997 suspension upgrade

[donlycan]

I am looking for some feedback on upgrading the suspension on MY06 Carrera coupe. My car has PASM and I am looking at Bilstein PSS9 (for PASM), H&R (Eibach) lowering springs, or Factory ROW (?) suspension. I don't want to make the ride significantly stiffer but I do want to lower slightly more without losing the ride flexibility that the PASM offers. I'm considering probably no more than 1 or 2 DE's. Total cost is also a consideration (both labor and materials). Thanks in advance for your input.

[frafoss]

I am looking for some feedback on upgrading the suspension on MY06 Carrera coupe. My car has PASM and I am looking at Bilstein PSS9 (for PASM), H&R (Eibach) lowering springs, or Factory ROW (?) suspension. I don't want to make the ride significantly stiffer but I do want to lower slightly more without losing the ride flexibility that the PASM offers. I'm considering probably no more than 1 or 2 DE's. Total cost is also a consideration (both labor and materials). Thanks in advance for your input.

Bilstein PSS

[mapoune]

Bilstein Damptronic ...

[RonCT]

I would not use lowering springs with PASM as the shocks are not designed to work with them. You would be compressing the shock at all times to lower the height. I've heard of several people that have blown their PASM shocks by doing this. PSS9 or 10 would mean you would lose PASM and you'd also have to trick the system by turning off PASM in the ECU else have warning lights and beeps. Damptronics is a different animal - it's pretty much an updated PASM shock with variable electronic adjustment (vs. only 9 or 10 settings). I just had Damptronics put on my car for 50/50 track and street use and there are issues. The front makes all sorts of creak, groan, and sproing noises which I find totally unacceptable. My tuner is trying to find out how to resolve this. Next is that the system is so stiff that in hard braking on uneven surfaces (ie: Main Straight Braking Zone at Lime Rock), the rear end skips around and so braking potential is limited. With OEM suspension I was able to log about 1.4 G braking there and the rear end was planted. With Damptronics, I was limited to 1 G braking with the rear end moving so much I had to use corrective steering even though going in a straight line. We are also trying to figure out and resolve that one. I will say that at 8/10 of my personal capacity, Damptronics was fine. 1:07 warm up lap was fine, 1:05 fine, 1:04 started to have issues, 1:03 was downright hairy, so I gave up. That compares with low 1:02s my last time out with OEM without braking or rear end issues and I know the car could have given me 1:01s with a little more seat time. So, in my case at my track, Damptronics made the car slower by a couple of seconds and making it very uncomfortable at that.

So, no real suggestions here yet. We're trying to figure out if the stiffer sways I have now contributed to the rear end issue. Normally sways shouldn't impact straight line, but in this case if the pavement is rough and the suspension stiff, and you get some minor left to right movement, maybe the stiff sway is compounding that.

[donlycan]

Thanks for the great first hand info! I thought that the PSS9 which is PASM specific, was OK. Apparently not! It looks like the stock suspension will remain. I did a DE this past weekend and found the handling to be great as is. I also learned that there is no MO30 suspension from Porsche. All cars Worldwide with PASM are the same height.

[PAULSPEED]

Hi,

I added an H & R sway bar to the rear. Very easy to install. The

car was very good. I improved over 4 secounds with just

the sway bar. I was chasing someone and that helps also. The

back end will now slide out but it is very predictable. I

like the feel because I like a loose back end. I am

not big into pushing. I need to work on tire pressure

and tire temperature.

Paul

[cayenne803]

Hey Paulspeed,

so the only mod u did was swaybar, no need for suspension mod to improve lap time wow? i am thinking of doing the same to my 997

ThX B)

[PAULSPEED]

Sorry for the late reply. It is truly amazing what one small piece

can do to the lap times. For the price and the time(maybe 1 hour) I

still highly recommend this. I just set the lap record at my local

track.

http://www.pca-ggr.org/files/htm/pslaprecords-TH01.html

I set the TT09 lap record.

Paul

[shocky]

Sorry for the late reply. It is truly amazing what one small piece

can do to the lap times. For the price and the time(maybe 1 hour) I

still highly recommend this. I just set the lap record at my local

track.

http://www.pca-ggr.org/files/htm/pslaprecords-TH01.html

I set the TT09 lap record.

Paul

Did you change the drop links?

John

[PAULSPEED]

This is the place where I bought my sway bar and drop

links. If you look at the link below, you will see a picture

of the stock drop links and the ones I bought.

http://www.millaracing.com/products.php?categoryId=354&

The guy I bought them from asked for a picture so

I took one for him.

Paul

[JG 996T]

The front makes all sorts of creak, groan, and sproing noises which I find totally unacceptable. .

Did you ever figure out the cause of the creaking?