A few weeks ago, at the regional Watkins Glen race, I went off track and hit the tire wall outside of turn 6 (right side of car) during the last session of the STL race Saturday. I limped the car back to the paddock with the steering wheel angle off left about 20 deg. I looked for things that were bent and saw nothing obvious (tie rod, control arms, knuckle, frame, brackets) beyond sheet metal. I measured the alignment and had gone from -3.4 deg camber to -2.6 deg, and from 0 toe to 1.5" toe out!
I looked again at what could be bent and called over some other Miata folks to look also. The new alignment made it seem like the LCA would have bent to pull the bottom of the wheel in and lose camber and add toe out, but the arm looks solid - no broken paint, no kinks in the flange, etc. Pulled the control arms off the car, and things still looked ok (UCA bolt came out straight, bushings look good, cam bolts are good). I ended up realigning the car back to approx -3.4 camber and 0 toe, shook it down, and ran on Sunday very tentatively at first and with more confidence as things felt better and better. I ended up running my fastest lap of the weekend later Sunday (still slow compared to competitive racers).
Clearly, something is not the way it was originally - suggestions on what to look for?
Thanks