I finally had the chance to drive my 996 through the Tennessee mountains for a couple days. What a spectacular car! Needs some suspension advice. I want to tighten up the car some without a huge sacrifice to daily road driving. I am having RSS Performance Motor Mounts installed tomorrow. I then want to start moving to suspension pieces. Where is the best bang for the buck? I'm not trying to save money (nor trying to spend it needlessly) but rather trying to have a stiffer car for the mountain roads while still maintaining somewhat stock feel on normal roads. I will never track the car, so I'm not sure a coilover is necessary, but many recommend the PSS9? I also do want to lower the car slightly. It is currently sitting on 18" 997 5-spokes on stock suspension. What are your recommendations for struts/shocks and sway bars? Or coilovers?

 

My suggestion is to use the search function. There are tons of suspension threads, some less than a week old.

 

Yes, I did that. Not quite as expansive as you indicate. A few specific to coilovers. And many related to tracking the cars. None specifically answered my question. So, thanks for the heads-up about the search feature. Very helpful......

 

inexpensive - sways and tires

moderateley priced - lowering springs and struts

full shebang - coilovers, sways, lighter wheels


you should include year and mileage

 

If you go lowering springs, I have two sets of springs with less than 1K miles on them for sale in Market place.

 

2003 996 with 40K miles. So I'm leaning towards lowering springs/struts. Car has brand new Continental Extreme Contacts on it. Don't want to change the wheels. They are Carrera III rims that if I'm not mistaken, are pretty light already. Could be wrong. Which springs/struts do you recommend for that happy ground between daily road use and mountain driving?

 

Do you mind providing the link? I don't see them listed under your name. Also, what did you not like about them?

 

This kit accomplishes everything you are looking to do while saving quite a bit of loot vs. the coilover route. It appears to be out of stock at FCP, but I'm sure you could find it elsewhere. I have this kit on my car, as well as many other members. It achieves a nice stance and definitely tames the body roll and float in the front end.
Porsche Performance Strut and Coil Spring Lowering Kit - Bilstein B8 Performance Plus/H&R 22046130KT | FCP Euro

 

Float!!! Thats the word I was looking for to describe what I'm trying to get rid of from this past weekend drive in the mountains. That is great info and exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for the info! Beautiful car BTW. Here's mine.....

 

FGP had a ton of great 996 related videos. They are out of the UK so prices are not the same but still worth checking out. This one covers KW vs Ohlins

 

OP - In the meantime try a lower tire pressure. If it’s only mostly you, 35 front/39 rear may help some. These cars are very pressure sensitive and sidewall flex between different makes of tire have a lot of influence on bounce/float.

For a mild lowering, Eibach Pro springs lower approximately 1” and match well with Bilsteins. For less than $700 you can get good springs and rear sway. Your sticks should still be good with 40k on them.

 

No one has mentioned it but if your going to the trouble of new dampers then replace these which are all the pieces that have rubber bushings. This will tighten things up.

Front
2 Lower control arms and the 2 upper strut mount.

Rear
4 upper control arm (2 each side) 2 lower control arms, 2 toe arms. The rear upper strut mounts don't seam to wear much in my opinion so I would skip those.

 

Thanks! Never thought of tire pressure and will check that. Will also compare the Eibachs to the H&R's

 

This is the exact point of my question!! This is info that I didn't see posted elsewhere either but makes perfect sense. I'm to much of a newbie to have come up with that on my own but will bring this up to my shop. Great advice!

 

I was fortunate to go from stock M030 suspension to with hardened tires to
PSS10 coilovers, H & R sways (used), wider wheels and new tires all in one week
added an inch to the stance, in addition to a very nice set-up by an reputable independent shop
probably right around GT height

I really wasn't interested in resale, originality or any of that stuff, just wanted the most out of the car

all done at 30,000 miles, to say the least the transformation is remarkable
'04 AE C2