Mike in CA

I'd like to get more front camber in my 997.2 S for autoxing. Michelin says that the Sport Cups I just bought benefit from at least -1.5 degrees and from what I've read -.8 is about the best you can do with the stock adjustment. I've searched the threads about GT3 control arms, camber plates, lowering, enlarging the adjustment slots, etc. I've been down the major suspension mod road before with my 996 and ended up with a car that was a real pain on the street for the sake of 7 or 8 autocrosses a year so I'd like to keep the car basically stock this time.

Anyway, I have sport PASM on my car which lowers the ride height by 10mm over the normal S suspension. Since lowering is one of the ways to get increased camber, will I be able to get more negatve camber out of my suspension? I guess I'll find out if I take the car in to be aligned but was just wondering if anyone here knew.

RonCT

Try the search again and feed in RonCT for the writer, you'll find my posts that talk about this. You can probably get about -1 degree, which is useless for any sort of AutoX, DE, etc. So yes, the lowered SPASM gets you more camber, but still not enough. In my opinion the best option is the GT3 lower control arms. Heck, it's only about $1400 installed including a proper alignment and with the -2.3 degrees up front I have a great street / track setup. I've never had street issues with any of my Porsches and they've all had about -2.2 to -2.4 degrees up front.

Mike in CA

Thanks, Ron. I look further into the GT3 control arm possibilities.

Nugget

I agree totally with Ron. The GT3 control arms and big negative camber up front does not pose any difficulties or frustration on the street. Although I spent 100x more to get my GT3 lower control arms so $1400 sounds like a bargain.

RonCT

Suncoast and Tarett Engineering both have the "GT3 Control Arm Kits" on their websites. Very reasonable. The labor was not too bad either and alignment was all part of the install cost. In my case I got the Tarett rear toe links to "lock" the alignment in better than stock. Otherwise, hit a few apex curbs on the track and you throw out the rear settings. Another $450 or so in parts, labor was pretty much absorbed in the whole deal / alignment.

aggie57

Mike - for what it's worth I'm working along a path towards the setup Ron outlined. First started with the out of the box setup (i.e. as delivered). Understeer, rear end walking. Clearly evident outside shoulder wear front and rear.

Next, re-alignment with rear set to standard (properly!) and more front camber (around -1 as Ron says). Result, way less understeer and more stable rear. Still shoulder wear but a definite improvement, and of course more fun. Good!

Next step will be the control arms as suggested. Lets see how that goes but I want to do that on the same tires so I can see the differences.

MUSSBERGER

Ron is spot on

Mike in CA

I've been going back through the posts on this subject. Lots of ideas and suggestions (and disagreement!) regarding the right balance between camber for track and street. One of the posts I found from Bob Rouleau talked about using a dremel tool to slightly enlarge the camber adjustment slots. Bob posted that you can get nearly -2 degrees negative camber this way. My dealer says they have actually done this mod. If I could get something over -1.5 it would get into the range recommended by Michelin for the MPSC's and would be an improvement over stock even if not the ideal track setup. But then the car is driven 90% of the time on the street.

So I think I'm going to try this in incremental steps as my dealer has offered to work with me so that I don't end up wasting money. I can do the simple mod for a small fraction of the cost of the control arms. If it doesn't give the results I'm looking for, I can move to stage 2.

MUSSBERGER

Invasive but that'll work too. I know people that have done it.

hlee1169

Please keep us posted. I have been thinking of going to a DE in the near future as well.

Mike in CA

I actually got my car back from being aligned at the dealer yesterday. The guy who does their suspension work is pretty savvy with track suspension mods and he has a German built Beissbarth alignment rig to work with. He was able to get the camber to -1.3 degrees in the front without doing any modifications to the adjustment slots. I had read that -.8 degrees (recommended setting is -.4)was the most one could expect with a stock suspension; I think the additional negative camber adjustment range was due to my car being lower because of sport PASM. He also stretched the limits on the factory toe settings so I have a very slight toe which should also help cornering response without causing noticeable wandering on the road.

These settings seem like a reasonable starting point for a car used 90% on the street and involved minimal expense ($200 for the alignment). I can always go with further mods if necessary. Initial impressions are that steering response is sharpened and turn in is more precise. We're not talking gross differences here, but definitely noticeable. I won't know for sure until I mount my Sport Cups and run an autoX but I think this setup will work for me as reasonable street/track compromise. If not, there are always those GT3 control arms....

RonCT

That sounds great. I know Mike (mdrums) got -1.3, but my dealer could only get -1.1 for me on SPASM. For limited track use you have a great solution. If you start to lots of events and really feel the understeer, the next step is about $1400 for control arms.

rickmdz

Mike, what dealership is this?

Mike in CA

Rick, Sonnen Porsche Mill Valley CA

rickmdz

Thanks! I'm 2 hrs away from there but I might give it a try. I've done one autox event and the understeer was really bad. Hoping to make it to a few track days this season... so I would like to tune up the stock setup first, then focus on the driver part before jumping into more expensive and specific track modifications.