1967 Chevelle street / strip car caster?

[TMSJoe]

We had my fathers 1967 Chevelle aligned a few years ago because the car was all over the track. There was no change after. I asked the alignment guy what he set the caster at and was told zero degrees. I asked if that sounded right for a car going 130 MPH. We have gone 127 so far. He shrugged his shoulders and told me the caster was set to the factory specs.

My question is what should it be set at for a car going 130?

We have checked the suspension for loose or damaged parts. The car is not spinning the tires. It seems to be rocking back and fourth. This is only on a good pass when the car is on its toes so to speak. If the caster is set sitting still on the rack, what changes when the car is going down the track with the front end high in the air?

This can needs to be fixed.

[Alan Roehrich]

We've run as much as six degrees. Doing that allows us to run about 1/16" toe in, so we get close to zero toe. We align the car with 170# in the driver's seat, and the front end raised 2-1/2" or so from static ride height, so as to be close to how it goes down the track. We do have Global West bushings, special Moog offset control arm shafts, and special Moog long upper ball joints.

[af2]

We had my fathers 1967 Chevelle aligned a few years ago because the car was all over the track. There was no change after. I asked the alignment guy what he set the caster at and was told zero degrees.

This can needs to be fixed.

Find a new person that knows alignments!! What a joke for on the street or worse for any racing to have caster at 0 !! To many tools in this trade that have no comprehension!!!


The more positive caster the straighter the car will go. I run 13* but was built in the axle when I built it. As was said you should get at least 4* and that is night and day compared to 0*

[MadBill]

Back in that era, power steering was optional in many cars and for simplicity the factory commonized alignment specs. Parking a big block Chevelle with manual steering was a chore with zero (or less, some cars had negative) caster and would have been near-impossible with 3, 5, 10 or more degrees as some cars now use. (Check out any late-model Mercedes with the steering cranked. The wheels lean like a road grader's. )

[TMSJoe]

I went with TRZ uppers & lowers. We had trouble getting the 6º at first. I was forced to call Todd at TRZ and have custom uppers made for the car. This was done no questions asked and at no additional charge! Afterwards everything went as planned.

Before TRZ tubular control arms:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xssg21 ... 7-002_auto

After:

http://www.dailymotion.com/TMSjoe#video=xssfrh

Now the car goes straight even though Big Joe is pulling the wheel left on the launch. That is next on the list of fixes.

Old best ET=10.60@127
New best ET=10.41@129

[justahoby]

We had my fathers 1967 Chevelle aligned a few years ago because the car was all over the track. There was no change after. I asked the alignment guy what he set the caster at and was told zero degrees. I asked if that sounded right for a car going 130 MPH. We have gone 127 so far. He shrugged his shoulders and told me the caster was set to the factory specs.

My question is what should it be set at for a car going 130?

We have checked the suspension for loose or damaged parts. The car is not spinning the tires. It seems to be rocking back and fourth. This is only on a good pass when the car is on its toes so to speak. If the caster is set sitting still on the rack, what changes when the car is going down the track with the front end high in the air?

This can needs to be fixed.

If he said camber would say "OK, thats cool", even if its not optimal, not knowing the specs for your car, on a large bet 0 degrees caster i'd say he is full of piss. I run 3.5 degrees in my truck, it likes 5, but I set it at 3.5 because I put weight in it from time to time