You can't simply skip any technical article from Mike Kojima. You can't. The joy on his face when he speaks about serious stuff and the comprehensiveness and detail of his performance is simply mind blowing!

"But if you want to go faster, stick around and let's talk about stuff"...😂 sold

So I work in auto repair, I love doing alignments, and I haven't seen many auto oriented youtubers really talk about alignments in a knowledgeable way so when I saw this recommended I thought "finally!" because every time I watch a video with Mike I always learn and enjoy the knowledge he shares. Loved the video. This reminded me of tuning cars in Forza Motorsport haha, I set a lot of faster than average laps through alignment adjustments alone! I wanted to reiterate on normal car alignments: the majority of alignments are performed because of poor tire wear, most of the time it's because a car will end up with too much toe-out from bushing fatigue, road imperfections and impact, fasteners shifting(aftermarket camber bolts are junk like he mentioned), or just a terrible alignment from the factory. On daily drivers and commuters you should stay away from any toe out if you really want the tires to last. Toe out on cars that aren't heavily loaded in corners will consistently eat up the inner tread very fast, on top of that it will wear choppy/feathered with negative camber(basically triangular strips with 2 corners on the inner tread block and the third corner pointing towards the outer tread block), this will eat your all season UTQG 700 treadwear tire down in 20k miles easily. On top of that the tires are going to HOWL because they're no longer circular in shape, more like paddles by the time they need replacing. So if you want to take your daily driver on the track every once in a while but spend a lot more time in it going to work then find a middle ground with maybe 0 toe(or neutral toe) in the front, because pretty much every spec for modern cars has some degree of toe-in(or neutral depending on the car). On a regular traffic cars you want a tiny amount of toe-in for every small amount of negative camber, to deflect or flex the sidewall for a better contact patch going straight, and for better high speed stability on uneven roads - road crown and surface deviations. Also if you do this at home, it's worth it to have some sort of gauge setup like the one in the video: 0.5 degree can make a big difference. Remember to measure after adjusting something, maybe drive it around the block and remeasure, I know soft bushings with a load on them can easily hide the full adjustment on an alignment lift - typically when the adjustment is quite drastic. Really interesting info on track setups, always wondered about what worked better for these high load situations. I used to have a service writer who had a family hookup to a bmw oriented racing team and he would get free used DOT race tires for his M3 that were on the track car, they were always extremely choppy on the inner tread and vibrated like crazy because they were halfway used up on a track.

Mike is the everlasting gobstopper of motorsport knowledge. Mike is the man!

25:55 "Some is good, more is better, too much is way bad." -Mike. 😂 Thanks again for this absolutely legendary information. 👍

The happiest guy on KZfaq

Legend has it that he’s still smiling right now

Holy shit channel started to blow up. Couldn’t be happier, Mikes enthusiasm is infectious.

Mike Kojima is such a legend. I've been following him for like 25 years.

Such an underrated channel.

The Dave Point... that really takes me back. The golden age of Sport Compact Car in the early 2000s was a special time, I learned so much from Dave and Mike. It's awesome to see Mike still sharing his knowledge.

Man this guy really seems to know mechanical and racing stuff so completely. So much car knowledge from so much experience.

Grew up reading your articles, now my sons watch your videos for their car stuff.

I had a bit of toe-out in the rear suspension of a subaru when racing on dirt, you had to have a blazing fast reaction to keep it from snap oversteering on decel into a corner, but I liked it because it cut down on the annoying understeer from all that weight in the front and little traction on dirt.

Me last night, after first test-drive after installing sexy SPL suspension arm type stuff: "I need to work on the alignment". MotoIQ today: "Hold my Red Bull". 🤣 Thanks for the timely video!

I did NOT think front toe out could actually reduce tire wear. Great info

MK/SCC is the reason why I know as much about suspension as I do. BTW the "lead point" is also known as the "Dave Point" 😅 as per older issue of SCC

27 minutes of free advice! Thank you sir!

This man is the Yoda of speed!

Finally, somebody explained it all to me. Thanks

Mr. Kojima is a Legend in the Tuner World…Truly Appreciate you sharing your Knowledge and Experience….Thank you MotoIQ 🙏

This is gold

“If you wanna go fast, uhh go fast for free… come on… let’s uhh talk about some stuff.” -This needs to be on a MotoIQ Tshirt.

I’ve always liked hearing about suspension, alignment and wheel set-ups. Plus the 240 in the background looks just like my 180sx in Australia. Keep up the good videos, nice work. 👍

Fantastic video as always Mike! Thank you for taking the time to make it. I really enjoyed the point you made at 24:35 when you were taking about too much Caster/camber angle, and the understeer to snap oversteer characteristic it gives a car. I learnt a heap just in that two minutes alone. Thank you again for your uploads.

I've now watched a few of your video's, generally engine builds. Really enjoy your delivery and obvious experience of the things you talk about. Very much doubt I'll ever use the things you just explained or vast majority of engine explanations but subscribing anyway.

This man is perpetually chill 😆 love it! Great info!

Thank you so much Mike !

Love your content Mike, you are the man!

Thanks again for passing your knowledge on

As always good info!

I LOVE Sport Compact car. I still have every issue.

This was incredibly helpful. 👍👍👍👍

Thank you for this. Very useful

Heading to the track again in a couple weeks, absolutely going to take the pointers here and try some light adjustments at the alignment shop before heading out. Great video, thanks so much!!!

awesome awesome info here! Damn! 🔥 Thanks Mike!

Great Info, thanks

Damn , I actually read that Dave Coleman article way back in the day! Thank you for the video, probably the best summary on the topic on alignment on the net.

I enjoy your passion, therefore I learn and enjoy mine! Thanks!

these tips are what made me subscribe, so much usefull information to use when setting up a project car!

Exceptionally nice video, greetings from Greece.

I ran a track alignment when I first installed my angle kit. The wheel pull from the high negative camber and slight toe out requires 100% attention on streets, but the handling in corners is top notch!

Great video, i think you'd make an excellent teacher with how well an informative you are keep up the great work

Omg perfect timing, I was gonna email them to make a video on this.

Mike out here singlehandedly shutting down all the forum fools and their myths about car setup.

Is smile will never go out of style

Love this. I'd like to see more diagrams with this stuff. It's interesting how most of my cars violate his rules of thumb, after tuning my settings for years. All suspensions work a lil different, and all drivers drive different.

Sport compact car and Grand Tursimo all you needed to learn this back in the early 2000s . Who was at supet gt when it came to the states at Fontana.

nice work Mike... as expected and as usual!

Thanks for sharing your knowledge….. (motoiq)

Good to see I was in the ball park of what Mike suggests. Ran 4* f and 1.5* r camber in the DD SRT4 with 27psi 245x40x17. Checked Dad's Spec 944 toe and it was 1.5" out. Next race after I "fixed it" he got wrecked in turn 9 by DanDon lol

@MotoIQ hi Mike, I’ve seen some of your videos and pressed play as soon as I saw this come up on my feed. It couldn’t have come up at a better time! I have a model 3 I’ve been running in autocross, I made some suspension mods and got new stickier tires for this new season, chasing after those lower times. I’m a former ASE tech and do all the work and upgrades on my car. I recently started doing my own string alignments since I lower the car and adjust the camber front and rear, I adjust the toe after adjustments are made. After the end of last season I set the car back to street settings and realigned it. I noticed the car didn’t feel right and the TC light was coming on, I redid the alignment but it still felt off. After watching your video and you explaining how different toe settings can change the way the car drives I set the rear toe in a bit and set the front toe out. After I test drove it I was blown away at the difference in how it felt and how much better it drove, the car feels stable and planted again! I’ve looked for alignment info online to help me fix the problem but your video was the one that explained it the best and help me fix it. When I worked as a tech I knew how to align a car but we had an alignment tech who did them all but sometimes I had to do one. I never got to learn the fine details of aligning a car. Thanks so much for the help and I now appreciate more the importance of a good alignment!

Great tips I'll use them on my '99 Corolla 😀👌

Mike!!! Remember the rear beam bending that Darrin used to do for the b14s? I think that would be such an interesting topic to tackle. Tackling difficult suspension geometry from the factory and the wild ways we fix them

Oval racing we use positive camber on the left front wheel we are only ever turning left and have a lot of banking so the left front is always positive on oval racing cars

Thank you 😊😎👍and I've gotten faster at forza motorsport 7 watching your videos you da man👍😁 and the people behind the scenes thank y'all too😊👍 stay cool, calm and collected😊

THE BEST

Me listening to this about to autocross my semi-trailing arm rear super beetle with not enough toe-in: Yeahhhh

Positive camber also used in nascar i believe, since theyre onky turning left over and over, 2 tires have negative camber and 2 tires have positive camber

Kojima is just a wholesome man, automatic like for this great being 🫶🏼

Thanks Mike #sportcompactcarforever

You explained it. I’m gonna tag this for refreshers. I can never remember all that. Question who’s Evo I want it.

Thanks again, Mike! Your suspension knowledge helps reinforce what I recently learned at an SAE Vehicle Dynamics training session I attended. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on a street alignment, which I feel would be a bit harder to nail down since you have to balance tire wear with performance (obviously a compromise must be had somewhere). I'm looking to do just that on my Civic Si commuter. I was also glad to hear your thoughts about camber bolts on McPherson strut vehicles. I've heard others comment that camber bolts can slip, so it's good to know that you can just slot a damper hole to achieve similar results (for free) and still maintain enough bolt clamping force on the strut to knuckle joint to keep them from moving.

5:01 one of best sleeper fwd cars right there 😆

Hello @motoiq, I hope you could ask Mike to make a video about proper wheel size and width to tire size (width and profile) ratio for performance. Theres a meaty look, stretched look and square. Been curious on the ideal size ratio of wheel and tire.

A simple example of negative caster is when reversing a car. If you let go of the wheel the steering will whip around to full lock because the steering is trying to self-centre but with the front wheels facing the other way. It's not a fun experience!

It's like getting free info from Master Yoda himself.

Just finished the triple adjustment coilovers video just to have this drop right after. It's going to be a good Friday.

Good stuff, not that regular degular

Very interesting video! How about a diy way to do the alignment? There's heaps of videos but none of them have the same outcome specially when it comes to caster!

you guys need to sell a bobble head mike on your website

Hey Mike. Thanks for such a detailed video. Do you remember your C8 Corvette track alignment? Did you add any toe out to counter the understeer? The GM recommended alignment calls for 0.1 toe in.

You migh not get everyones likes…but you got mine 😊

Sucks when you set it up only for dry weather, then drive it in the snow. That old photo of the 350z reminds me of that article from sportcompact car magazine.

Drift cars also sometimes run no front sway bar. Lots of suspension travel upfront. Great reason to increase neg toe.

I understand from the video that its tough to narrow it down to a single number, but what would you say is the maximum negative camber one can set on the fronts for a FWD car that sees mainly street use but is also frequently pushed on touge style narrow mountain roads, without sacrificing too much in straight line stability and tire longevity? Also, goes without saying, but thanks for another AMAZING vid!

For the longest time, I've been seeing a big trend of running high caster, 7-9 deg being common in road course awd and rwd..... Everyone seems to like it, me included. Perhaps we're using this as a Band-Aid? Would love to get more insight on how you arrive on optimal Caster

Hey Mike! Love the wisdom you share on all your videos. Your info about toe in / out die performance caught my ear. Is toe always measured in distance over degrees? If I were getting it aligned, would I say 1/8 inch as spec and the tech can do it correctly? Or would I say a fraction of a degree or a degree or two? What toe spec would you recommend for a VA wrx for autocross (full bolt-ons, full suspension, e20, 200 tw tires - - rt660 presently). Not much straight line drag or anything, but what toe would you recommend front and rear for cornering? Awd obviously.

Can you do a breakdown of Ackerman for drifting

Ayo 24:20 caught me off guard 😂

Great video as always…I’d appreciate some feedback on a friend’s car that I’m helping to setup. It’s a 2018 BMW M3 F80. We are severely limited in terms of modifications for the time trial series that he’s competing in. He managed to win his class last year with the following setup (otherwise stock): front camber plates, 285 Goodyear 3 (not 3R) on 20x10 square, alignment was around -3 f, -1.5 r, ~0 toe or slight toe out f, slight toe in r, and caster at 7. This year we are moving up a class and going to use 295 Bridgestone 71RS on 18x10.5 square. For the alignment I’m thinking we will want a bit more camber f/r, toe about the same, and maybe a bit more caster. These cars have somewhat vague steering feel, so I was thinking a bump to 7.5 would help in that regard. Also, I’m thinking it might help to swap to a slightly stiffer front sway bar (we cannot do springs or coilovers). Any thoughts you could share would be greatly appreciated!

The part that kills me about caster is that caster wheels on office chairs, furniture etc, don’t actually have any caster, they just have trail. So maybe they should be called “trailers” instead, but I guess that name was already taken

Question: Will some negative caster at the front give you better acceleration when applied to a FWD car? My reasoning being that the direction of the force applied by the wheel while accelerating will match the one the shock needs in order to compress. Just like how you get better use of the weight transfer to the front under braking with positive caster. I know negative sucks for handling.

I've got a rear-heavy Cayman. When you say -4 camber is preferred, do you mean on the front or rear axles? (I realize the type of tire and sidewall will also factor as you say)

this guy smiles when he talks. he must eat a strong edible 45 min before each video

I grew up around racing. My father was crew cheif for a Nascar Whelen Tour Open wheel Modified. Everything this guy is saying is burned in my head. They were constantly making tiny adjustments, then go out on track, adjust then go x100. In out in out. Then what he didn't mention is every time u make one of these adjustments it's going to change the car in other areas. Like adjust the rear can and will effect the front too. It's not as simple as just adjust this. Cuz it will deff effect more than just what ur adjusting.

What is inch in degrees?

💎💎💎💎💎

Would positive camber in the rear also help cars set up for drag racing? Seeing as though they're squatting pretty much from launch until the line

Can you speak for 10 inch or wider tires for heavier cars? 4° camber on a 275 low pro will load the rim lip to a point of failure. Im interested in the much wider tires then the 255 your talking about. Think about 275 to 315... please.

What about cars that oversteer on breaking with semi trailer arm on the rear?

Whats a good compromise of tire wear and handling?? -2 or more camber and small bit of toe

Any recommendations for a tool/setup/method for doing an alignment at home?

For rear toe out, ask Porsche CUP series guys from up to 2020 year... ;)

The NC Miata and even more so the ND, are designed with 6-8' degrees of caster from factory. Why is that? Some formula cars run even much higher castera than that (double a arm). Is it because of the relatively high KPI that negates camber gain to some devree?

On my bmw e36 drift car I put more caster and less camber (one way adjustable topmount) and i got LESS self centering and made me spin out. this was the other way round than I expected. Glad i learned today you could set too much caster. not sure this is what is happening... extendend control arms, welded steering knuckles. (mc-pherson)

“Kingpin angle”🤔🧐

Talking about hands free driving in a daily, could we get a video sort of like this, but for maximum comfort/fuel economy/wear?

The Fact the civic was the 1st example of stupid camber is soooo funny because its facts

Positive camber works on low riders 😂