LEFT:: stock MA-61 strut
RIGHT:: stock RA-60 strut. Notice the change in kingpin angle?

More by accident than anything else, I recently found myself owning a pair of RA-60 struts, and off the car, they look damn near identical to my MA-61 units. As I walked away, struts in hand, I was just hoping they were close enough to the MA-61 units, simply so I could use them to mock up my new brake assembly.

Lining the newly acquired RA's up against the MA's at home though, you get the sneaky suspicion something isn't quite right with the world. Staring, the more the same they seem. Still, something ain't right- the kingpin angle definitely looks different. Without a camber tool available though, life must be lived on the computer, so snap a few digital images, and we're off to Photoshop::
.

:: image left. A bit of Photoshop handiwork. correcting for the kingpin angle, this image is a subtraction of the two struts' profile-, the difference in kingpin angle is manifested in a difference in angle of the strut upright (marked by the dark shadowing on the sides of the strut). using this technique, the RA-60 struts are calculated to have and extra 2deg of negative camber compared to the MA-61 units.

It turns out that the RA-60 has a more upright strut installation angle in the car than the struts in the MA-61, and thus the RA-60 uses a steeper kingpin angle (2deg) to keep the wheel's attitude correct. When such an RA-60 strut is fitted to an MA-61 with the slacker installation angle, the wheel is rotated inwards by the same 2deg, resulting in an extra 2deg of negative camber. 

What also became apparent in Photoshop was that the RA-60 struts mounted the wheel approximately 6mm more outboard than the stock MA-61 struts. Fitted together on an MA-61, two RA-60 struts would increase the vehicle track by 12mm.

All other aspects of the RA-60 strut appear to be the same as the MA-61 unit. As yet, the struts remain uninstalled, so I cant expand on any fitment difficulties (though I doubt there to be any).

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