How well can you make a chevy vega handle?

[mahoy78spyder]

Good point Dwight.

Fun video to watch too (the car that is... the tank?... yeah that made me laugh)

[rpoz-29]

On a smooth course, a slightly modded Vega will handle with any other car. On a rougher course, it will handle with the other solid axle cars. Replace all the bushings, eliminate the axle hop, dial in some negative camber and give it a little toe out. Bigger sway bars and lower it a little. Suspensions have become much more complicated, but mainly for ride characteristics, not handling. Back in "the day" you either had a good ride, or good handling. I have several hundred autocrosses in a Vega, and almost that many in my Camaro. I took it seriously enough that it stopped being fun. I last ran the Vega in 2002. It was in SCCA H/Stock and still competitive until the Mini was dropped into that class, but still competitive with the Honda Civic's. One Honda owner protested my car, (even though he beat me by a couple tenths of a second), because he thought it was "too fast". Probably based on the fact that I beat the 2 guys he had co-driving with him. The Vega needed about 30 more HP. The protest didn't stick.

[Monza Harry]

dial in some negative camber and give it a little toe out.

I am surprised about the "Toe Out" in your response. you specified that twice, I know from messing with the "Go-carts" that toe out will make it real "twitchy" and it is way harder to control. We usually ended up near "0" toe for our seat of the pants "Accelerometer" I realize 1/8 with a 24" tire is way different than even 1/16" on a 10" tire. So I am not questioning your setting more of, can you explain how you got there, and were there any side effects? Did the Toe-out correct some "Ackerman" issues, or other issue's, that's sort of the direction I am leading? Harry

[rpoz-29]

The .125" toe out was a suggestion from an engineer with BFG, as was the camber suggestion in the early '90's. (They were fielding a few cars in the RS sedan class back then to showcase their "Comp TA" tires). The car was somewhat twitchy on a straight, ( and a pita on the street), but autocrosses don't have that many. The idea being that regardless which direction you were turning the wheel, the inside tire was already beginning that turn. The car had a slight, but predictable understeer with each input on a long slalom, but stayed very neutral everywhere else. At that time, (probably 1993 or so), I had a 1.125 front bar, single adjustable Koni shocks on the front, KYB high pressure gas rear shocks, 3.36 rear, and 185-60-13 A008RS Yokohama, or 205-60-13 BFG Comp TA tires. Once I started to "burn out" on autocross, I took the toe out of the car so street driving wasn't so difficult.

[cjbiagi]

Glad you cleared up that toe out setting. It seemed very odd to me as well but I generally just suggest alignment settings for street cars. All the points you made are very valid for a track car and also points out the problems with trying this on the street. For H bodies I usually suggest about a 1/2 degree negative camber and 1/8" toe in along with as much positive caster as you can get (usually not much). These settings provide a good balance for handling and tire wear. Obviously it's just a starting point and you can deviate a bit depending upon your goals.

[rpoz-29]

What are "Ackerman issues"?

[Monza Harry]

The "Ackerman" isn't a setting on most cars unless they have bolt on steering arms. That part of the knuckle design is responsible for the toe out in the turns to reduce scrubbing, I haven't personally checked it on any of my cars, but a few that employed some suspension software suggested that ours was less than ideal. It wasn't clear if it was positive or negative either, I was just fishing for more depth. Thanx For Sharing Harry