#1: Why does my car feel so lame in 2nd gear? It pulls hard in 1st, hard in 3rd...but in 2nd it's lame. I'm not talking about going through the gears...but more when I'm going slow, in 2nd gear and then I hammer it. The car just doesn't seem to get up and go....when I do the same thing in 3rd at a higher speed, I SWEAR the car is accelerating quicker. In 2nd, it just makes a whole lot of noise.
I have an injen intake...but I felt this before I put it on...weird. Any input?

#2: Why does the camber look off on the back wheels of my car. Looking from behind, my wheels go like this / \ versus | |
It's not as bad an angle as the line example, but you know what I mean. Anyone else??
I have no springs/shocks/etc mods installed.

 

I made an observation between my 93SE and 00SE, both 5-speeds. In the 93, 2nd seemed to be the 'sweetest' gear, with the most pull. In the 00, 3rd seemed to be the sweet gear.

The difference to me was that in the 93 I could pull hardest in the city in 2nd, while the 00 needed to be on the highway in 3rd (or I'd be going way too fast for the road I was on)

I now have a 2K2 automatic, so really can comment there, other than I move it out of 4th into 3rd if I know I'm going to do some agressive driving. Seems to get to the 'pulling gear' quicker.

 

1. What do you mean by going slow? Under 4k rpm, 3k, 2k? You have not given us a good comparison between 2nd & 3rd by not telling us what rpm you are at when you punch it. All cars have a "sweet gear" and all 3 of the Max's I've owned it's been 3rd. But the car should still go in 2nd-4th if your within the power band, 3k+ rpm.
2. I didn't know the rear camber had that much play. I would get your alignment checked if it really looks like that.

 

The camber shouldn't really look that exagerated. On some cars i've seen it look like what you describe, but when weight is added to the car it straightens out. I would get that checked.

 

Thanks for the camber advice. It's not super bad, but I can see it. Of course, I'm super critical. I'll have to take a pic and see what you guys think.

As for the 2nd gear thing...I just feel like punching it at 2k rpms and letting go all the way to red-line is not as exhilerating as punching 3rd gear at 2k rpms and taking it to redline. I would think that 2nd gear would rev out quicker, but it seems to be on par with 3rd.