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Simply put, camber is the set angle of a tire from the top to the bottom. You may have noticed it on certain cars you've seen on the road. You know, the ones that make you think, "Maybe I should try to get a little farther away from that car because it looks like the wheels are about to fall off." For the record, that is, in fact, not the proper way to utilize camber. Having your wheels angled upward at a 30-degree angle is not going to improve anything about your car. It could actually do quite the opposite. We'll get to that in a little bit. Now, on to the most important question; What does camber do?

So now, you might be asking yourself, "If adjusting the camber on my wheels is just going to make my car worse, then what's the point of even doing it? What's the point of even owning a car if I can't adjust the camber?" Well, first thing's first, you can, in fact, make your car better by adjusting the camber. Now you're confused because I just said earlier that it makes your car worse. Just hold on a second and let me explain. It's all a matter of how much the camber is adjusted. 30 degrees of camber is not going to help you in any way, shape, or form. One half to 2 degrees of camber could make your car a lot better. Camber influences how well your car will maintain grip during a turn. In other words, it'll influence your car's handling.

Here's why. When you take a turn, there are a few forces in play, such as the forward momentum that comes from your previously straight trajectory, the centrifugal force caused by the now-rotational movement of the car, and the friction of the tires against the road surface, which keep the car moving in a circle. These forces cause the weight to shift to the front tire that is on the outside of the turn. This, in turn, causes the tire to flex and warp from its original shape. The bottom of the tire will be bent towards the center of the car while the car is pushed to the outside of the turn by the centrifugal force. Camber mainly influences the friction of the tires against the road surface by increasing or decreasing the amount of tire surface that makes contact with the road surface during a turn. How much it effects the car's handling depends on how much tire surface there is in the first place, i.e., how wide the tires are, and the thickness of the tires' sidewalls. You'll typically see more noticeable camber on the front wheels since that's where the car's weight is shifted to when cornering. The rear wheels will stay relatively flat on the road surface for better grip when accelerating and decelerating. There are two types of camber; positive and negative. Positive camber means that the top of the wheel is facing outward. Negative camber means the top of the wheel is facing inward. You'll typically see negative camber more than you'll see positive, but both have their uses, depending on the type of vehicle.

Positive camber means that the top of the wheel sticks out further than the bottom, which puts the face of the wheel at a downward angle. This type of alignment provides the vehicle with better straight-line stability by causing the vehicle to pull to both sides at the same time, and reduces the amount of effort required to steer. The downside is that the handling of the vehicle is made worse because of how the tire flexes on a turn. There would also be more wear on the inside of the tire than on the outside. You would usually see this setup on a car that has been built up for drag racing, which doesn't need to make high-speed turns at any time, or, more practically, on off-road vehicles, such as tractors and heavy-duty trucks, because of the ease of steering and better stability on uneven surfaces. For obvious reasons, the off-roaders have no need to make high-speed turns either. You probably won't see this setup on a road car unless it comes from a time when automakers didn't understand the effects of camber. Positive camber is good for straight-line stability, but not for cornering. The tire is already positioned so that the inside does not contact the road as much as the outside. Taking a high-speed turn would only increase this effect, reducing grip and causing understeer. The high-speed cornering is where negative camber comes in.

Negative camber is just the opposite of positive camber; the bottom of the wheel sticks out further than the top, putting the wheel face at an upward angle. This setup provides better cornering stability but may reduce straight-line stability. For road cars, it is important to find a good balance between the two in order to make sure the car is safe to drive and also to reduce uneven tire wear. Negative camber will also mainly be used on any kind of track car, especially race cars. With negative camber, the tires are positioned so that there is more contact with the road surface on the inside than the outside. Because of this, the tire flex caused by the weight shift when cornering will put more of the tire surface in contact with the road surface on a high-speed turn. This will allow for more cornering grip, granting the car the ability to take turns at higher speeds. However, too much negative camber could render the tires unable to flex enough to gain grip when cornering. This will cause oversteer, which is why having your tires facing up at a 30-degree angle is not the best idea.

There are, of course, various exceptions for purpose-built vehicles that use camber in their own unique ways. NASCAR race cars will use an asymmetric camber setup since they only need to turn in one direction. The tire on the inside of the turn will utilize negative camber, and the tire on the outside of the turn will use positive camber, giving the car the best of both worlds at each bend of the oval.

Remember when I said that the rear tires of a car will be relatively flat on the road surface compared to the front tires? Drag cars will take this idea to a whole new level by maintaining a 0-degree camber angle on the rear tires. Since drag cars are all about acceleration, they need the maximum level of forward grip all the way down the quarter mile, meaning the rear tires need to be absolutely flat on the ground at all times.

Trophy trucks and other desert race cars are the exception when it comes to off-road vehicles. These will use quite noticeable negative camber on the front wheels because they are required to cross any and all terrain at the highest speed they can achieve. These vehicles won't necessarily need to make tight turns, but they will need to make high-speed turns based on what the course demands.

Drift cars utilize excessive negative camber to do what they do best; sliding around a turn. These cars are specifically built to lose grip at every turn, literally. They are very fun to watch, very hard to drive, and very much not road legal. All of these purpose-built vehicles require very skilled drivers to control them and are great fun if you are one of those drivers.

Most auto manufacturers do not intend for drivers to tamper with their cars' suspensions, which means that camber is not usually easily adjustable, depending on the car. Many cars built today will come with independent suspension setups. Some of these cars may come with adjustable components to change the camber angle of the tires. This, however, means that there are more components to maintain in order to prevent failure. If there are no adjustable suspension components, certain components will need to be swapped out or modified in order to achieve the desired camber angle. Older trucks and some modern ones come with solid axle suspension in the front and rear. A solid axle is, as the name suggests, solid, meaning it is comprised of one piece. This means that, in order to change the camber angle, the entire axle may need to be replaced or modified.

So yes, you probably should avoid those cars that look like the wheels are about to fall off. It's not that the wheels actually are going to fall off. It's the lack of grip that the car will have with that setup. While camber is not beneficial in this scenario, there are many instances where it is very beneficial to a vehicle depending on what it is designed to do, if utilized properly. Positive camber is useful for improving stability, and negative camber improves cornering ability. Both have their own benefits and detriments. Again, it all depends on the type of vehicle and what it is intended to do. So unless you're a professional driver, use the right camber angle for the job, if you don't want to go flying off of the road due to a lack of grip.