RonCT

Just got her back from Dan Jacobs and here are the settings:

Front
-2.3 degrees Camber
7.5 degrees Caster
0.025 Toe

Rear
-2.0 degrees Camber
10 minutes Toe

Parts:
996-341-043-06 Control Arms (2)
997-341-041-94 AS Wishbone
997-341-042-94 AS Wishbone
Tarett Toe Link Assemblies
Locking Plate Kits

I asked for a street / track hybrid alignment and -2.3 / -2.0 is what I had on my 07 and it worked very well.

Dan also bead-blasted the Volk 19x8.5 / 19x11 TE37s prior to mounting the 235/305 Toyo R888s using water only (no lubricant) in an attempt to prevent them from spinning on the rim.

Will have a report after Watkins Glen, June 22-23!

Bob Rouleau

Ron I have found that using hair spray as a lube to mount tires is THE SOLUTION to prevent tires spinning on the rim. I had the problem with hoosiers, even tried dry mounting them (ugh!). Hairspray worked and has continued to work.

RonCT

I mentioned tricks like hair spray but I guess there's something about the Volks being slippery and the Toyos not wanting to bond with the Volks very well. The combination of plastic bead blasting to super-clean / rough the rim and not using any lubricant should do the trick.

We had to go with new Toe Links in the back because the combination of the power of the 997.2 and the big and sticky tires will throw the stockers off probably in 1 track day.

mdrums

Ron, thanks for posting this! I so badly want to do this to my car too.

My R888's are slipping real bad on my CCW's. The place I go said they are scared to put my rims in the bead blaster because they do not want to hurt them. Any ideas's???

You need new toe links in the rear? So far so good with my stock units...how did you come up with the stock toe links will not work?

What was the aprox cost for the whole deal?

mkk62

silly question but just had a new set of r888's and the tire guy who used to race a 930 and now drag races told me wheels slipping shouldn't really cause a problem on a road race......could in a drag race I asked him to put some bead glue or something and he said it would just make it that much harder to take off the tire...is he missing something?

mk

RonCT

Dan used plastic beads to "super clean" the rim where the tire and wheel have contact. No damage. Then using water only helped prevent anything slippery from being introduced. I would think a tire moving on the rim will make the assembly out of balance. Last thing I want is a misaligned tire / wheel at 150.

mdrums

Ron, I am getting my GT3 Cup Lower Control arms installed on Tuesday. In your toe specs what does "minutes" of toe acutally meen?

Here are the specs I am going with...

FRONT
Camber -2
Total Toe .05
Toe Per Side .02

REAR
Camber -1.8
Total Toe .11
Toe Per Side .06

RonCT

Mike,
I'm not really sure. I'm guessing in my case it's 2.5 minutes of toe front total (or 1.25 minutes each side) and at the rear 10 minutes (or 5 minutes per side). I don't know how the alignment wizardy really works other than camber. -2 degrees is not much and at -2.3 mine still has a fair amount of understeer.

mdrums

Thanks Ron, I've heard "minutes" used in alignment specs but never understood how this boiled down to acutal numbers.

aggie57

A minute is around 1/60th of 1 degree so 10 minutes would be around .16 of a degree wouldn't it? Sounds like a very fine adjustment......?

Seeing you guys track you cars a lot, would you start out with these changes for someone who has a lot of track experience generally but very little in 911's.

I should explain that my 997.2 C2S has 2400km on it now so its pretty well ready for it's first serious track day. I'm thinking I'll start out with it as is.

RonCT

Degrees, minutes, seconds: 1 degree is 1/360th of a circle and I believe 1 minute is 1/60th of a degree and 1 second is 1/60th of a minute (just like a compass or clock).

If you are experienced on the track but not a 911, you still will want to have the alignment "proper" for track driving. The biggest thing you will find if you don't is massive amounts of understeer and possible uneven tire wear if you do even your 1st track day without having the alignment updated. In a 997.2 you might be able to get upwards of 1 degree of negative camber without using control arms, which is probably better than the 1/4 of 1 degree the car currently has from the factory. Alignments around here are about $200, but adding the control arms pushes it to about $2k. I had a complimentary alignment from the dealer at break-in oil change / service (2k) and they were able to get me to about 8/10ths of 1 degree and I tried that on the track - plowed like a pig. For the next track day I had the control arms and the car is much better.

aggie57

Thanks Ron - appreciate the advice. My 997.1 understeered alot on slower tracks but was much better on faster circuits.

There's a very good indi Porsche shop right around the corner from our office so I'll drop in there and see what can be done down this way.

Alister

RonCT

Good luck and try to get the 996 versions of the cup control arms - much less than the 997 versions I ended up with (and paid about double). Here in the US you can still get the 996 at places like Tarret and Suncoast - they have an old supply in stock. But if you go through Porsche (Motorsport) I think you may find they are now only selling the 997 part number version and at a big premium.

aggie57

Thanks - will let you know how I go.

mdrums

Ron...or anyone else....got my car back with the specs....trying to do converstions between degrees and millimeters for my toe since most on here seems to be refering to mm for toe and my read out is in mm.

my front toe is .4mm each side which works out to .023 degrees. Rear toe is 1.1mm left rear (.062 degrees and 1.5mm (.085 degrees)

Question.... my Caster went from 8 degrees to 10 degrees when the lower control arms were installed. I do not think caster is adjustable on a 997. Howere the front wheels looked a little further forward in the wheel well. Any advice on this?