Need some alignment advice...

[Kafer_Mike]

I'm planning to get my '69 Beetle off the jackstands and to the alignment shop this week -- after 9+ years of work :D . It's a fairly hot street car (2332, 44IDFs, CB wedgeports, FK-47, 8.7:1) that I plan to use as a weekend driver; twisties and straight. What do you guys suggest for alignment settings?

I've heard -1/16" toe for the front. Is that at the tire edge or wheel lip? What about the rear? I've heard to set it -1/16 to neutral toe. What about front and rear camber? Actually alignments specs would be great. ;)

Front:
*2.5" narrowed adjustable ball joint beam set to neutral height
*2.5" lowered spindles
*Stock '69 bug steering
*GR2's
*3/4" Sway-Away sway bar
*205/55's on 16x6 Fuchs
*spare tire in well

Rear:
*24.5mm torsion bars with urethane sping plate bushings
*2.5" lowered with adjustable spring plates and urethane bushings
*GR2's
*3/4" Sway-Away sway bar
*225/50's on 16x7 Fuchs

[volkdent]

1/16 toe out and 1 deg neg camber or more up front, what about your castor? Not sure on rear, lot's of factors there...

Jason

[Kafer_Mike]

I'm using a single set of castor shims up front...

[volkdent]

It's just that a little toe-out can make the car feel really twitchy at high speeds. Increased castor makes the car want to keep straight. It really depends on whether the car is really just carving up corners all the time, if so keept the toe-out, if its going fast in a straight line a lot, you might want to keep the toe-out to a minimum. That goes with camber too, if you are always cornering, you might go up to 2+ neg degrees, but depending on what your sway bars are doing, you might not be getting the roll to need that much camber.

Jason

[Kafer_Mike]

Based on everything I've read, I'm going to start with -1/16 toe and -1.5 degree camber on both front and rear. I'd rather have the straight line stability of -toe versus the improved turn-in of +toe -- for now. The key is to get it driving straight. I can play with the toe after I've driven it for a while... ;)