[s-cars] 2Bennett Camber Plate Install - Road Test

[Fred Munro]

After a good road test today ( my 150 km daily commute) I can happily report
a major improvement in the feel of the car and the absence of tramlining.
The steering now has a nice weight to it and the car tracks true over ruts
that had it dancing around with even the 215/55-16 winter tires. I am very
pleased with the improvement - the car now drives the way I always thought
it should. The tires howl at certain speeds, mind you, and it occasionally
feels like the tread has changed from "street" to "ultra grip mudd hogg",
but at this point I'm assuming that is from the weird wear patterns induced
by the previous alignment.

Since the caster is still out on the right side, I think the improvement
must be due to getting the camber to the centre of the spec. Moving it
from -1.04 to -0.55 really changed the toe - it put it right off-scale at
over -1.5 on both sides, so it appears that small camber changes
significantly affect the front end geometry.

Maybe those Audi engineers knew something when they set the suspension specs
:o). Now if I can just get right side caster in line....


Fred Munro
'94 S4 (point and shoot - what a difference!)