I'm planning to swap out my stock springs for the WORKS Ride springs. I was also planning on adding the WORKS camber plates so I could bump up the camber for spirited driving. A friend of mine who knows more about this stuff than I do said that might not work for me:

[Mutual acquaintance with WRX] got two alignments with his camber plates and marked them both on the camber plate so he could switch them. A gentle one for the street and an aggressive one for auto x. Here is the rub, for you, I think. When creating negative camber with a camber plate on an EVO, you will cause toe-in in the front, which is going to make the car not really want to turn in like it should. On the Subie, adding neg camber creates toe-out (which is good). This is caused by the tie-rod. On the Subie they attach toward the rear of the hub. On the EVO, they attach toward the front.

So you will probably want to get a pretty aggressive alignment and leave it……that’s what I do [in my WRX]. I run –2.5 in the front and zero toe. Doesn’t really screw the tires up that much, but it is a little noticeable.

When you get them aligned, get them to max out the neg camber with the eccentric strut bolt first (attaches the hub to the strut), then adjust the camber plates to where you want them.

I've got -2.0 with zero toe in the front right now. Is it worth $260 to get another half a degree? Or could I go with -3.0? Or is he wrong about increasing the camber causing toe-in? What do people with camber plates do with them? Set and forget, or adjust?

 

changing your camber also changes your toe, so you cannot change camber on the fly even with plates - you have to realign every time you touch the camber.

 

OK, thanks for responding, but I sort of knew that changing camber changed toe.

The question is: does increasing negative camber cause toe-in?

If so, then you can't do the moderate camber/zero-toe for street, high camber/some toe-out for track method that works for some cars.

And, if that's the case, is there really a need for camber plates? I guess they're beneficial for additional adjustability and replacing whatever bushings the stock top mounts have.

 

I think with caster leaning to the backside of the car, more negative camber should give you toe in. Camber plates are also helpful if you are running very wide tires, because you can set the bolt to get more clearnance from the strut, and then use the plates to get the desired camber.

 

It doesn't matter which it will give you. Toe in, toe out. It's not possible to get accurate measurements by making markings and changing it without an alignment machine or similiar equipment. I do alignments daily and set toe to within a fraction of a degree. The smallest amount of change makes a gigantic difference in the measurements. Anyone who tells you otherwise is kidding themselves and you. In the end you can't have it both ways. Set up an aggressive alignment for the track or stick with factory recommendations for the street.