Kokopelli

My car's got the rear swaybar, new front swaybar bushes, new rear shocks, fairly recent front shocks and it's had a wheel alignment after replacing the steering rack and a steering ball joint.

Today I followed a Z4 into a sweeper marked 70km/h, we did close to 120km/h. In those situations my front end feels really light and slightly lose. In other words it's as fast as I'd like to go. I drive that route every day so I know it quite well.

So I am wondering if that's normal behaviour and as fast as the car can be expected to go and handle safely or do I have a suspension/steering problem.

My drive at home is really bumpy. Going down it the steering wheel wants to move all over the place. I've got 205/55/15 tyres all around.

What do you guys think?

Porsche-O-Phile

It doesn't really sound that unusual - the fact that there is a lot of mass in the back can throw off the "feel" of the car in hard corners. I'm still not sure I fully have the feel of mine sometimes and I've been driving it for a while. I'd recommend finding a nice open parking lot someplace and deliberately trying to throw it into a spin just to get the feel for the "break point" again. This is what I've done in the past and probably will again after my mods are done before I open it up on any twisties. Probably not a bad idea to "test" for any loose connections or anything like that afterwards too. I'd rather find out on a trial like that than on a twisty road with a rock wall on one side and a 1000' drop-off on the other!

M758

Take the car to an autocross and start driving it. Lots of things can impact how a car feels. One turn on one day does is NOT enough to do it.

My 83 944 is stock and not in perfect shape. When the shocks were worn it did have very floatly feel. I replaced them with cheap KYB's and it got much better. Still the at the limit handling feel is determined by alot of things.

Firstly the line you take through the corner. How much throttle you are using at the time. The amount of steering input. Road surface temp. Road surface conditions (light dust or clean, damp etc). Also things like tire tempa and pressure as well as overall car weight and balance. In my last autocross with my 83 I could feel the difference that spare tire had in the car's handleing balance. I could also feel the impact of a passenger in the car. No doublt the fuel level in the car will make a difference. The car will tend to understeer more on full tank of gas vs a an empty one.

My point is that there are ALOT of things that can cause what you feel. One corner on one partiucular day does not mean that much. Go and do an autocross and see how it feels. Then do a few more.

Jay Gratton

One simple thing I would do is put wider wider tires on that bad boy. I would be putting much wider rubber on my tires, you will notice a huge difference. Best wishes - Jay Gratton

Kokopelli

Thanks for the replies. I was just trying to establish a benchmark. I'd like to get the suspension sorted to a reasonable standard. From what I gather it seems to be near standard. If that's the case I am happy with it. My tyres are El Cheapo, but are acceptable on dry roads. Good for a bit of fun on wet roads, but I would never push them in the wet. I am not sure if wider tyres would help that much, as grip doesn't seem to be the problem. What I did do was accelerate throughout the turn. I could feel the rear squat down, which in turn causes the looseness in the front. I have no intention to race or go any faster. My tyre pressure is 36psi all around, seems to work best this way.

Cheers,
Alex