car was hit in the left front, never in the right as far as i know. this alignment was on professional rack (and a shop i actually have some faith in), previously i had been doing measurements in my garage and now they seem to match up.

camber bolt on the offending side was replaced.

the bolt holes were examined last time around, unfortunately regardless of the bolts the bearing/top hat whatever you wanna call it is all the way against the edge of the plate opening.

sadly i think the only potential fix is a new subframe...too bad the tubular ones will never be nasa class legal

 

The tubes are, you just gotta take that point hit. It's funny because people are posting to FB showing off they're tubular suspension arms. And I doubt they're taking the points for em.

 

I highly doubt your front subframe is tweaked. Even if it was I cant picture how that would affect your camber...how bad was the hit? Even so just seems all too strange.

Where did you go to get your alignment done? I've got two shops I can recommend as far as performance alignments are concerned both in MA. This just doesn't add up. It might be advantageous for you to get your car to a body shop and up on a frame rack before you start throwing more money at it.

 

I can get a full 0.5deg swing in camber if I shift the subframe from one side to the other. That doesn't account for a full degree on each side to average 4deg but could be contributing.

And to shift the subframe you cant just pry on it. It wont go anywhere with all everything bolted to it. I take off all but the nuts accessed thru the control arms, loosen the nuts to ~5 threads from the end. Then pry and tighten the opposite side I want the subframe. So when I tighten the other it rocks up towards that side.

I have to do this adjustment every time I loosen the subframe or my balance is not the same.

Also make sure the alignment guy is biasing all the slop of the strut holes (both top and bottom) towards negative camber. I do this with a jack and block under the rotor to load everything in the negative camber direction. With Ohlin's the swing can be upwards of a degree and on ASTs they were about 1.5deg (would have to look in my book to remember exact numbers when I checked)

 

I thought there was a rule I read about tubular parts bumping you to ttu...I'll have to look again.

Alignment was done by an actual race shop down in NY

 

switch your front struts side to side to see if the camber problem follows the struts. with camber plates -4.5° to -5° camber is normal when maxed out. maxing out at -3° means there is probably something wrong at the strut to knuckle interface.

to check your subframe for straightness, compare the two measurements when you measure diagonally from the rear control arm bolt across to the opposite side forward control arm bolt. if the subframe is straight the two diagonal measurements will be the same.

 

A) Other than the listed exceptions, every Production vehicle must retain its unmodified:
1) OEM frame rails/rear frame cross beam, and/or Unibody, and Sub-frames/
suspension cross-members (in their OEM locations)
2) Strut/shock towers
3) Inner/inboard side of the fender wells (any non-horizontal aspect)
4) Rocker panels
5) Transmission tunnel
6) Floor pan
7) Windshield frame location

This does not appear to list suspension arms.

 

Two places:

7) Tube-frame chassis conversion (partial or complete) is permitted, but all tube-frame
chassis conversion vehicles will be assessed the Modification Factor for
“Non-Production” vehicles, and subsequently, none of the other rules specifically for
“Production Vehicles Only” will apply (7.3.2). If a vehicle cannot be driven safely, at
full speed, with any of the added tubes removed, it is considered a tube-frame
chassis conversion.

Most regionals don't look under the car or they do interrupt it as you did, however at the national level they don't.

1c) Suspension sub-frames/suspension cross-members may be updated or backdated
utilizing any OEM factory produced item that is a direct replacement piece for that
model, regardless of year or street-legality, provided that it can be installed in the
same location and the same manner as on the donor vehicle without modifications.

Some of them for whatever reason consider "cross members" as pieces connecting the suspension to the subframe, which....is what control arms technically do. So as usual, rules are always up to interpretation.

I believe we can get away with the RT arms because they are strictly for tire clearance and provide 0 performance gain, they even weigh the same.

 

You are going to have to get a National level person to back you on this one as I don't read either of those as being applicable to the suspension arms.

NASA is pretty straight forward with rules (except what a rear frame cross beam is). I imagine if they did not intend to allow aftermarket control arms (tube or not), they would just spell it out in the section specifically addressing what qualifies as a production vehicle.

What if the arms are billet? They wouldn't be tubular but the function would be the same.

 

That was the debate, so they switched from just "OEM" to "OEM, Base trim model, from a year in this range, street legal" all that because people would do exactly as your describing, and someone would complain. So when they read "OEM, from the factory" that would make your billet part illegal (in PT more so I think then ST). Then I turn around at another region an everyone has them, so I just don't bother asking anymore Only to advise that IF one of them wanted to be an ***, they could.