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Love the narrow body look of the 997.1 GT3 with these Mods. You've done a stellar job Vocan. I've been considering the DSC cont. for some time now. My PASM suspension setup is stock and has about 40K miles on them. Wonder if the DSC will be as effective with higher miles on them? How many miles on yours? I think the car as it sits is balanced and striking, subtle, elegant, focused and ready to attack. Not sure what you're planning for stickers, but my vote is leave as is. The car really stands out, in that stealthy sort of way. Well Done!!!
Appreciate the kind words. My car has 42k miles and I know at least one of my front dampers is due for a replacement based on some clunking and what my shop has told me but I’m probably going either Tractive or MCS very soon so I’m not about to throw a grand at a new OEM damper.
DSC made such a big difference in the streetability honestly. No more endless pogoing, far less clunking and the car just recovers much better. I’ll just say this, I have friends with much more modern 718 and 991.2 GT cars and they swear it’s made a noticeable improvement in how their cars ride. On these early gen PASM cars, it’s even more of a dramatic improvement and everyone else who has ridden in the car both before and after noticed it. If you try it out and you don’t feel the same, you should be able to resell it again and recoup most of what you paid.
The decals I’m cautiously optimistic about but agree with what you said about the car looking great as it is and it already gets a ton of attention. I’m not big on most of the 997 era decals so I’ve gone with 911r style side stripes. They also have a dash of yellow in them to play off of the accent colors. I figure if I don’t like them they were a relatively cheap experiment I’m happy to peal off again.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Great Plan. Looking forward to chiming in when they are applied to the car.
Thanks for the thoughts on DSC cont. guys. My car feels pretty planted, and compared to my various past 996 GT3's it's way more stable. The car (Pumpkin) came with a far more focused suspension setup, (RSR focused) which I removed and replaced with the stock PASM set-up. PASM is may more civilized, but not what I'd call perfect. I may well try the DSC.
Merry Christmas all...
Last edited by christallon; 12-25-2023 at 03:29 AM.
Checked the decals off the list. I know decals are very subjective, but I really like how these turned out personally. They both add more contrast on a very silver car and also add a nice color splash that ties in well with my accent color.
I may take it up another notch and add some small rear side window decals as well to add some additional visual interest and color higher up on the car but for now I'm really happy with where the car sits.
Checked the decals off the list. I know decals are very subjective, but I really like how these turned out personally. They both add more contrast on a very silver car and also add a nice color splash that ties in well with my accent color.
I may take it up another notch and add some small rear side window decals as well to add some additional visual interest and color higher up on the car but for now I'm really happy with where the car sits.
Just got done with my big early Spring maintenance cycle on the car and wanted to share my initial impressions. With the car now coming up on 17 years old and having nearly 43k miles, I wanted to address the somewhat tired suspension on my car. I was always happy with how the car handled (especially after installing DSC) but figured the occasional clunks and crashes coming from my front suspension likely meant either my dampers or top mounts were on their way out. I had my indy start digging into the front suspension late last year and they confirmed my suspicions on the dampers so I started exploring my options for replacement.
Admittedly, I've never installed aftermarket coilovers on a car so my firsthand experience was pretty much zilch going into this process. I did as much research as I could on my own, reading just about every suspension replacement thread in these subforums, 911UK, etc. and then reached out to a few well regarded shops to get their input. Figuring that 2/3 ways would be overkill for a street setup and would be more difficult to properly setup, I narrowed my options down to OEM (likely the .2 setup since it would have been about the same price as new .1 components and should still play nice with DSC), Ohlins R&T, MCS 1 way non-remotes and Tractive R&T. I went back and forth within this option group several times and while I feel I likely would have been happy with any of them, I settled on Ohlins based on the strength of the reviews I read, availability/delivery timeframe and price. I also went ahead and ordered the following to go along with the coilovers:
New OEM top mounts, gaskets, etc. for all four corners (I wanted to start from scratch with all new components, not reusing anything)
Tarett rear toe links with locking plates
RSS engine mounts
.2 front sway (.2 rear previously installed)
New brake pads for PCCBs (mine had about 60% life left and with common advice to replace before 50% wear I figured I might as well knock them out too)
Fresh gearbox oil and brake fluid
So far, I've been very happy with the upgrades. With the Ohlins currently at 10 clicks from full stiff, you can tell it's stiffer than stock but it's not really any less comfortable thanks to the better damping. However, there's a significant improvement in how the car handles compared to how it was before. You point the wheel and the front end just digs and grips. Body roll and weight transfer are much less noticeable. Predictability has markedly increased. One of the drawbacks to making so many changes at once is that I can't easily parse out what I can attribute to the new coilovers, the engine mounts, etc. but I can say as a complete package it feels like a very different car in the twisties and I can take familiar corners and highway ramps at much higher speeds than before. As far as drawbacks go, the biggest one so far is the somewhat increased NVH, which I suspect is largely attributable to the engine mounts. It's gotten better since I first picked the car up but any rattles I had before have been amplified and I picked up a couple new ones, too. With music on it's nothing too bad and I'm hoping as the engine mounts continue to break in it will keep improving but I probably need to spend some time rattle chasing again.
Unfortunately, not a ton of photos in this update. I had asked my shop to take a few to document the install process but they forgot
Glad to hear about the Ohlins R/T; I've ordered some myself. My car is almost identical to yours, mileage-wise and my suspension was on its way out too.
Just got done with my big early Spring maintenance cycle on the car and wanted to share my initial impressions. With the car now coming up on 17 years old and having nearly 43k miles, I wanted to address the somewhat tired suspension on my car. I was always happy with how the car handled (especially after installing DSC) but figured the occasional clunks and crashes coming from my front suspension likely meant either my dampers or top mounts were on their way out. I had my indy start digging into the front suspension late last year and they confirmed my suspicions on the dampers so I started exploring my options for replacement.
Admittedly, I've never installed aftermarket coilovers on a car so my firsthand experience was pretty much zilch going into this process. I did as much research as I could on my own, reading just about every suspension replacement thread in these subforums, 911UK, etc. and then reached out to a few well regarded shops to get their input. Figuring that 2/3 ways would be overkill for a street setup and would be more difficult to properly setup, I narrowed my options down to OEM (likely the .2 setup since it would have been about the same price as new .1 components and should still play nice with DSC), Ohlins R&T, MCS 1 way non-remotes and Tractive R&T. I went back and forth within this option group several times and while I feel I likely would have been happy with any of them, I settled on Ohlins based on the strength of the reviews I read, availability/delivery timeframe and price. I also went ahead and ordered the following to go along with the coilovers:
New OEM top mounts, gaskets, etc. for all four corners (I wanted to start from scratch with all new components, not reusing anything)
Tarett rear toe links with locking plates
RSS engine mounts
.2 front sway (.2 rear previously installed)
New brake pads for PCCBs (mine had about 60% life left and with common advice to replace before 50% wear I figured I might as well knock them out too)
Fresh gearbox oil and brake fluid
So far, I've been very happy with the upgrades. With the Ohlins currently at 10 clicks from full stiff, you can tell it's stiffer than stock but it's not really any less comfortable thanks to the better damping. However, there's a significant improvement in how the car handles compared to how it was before. You point the wheel and the front end just digs and grips. Body roll and weight transfer are much less noticeable. Predictability has markedly increased. One of the drawbacks to making so many changes at once is that I can't easily parse out what I can attribute to the new coilovers, the engine mounts, etc. but I can say as a complete package it feels like a very different car in the twisties and I can take familiar corners and highway ramps at much higher speeds than before. As far as drawbacks go, the biggest one so far is the somewhat increased NVH, which I suspect is largely attributable to the engine mounts. It's gotten better since I first picked the car up but any rattles I had before have been amplified and I picked up a couple new ones, too. With music on it's nothing too bad and I'm hoping as the engine mounts continue to break in it will keep improving but I probably need to spend some time rattle chasing again.
Unfortunately, not a ton of photos in this update. I had asked my shop to take a few to document the install process but they forgot
Perfect timing...I am in the exact same position you were and I have about 47,000 miles. Where did you buy the oem parts and the Olins? I'm looking to do that portion of your project soon.
Perfect timing...I am in the exact same position you were and I have about 47,000 miles. Where did you buy the oem parts and the Olins? I'm looking to do that portion of your project soon.
Thanks,
Dave
Awesome. The Ohlins I picked up from PSI and the oem parts came from Gaudin. I usually use Rosepassion for OEM but Gaudin ended up being cheaper this time around when factoring in shipping. The Ohlins were back ordered in the US but PSI was able to dropship me one directly from Sweden for less than the advertised price I was able to find at other shops. Took about two weeks to arrive from when I placed the order. Hope this helps.
12-24-2023, 08:06 PM
