991.1 wheel alignment-chains?
 

I saw the post asking if folks would trust a chain store to change the engine oil. I need to get some more negative camber dialed in my 991.1 for the track. Would you trust a national chain store to align a Porsche? TIREBARN for example? My Porsche dealer is an hour away so I am looking for options that are closer.

Thanks.

Seriously?

Take it to a tuner shop

You're not going to get negative camber with an alignment - what you can do with your garden variety alignment is check and change the toe. Your camber is pretty much fixed and If you want to dial in negative camber, you are either going to have to buy camber plates like these : http://www.rennline.com/Rennline-991...oductinfo/S54/ or get a GT3 suspension retrofit with adjustable control arms. I suspect you don't really understand suspensions and how the settings work which makes me want to ask why you think you need more negative camber? Unless you are in an Advanced Group or Instructor Level, most likely you have not polished your skills enough to warrant chasing suspension mods.

Dialing in Negative Camber on a stock suspension with street tires is pretty much a joke. Suspension components work in harmony with one another and you have to install the entire system. That means premium coilover suspensions, lowering springs, stiffer roll bars and then you install camber mods all in conjunction with R-Compound Tires and hopefully you are running a track pad on your brakes with all that as well. If you really want to get into it, then you corner weight the car as well. Now you've turned your nice street car into a track car and should also install a cage, 6 points and a fixed race seat.

If you have reached the limits of your stock 991 (few people really do) then do yourself a favor and simply buy a set of sticky tires to start with - R Comps or Cup Tires on a spare set of wheels. Install those and your stock alignment settings will be fine. Next do your brake pads so you can stop better with sticky tires. After that, you can chase suspension mods.

In my 20+ years of Instructing, I find the # 1 best upgrade is the guy behind the wheel, not the tech.

I should have provided more detail. I don't have 20 years of instructing but I have 15+ years of instructing and completely agree with your comments. On my past car I had SPL pro adjustable camber arms and also adjustable sway bars. I learned I should have purchased the adjustable camber arms much earlier because it about doubled my tire life. I would typically run -3.0 degrees camber and then balance the car back out with the adjustable sway bars. I read a bunch of stuff on RENNLIST that the stock suspension can be pushed out to something near -1.6 to -1.9....I don't recall the exact max negative camber but it was something like this. So, I just want to take it to a shop and tell them to max the camber out to what the factory suspension will allow. I have done that successfully with my old car at places like TIREBARN before I purchased the increased capability. I would tell them set the maximum negative camber with the factory suspension and they would do that for me. We would then discuss what toe I wanted set. So, my short term option is to maximize the negative camber with the stock suspension while I decide if, and when, I want to buy more capability to push things out to -2.0 to -3.0 degrees. And yes, I've looked at the GT3 arms and the other options. And...I'm focusing on front camber since my experience has been the stock rear camber works pretty well. I'm not sure what I will find on the 991. I've also seen the Porsches at the track seem to be able to run with a lot less negative camber and get even tire wear. Tuner shops and a Porsche dealer are 60+ miles away for me. Some of the INDY shops may have equipment but they don't have the latest technology and don't always keep it calibrated. I'm not in a large city so I don't have great options to choose from. Some of the national tire stores do have the latest alignment equipment and do keep it calibrated but I don't know if I should ever let them touch the 991. I have not yet learned how easy or difficult it is to set the camber or toe on my 991 and I just want to consider some options. If I have to go to the dealer...I will.

I hope that helps explain my odd question....

Only if the TIREBARN offers valet service, to & from.

Zoiks, how did you make out with your camber adjustments? I purchased a 991 last summer and want to autocross and run DE events this year. I was wondering if it was worth it to adjust stock suspension.

I ultimately ran stock camber settings for HPDE since I don't have any great options locally to max the negative camber out. I'm still a good 40-60 miles away from shops that I could trust to set the camber. As expected, the 991 tire wear wasn't completely terrible but it could definitely be better. I'm headed to buy the GT3 adjustable camber arms but I've not yet pulled the trigger. If they work as well as my SPL adjustable camber arms on my old track car I should be able to record what shims for -2.0 deg and what shims or the factor setting. Hopefully I can swap the shims out for the track settings and street settings. Cheers.

Zoiks, thanks for the update. I am planning to maintain stock components and will try to max out the negative camber. I am taking my car to an indie shop next month before the season starts. I'll post the before and after specs.