DIY & Review - BC Racing Coilovers
 

I've had my 997 C2S for about two years now and have enjoyed the car, but always thought the factory ride height left a lot to be desired. I've had coilovers on some of my other cars, and have always enjoyed the adjustability offered, so it made sense to do them on my C2S as well. I looked at several brands and decided to go with BC Racing coilovers based on past experience as well as the fact that they are a pretty cost effective solution compared to some of the other options. I personally don't track my car, so some of the other options seemed like a bit of overkill anyway. My car had PASM, but these coilovers do not support it. I simply unplugged everything and am dealing with a PASM error until I can get it coded out with durametric. The ride is a bit firmer than stock, but not by much. It's somewhere in the middle of the stock suspension and the stock suspension with PASM activated. Personally, I enjoy how it rides now compared to stock as everything seems a little bit tighter and quicker to react. No parts of the original struts are reused, so there is a little more brake noise and other noise that makes it into the cabin, likely caused by the harder bushings and lack of rubber around the mounts. The increased noise isn't bad enough to annoy me, or even be commented on by my fiance, which is good enough for me. In fact, she never once complained about how the car rides, which says a lot as she almost refuses to ride in my E46 M3 that has coilovers as well :D

The install was actually pretty easy, way easier than I expected. After doing the driver side, I decided to do a diy on the passenger side to hopefully help anyone else out that wants to do their own install as I had trouble finding detailed write ups or install videos when I was searching. The method I used didn't mess with with the pre-existing alignment, so it still drives straight enough until I can pick my final ride height and get it aligned.

Part 1: Installation
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Part 2: Coding



Here is a before picture showing the fender gap:

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And a few afters, much better :D

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Overall, I had low expectations going into these, but I am extremely happy with them and would definitely buy them again. The only negative I can think of is that more people will probably confuse my car for a GT3 now due to the similar ride height, but that's not the end of the world as it's always fun to watch their reactions when they discover it's "just a Carrera S" :)

Looks great!

Thanks for taking the time on making a great video!

Appreciate the nice words everyone! Once I get an alignment and my other wheels back on the car, I'll make sure to post some more pictures. I'm also debating on removing the badge from the back of the car, but not sure. Maybe just black it out so it blends in with the car a little bit more?

Took a few camera phone pictures in better lighting. I will be putting new wheels on the car soon, so these are probably the last photos on the OZ wheels, at least for awhile :D

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Looks great! What new wheels are you putting on? I think it looks just perfect as is.

Thank you. I'm going to HRE C20s in turbo sizing and offsets. They will fit very aggressively and look nice, but they may not be for everyone. I am still finalizing ride height and a few other things to get them to fit how I want before getting the car aligned, but hoping to have it ready in the next week or so :)

Your ride looks amazing and I look forward to seeing pics with the new wheels.

I have been considering these coil overs for a few months now. I just havent found enough data to get my self to pull the trigger. Have you been able to put any miles on the car since installing? I am worried about any new noises, squeaking and reliability... I have seen both great and not so great reviews from other car brands mostly BMW's. For the price point I say to myself just go for it, but...

I went through the same thing since I couldn't find much info on the BCs for this platform. I eventually just went for it since I had good past experiences with the brand. I've driven the car a decent amount and on both rough and smooth roads. So far, no complaints at all other than I can't use sport mode until I get PASM coded out of my car. The only new noises I've noticed have been increased braking noise and a little bit of additional road noise that makes its way into the car. I don't think this is unique to the BCs, rather coilovers in general that do not use the stock upper mounts. I don't have experience with the other systems offered out there; however, for the price of these, I really don't see how they could be beat for a daily driver or weekend warrior owner. For a serious track oriented owner, they'd probably want some of the extra features offered on the higher end kits, but for me, these are absolutely perfect. Hope this helps some!

Quick teaser of the new wheels. Will try to get some better shots soon and hopefully a video to go along with them :D

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4744/...95da6550_b.jpg

I've been looking at getting these too.

Excuse the stupid question, but are any of the stock wearable parts reused, or the kit has everything? Front upper mounts? Bump stops?

Steve, this looks amazing ! Did you go with the standard spring rates ?