smrpr

While doing the maintenance on my new 997.1 C2, I noticed that my suspension is rusty and probably worn at 140.000km, so I'm planning on a new setup.

The car is not a daily driver by any means, but I want it to be street-able. My use will be 1-2 track days a year, a lot of canyon/spirited driving and occasionally dailying it.

Here's the thing: I plan on installing a widebody soon, which will include wider wheels, and therefore I need all the camber adjustment I can get to have the stance I'm after.

My car is equipped with PASM, and I plan on keeping it. My intention with this thread is to have a full list of stuff I need and also what would be nice to have but not necessary.



I've decided to get Bilstein B16 Damptronic along with a DSC controller.

- https://www.design911shop.com/es/p/b...97-c2-07-2004/
- https://www.dscsport.com/product/dsc-vplug-n-play/

What I need help with is the parts that don't come with the kit.

FRONT

Camber plates:

I probably need these in order to get the camber I want. Thought about going Elephant Racing as they're adjustable:

- https://www.elephantracing.com/porsc...s-for-996-997/

Are there any other options I should be considering? I see these are uniball and may increase NVH, is there an option that has a regular bearing (or does it make sense to go that way)? Other options I've seen are Rennline and Tarett, but they don't seem to be adjustable:

- https://www.rennline.com/sealed-fron...s-set-sku-s21/
- https://www.rennline.com/front-cambe...111-996c4fsmt/

Lower control arms

From what I've read, these are a must to get more camber and the OEM ones won't have enough adjustability. GT3 are a good alternative, but what brand should I go for? I've seen that there are options with rubber bushings and others where the bushing is adjustable - don't think I need to go this far and getting a GT3 style ones with the shims should be enough?



I've seen that Spyder performance sells them at a reasonable price (I'm based in Europe so I need to consider shipping and taxes when ordering from the US), does anyone know if the quality on these is good? Any others which have a better price/performance ratio?

https://www.spyderperformance.co.uk/...0-99634112290/

Miscellaneous

Do I need extra stuff to make sure they're installed properly? Top hats (do they come with the B16 kit?)? I've read that coilovers can get noisy and that I should get thrust bearings ( @Petza914 seems to recommend them a lot)

- Are these specific to our suspension or it's just a regular bearing that happens to be the proper size? Where exactly does it go in the setup? Does it need to be serviced, or is it fit and forget? Is #AXK6085 the correct one? Also, if coilovers are noisy without these because instead of spinning they bind up, how come whatever part's necessary doesn't come with the kit?



Is this "spring perch" part mentioned in this diagram what we're talking about?




Rears

I think rears are easier than the fronts.

Camber plates

This one's simple. Do I need them? If so, should I go OEM? Does it make sense to have uniball in the front and OEM in the back? Should I just match the Elephant Racing front ones and also get the rears?

- https://www.elephantracing.com/porsc...t-for-996-997/

Tie rods

- Apparently the proper way to fix bump steer? Do they need to be adjustable? Are they needed for camber?

- https://www.elephantracing.com/porsc...s-for-996-997/

Lower control arms

Same question, needed? Or it's just the front?

Miscellaneous

Do I need to run thrust bearings in the rears too?

Petza914

Thrust bearing is a generic one that has the correct dimensions. It goes on top of the spring perch for the primary metal coil spring and the metal spring sits on top of it....not the base plate that holds the plastic coil take up spring

Atgani

It looks like the Bilstein kit you plan to buy uses the standard OE Porsche top mounts. I’d use them rather than going to the expense of adjustable top mounts with spherical bearings.

If you live in Europe, I wouldn’t bother using any of the Elephant components, you’ll be better off using the Eibach adjustable bottom wishbones/lower arms/coffin arms :

https://www.design911.co.uk/p/adjust...sche---eibach/

and if you need additional rear toe adjustment, use either Porsche motorsport items or the items sold by String Theory in the UK :


https://stringtheorygarage.com/produ...96-997-986-987

If you need to adjust the front or rear caster, use either adjustable arms such as the Tarett items or the Eibach items :

https://www.design911.co.uk/p/rsr-st...---cayman-987/

https://www.design911.co.uk/p/adjust...sche---eibach/

The Eibach arms feature sealed balljoints which are both adjustable andreplaceable, and the coffin arms also feature stiffer rubber caster bushes, so if you want to keep the car streetable, retain the uprated bushes, rather than fitting solid pucks, and use adjustable tuning forks/caster arms instead.

If you’re not bothered about retaining the rubber bushes in the Eibach coffin arms you could use the solid adjustable pucks such as the RSS items instead :

https://www.design911.co.uk/p/rss-ad...-gt2-3-and-rs/

Aim to keep your conversion as simple as possible and only use Rose jointed/spherical bearings when you have no other choice but to.

r_towle

I would advise that if you are going to track the car, you should replace the upper strut mount and upper spring bearing type and design.

something stronger would be best.

this is the stock bearing after 90k miles
i Would not trust this design for track use.

the bottom is what fell out after removing the top nut. Up top you can see the stock replacement.

smrpr

This is really good info, thank you.

My plan is to convert the car to RWB next year:




and what I've seen is that if only coilovers are installed in the car and the rest of the front suspension is stock, new holes for the coilover top mounts need to be drilled as the wheels don't fit and more camber is needed. That's why I'm trying to avoid that. Maybe changing lower control arms to GT3 ones, or the Eibach that you mentioned (they look so good!) will fix the issue. But I didn't want to risk it so I planned on replacing both. Since he hasn't done many kits in Europe there's not much footage of what he does with the suspension in these cars and I really want to avoid drilling new holes.

But anyway, the components you linked look really good, I'll do as you said, start with coilovers and OEM top hats and go from there, upgrading the LCAs first.

Thank you.

smrpr

Noted, my car has 90k miles too so definitely something I'll refresh when I change the suspension. Thanks