Camber Shims - The Best Handling Upgrade For Any Supercar

Supercars are meant to be the pinnacle of driving. So why do so many of the world’s fastest and most exclusive road cars understeer so much?

When driven hard, supercars have a tendency to understeer. This is due manufacturers having to err on the side of caution in regards to how their supercars handle. Whilst the engineers who design and manufacture these machines would like them to be agile and incredibly capable in the corners, these same engineers also have to ensure their cars are safe and approachable for drivers of any skill level.

As a result, supercars are engineered to understeer at the limit.

For owners this is a frustrating and costly downside. Understeer kills cornering speed, steering feel, confidence and is just plain unenjoyable. In addition to being generally unpleasant, understeer also causes premature tyre wear, as cornering forces are placed on the outside edge of the front tyres, causing them to scrub and wear unevenly. Manufacturers will attempt to compensate for this by having specially designed tyre compounds made, for example Porsche ‘N’ rated Michelins or McLaren’s ‘MC’ rated Pirellis that use a grippier compound on the outer edge of the tyre, but this is a stopgap solution when the real cause is less than ideal suspension geometry.

The main cause of this understeer is a lack of negative camber on the front axle of any given supercar. Camber is the angle between the plane of a wheel and the vertical. Negative camber is when the top of the wheel leans inwards towards the centre of the chassis.

Negative camber improves cornering grip and reduces understeer as when a car corners the body roll causes the inside tyres to unload. If there is enough negative camber, the outside tyres will become loaded and engage their full contact patch, as opposed to just the outer edge of the front tyres. This increases cornering grip and helps to prevent understeer.

Unfortunately on many supercars, the camber angle is not adjustable as standard, making camber shims the only way to improve the negative camber values across the front and rear axles.

A camber shim is a thin piece of stainless steel that is slotted between the chassis of your supercar and the lower wishbone of the suspension assembly. Our precision camber shims are designed to fit between the wishbones and chassis of supercars in order to add more negative camber. We offer three different thicknesses of shims for road, track and race applications.

Camber shims are a fit and forget upgrade; you simply loosen a few bolts and slot them between the chassis and the wishbone. Shims also require no maintenance, making them an excellent cost-effective upgrade for improving how your supercar drives. Shims can also be stacked for increased camber levels or to fine-tune the amount of camber for your supercar.

Shims can also be strategically installed in the front axle of your supercar to generate additional positive caster alongside increasing the negative camber. Caster is the measure of how far ahead or behind the steering axis is the vertical axis when viewed from the side of the car. Positive caster creates high-speed stability and also increases steering feel. Another benefit of positive caster is dynamic camber gain; as you turn, negative camber is increased, leading to improved cornering grip.

Camber also has an effect on the rear axle of a supercar, and can greatly influence how a car handles. A camber imbalance (too much at the front axle and not enough at the rear axle) can cause instability in the corners and a reduction in outright cornering grip. That’s why it’s also important to fit camber shims at the rear axle. This gives the whole chassis much more cornering grip and will improve cornering stability and corner exit speed.

Negative camber also ensures more efficient usage of a supercar’s tyres. This improved efficiency helps to reduce uneven tyre wear and ensures that owners get far more life out of their tyres before having to replace them.

We offer camber shims for the following brands: