From : E
Here we go again! :) When I talk camber values, they are absolute, not relative to the front. Negative rear camber will increase traction at the rear. This is why it will increase understeer. This is why we club racers run 8-10 psi MORE air pressure in the rear than the front...to decrease traction at the rear and have good balance. I am resending my toe essay from a long time ago for the handling neophytes on the list. BTW no one has given a good reason to run toe out on the front yet.
To answer the easy question first, run the stock brake pads. The material is Abex Q3T. Anything more aggressive will require warming to be effective. Anything less aggressive won't develop enough torque. I raced on the stuff in 1994. It is probably your best bet for autocrossing as well as street use. Its good stuff.
To evaluate toe on the front, what happens when you toe out the rear? The car oversteers. This is because the outside, more heavily loaded tire, the tire with the most influence on cornering, is pointing towards the outside of the corner. This steers the rear outward and brings the back end out relative to the front. Use that fact at the front, and you see that toe out (more than ackerman) steers the front towards the outside of the corner. This equals understeer which I don't think you want to do. Some people use toe out whether they think it or not to stabilize the car (understeer). In autocrossing, the car is usually never completely steady state, and the understeer at the front makes it more forgiving. If people run toe out at the rear, this destabilizes the car. Then they dial in front toe out to, whether they think it or not, compensate for the instability. I would not recommend running any toe out at the rear of the Neon either. It has a fair amount of dynamic toe out due to bearing and bushing compliance. Static toe out ends up giving you way too much dynamically.
Another reason for not running toe out on the front of a Neon is toe compliance from acceleration. The neon has a negative scrub radius in the front geometry. This means that the center of the contact patch is inboard of the center of steering rotation. Altering the offset of the wheels from 40mm, by the way, screws this all up. Under acceleration, the front wheels of a Neon toe out. Running static toe to my settings then gives you 0 toe dynamically under full throttle at peak torque in 3rd gear, minimizing scrub and optimizing speed on the straights. Another reason for running toe in is that it is not uncommon for the camber to slip in the positive direction at the clevice bracket due to cornering loads (make sure you torque the clevice bolts to 150 ft-lbs). When the camber setting goes positive, your toe goes out. Take the wheel off, look at the suspension, and you'll see. If this happens at an event when you can't reset the alignment, you end up with more toe out than you set. So if you start toed out, you get tons of toe out. If you start toed in, you go through zero to some toe out as it slips. Anything more than 1/8" toe out per side significantly slows the car down on the straights. We've tested it.
Everyone seems to run toe out because other people do who beat them. Do you have a good reason to run toe out in front? I'd like to hear it.
Whew! long post. Hope this helps.
E
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