Quick, Free Way to Increase Your Car's Mechanical Grip

If you race your car in a league, track day event, or just want your car to be faster through corners, there is a free way to do that. Adding negative camber to your tires will add mechanical grip to your car through corners. Negative camber refers to the tilting of tires so the bottom portion of the tires stick out away from the car. This helps through a corner because during a turn, the weight transfer through the wheels takes part of the contact patch of a tire off the road. For example, while taking a left corner, the weight of the car transfers to the right wheels. The shift in weight causes the inner part of the right tires to lift from ground and the contact patch mostly lays on the outer portion of the right tire. Changing the camber to negative increases the contact patch through a turn because the tire is already tilted and more of the tire will grip the road through the corner. These following steps will show you how to change the camber settings on a production car. Each car may vary depending on the manufacturer, model, and actual type of suspension. The following steps are demonstrated on a double-wishbone suspension on a Mazda Miata. (the images above sourced: http://www.autoracing1.com/Images/2002/F1/Australia/Ferrari3.jpg and http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/V8+Supercars+Round+7+Practice+EJ3dV1iAcq8l.jpg)

Park your car on level ground and place your jack beneath the car. Before cranking the car up, loosen the bolts on the rim. (FRONT LEFT WHEEL)

Once the car is raised so the wheel is off the ground, unscrew each of the bolts from the wheel. Once that is done, remove the wheel.

In a double-wishbone suspension, look for the camber bolts on the lower wishbone where it meets the front lower subframe. (For this example in the picture, the bolts are circled in red.)

In order to increase the negative camber angle for the wheel, you should use a ratchet and wrench to loosen both camber bolts. While using the wrench, rotate the bolt to the outside of the car to add negative camber. The further the bolt is to the outside of the car, the more negative camber is being added. Properly tighten the bolt using the wrench, with ratchet on the nut.

Place the wheel on the hub and then put the lugnuts on the wheel studs hand tight. Afterwards, lower the car with the jack and tighten the lugnuts further in a star pattern.