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Camber

Camber is the tire's lean from vertical, viewed from the front of the car, measured in degrees. Negative camber leans the top of the tire toward the chassis; positive camber leans it away.

Also called:
camber angle

In practice

On an oval, the two front corners get opposite signs because they’re on opposite sides of the turn — negative on the right front, positive on the left front, so both tires stand up flat as the car rolls and loads. Get Started Racing describes right-front settings as “huge amounts of negative camber” against a small positive number on the left. Exact degrees are chassis-, track-, and banking-specific, so take them from your builder’s sheet, then confirm with a probe pyrometer: inside edge much hotter than outside means more camber than that corner’s load wants. Measure with a caster/camber gauge on the spindle or hub. RC cars run negative camber at all four corners for the same reason.

Why it matters

Camber decides how much tread is actually on the track when the car is loaded, which is the difference between using a whole tire and half of one.

Go deeper

Read the full post:

Reading Race Tire Temperatures: What Your Pyrometer Is Telling You

Sources