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I’ve been thinking about lowering my coil overs, but I’m not sure how low I want to go. I’m currently ROW in front and about 5mm above USA/ROW in back.
I have the Bentley manual with the factory heights listed, but I’m a visual guy.
Also measuring with a tape measure is difficult as the car sets now. (Although having a metric only tape measure REALLY helps!)
I got creative and made my own gauges for the factory heights.
I put mine to 120mm front / 130mm rear and like it fine. That’s ballpark GT3 and X74 spec and the fenders are at 65 cm +/- 3 mm on same wheels as yours. Ride quality not any different than ROW M030.
Since I saw your car this weekend , I'd say go with the ROW sport since you're running the 285/40's in the rear. If you lower it more I would think the tire clearance would be a problem.
Physics and the relationship between load transfer and Cg height tells us that lower is better, but with a major caveat. Overlowering a car without corresponding adjustments and/or compensation to the major hard suspension ball joints/pickup points is one of the quickest ways to an ill handling car. Overlowering often results in misplaced roll centers which will actually cause the car to transfer more weight than if it was actually higher, increased bumpsteer at the front axle, not to mention overall issues with ride quality, compliance, and suspension travel on the street.
The X74 ride heights are a good "performance" ride height for street driven 996s on the factory suspension parts. The GT3 has different uprights & knuckles that relocate the ball joint locations to optimize for their lower ride heights and I don't recommend you go that low if handling is a higher priority than looks.
Zoom is describing what my previous 996 handled like after I put Koni Sports and HR lowering springs on with standard sways and links. Boy, speed bumps leaped up at me! Magnified bump steer tendency, unsettling rebound after sharp compressions. This time around I knew better. M030/X74 and all is right like I always thought a 911 should be. And I can take my neighborhood “traffic calming devices” at normal speed without ripping out my skid plate.
Well at least I finally know what ROW stands for after reading this thread... with the crappy MN roads and considering mine is a DD even in the winter, lowering looks great, but would not be practical.
Zoom is describing what my previous 996 handled like after I put Koni Sports and HR lowering springs on with standard sways and links. Boy, speed bumps leaped up at me! Magnified bump steer tendency, unsettling rebound after sharp compressions. This time around I knew better. M030/X74 and all is right like I always thought a 911 should be. And I can take my neighborhood “traffic calming devices” at normal speed without ripping out my skid plate.
From the tables above X74 is 30mm lower than stock. HR springs typically lower 1.25” which is 31.75 mm. What additional parts did you replace when you went with x74 to keep the geometry correct? I was going to go with Koni and HR.
If I were to use the Koni Sport again, I would use Eibach springs. For the reasons why, you can pm me. For X74, just X74 front top mounts, since I was told the stock tops don’t work. The drop links are all stock with M030 sways. All new (less than 2k miles) Porsche suspension which is working very well. I caveat by saying you would need adjustable front sway for aggressive front camber (my experience). I have my alignment to GT2 spec with the X74, running 15mm spacers on all corners to widen my C2 track. The photo in post #8 is with 19” wheels. Not as drastically low as the number -30mm would suggest. My other 996 on the HR was 5 or 6mm lower.
The ride on the 19’s is a little more jolting, by annoyance factor of 10%. I believe it when people say the 996 suspension is optimized for 18” wheels, mostly noticed on the front end.
Last edited by hatchetf15; 11-04-2019 at 11:45 PM.
Reason: Ride quality comment
I wish I could get a lifetime alignment so I could try all the different heights.
I found out today that there is a greater chance I‘ll be unemployed soon.
I should know something this week.
So no plans to lower my car this weekend.
When I do lower it, I’m going to go either ROW Sport if my company is still around in 2020, or I get another job that requires commuting.
I’ll maybe try X74 if I decide to semi-retire and get a closer job...or open up my own auto repair shop.
11-03-2019, 06:13 PM
How low should I go?
, I'd say go with the ROW sport since you're running the 285/40's in the rear. If you lower it more I would think the tire clearance would be a problem.
