bars. If I were to remove it and drive aggressivly how much of a difference would I feel?
Here's something about the front strut bar Ken:
http://www.elantraxd.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19898
very informative stuff from doohickie in that thread.
http://www.elantraxd.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19898
very informative stuff from doohickie in that thread.
Drop the front an inch and leave the back????
I have new rims 215/40 17 inch. I'm wanting to drop the front an inch, and leave the back as is. Good plan, what do you think and is that all that is needed to avoid rubbing and so on?
I have new rims 215/40 17 inch. I'm wanting to drop the front an inch, and leave the back as is. Good plan, what do you think and is that all that is needed to avoid rubbing and so on?
SWortham...
Nice post man...and thanks for the info...
I know it's old...but since there have been a lot of suspension questions lately...I figured I'd bump it...
Peace,
Nice post man...and thanks for the info...
I know it's old...but since there have been a lot of suspension questions lately...I figured I'd bump it...
Peace,
I have been discussing the chassis design with a few people at Art Morrison Enterprises. They don't recommend agressive camber settings, but suggest changing caster angles as a way to improve handling. Factory caster settings are around +2.6. Changing that to +3.2-3.5 will improve the drivability of the car especially in corners.
It depends on the car. Adding positive caster certainly helps. It creates more camber change when you turn the wheel and creates a more on-center feel to the steering. The only problem with it is that the amount of camber change is determined by how much you turn the wheel. And that's not ideal because you can have the same amount of body roll around a tight 30 mph corner as a fast sweeping 70 mph corner.I have been discussing the chassis design with a few people at Art Morrison Enterprises. They don't recommend agressive camber settings, but suggest changing caster angles as a way to improve handling. Factory caster settings are around +2.6. Changing that to +3.2-3.5 will improve the drivability of the car especially in corners.
Again, of course it's a compromise. If your car never sees the track then adding some positive caster and a more mild camber setting of -1.2 degrees may be more practical for you. But once you get into racing a car with a Macpherson strut setup and 3 degrees of body roll you'll see how you'll need more negative camber as well.
Unfortunately caster is not an adjustment you can make unless you have something like camber/caster plates.
Eventually I'm going to install new struts/springs/sway bar/front strut bar (eibach elantra springs + kyb GR2 tibby struts). I was going to have an alignment shop set the camber at -1.5 front and -1 rear (buying camber plates). Toe at 0, and caster what the drop gave me (probably Left Front: 2.6 Right Front: 2.7)
Do you think this is too aggressive? Some said it would be, and tires would wear too fast. I'm looking for a mix of daily driver and autocross car. Thanks.
Do you think this is too aggressive? Some said it would be, and tires would wear too fast. I'm looking for a mix of daily driver and autocross car. Thanks.
Nope, not too aggressive at all. Sounds good to me.Eventually I'm going to install new struts/springs/sway bar/front strut bar (eibach elantra springs + kyb GR2 tibby struts). I was going to have an alignment shop set the camber at -1.5 front and -1 rear (buying camber plates). Toe at 0, and caster what the drop gave me (probably Left Front: 2.6 Right Front: 2.7)
Do you think this is too aggressive? Some said it would be, and tires would wear too fast. I'm looking for a mix of daily driver and autocross car. Thanks.
I just laugh on the inside whenever an alignment guy tells me that the camber I'm asking for will kill my tires. But I've been doing it for the past couple years (first with the Elantra, now with the STI) and I actually get more even tire wear this way with what I put my cars through. Toe is the tire killer, not camber.
It depends on the car. Adding positive caster certainly helps. It creates more camber change when you turn the wheel and creates a more on-center feel to the steering. The only problem with it is that the amount of camber change is determined by how much you turn the wheel. And that's not ideal because you can have the same amount of body roll around a tight 30 mph corner as a fast sweeping 70 mph corner.
Again, of course it's a compromise. If your car never sees the track then adding some positive caster and a more mild camber setting of -1.2 degrees may be more practical for you. But once you get into racing a car with a Macpherson strut setup and 3 degrees of body roll you'll see how you'll need more negative camber as well.
Unfortunately caster is not an adjustment you can make unless you have something like camber/caster plates.
For daily spirited driving and salom and skidpad testing, AME engineers designed the IFS and IRS systems that have more positive front caster and less negative front camber than the rear camber setting.
On my car, I have an independent rear suspension with unequal length control arms. On such systems camber remains constant within a certain range of suspension travel. However, on my car, and those like it, if you lower the car my 1/2 inch, either by putting stuff in the trunk or rear seat ort by hard cornering, camber radically changes due to the lowering of the car to that level.
I have found that the camber remains at a certain level for 3 inches of suspension travel below that initial 1/2 inch of lowering from the factory ride height. Typically, camber does not change much in corners regardless of how fast you are going. Body roll does affect cornering ability, but you do need some roll to effectively steer into and out of corners.
You also have to have a happy medium where tire life is maximized under DD conditions and some track conditions that require salom and skidpad performance to be high enough to corner well.
Too much camber will wear the tires unevenly. My car has -2 degrees LR and -1.4 degrees RR. Most of the contact patch is on the inside of the tire and that can wear the inside faster. Most of my driving is DD.I just laugh on the inside whenever an alignment guy tells me that the camber I'm asking for will kill my tires. But I've been doing it for the past couple years (first with the Elantra, now with the STI) and I actually get more even tire wear this way with what I put my cars through. Toe is the tire killer, not camber.
I'm not saying they're wrong but they did design the car very conservatively when it comes to handling capabilities. Some BMW's will use as much as 8 degrees positive caster AND more negative camber as well.For daily spirited driving and salom and skidpad testing, AME engineers designed the IFS and IRS systems that have more positive front caster and less negative front camber than the rear camber setting.
Macpherson strut suspensions are very different from double wishbone setups. With a double wishbone setup the suspension will gain negative camber as the suspension compresses, counteracting some of the off-camber effects of bodyroll and helping to keep the tires oriented properly even in corners. This is why F1 cars use double wishbone setups and why it's so desirable for any race car that has to go around corners.On my car, I have an independent rear suspension with unequal length control arms. On such systems camber remains constant within a certain range of suspension travel. However, on my car, and those like it, if you lower the car my 1/2 inch, either by putting stuff in the trunk or rear seat ort by hard cornering, camber radically changes due to the lowering of the car to that level.
But with a Macpherson strut suspension the way the camber curves are affected has to do with the orientation of the control arm and the strut. Here's a simple diagram of a Macpherson strut suspension (thanks to Wikipedia) to help you visualize it...
The XD has a Macpherson setup at all four corners just like the STI. I never really had a good look at this aspect of the Elantra. But imagine the front control arms (the blue parts) are near horizontal when the car is at rest (I don't know if it would be like that in the stock configuration but it almost certainly would if you lower it enough). This means that at rest, the control arms are holding the lower part of the strut as far outboard as possible (or close to it). This also means that if you were to lower the car then the at-rest angle of the control arms will change, pull the lower part of the strut more inboard, and put the suspension at a worse position of the camber curve. In other words, at this point when the suspension compresses you'll actually be gaining positive camber when the suspension compresses, exactly the opposite of what you need.
So then consider how body roll itself puts the tires off camber in addition to the poor suspension geometry inherent in a Macpherson strut suspension. And you'll see why I say the car needs more static negative camber to combat these effects.
The inside tire wear due to the -2 degrees camber would be very slow by comparison to a misalignment in toe. I've seen plenty of people complain that camber caused their premature tire wear but neglected to address the fact that the toe wasn't right either.Too much camber will wear the tires unevenly. My car has -2 degrees LR and -1.4 degrees RR. Most of the contact patch is on the inside of the tire and that can wear the inside faster. Most of my driving is DD.
But of course even if the toe is aligned perfectly you will see some wear due to aggressive camber settings. It's pretty minor though and even -2 degrees will work for a blend of daily driving and autocrossing. I wrote all of this for people who like to go around corners of course. And I suggested a range between -1.2 and -2 degrees front camber depending on how much of that you put your car through. Autocrossing is the extreme and a completely stock Elantra would probably see in excess of 4 degrees of body roll when pushed to its limits.
On my car, under high speed driving, I get a lot of squirliness in the back end with the uneven camber. Camber is supposed to be even, but it is between .6-.9 degree difference between right and left due to the left upper control arm being 1.2 inches shorter than the right upper control arm. As the car drops in height due to a load, you see the camber increasing negatively that is uneven. This uneven camber creates a pull condition that causes the rear end to react differently than you want. Without a load, camber on both sides is fairly equal, but 1/2 inch of lowerng the car causes the camber to become uneven. Due to the pull my rear toe is set at 3/16 in just to keep it fairly stable and track right (due to the excess camber on 1 side). If camber was -2 degrees on both sides, I would not have a squirly problem, but camber on my car is not even on both sides like it should be. The toe setting I have counteracts the camber pull that is present in my car.But of course even if the toe is aligned perfectly you will see some wear due to aggressive camber settings. It's pretty minor though and even -2 degrees will work for a blend of daily driving and autocrossing. I wrote all of this for people who like to go around corners of course. And I suggested a range between -1.2 and -2 degrees front camber depending on how much of that you put your car through. Autocrossing is the extreme and a completely stock Elantra would probably see in excess of 4 degrees of body roll when pushed to its limits.
The XD handles much better and is easier to tweak than the HD. With struts all around, you have an even camber on each side and the camber change is consistant as well. The HD camber change is not the same on all 4 corners either. The front end, being a strut setup will be equal, but with the rear having upper control arms being at different lengths, you will see a difference in camber change on each side and the change is greater on the left side than the right side due to the length of the control arm being different than the right.
I can't change the camber on my car due to the present design of the suspension. When I make the upper control arms that are adjustable, then I can even out the camber setting on both sides and make the length between the two control arms more equal to each other.
^ That's really odd that the upper control arm on the left rear is different than the right rear. That would create all sorts of problems with the geometry. Why in the world would Hyundai do that I wonder.
I agree, that is completely weird.
SWortham, I'm trying to understand something, so I'm going to give it a shot in my own words, and you tell me if I'm right or wrong, or where my error is.
Basically, by setting the car to negative camber (static: means at rest right?), when turning one way or the other, the suspension compresses, on one side of the car or the other. In this instance, the lowering effect of the compression pushes out that wheel(s), which induces positive camber. By setting the car to negative camber initially, when making that turn or curve, and positive camber is induced, in essence, the wheel flattens out, without actually passing the center point of the wheel (towards positive camber).
I think I've said that right, but I'm not sure. Do you understand what I'm saying?
And I agree, bad Toe alignments are far worse than negative camber, then followed by positive camber, then negative camber. Running neg. camber can reduce tire wear by no more than 5000 DD miles. That's an estimate, based on experience with ZE-512 Falken tires.
SWortham, I'm trying to understand something, so I'm going to give it a shot in my own words, and you tell me if I'm right or wrong, or where my error is.
Basically, by setting the car to negative camber (static: means at rest right?), when turning one way or the other, the suspension compresses, on one side of the car or the other. In this instance, the lowering effect of the compression pushes out that wheel(s), which induces positive camber. By setting the car to negative camber initially, when making that turn or curve, and positive camber is induced, in essence, the wheel flattens out, without actually passing the center point of the wheel (towards positive camber).
I think I've said that right, but I'm not sure. Do you understand what I'm saying?
And I agree, bad Toe alignments are far worse than negative camber, then followed by positive camber, then negative camber. Running neg. camber can reduce tire wear by no more than 5000 DD miles. That's an estimate, based on experience with ZE-512 Falken tires.
I am wondering the same thing and I have 5 of my techs plus an engineer at Art Morrison Enterprises trying to figure out a solution. If it would be possible, I would try to get both upper control the same length, but that is not possible because there is not enough space to get the left rear upper control arm in the same geometric angle as the right side.^ That's really odd that the upper control arm on the left rear is different than the right rear. That would create all sorts of problems with the geometry. Why in the world would Hyundai do that I wonder.
I did do a test though on the car. I collapsed the suspension totally by chaining the rear end to the floor and raising the car (I have a hoist that you drive onto) until the back end is totally compressed. I checked the camber angles on each side. At ride height unloaded the camber is at -1.1 on both sides. I `lowered` the car 1/2 inch and checked the camber. Right side was -1.4 and the left was -2. I raised the wheels up more and noticed the camber angles remained at those angles until the car was `lowered` 3 inches. beyond 3 inches of lowering, the angles progressively became more negative.
The design of the unequal length control arm allows camber to remain at a constant angle and in corners, the contact patch remains fairly stable because as the body leans, the suspension can keep the camber angle at the same position as the road. With a strut setup, you are also changing the angle of the whole suspension therefore camber angle from the road angle changes.
I am hoping that the difference in length can be much smaller once I build the adjustable control arms.
Yeah, what I meant by "at rest" was the natural position of the suspension when the car is sitting still with the driver inside. And static would be the same thing.Basically, by setting the car to negative camber (static: means at rest right?),
I think you've got it.when turning one way or the other, the suspension compresses, on one side of the car or the other. In this instance, the lowering effect of the compression pushes out that wheel(s), which induces positive camber. By setting the car to negative camber initially, when making that turn or curve, and positive camber is induced, in essence, the wheel flattens out, without actually passing the center point of the wheel (towards positive camber).
The tires lean towards positive camber through a corner for two reasons:
1.) The most obvious - body roll. 4 degrees of body roll will put the tires at a slant in relation to the ground so that the outside tire is struggling for grip by the outer edges of the tire.
2.) Poor suspension geometry - ideally a race car should have a geometry to promote negative camber gain when the suspension compresses. The idea would be to at least partially counteract the effect of the tire going off-camber due to body roll. But you don't get so much of that with a Macpherson strut suspension (in fact you can sometimes have the opposite), hence the need to dial in plenty of static negative camber in effort to flatten the tire out for optimal cornering.
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