whayes

Hi Folks -

I am a new 997s owner and I am getting the car aligned this Friday. I am heading to the track (NASA at VIR) at the end of March and wanted to see if anyone could give me the alignment specs for stock set up thats fairly aggressive...

Also, is one liter of castrol SRF enough? (i hope so $ $ $)

Thanks

utkinpol

I just did full flash of old ATE gold with ATE blue using 1 liter bottle and bleeder - have about of 1/3l left. If castrol SRF will be of same color you have in system now you may end up using up more, so, I would get 2 bottles.

as of stock alignment considering all parts stock - for front make mechanic undo upper mount bolts and get shocks moved all the way inside with crowbar, that will allow on PASM cars to get about of -1.2 degrees of camber in front. keep rear camber within 0.5 deg from front, so, if front gets -1 then rear gets -1.5 camber.

front toe may be set either to 0 for max sensitivity or to 0.05 to have a bit less jerkiness on a steering wheel depending of your preferences. rear toe set to 0.15-0.10 range. mine is set to 0.13.
castor and other stuff you cannot control on a stock car, so, it is pretty much it.

if you get front 996 GT3 LCAs installed you will be able to get up to -2.5 deg front camber as in rear you are limited to -1.9 or so deg of camber max keeping toe at 0.10. those are your stock ranges pretty much, before you decide to rebuild suspension using adjustable ams.

whayes

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes - I spoke to Ron about the GT3 control arms but i am not ready to go there yet.

utkinpol

and you do not have to. it all depends of what kind of tires you want to put on. regular 'streetable' dot r-comps like ra1, r888 will be usable at this stock camber while it is not really optimal for them, but usable. R6/A6 hoosiers will probably get ruined with eaten up sidewalls, same as similar no tread tires like nt01 or kumho v710.

overall if car got sticky street tires - r-s3 hankooks, star specs dunlops, etc - stock camber is fine. stickier r-comp tires will want more camber and different brake pads.

whayes

I have Ps2 on now and i am going to put on PFC 97's.

utkinpol

PS2s are expensive, it will work fine of course but I would get cheaper tires if you want to preserve PS2 for street driving. with pfc97 you will heat up PS2 a lot and they will not like it much.

in a long run, even if you plan doing 4-5 events for season only it still pays off to get separate rims set - OZ allegeritas for example. if you want to do 1-2 events only - probably not. it is difficult to decide. but i bet when you`ll see melted down PS2 if you do run pretty fast - you will feel a bit of a regret. VIR is a pretty fast track too, so, it is your choice.

whayes

Thanks for the info -

I will be running with the instructor group....Did the wheel/tire switch at the track with the M3's...but i think i am going to run out the PS2's before i make that investment. Have the NT01's at my wet/street tires before.

Where do you guys put all your track accesories?!

utkinpol

Front trunk, where else...

As you will see at any PCA event, number of experienced people who arrive without trailers is close to none. And if you have no trailer - issue with track tires and other logistics becomes a big PITA. I do not have a trailer and struggle a lot, it greatly reduces my track days and overall desire to participate. local AX is way simpler as travel distance is not even comparable.

housing market crash really messed up a lot here.

whayes

Yeah - I hear you. I have paid for a tow from VIR to DC twice in my 6 years...still cheaper than a trailer .... I just can justify paying for trailer storage for 4-5 trips a year thats only 4 hours.

What about the roof rack?

I was thinkinkg about the OZ's with RA1's for a more permanent dual purpose set up...my work commute is about 2 miles.

mdrums

New guy at the track? Stick with stock pads...especially with stock street tires. You don't need SRF either...waste of money until years and many mods down the road. Motul RBF660 is plenty high enough boil temp fluid.

whayes

New car for me - I have been tracking for past 6 years and been instructing for the past 2.

Thanks

slicky rick

maybe we should also inform whayes about the requirement of porsche for alignment. I heard that the car should have a full tank of gas. Not so sure if driver is needed for alignment to be right. Can someone confirm if weight on the drivers side is required for the right alignment or not, as required by Porsche?

utkinpol

i asked my mechanic - he says 200lbs will collapse roof on 997.

any roof system is designed for 160lbs max. it is 3 rims only. there is an another option - to get a small tire trailer but still it has to be parked somewhere and in my situation with 4 cars in our family i literally have not a single spot left for anything around our house. I still hope may be we will upgrade our house in 3-4 years if things will get better on the market.
will see.

utkinpol

every good porsche shop knows how to get alignment done right.
they use an appropriate set of ballast on driver seat to emulate driver weight. and a half full tank of gas.

whayes

Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate it.

Anyone else going to NASA MA in March?