I have been toying w/ the idea of upgrading my stock suspension for some time now.

Before anyone types in caps "Search!", most discussions of suspension upgrades have been oriented towards tracking a moderately powered 996 and not a high hp street GT2.

The general advice towards the former has been to first determine your goals, do some long range planning and then to do all suspension work at once (thus saving money in terms of labor and alignment/corner balancing etc.)

However the stock GT2 does not have the same extent of shortcommings as the TT and will never see a track again (only track time from now on in will be in a Kart for me) so should I just do coilovers or do I still need to do a complete suspension overhaul? Car sees very high speeds in Mexico and needs to performe on giant sweepers/S turns at 130 mph. Comfort is absolutely not a factor since car is not a DD.

 

I replied to your other post, but I'm glad you made a new thread so I can post it again.


YOU DO NOT NEED SUSPENSION OVERHAULS TO STREET AND EVEN TRACK A 996 GT2 (or TT). People are actually believing you need all this stuff to go fast on the track and still be good on the street. NOT THE CASE AT ALL!!!!

Rules of suspension setup.

#1 You suspension setup is only as good as the guy who's tuning it. The better he is, the less parts you need, not vice versa.

#2 Don't buy into the "fix the suspension geometry" line unless you are trying to run competitive race car times, you don't need anything other than that. OR are trying to run track specs and still get 10-12k miles from your tires, then you will still spend quite a bit, but still not as much as advertised.

#3 Toe CAN be adjusted on the stock eccentric if your guy knows what he's doing. lowering does not mean you need toe arms.

#4 Most of this stuff doesn't even make you faster on the track especially when you have Camber Plates AND adjustable control arms doing the same thing in different ways, then have to buy something else to fix the conflict between those two.

#5 DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE YOU BUY (and spend less).

 

Heavy,

When I got my car 4 years ago I had an alignment done at the dealership and was not happy (car was nor solid at all at high speeds). I then took it to Sam Shalala a former Porsche raceing champion and a guy w/tons of alignment experience. He aligned and corner balanced the car and she was rock solid. He said that it is hard to improve upon the stock GT2 suspension and that most make it worse, not better. He did say that some adjustments needed to be made to the factory setting, however.

My concern is that the suspension is now over 8 years old and new coilovers might allow the car to put the power down better.

 

I have a stupid question for you?

What are you running for street tires.

All too often we have cars come through the shop for suspension upgrades, that have either sub par or old/dry tires.

Dont under estimate what NEW, quality tires can add to the equation.

 

Not stupid at all, Tony. I just put on a brand new pair of Nitto NT01 R comps. They are now my 3rd pair and I have been very happy w/ then (as long as I stay out of the wet)!

 

How many miles? I'd be more concerned about the mileage than the age, Porsche are built very well, over engineered almost everywhere. The only thing worth mentioning is the bushings in the suspension, the other stuff is not a problem. Have your mechanic check for dry rotting and cracking in the bushings, if so, then you can replace those, or upgrade them, most of them are not that expensive in the aftermarket, 2-300 dollars and then some labor to install them in the control arms and such.

Coilovers may actually NOT put the power down better than stock, at least not in a straight line, because they are stiffer, which is not good for launching in RWD. You would want some squat to shift more weight to the rear wheels in that case.

Under cornering, the stiffer coilovers will help control the body better and put less strain on the other components from body roll and chassis flex (due to body roll). And that's on a sticky tire like an R6 or slick. Not even MPSC or NT01 or R888 will be enough for much concern.

Wheel hop is the only thing to watch out for.

There are enough guys tracking and driving lots of stock components on the GT2/ GT3 and TT that I wouldn't be too concerned about catastrophic failure of anything. If it all of a sudden starts to handle funny, go get it checked out, but I highly doubt that will happen unless you track every weekend on slicks, even then, I'd be skeptical. It takes some SERIOUS punishment to unnerve these cars.

 

Awesome... I just hate seeing people spend money in the wrong places.

I completely agree with heavy. ANY suspension upgrade is only as good as the person tuning it for you.

Find a local shop that actually drives these cars at the track, and let them do what they do best.

Our default answer to the "what coilover" question is:

Street /Light Track use - pss9/10's
Anything more then light track use -
http://www.anze.biz/

 

Heavy , what do you mean by wheel hop? obviously not the drag racing wheel hop lol.

and do all 996tt have the light front end feel ?

 

Yes, Dr. J has a high hp RWD car driven on the street with NT-01's, if he launches it, the wheels certainly can hop. His car is primarily street, so wheel hop will still be an issue.

All 911's have a light front end feel because that's what they are. If you are talking about the porpoising at high speeds light front, then no, you need suspension work because that is likely due to AWD.

 

K, dont want to hijack the thread so im pming you on something else.

 

Sean, the factory coil overs on your GT2 are damn good. The spring rates and valving could be changed easily if need be. I would vote to leave it alone. The TT and Gt2 are completely different animals, your Gt2 is race ready as is, where a TT needs lots of tweeks to get close to a GT2 stock. I would suggest talking to Viking about setting up your 996. I'll be happy to forward his contact info to you.

 

Sean, as you know we added the RSR Cup Suspension on my car and worked great for the Tx Mile. I don't think you need to do anything with a GT2 suspension unless you want to run the Standing Mile, then I would look into it.

 

Thanks guys...it seems then that things haven't changed much IE the GT2 suspension is good for almost anything that a guy like me needs.

Anyways, after dropping 10K on my new intake I am 2K short on my property taxes, lol.

 

10 grand for an intake????!!!! Yikes.

 

A full blow through w/ 5 inch IC's, and larger TB....yes, 10 K and I got a Tx Mile special (15% off). Had to roll fenders and of course retune.

At my level more power gets expensive.