Cst

When lowering the car with simply swapping out springs from H&r or Techart, Etc.. ..does the performance improve as well or get worse in terms of handling. I don't mean ride quality.

I would image it may be better with the lower stance but If it gets worse for this cosmetic upgrade what would have to be changed to improve it?

westsiderkg

I can personally recommend techart height adjustable springs. Very good quality and ride. Adjustable height is key to not over dampen the factory shocks.

I installed lowering springs, by themselves, on my last two porsches. Overall, too low for daily use imho, and ride was compromised a little more as well. H&R on one, eichbach on the other.

Generally speaking, performance can improve, but having used multiple brands now, I would would stick with trusted and focused 911 tuners like techart in lieu of big box companies like h&r, eibach, etc. who lower everything. Spring rates and 911 performance focused manufacturers are key here, like techart.

HAS is the most reasonable priced option out there imho.

Take care and if you, or anyone else is interested, I have a basically new set of techart has springs up for sale for a few hundred dollars off, PM me.

Happy New Year!

por356

On my 964 I went with H & R springs as recommended at the time, and the ride was firmer but very acceptable. For my 992, I decided to go with KW HAS springs, and the ride is again firmer but not harsh, and the handling is much improved. I don't track my car, so the cornering ability over stock wasn't my reasoning as much as looks.

SBAD

Unless you are tracking the car I doubt you will notice “improved” handling at street legal speeds…

MQuattlebaum

Bought my 992 with H&R lowering springs already installed. Swapped back to stock after a couple hundred miles. Ride suffered terribly and suspension often made clunking noises over large bumps. Looked great, felt TERRIBLE on the street. Don't track this specific car so cant comment on on-track handling however the street "handling" is not noticeably different. SO HAPPY I switched back to stock, the car is much more comfortable and no more worries about blown shocks, etc. I honestly don't get why people lower their cars while compromising the ride/suspension in exchange for a more aggressive stance they cant enjoy while driving...

ipse dixit

As long as you don't slam your car (like the picture below), yes, it'll improve performance.

You won't notice it driving it daily from Point A to B picking up groceries or commuting to work, but if you push the car anywhere above 4/10s, you'll feel the difference in handling.

But depending on what system you use to lower your car, you will most likely notice a degradation in ride quality day-to-day.

And if you do lower your car, go with coilovers with progressive (not linear) springs at a minimum like these from Bilstein (not just lowering spring alone)

drcollie

Springs by themselves - will most likely degrade performance slightly.

Suspensions are always matched. That is Spring rates and lengths are matched to the shock, sway bars factor into the mix, as well as caster and camber settings (plus toe). When you alter one component and not the others, you change the integrity of the suspension system that a team of Porsche engineers have spend thousands of hours to develop, and a ton-fun of money, too. Think about it, you are changing springs for a cosmetic look to lower the car, but you left on stock shocks, sways, probably didn't bother to re-align so your toe in and camber changes, resulting on a slightly more twitchy and abrupt steering that will also wear your tires faster on the outside edges..

If you want to do it right. you would fit coil overs to the car (matched spring and shock such as the Bilstein B16 series), some adjustable sway bars, and have a race shop specializing in Porsche do it for you. You tell them what you want, and they will dial it in for you with a custom perch level, set the sways, corner weight the car and set up the alignment. NOW you have suspension performance.

rdv

Remember your suspension system is just that - a system. Everything is optimized by factory engineers to work together taking into account the inherent compromises and trade offs between an all out track beast and a luxo-barge for comfortable daily driving. Change one part of the system and you’ve now made it suboptimal relative to the engineers’ intended original design parameters. Changing out your factory optimized springs for a set of lower springs alone MAY result in better handling but probably not. Unless you track the car I doubt you’ll notice any “handling” improvements on the street. And you don’t appear to be concerned about ride quality, which I happen to think is a mistake you will come to regret over time. But go ahead and install lower springs, it definitely looks better IMHO, notwithstanding the other trade offs.
cheers
ross

rk-d

Problem is that right now there aren’t a robust set of products to really fine tune the 992 suspension.

On an established platform, this is clearly the best way to do it. I upgraded my uprights, sway bars, links/tie rods/arms/bushes and installed 3 way coilovers on my 993 and had a race shop install and tweak it. The net result was a car that drove better, rode better, looked better.

We just don’t have those options right now on the 992 platform, which is unfortunate. As a result, there may not be a win/win solution with lowering these cars, though a subtle drop on TechART/KW HAS may work within the tolerances of the OEM damper if you don’t drop the car too much.

Overdraft

I dropped my wife’s 992 Targa with Techart HAS….purely for aesthetics as you can’t get SPASM (10mm drop) in the Targa format. The dealer (thankfully) did it for me and did a full alignment in the process. The range as I recall was 15mm to 40 but 20mm seem to be the consensus amongst the guys in the shop who were equally interested in the outcome which -to me - turned out excellent. Probably placebo effect, but the car rides brilliantly and looks great…but I can’t say honestly if it’s ‘better’ than before but it is not worst (for sure). I have a 991.2 GT3T so the car still seems on the “soft” side….but….wouldn’t have done it had SPASM been available on the Targa for no other reason than why mess with a good thing ?…as the 992 SPASM is a good thing. Ordered SPASM on a Turbo S that I have coming and won’t be doing anything with that. Oh and one other thing…I would add narrow spacers (7mm) - heresy- to better proportion the car. Figured you could option out 5mm spacers from Porsche on two years ago on the 991 so why not?

westsiderkg

Perfect looking stance with the techart has Overdraft! No aggressive at all, very classy and balanced.

Fullyield

This is the same as my experience. Looked great with HR lowering springs but rode like crap. The preferred method is to use adjustable Coilovers such as Bilstein or Ohlin.

MQuattlebaum

Absolutely. A matched solution like coilovers is the ONLY way to do this on a car of this caliber. DO NOT go cheap with springs alone

CanAutM3

Lowering springs by themselves improve handling by increasing total grip from reduced weight transfer in cornering and braking. The challenge however, as many others have stated, is keeping the entire suspension system in balance. Suspension tuning is a very fine art and it is easier to make things worse than it is to improve them. Shorter springs to lower the car usually need to be made stiffer to prevent the suspension bottoming out. To prevent a harsher ride from stiffer springs, tuners often use progressive rate springs. But either way you end up with spring rates that are not perfectly matched the the damping rate which can make the ride feel bouncy.

por356

I believe Techart HAS is made by KW, IIRC. I also went with 7mm spacers, and agree with you that the ride has not been compromised much, if at all.