TheChunkNorris

Ha! Good thing she sleeps inside.

Man I’m hoping we can all get together the first weekend of Dec and hopefully I’ll have them in by then. There’s a chance they might go back to Ohlins to get checked and in that case you all will only get to see the car with the lowly M030 set up.

De Jeeper

Fyi the valving on the c2/c4 versions of ohlins is the same but spring rates r higher on the gt3 set up. I dial mine back to 10 from soft for street driving and 5 from tight for the track. I dont find the street driving setting bad but its not nearly as smooth as stock. I do have a ton of other track mods that make my car more trackish.

TheChunkNorris

Thank you for that info and I'll probably call you when I get to that point... I'll actually be home. Side note... 3DM didn't respond yet.

De Jeeper

anytime. Be patient with 3dm, im sure they r busy but it will be worth it.

245ster

I spent about a month trying to dial in the PSS10s on my C4S for spirited street driving in Wisconsin. My commute was a pretty nice test route. Combo city and highway. Some smooth spots, couple rough patches on the highway, and a few sets of railroad tracks to cross.

Couple interesting findings

• The car is most compliant over railroad tracks with stiffer settings
• Softer settings are fine until you hit a big bump, then everything bounces around
• Having the fronts and rears set to the same stiffness causes the car to feel a bit unsettled at times

My favorite setup so far has been F7/R6 (10 is the stiffest on PSS10s). But my passenger finds that a bit harsh, so I've been driving around with F5/R6 for the past month with no complaints.

(This thread on the 993 forum was someone else going through a similar process)

Tr4ckD4ys

based on the 911 design with the engine and its weight in the rear, shouldn’t one always have the rear set to stiffer than the front, to accommodate the additional energy from the weight?

zbomb

Springs support weight, NOT dampers, dampers control springs.

Tr4ckD4ys

thank you for clarifying!

hardtailer

Sound thought but when the manufacturer of the adjustable dampers has that taken into account when designing them then the same number of clicks might be right to have the damping rates balanced (which doesn't mean identical, think 'relative damping ratio') front to rear.
Actually I would expect that so that front to rear damping is balanced when having the adjusters on all 4 set from fully open to fully closed or at anything in between. Should that not be the case you effectively loose a setting as 1 at the one end would require 2 at the other thereby losing the ability do use 1 at that end...

zbomb

Remember that stiff and soft on a damper is really describing what force the damper is going to project on the spring to alter what it's normal behavior would be. A high quality damper can demonstrate a better ability to control that spring, and as a result, can allow a higher spring rate without, what one may feel as an increased harshness.

Thinking that going soft on the compression adjustment may sound like a good idea to make the ride feel better, until you think of what that means for the interaction between the damper and the spring. It means the damper is going to let the spring do more work, intervening less, therefore you are in a sense being less reliant on the damper. So, with the stiffer spring rates you see in general on coilovers, you are going to feel more of its impact than you would with a firmed up damper. Of course, then you go to the other side of the spectrum and go max stiff on the damper, now depending on the valving, you may have the damper overpowering the spring and not allowing it to do its job.

If you get adjustable coil overs, adjust them, find a loop that you want the car to feel a certain way and drive it sweeping the adjustment around and see what feels good for you. Try to remove the pre conceived notions of what soft and stiff will do and just run 'em and see.

De Jeeper

i think this applies to a stockish suspension. From porsche the car is limited by the balance between comfort and performace. When the car moves to performance the shocks, springs, links, motor mounts, sways and tires (grip and size) all start to equal out the dynamic weight differences. This is what i am seeing with my car. I tried loosening the front sway and the car felt like $hit and next trip to njmp ill be tightening the front to full stiff.

barbancourt

That’s the key right there.

GC996

Alot of variables to the equation.

My 996.2 set-up did not have any aero...

But it did have Bilstein PSS9s, Tarret sway bars, was set to GT3 specs for height & camber, etc, with a guard LSD and Brembo big brake kit, carrera 2 wheels (18×8,18×10) running Sport Cup 1s and Hoosiers at the proper air levels accounting for typically 6-8 lbs of inflation increase from cold depending on track temps...

We ended up settling on full stiff on rear settings for the coilovers and sway bar, as well as one notch stiffer than middle on front coilovers and softest on front sway bars. The combination ended up feeling near perfect on the track for my car.

We got to this combination due to the PSS9s and Tarret sway bars being the rage at the time for the 996 and everybody and their mother was running them. So we all had a starting point by comparing notes.

But the softest setting on the front sway bars was common due to not having any front end aero and therefor finding a way to compensate for understeer which was my biggest complaint as I carried more speed into, thru and exiting turns. We basically settled on the softest front sway bar setting and one click stiffer above middle on the front coilovers. Because my indy was at the track at the time, it was pretty easy to dial it in but it took two track days and therefore time to get it.

I never set up JRZs, Motons, Ohlins, Feals, etc; nor have I added any aero or larger tires to the equation. All of which would completely change the set-up.

Bottom line is that it all started with an experienced indy that knew what they were doing. All I had to do was drive and provide feedback.

But remember this, if you are looking for a track set-up, do not bastardize the set-up process with worrying about how it will feel on the street. That's why you go with an adjustable set-up. All you will need to do is figure out what you then want for your street set-up and adjust it after the track day.

In reality, it got to the point that I didn't care about a street set-up and just didn't drink coffee while driving my 996 around town.

EVOMMM

Use the force Luke!!!
ride quality and speed are a parallel parameter like others have said many variables effect ride/track setups
my take is set to the middle and DRIVE a lot

damage98MO

I've been thinking about this some more, and after a long drive today, it seems that what I dislike most about the b4 stock setup on my C2 is the harshness of the ride. The damping abilities of the art least 22yr old design bilsteins are just not up to snuff. Has anyone experience with a other dampers and the stock springs? Maybe koni? To get modern ride quality maybe coilovers aren't necessary? Or maybe they are, if no one makes decent struts for stock springs....