Have been wanting to lower the car for a while. Have felt like for my taste and area I drive that I would go with the Eibach pro-kit. In reality, for my taste, I think that the fronts on the Eibach and the rear lowering of the H&R would "look" perfect (although you never really do this because they are most likely totally different specs). Also, we have heard how important it is for these cars to maintain the Rake that Porsche builds into them, which leaves me thinking that the front looks a little too low for my taste (H&R) or the rear looks a tiny bit too high (Eibach), according to the pics I have seen

Car: 2005 997.1S 6MT 22,000 miles PASM

I drove 150 rough miles today (driving from Orange County to San Bernadino county on the 91 freeway and all the concrete joints and bumps, pretty much shakes your teeth out. No wonder why so many 909ers have trucks.

After the drive and ending up with very similar amount of gas that I had last night pre-lowering measurements and in the exact same parking spot, here is what I got:

FRONTS:
Both Right/Passenger and Left/driver both lowered the car about 21.5mm.
The Right/Passenger front is about 1.5mm lower than the Left/Driver (which is exactly the same as it was before the car was lowered).

REARS:
Both rears lowered the car about 15mm
Passenger side is about 5mm higher than the drivers side (as it was pre-lowering) which I don't really like, but not much I can do.

Wonder how this compares to other Eibachs and Techarts?

I do like the front but I wish the rear was just a little bit lower. The gap on the rear is a little larger than I would like, which is about 20mm difference.

The odd thing to me is, if the rake is so important to maintain, why did Eibach just increase that rake by about 6.5mm? If the rear lowering matched the fronts at 21.5mm vs 15mm, I think the rear would be about perfect.

This may still settle a bit. 150 miles isn't much, and being that the wt of the car is rear biased, the rear springs are probably the stiffest, so I guess there is a chance for a few more mm as it settles. My rear tires are about 50% worn, so that gap could change with new tires, or even going from a 295 to the optional 305?

Was with my brother and his 991 SPASM tonight, and his car has much less rake than my car and looks like the gap for his FRONT and REAR is similar to my fronts.

Anyone know if I can expect any additional rear "settling"?

Will post some pics after I wash and do an alignment in a few days.

 

Mine settled slightly after a few (2) weeks or so. Not sagged. Just settled. How did you take your measurements? Post pics!

 

Measured from top of wheel lip to bottom of wheel well fender. This way tire wear or pressure isn't involved in the equation. Will post pics when wash (little dirty now considering mechanic just worked on it).

 

What were the actual measurements? Not for how much it was lowered, but the distance between the top of the wheel to the bottom of the fender?

 

Mine went down 7/8 in the front (.2 S car_), 3/4 in the back. 1K miles later, there actually a little taller. Looks like it "raised 1/8", could be that its warmer out, raising the psi. Currently sits 13 7/8 from lip to CL front, 14- from lip to CL rear.

Eibachs.

BTW, the best way for all of us to measure distance is from Bottom of wheel well lip to Center line of hub.

Tires varie in oa height, and wheel lips vary by model.

 

Just drove another 30 miles, and got your measurements, but NO change in a day and 30 miles.

Lip of wheel to Wheel Well Arch

FRONT OVERALL lowered it 21.5mm, (0.85"), both sides
Front-Drivers side=8.1cm
Front-Pass side=8.0cm

REAR OVERALL lowered it 15mm, (0.6"), both sides
Rear-Drivers side=10cm
Rear-Pass side=10.6cm

 

Interesting, so your fronts are very similar to mine, but your rears a little lower than mine. This tells me that the rear will still settle a bit (most likely to settle more in the rear since thats where the wt is).

Centerline is too hard to find to be exact, within a mm. But your right, if you measure from top of tire, you get tire wear and pressure variations, If you measure from ground to Arch, again, varies too much with tire wear and pressure. This is why I always do it from the top lip of MY car to the Arch on MY car. I have never really compared it to other cars, so I have never thought about a way to make it standard (your right though, wheel lips are different in diameter so my way is not a standard when comparing to another car unless it had the exact wheels. I think comparing your own car BEFORE and AFTER is most important because we can all have different wt cars, options, fluids, etc....

I did park next to a 997.2 today and I looked at it closely and compared teh gap really quick, my rear had a "tight" 2 finger gap while his had about a 3 finger gap (about where I was before) PLUS he was running 305 rears, which should close the gap a tiny bit (if my rear doesn't settle more, I may opt for 305 rears to fill that space more).

 

Couple quick pics of the dirty car to get an idea. I do scrape that plastic under body piece a lot. This view looks a little lower than in my garage or on my driveway for some reason.

 

Looks great. Can't wait until mine is done tomorrow.

 

My 997 with Eibach

 

Nice!

 

Just got mine lowered today with Eibach Pro-Kit. Pretty happy with the results so far. Just waiting for my new wheels to come in now.

Stock


Eibach Pro-Kit

 

Very nice! Looks great! Let us know what you think about the ride after you put a few miles on it.

 

Quick update. Since I have about 300 miles on the springs, Went to get the alignment done today to as close to GT3 spec as the stock parts would get me.

Surprised to see how much the rear end lowered when going to the aggressive rear camber but I LOVE the look. Now it is lowered perfect to match the front. for my taste.

Rear is now 9mm additional lower on drivers side and 13mm more on passenger side. Total is rears 23mm lower on drivers side and 26 lower on passenger side rear. Now they are matched pretty well. Before the drivers side was noticeably lower.












This one you can see the rear looks much lower than pre-align. <br/><br/>Btw, my car never really settled. Same measurements last night as when springs installed 300 miles ago.





Car is filthy, been raining today and I have spent day installing new rear emblems. When weather clears up will post better pics.

 

How has the car settled after a few weeks? Also how is the ride quality now compared to stock? Are you pleased so far? I'm leaning towards the Eibachs and almost ready to pull the trigger.