Camber, toe and ride height

These three appear at the top of every setup sheet, and they are where a car that has been crashed all season quietly drifts away from where it started. You do not need to understand suspension theory to set them — you need a flat surface and a habit of checking.

Do all of this with the car at race weight: body on, pack in, everything you would run. A car measured empty is not the car you drive.

Camber

Camber is how far the top of the wheel leans in or out, seen from the front. Leaning in at the top is negative, which is what you want.

A tyre works best flat on the ground. As the car rolls in a corner the outside wheel leans out, so a little negative camber standing still means the loaded tyre is upright when it matters. Typical starting points are -1° to -2° at each end, and the kit manual's setup sheet is a better guess than anything you read online.

The tyres will tell you if you are wrong. Wear concentrated on the inside edge means too much negative camber; wear on the outside edge means not enough. Even wear across the tread means you have it right.

Toe

Toe is whether the wheels point together or apart, seen from above.

• Front toe-out (wheels apart) gives sharper response as you turn in, and makes the car feel more eager. Too much makes it nervous on the straight.
• Front toe-in calms the car down and costs you some initial steering.
• Rear toe-in is always in: usually 2–3° and often fixed by the hub or block, not adjustable. It is what keeps the back of the car following the front. More rear toe-in means more stability and a little less rotation.

Small numbers here. A degree of front toe is a change you will feel.

Ride height

Ride height is the gap under the chassis, measured at the front and rear with the car sitting at race weight.

Lower is generally quicker — less body roll, less weight transfer — right up until the chassis starts touching down, at which point the car snaps unpredictably. On a bumpy or rutted track you want more; on smooth carpet or asphalt you can go low.

The gap between front and rear matters as much as the numbers. A nose that sits lower than the tail shifts the balance forward and adds steering; raising the front takes steering out. That is a bigger, blunter change than camber or toe, so treat it as a coarse adjustment and make it first.

While you are down there: droop and caster

Droop limits how far the suspension can extend. It controls how quickly the car transfers weight and, in the extreme, whether an inside wheel lifts. Set it per the kit sheet until you have a reason to change it.

Caster is how far the front kingpin leans back. More caster makes the car more stable and better over bumps but reduces steering in the middle of the corner. It is usually set by swapping a block or a bushing, not a screw, so it is a between-meetings change rather than a between-runs one.

Doing it without a setup station

A setup station and a camber gauge make this quick and repeatable, and they are worth buying eventually. Until then a known-flat surface, a ride height gauge and a steady hand get you most of the way. Any flat table is enough to spot that one corner is different from the other three, and that is the most valuable thing this check does.

Then write it down

Record the measurements on the setup sheet for the car. Two things come out of that: you can get back to a setup you liked, and when the car suddenly feels wrong you can check what has moved rather than guessing. Bent parts do not announce themselves — they show up as a car that measures differently on one side than the other.