stuartph

Alex


Good choice on the ledas, did you speak to john ?

Before you fit the ledas give them a light coat of wax as the salt on are lovely UK roads is causing spots of rust on these fine shocks, leda will mostl likely inform you of this anyway.


Stuart

Cheburator

Thanks for the heads up. They look all nice and shiny in the pictures I think that they are made of stainless steel, but I will do my best to protect my "investment"... You should see the state of my 220,000 miles suspension... It still works, but you can guess that the Germans (LHD import) and the Brits do like their salt...

Cameron, as with regards to factory times around the Ring - the 928 Club Sport did it in 8:38. I do it in 8:46 on that very 220,000 miles old suspension. I guess I have the advantage of 15 years of tyre development and a smooter track, which allows higher speeds at places. Just for a comparison, the E36 M3 does the Ring in 8:30... So I guess, the 928 does rather well, considering that it is a GT car and not a race one...

mark kibort

Depends what you want. For someone racing one of the more stock 928s out there, i can say the koni hypercoil set up (dual adjustable ) has been great. My car is handles as well as anything out there, and regularly turns times at Laguna near some of top times of Grand am cup GS .
997,996,M3, 350z,factory racer mustang, etc (at near the same weight and hp to weight) this is a credit to the original geometry design of the 928, as any of the cars 20 years newer , at a min have moton, JRz, etc, worth over $4-8K. (and professionally set up and driven). by the way, what i have works so well, i havent touched my algnment in over 5 years now!

I have found a real cheap way to set up a 928 if you are not racing . the eibach/koni/bilstien set up works well, but usually, a tad to soft, so you can cut one coil out of the spring and have it work very well. (scots 4.7 euro racer) . then, you can spend your time playing with swaybar settings and tire compound, as well as tire size .
So, to address the handling issue you need to look equally at the following:
tire compound and size
rim size
offset, width of tires on the car, based on fender clearance
swaybar adjustability, rear drop links
shocks, springs
alignment settings

and thats the short list.

so many trade offs, so much money to spend, so little needed usually to do what you want it to do.

Mk

slate blue

This a a great thread, best one I have read in quite a while, could you fill us in on the cost of the Leda setup with springs? I have Bilsteins at the moment and would sell them to buy the Leda setup if they weren't too much. My other option would be going with Hyper Coils I suppose, or do the Leda springs fit the Bilsteins also?

As to gas shocks, I always thought that Bilstein had the edge with its monotube design. Maybe Leda uses the same? I know the Koni are dual tube and not supposed to be as good. I believe Bilstein can be made adjustable by using pots, I would think that would be real expensive though. Any info appreciated, thanks for those lap times too.

Cheers Greg

Cheburator

Greg,

There is no comparison between the Bilsteins and the Leda. The latter are a proper coilover kit, with 26 settings for bump and rebound external adjustment, whilst the Bilsteins are just plain shocks. The Ledas cost around GBP1145 inclusive of Value Added Tax at 17.5% for the gas option - I got a discount btw.

I have driven several 928 with Bilsteins and they were good. But I have also spoken to three UK based 928 racers who went through Bilstein and Koni to end up with Ledas... The fact is that in Europe, most guys are going for Ledas, unless they have mega bucks to get Ohlins to make them a one off kit.

Mark,

Thanks for the advice! I am trying to create the 928 answer to the 996GT3... Light interior, but I still want my aircon and comfort to do 750 miles in day. I also want my stereo. I don't want to create a out-and-out race car. I just want a hybrid, which is equally comfortable at the Ring and on the anual run to Spain or Italy across Europe. I am running 16" Club Sport forged rims with the standard 225/50/16 and 245/45/16. My tyres of choice are Falken FK451, which offer phenomenal levels of grip for a street tyre and are cheaper than the likes of Conti or Michelin...

Still waiting to find an answer whether the steroid Ott links perform on par with the 928Specialists sway bar...

Alex

Louie928

Alex,
I believe you were referring to the front sway bar. If so, I'd go with the 928 Spec. front bar rather than the drop links. I believe there isn't much difference in cost (other than shipping) and the 928 Spec. bar offers more choice in adjustability. I believe (but don't know) that the 928 Spec bar will clear more radical wheel/tire sizes than the stock sway bar either with or without my drop links. The installation time would be very similar. The bolt holding the drop link has to be removed in both cases, and the only extra work to install the 928 Spec. bar is to remove & replace the sway bar which isn't difficult. Get urethane replacement sway bar bushings if they don't come with the new bar. The rear sway bar replacement vs. my rear drop links is a different story on the installation. One is less than an hour and the other is several hours and requires dropping the rear suspension and crossmember. Again, in the rear, the 928 Spec. bar offers more choices in adjustability.

slate blue

Cheburator thanks for that info, that's is great. I take it at the price you quoted that included the springs? Also do these guys at Leda need to make this setup or do they have it on the shelf? The reason I ask is that my girlfriends parents are coming out next month and I could get them to bring it out for me. What's your opinion on me being able to get the same discount? We have a Porsche repair business in Sydney.

Thanks again.

Greg

Cheburator

Greg,

Leda stuff is made to order - you tell them what you will use the car for and then they tailor it to suit your needs - spring rates, and bump and rebound adjustability. The guys are very knowledgable - they supply 3/4 of the racers in the UK...

It takes up to 4 weeks to get them made, so your GF's parents should be able to pick them up.

As with regards to the discount - it is worth a punt. Speak to John and you will probably get it. Don't forget that you might get "trade discount" anyway and that you don't have to pay VAT in the UK...

Alex

slate blue

Appreciate the reply, I have had interest in my Bilsteins in Australia already. So I would need to cough up 600 pounds to make up the difference. That's not too bad I feel. Have they quoted you a weight for the coilovers? Not that important but still interesting if you happened to know it.

What times are you going to shoot for at the Ring? Are you also going to go with wider stickier tyres? The latest 997 wheels should be really good on the GT. The offsets they have are really close to GTs offsets. A set of headers and a RRFP regulator would also wake things up in the engine department, 8 minutes here you come!

Thanks Greg

Rehan

Cheburator, 8,43 at the ring is a respectable time. You made good choice you will not be dissapointed. Now you need sway bars to reduce roll and the car will be a great handler at the track.

Be careful at the ring, it's crazy track with no room for mistakes. I'll try to go there this year, have to convince my wife first...

Cheburator

Greg,

I am staying with the original 16" CS forged wheels, running 225/45/16 and 245/45/16 Falken FK451. Grip was exceptional for a street tyres. I also have a set of 18" Strosek pepperpots with 235/40/18 and 265/35/18 Bridgestone S02. The beauty of the Leda is that I can play around with the different wheel sizes and see what works best. I was most impress with the Falkens last year.

One more thing to bear in mind is that if I make the car handle exceptionally well, then I am running a higher risk for 2/6 failure on track, being a GT.

Rehan,

You should definitely come at the Ring this year. It is nothing short but amazing, and the 928 does very well there! I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I do. More than welcome for a passenger ride if you want!

Rehan

I just heard from a fellow 928:er here in sweden (Johnny Billquist) that the Euro 928 is going to be held at the ring this year. I've said so many years that I'm going but did not have the opportunity.

I've read that the Falken tires you are running is some kind of semi r-compound tire and wery durable.

Last year I was running Toyo RA-1 which are ok but a bit to soft in the sidewall, this year I'll be running Bridgestone RE540 which I heard nothing but good stuff about (alot stiffer sidewall).

Cheburator

The Euro 928 is at the Ring in September. We should be able to get some track time! No excuses this time. I also went with 800/525 on the Ledas. About to order the 928 Specialists sway bars - they only weight 4.5kg more than the 928 Motorsports for half the price. I was also thinking that with the sway bars being at the lowest point of the car, the "extra" 4.5kg would make even less of a difference...

Alex

Rehan

The thing with my car is that I don't know the future of it. It might be converted into a club racer in a couple of years and 4.5 kg is alot when you start chasing weight. With 800/525 lbs springs you will not be dissapointed, the car feels were firm and predictable. With stiffer sway bars you will reduce the roll which is important as we have very little camber gain.

I'll talk to my wife about Euro 928. If I start now I have plenty of time to convince here!

Jim bailey - 928 International

I think this comment deserves repeating..."A magazine recently tested an Aston V8 Vantage at the 'Ring on standard Bridgestone RE50's and then R-compound Pirelli P0 Corsas. The time went from 8:13 to 8:03 with no other changes..." The differences in tires is so important because in the end it is the TIRES which touch the road not springs, shocks, sway bars...