vinrey

Hello,

I would like some help in figuring out what brand/components I need to lower my 82 sc. I'd like the full coilovers as I hopefully would like to track the car. Any suggestions and ballpark prices would be helpful.

Thanks,

Vince

Bill Gregory

If you haven't already, you may want to read the 911SC FAQ on tech.rennlist.com. Unless you have special racing needs, you can retain your torsion bar suspension, improving it, to give you a very track and racing-capable suspension. You may also want to get Bruce Anderson's "Porsche 911 Performance Handbook" as he discusses suspension upgrades, amongst other topics. Here's the peformance suspension writeup from the FAQ:

Torsion bars, strut inserts, turbo tie rods, adjustable sway bars, lowering, alignment, strut brace, wheels/tires, and brakes.

You can upgrade to 21mm or 22mm in front and 27mm to 29mm in the rear, and you have the choice of solid or hollow bars. Hollow bars are a little lighter. There are two basic manufacturers,
Sway Away and Glen Sander (last time I checked, Weltmeister bars were made by Sway Away).
Sway Away/Weltmeister bars comes with a plastic coating on the bar and Sanders bars should
be painted to protect the metal. Upgrade to 21mm/27mm if you'll predominantly stay on the
street, with limited track time. Go to 22mm/28mm if you spend more time on the track.
22mm/28mm is still comfortable on the street, albeit more controlled than 21mm/27mm. If you
have adjustable sway bars, and want a bit more control, you can go to 29mm in the rear, which
still works on the street. There are larger sway bars available, however, they may not be as well
suited to dual-purpose street/track usage.

Many have original equipment Boge front struts, with a black strut. You can upgrade to several
models of Bilsteins, and Koni also makes replacement strut inserts. If you upgrade your front torsion bars to 21mm, and will spend most of your time on the street, you might consider Bilstein heavy-duty strut inserts as an upgrade. With a 22mm torsion bar, use Bilstein Sport inserts. For rears with 27mm to 29mm torsion bars, use Bilstein Sports. As mentioned, Koni also makes strut inserts and shock that would be an upgrade, and, unlike Bilsteins, some Koni's are
adjustable. If you find your new Bilstein's aren't doing quite the job you want, Bilstein will revalve them for $55 per insert/shock.

If you really lower your 911SC, you might consider entire new Bilstein struts with 12mm or 19mm raised spindles. This will help restore your suspension geometry and minimize the chance of
bottoming out and ruining the shock portion of your struts. Otherwise, to prevent bump steer,
when lowering your 911SC, get a set of spacers which go under the steering rack to raise it up
around 10mm. Another option is the ERP tie rod kit which replace the tie rod end with an
adjustable equivalent, again allowing you to return your steering geometry back to was before
lowering. Smart Racing, Rennsport Systems, and Performance Products, amongst others, sell
this kit. Don't forget when you lower your 911SC to remove the big metal washer at the top of the struts on the inside fender. This will help restore shock travel to minimize bottoming out.

Turbo tie rods should be a mandatory upgrade, as the difference is the steering is noticeable -
where you turn the wheel is where the wheels immediately point. The stock 911SC tie rods have
a rubber bushing in it that, while not bad, is just not as precise as the Turbo version.

Adjustable sway bars front and rear allow you to adjust the handling, as needed, for your setup.
There are several vendors who make adjustable sway bars, including Weltmeister, The Racers
Group, Charlie Bars, and Smart Racing. The fronts require removing the existing bar, and
removing the existing mount on the a-arms. You'll need to drill a hole on each side of the body, so the bar can go behind the gas tank. I've used 22mm front and rear Weltmeister, which work fine.
Be aware the Weltmeister bars are noisier than the stock sway bars.

The factory alignment calls for camber around zero, give or take, which doesn't work well in aperformance application. I've run around minus 1.25 to 1.5 degree negative camber in the front
and minus 1.5 to 1.75 negative camber in the rear, with even wear on the tires. Maximizing
performance on track tires calls for even more negative camber, however, since that would cause quicker wear on your street tires, it calls for a compromise setting. You should also have your
911SC corner balanced, which can have significant effects on handling at speed.

Several manufacturers make strut braces, which attach between the two shock towers to
minimize camber change through body movement in turns. Here I like the Weltmeister strut
brace, as it locks in the top of the strut insert into the strut brace, kind of a poor mans monoball
fitting. Eventually, I'm told, the welds holding the plate that the top of the strut goes though will break, however, after 3 years of use I saw no evidence of breaking welds. If a weld does break, it's easy enough to have it rewelded.

vinrey

Bill,

Thank you so much for your most informative reply. You've basically guided me to where I can find my parts and the options available. I think this will be my winter project in hopes to get to some DE's this summer.

Vince <img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />