Havana Henry

I'm looking to improve the ride comfort of my lowered 92 C2 and need advice.

It came to me earlier this year with Bilstein shocks and H&R springs - red, the stiffer 'turbo' kind I'm told. It's very low, which I assume is a combination of lowered springs and adjustment on the coilover.

I love the low stance my car has, and it really does corner great and flow fantasticly at speed but.....if those quick roads aren't perfect surface wise, or I'm on the terrible city roads in my area it's a handful, and not pleasant.

Can I improve the ride by just swapping out the springs? Perhaps other H&Rs or Eibach I've seen looking around? Is there a lowered spring with a near stock feel? I realise this would increase my chance of bottoming out, but I think I'm prepared to try, or raise it a little which I don't really want to do unless I really have to.

Any advice welcome, I'm a bit new to coilovers. Image attached one of the rears, taken recently while changing the CV boot covers., if that helps.

RicardoD

There was a thread about this before with some advice and nothing too definitive.

Best Comfort Suspension

I am toying with the idea of picking up a 964 Tiptronic and turning into my daily driver (getting tired of driving a Toyota Tundra Crew Cab every day) and would *ghast" want to dial it in for comfort, more of a 964 Grand Tourer.

I have H&R greens & Bilstein HD on my C4 now.

All the best,
Ricardo

alexjc4

Interesting pic, the spring seat looks like its right at the top of the range. That is to say its a heigh as it will go. Also i think the HR reds are round cross section, those look flatter in profile. I think they may be a different make wit a much shorter spring. You may not get as low as you currently have it if you go for the HR green/blue.

FeralComprehension

Damned good eye.

alexjc4

Infact looking at the spring, I think you've got full on PSS9 adjustable coilovers, and what we see there is just the helper spring. This would explain why the ride is so hard, and would be consistent with what you said about the PO using the car for track days mostly.

This means you've got adjustable damping, you could try softening that up first, looks like adjuster for the PSS9s are at the bottom of the shock, rotate the **** left for soft, right for hard, count the clicks so you can put it back where it was if you don't like it.

The springs are probably a standard size and you will have all sorts of options for replacements, basically choose your spring rate.
http://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/CO...c12/index.html

Porsche964FP

James, I've got the cheapest option! Sit in mine for 5 minutes and you'll then feel you're in a Rolls in yours !

+1 re what Alex is saying, my V3s are fully adjustable... small tweaks to bound and rebound can transform the car.

Havana Henry

Like you say, well spotted, those springs are a bit flattened. But I'm not sure about the adjusters Alex, I didn't see any last time the wheels were off. I'll get a chance to check properly at the weekend. I'll look closer at the receipts that came with the car too. I'lll be a happy boy if I can dial in some damper softness and / or fit slightly easier springs too while keeping lowness.

Frank, I'll take you up on that next time we meet, I'll take shotgun, or swap rides for a bit if you fancy.

Havana Henry

Update and question - I took the wheels off front and rear, and then researched what I found. Part number searches, and previous forum posts - on this actual car - threw up the following. It seems to have non adjustable heavy duty Bilsteins (with coil over adjustment) and 2 part Eibach race springs, hence the low and very stiff set up. Close inspection of invioces I have indicate the previous, previous owner spent quite a bit of money getting it this way, along with race pads, competition brake fluid, new bushes etc etc...

Hmmm. Seems a shame to mess up his work but....The shocks seem to be fairly standard upgrades, and it's mainly the spring rate I want to change as I'm not the track fiend he was. So back to Alex's post, I can't change the damper rate but hopefully just a spring change may help the ride. The spring height adjustment on the shocks can keep the low ride. Hopefully. On that front, does anyone know the stock uncompressed spring length so I can compare?

Also, any advice on the best people to chat with about supplying new springs would be much appreciated. Either side of the Atlantic.

tbennett017

James,

Suggest you contact Steve W. of Rennsport, as he can give advice and supply the components. With suspension one wants to match dampers with known spring types. Steve can most-definitely help you out. Flying blind can create some unpredictable performance...

503 244 0990

I have H&R greens with Bilsteins, creating a very streetable yet comfortable setup.

alexjc4

That sounds like an interesting setup, and not one the PO came upon by chance. Not one I've heard of before. What you have is sort of halfway between coilover and regular.

The problem you will have is that few if any springs will give you as low a ride height as currently have, the bilstein HD/sports shocks you have only have a small amount of adjustment on the lower spring seat on the front (there's somewhat more on the rear), I don't know if you remember the ride height on my car, but I'm in the middle of the adjuster and I'd say can only go a 1cm or 2 lower on the front. Which is still a fair bit higher than yours is now. Edit - that said looking at tbennett017's avatar above - you may get close to what you currently have with the H&G greens... oh and btw my avatar is before I did the bilsteins and H&R greens/blues on mine.

Uncompressed spring length will be a bit misleading as the spring rate will effect the compressed length and that's what will effect the ride height. What you want to look for is the "drop" that the springs are advertised to give, most are something like -30mm for the H&R Blue (was green) / Eibach pro kit / Designtek / Spax. You'll see -40mm sometimes given for these but I think that's for the USA where they start 10mm higher. Anyway I'm guessing you've currently more like -50mm (which I think is also as low as the KWv3s will go - which is what Frank's on, and I seem to remember yours is a similar height to Frank's?) which seems to be generally counted as "Cup" height (though in reality the Cup cars had bags of adjustment viz ride height).

I got plenty of FUD and not much fact when I discussed the subject on the phone with the experts, though I've not spoken to Steve W above. On the subject of spring rates, ride height, and comparative merits of the various brands, I was given clear, strongly held, although contradictory opinions from 9m, GTOne and Carnewal, not to mention the "lay" experts on here

In terms of price, when I got mine, Carnewal was the cheapest for H&R springs, but depends a bit on exchange rates.

Whatever you decide to do, I think you'll have plenty of takers when you sell on the current springs, because it currently looks tough as heck.

freedman

James,

The much travelled route with Bilsteins is H& R springs, green or red dependant on your preference.
Difficulty is knowing how hard or soft they are in comparison to your existing set up.
You really need to try a car with it alreay on to see what the difference is.

Vic from the London group has Bilsteins and H & R greens I believe, but everyone has something different!

Apologies if that hasnt actually answered any of your questions

Like Alex says everyone will give a different opinion dependant on preference and in some dealers case what they sell/market

You can get H &Rs from Type 911 for £260.00 I think so not too wallet crushing, for parts at least.

Havana Henry

Thanks for the advice, also like the look of your car height wise, so greens (blues?) may be the way to go.

Thanks for your very comprehensive reply Alex. Certainly better informed now, but as freedman says, I'm not really any more sure on what to do!

I think freedmans advice to take a few rides in other peoples cars where possible is very sensible as I'm in no desperate rush, and there are so many different opinions. I'll keep an eye out for those London meets and be nice to people to see if they'll let me in their car!

Is there ever any talk of South coast meet ups?

Thanks for all the help guys, I'll update when I get round to changing things.

Vic_S

I like the Greens on-road. Ride comfort is pretty good, and although I think mine can go a tad lower (which I'd like to get done), I don't think they will go as low as your current set-up.

You're welcome to a ride at the next meet, if I can make it

Havana Henry

Thanks for that, I'll take you up if I see you. However, after the good blast I had down some back roads today, and fixing a rattle (that the stiff ride made really annoying) from the sunroof after replacing the rear seal at the weekend, things don't seem so bad....