leongpengkheong

I installed Porsche Motorsports Lower control arms, Torque arms last year and found the handling a bit sharper though not harsher, very happy with it so far. Recently the OEM dampers have given up ( car has 60k Km ) and the car feels unsafe at speed especially the rear end so the opportunity has come up for a set of aftermarket coilovers-thinking overall handling sharper than stock. Any suggestions whether KW v3 or Ohlins RT ? Or any other ? I read a thread posted in 2013 saying it's possible to unplug PASM and disable it in the ECU using PIWIS and wonder if that's still the way to go?
The car is driven hard on hill climbs, B roads, hardly on city streets and no track. Appreciate any inputs. Thanks a lot in advance.

TB993tt

Personally I think you should stay with PASM compatible systems so Bilstein B16 or Tractive DDA, I have tried them both Bilstein is quite a bit firmer but very well controlled and is probably the best "factory sport" upgrade being fully tested by zee Germans. The Tractive DDA is another level and allows the car to ride really nicely at low speed yet firm up and be super controlled for higher speed and track antics and you can actually alter the PASM/DSC parameters to suit via your laptop !

flsupraguy

Ohlin TTX

http://performanceshock.com/index.ph...roducts_id=235

Mr. Adair

This is going to be a very opinionated thread! IMO, both systems are fantastic. I lean to whatever system you and your shop have the most experience/understanding with. Familiarity with the product and set up is the key. Don't forget about JRZ. As far as active systems go they still scare me. When they are right they are great, when they aren't they can be a handful to workout bugs.

leongpengkheong

Thanks TB993tt, Flsupraguy and Mr Adair for your comments.

I am leaning towards aftermarket mostly in the hope of getting a bit sharper handling over OEM and to be honest also curious to try something different to stock. Noted set up is key and I am quite sure my shop can do a proper job - they increased the camber-in front, rear and changed the front tires to 245 from 235 which resulted in noticeably better turn in and cornering stability already. Mr Adair, was it a faulty PASM unit you encountered ?

thnx everyone for any further comments!

993GT

both are good, have Ohlins R&T on GT2 and V3 on Boxster, prefer Ohlins, they have a next level ride/dampening quality, KW is more 'traditional' feeling

Jake951

I have the Ohlins R&T on my 997 GT3. It's the exact same part for the 997 GT2. I'm not sure what the factory spring rates are on the GT2 but on the GT3 the Ohlins use considerably stiffer springs than stock. As such, it's probably more track-oriented than street, but you can adjust the damping to soften it for the street. Despite stiffer springs, the ride is very well controlled and I like it a lot better than the OEM PASM system. On the track I can run over curbs and the car is always settled.

I've also tried the DSC system with the OEM PASM. It, too, is better than the factory PASM in that it feels more compliant over bumps, but I still prefer the Ohlins for the track.

On my track Cayman, I originally had the KW V3 but I found it much too soft for track use, so I went to JRZ's which are much better. However, given that it was on a Cayman, I'm not sure it tells you much about how it would do on a GT2.

Zookie

For PASM car i would get the DSC Sport Module with PASM compatible B16 or Tractive Coilovers

Ohlins is awesome but i would not lose PASM specially when you can enhance it with DSC Module

Mr. Adair

This is just my opinion....

PASM is an old technology, it was fantastic when it came out (10 years ago) but it works nowhere near the quality of modern OEM active systems. Hence people are looking for an inexpensive way to make the stock coil overs (DSC) work better or ride better. I have looked into this at length. The issue is how underdamped the stock struts are. Ever wonder why in the wrong type of bumps 997 cars feel like they launch your head into the cars ceiling? Or if you hit a sharp edge in the road it knocks the wheel out of your hand? It's old school tech. It's a fallacy that high end suspension components make the car too stiff, just the opposite, high speed and low speed dampening is so much better that it make the car feel softer to ride in without compromising high speed dampening. I have tried DSC on my car with stock coilovers and it is definitely an improvement. I would say 30% better in ride comfort over stock. I never got a chance to use it at higher speeds because I encountered a high pitch frequency sound in the cabin that went off every time the PASM was triggered (when the car moves). I had this happen on two different DSC controllers. Tom from TPC was great and took care of me but we were unable to determine the cause. The interference could be from anywhere in the car that caused the sound. I am still looking into passive systems. Botton line for me is I want to be able to adjust quickly from just two settings. Track setting and street setting. Hope this helps...

leongpengkheong

Mr Adair, Zookie, Jake 951, 993GT - many thanks for your valuable comments which has helped me decide! So many positive comments on the Ohlins, I am swayed. So today I went by the Ohlins distributor and to my absolute surprise they have a new set of R & T ( POZ MN04) in stock for the GT2. Would have bought it right then but for one reservation - year of mfg was Dec 2015 ! If it were tires then definitely no but is there a shelf life for these things ? Oil and maybe more so the gas in them leak slowly over time ? Or is it a case where if there is no weight of the car then 4 years is not an issue ? Vendor says there is a 2 year warranty which is comforting. But warranty aside, I want to avoid performance issues after a few months and hassle of removing for service. Or order a freshly baked one which would be 6 to 8 weeks lead time!

Would really appreciate any input. Thanks a lot guys!

Zookie

Im a Ohlin distributor here in Canada and i don't think there has been a product "Update" on the 997 GT2 system since it was made
But you can email Ohlin directly and check if the Part Number has been updated since 2015
If not then buy it as there is no shelf life and if there is an Update ask for a discount or have them order you the Updated version

Ohlin is the only Coilover company i know that does periodic (Yearly) updates to their system such as Spring Rates and Valving updates

A lot of the VW, Audi, Subaru, Ford and Classic Porsche fitments were recently updated for 2019 Summer with Different Spring Rate and or Valving.

Goodluck

Mr. Adair

In the high end world of suspension components for bikes/sleds etc. I have always been told inactivity is an issue with oil/gas and have been told to rebuild. I'm sure Zookie knows his stuff and will respond accordingly..

isv

I'm not entirely sure I agree with that about PASM being 'old school tech'. PASM still exists, albeit in a more refined form in the 991 cars and the suspension control on the 991.2 cars (especially say the gt3) is very very good. It's not semi active in the way the magride GM ones or the Tenneco Mclaren ones are of course but in theory it's making the passive damper more flexible in moving the damping rates around (I think anyway).

The early 997 PASM will of course find it hard to compare against some of the higher end/more modern systems as it's got very basically PASM programming and ultimately the OEM damper isn't that good a damper either... At a 'reasonable' cost, the DSC and Bilstein damptronics will I think offer a decent upgrade if one wants to retain the PASM functionality compared to something like the KW v3/Ohlin R/T, otherwise tractive would offer a much better damper (at a correspondingly higher price).

P.S I was told that Ohlins TTX has a control unit that you can use to switch between road/track functions. Perhaps worth a further look if you go down the passive route.

Mr. Adair

I think if you read my post again you’ll find we pretty much said the same thing. My comments are solely based on a 997 GT3 RS with factory coil overs. Modern PASM is no doubt better. Personally on a table top flat circuit you could live with stock. Hard road driving on bad northern roads you can do so much better than stock. I have been talking with Joey Seely (997 IMSA cup tuner) and Olsen Motorports and they both just flat out agreed with me when describing the stock coil overs. One prefers KW 3 way with custom spring rates and one prefers JRZ with 3 way and custom spring rates. It’s more about familiarity with the products. I think The Ohlins TTX system is great and yes the 2 stage system is a nice solution. Simple and very high quality. The advantage imo with the other two is that many many tuners/racers know every single thing there is to know about those product lines because they are so commonly used. Ohlins stuff turns up on very high end racing machines for sure but guys at club level etc. generally don’t know where to start. Lastly I agree the Tractive/DSC system together is the best way to do active. More so than just the controller and stock.

bmwtye

Go with the KW Motorsport 3 ways from Joey, they are amazing. This is what I had (previously had jrz RS pro 2 ways and oem + DSC). Doug aka DJN will chime in about the kw 3 ways on his build thread, he bought mine.