Oh, heck yes!!

First a little background. I purchased my 996TT almost 1 year ago to the day. I wanted a very clean and well maintained all original car because I wanted to see what these cars were like when they originally came out and so that I could have a good baseline and better idea of which way I wanted to go as far as tweaking it for my wants and "needs". This car is a keeper for me so I am also keeping the original parts bagged, tagged, and safely stashed away. Any mod that I do will be fully reversible to stock.

The plan was to drive the car for about a year to enjoy it in stock form and then start the modding...so here we are

The purpose of this car for me is primarily a very fun and quick street car that I'd like to see if I can take to a few DE's here and there and see how it goes. I plan to do most likely billet K16's or similar and already have my Speedtech exhaust ready to be installed.

I narrowed down my choices of coilovers to H&R Street, H&R RSS, Bilstein PSS10, and Ohlins R&T (I believe all of these are excellent products). I spoke to all three manufacturers to get specs, spring rates, amount of lowering, etc. I also spoke to quite a few guys on here to get their feedback on the various options (shout out to Pwdrhound (aka The Hound), '02996TTX50, VAGscum, skremese, su_maverick, plus a couple other guys and the board in general for your help!)

At the end of the day I decided to go with the H&R Street Coilovers.

My goal was to improve the performance of the car overall but retain close to a stock ride quality since among other things my wifey as well as my kids do ride with me in this car occasionally and also I wanted to set the car to approximately GT2 ride height. I was willing to accept some more "harshness" (not sure if that's the best word here) in exchange for better overall performance + the fairly aggressive (low) ride height that I was aiming for.

I installed the suspension over the course of last week. I worked on the car a couple hours a day and in zero rush to finish the job. The H&R kit is very high quality, all the parts fit and work very well. Install went very smooth. I wish there were better instructions for putting these kits together and which factory parts need to be reused (and in which order). This issue was solved again with feedback from the guys and the awesome threads here on the boards. As far as I can tell all three brands are pretty lacking in the instructions department so this isn't an issue only with H&R. Again, I'm really happy with the actual product itself.

Anyway, been driving the car a bit over the last 2 days and I can say that my goals were exceeded. There are a couple of turns/roads that I like to have fun with and I know exactly how the car behaves through them because I have driven them many times with the car bone stock. One long curve that I like to take at a fairly high speed I was really let down the first time I took it in the car when I first got it. The car seemed to "float" through the turn. With the H&R setup that float is gone. The car now takes the turn the way I thought it should have when it was stock. The car feels more planted and the ride is just a bit firmer overall.

I was expecting some trade off in the way the car dealt with bumps in order to get a more planted and better performing setup. I can say that the car actually rides BETTER than stock. It actually is much smoother and more composed with bumps than bone stock!! Overall it feels like I have a much better suspension on the car in every way and was able to lower the car pretty aggressively to boot. So far I'm really happy with the decision. I have Torque Solutions rear adjustable toe arms and lock out plates. I plan to get a set of swaybars next so that I can tweak them a little. Anyway, sorry for the novel but just wanted to get a bit of a review out there for anyone looking at these
for their ride

One thing that I wanted to pass on. Regardless of what suspension you are planning to switch to, I highly recommend getting new front shock hats and the upper bearings...even if your car seems to drive perfectly. I had no reason to think that there was anything wrong with my front hats so I only bought the bearings. I found two hairline cracks on my hats when I removed them from the car and ended up ordering them which delayed my project until I had them on hand. Basically, if you are still on the original upper hats go ahead and buy new ones before starting the project.

BTW, I also made a couple videos of the install (I guess I will post them in this thread once I upload them). I was able to remove the stock front shocks/springs and install the coilovers WITHOUT unbolting the axle nut OR the tie rod / ball joint. Some guys had said they could do it like this but I don't think many have tried it this way. I can say that IT WORKS

Couple pics...

 

nice! i love it when mods go as planned

 

Looks amazing and good write up but omg you need some spacers to toughen up that look! Lol Great work!!

 

Yes, +7mm front, +15mm rear. Ask me how I know... :-)

 

Glad it went well and the results are as planned! The setup is pretty much the same shocks as the 996 GT3 with different spring rates.

Out of curiosity, what spring rates did H&R tell you the streets had? The numbers i recall were not much higher than factory 996TT, but i cannot find that info since i originally installed these. I am installing Cup shocks and will put the H&Rs up for sale this winter.

 

Thanks for the writeup! One quick question, i didnt see the current mileage noted from your stock suspension. Any chance you could let us know vehicle mileage? Thanks again and this will be coming for me eventually!

 

Looks great!! I will be doing this setup as well in the near future. Thanks for the write up! Car looks great, how many miles are on it?

 

congrats on the upgrade. always heard good things on the h&r's. as others have said, I'd also add the h&r spacers and you'd really flush out the stance etc, and you'll "feel" it too, as more "planted" and it'll look sick. I used h&r 7x15's w oem twists. but either way, enjoy it!

 

I put the same coilovers on my car a few months back and I've been extremely happy with them. I've got them set to just above where the rear tires rub on decent sized bumps and it looks as sick as it rides. You're correct about the front shocks too; replacing the OEM top pieces is a must if they have any miles on them.

 

Thanks for the compliments guys!! Much appreciated

VAGscum, here are the specs I got from H&R for the Streets & RSS versions:

My understanding is that the rears are progressive springs (not linear) and the 260 in-lb rear is the soft end of the rating and they should be around 500 in-lb or so on the other end of the "progressiveness"

Stock 996TT 188 in-lb front, and 342 in-lb rear

H&R Street Coilovers 996TT 250 in-lb front, and 260 in-lb rear (P/N 29462-2)

H&R RSS Club Sport Coilovers are 340 in-lb front, and 800 in-lb rear

Adding PSS10 for future reference
PSS10 Coilovers are 260 in-lb front, and 515 in-lb rear

 

Congrats on the successful installation and all done by you, that's just brilliant. I wish I had done my own install but wasn't too sure I could manage and paid (bent over) someone else to do a a 90% job with my PSS10's.

Your car does look the goods and I guess spacers will improve it even further.

 

Thanks!! Yeah, I was on the fence a bit about doing it myself mainly because I'm not in my 20's any more lol.... and still don't have a lift at home. But, I will say it was a great little project and definitely don't regret doing it.

 

As for the spacers....I'm dealing with that in a slightly different way....

 

Oh yeah, now you're talking !!! Love those wheels, I believe they dont come in 18", is that correct. I've heard our cars dont really like 19" but man they're killer wheels.

 

Yeah, I think they are 19 only....but I am not going with the 25 series rears that are normally recommended. I will be running 295/30 and 225/40 fronts (like stock). This will have the same amount of sidewall thats on the stock setup, it will be an inch larger overall diameter but i will maintain the stock ratio of diameter front to rear to keep the awd happy. The ride is so smooth right now that I think it will be great with the 19's we shall see...