why doesnt xbs have negative camber when its aired out like most other cars and trucks that are bagged?

 

macpherson struts!

 

does negative camber help in making the car any lower?

 

no negative camber does not help the car get any lower

but it does help the rim/wheel rubbing issues with the fender

 

^^^^^ your wrong! the camber will help tuck the wheels into the fender more, which would help the car go lower.

 

well with the help of equipment

what I meant is negative camber alone will not help lower it, only help clear rubbing issues

 

Never thought about it, but negative camber could actually make the tire look like it's up in the fender more. But it most defintely will not lower the car - just the opposite.

I'm looking at my refrigerator right now - a fridge and a tire have somewhat the same shape. There is a 6" gap between the top of the fridge and the bottom of the cabinet above it.

If I tilt the fridge to the right it could appear like the cabinet has been lowered down closer to the fridge . . . but the fridge is actually taking up more vertical space.

So I guess since when most of us want to lower a car we're talking about getting rid of wheel gap; and since you are looking at only the outer edge of a tire compared to the fender then I can see why you might like the looks of some negative camber.

BUT - Dialing in a lot of negative camber, enough to achieve this look, will absolutely chew up your tires, make it handle poorly (unless you are so deep in a corner that the car is leaning over), and making straight line tracking a thing of the past because so little of the tire will be on the road anymore.

The reason Scions don't exhibit neg camber when bagged like other cars like the Accord do is because of the different suspension set ups. Macpherson struts are designed to never change camber throughout suspension travel - it's just simply up and down.

The "double wishbone" or "unequal length control arms" or even the "twin I beam" suspension in old Ford pickups are designed to arc around a pivot point on the chassis. Within the normal range of suspension travel camber isn't changing that much . . . but if you change that range of travel by shortening the springs then the car looks like its at that bottom of its suspension travel (sorta like an invisible giant stepping on the car)

Sorry for the long post, but this stuff is interesting. I'll go to the fridge now.

Chris

 

wow the fridge thing made was i guess a good example.... thanks for the info phxxA