P.J.S.

I am considering replacing factory susp on my .1RS for the Bilstein Damptronics.. I just feel the stock .1RS is too softly sprung... and from my research here it seems that just changing springs on the stock set up is not the way to go...

I have firmed up the sway bars with gmg front and rear and I am running the rear full stiff and front 1 from full stiff.

I have searched and read that the springs are firmer and the dampening is revised etc...

I am just curious... who has them and I want to hear if you are pleased and see if you think it was worth the upgrade cost... I know TCracing has them but not a lot of time on them... and I am hoping to hear from GT3 and or RS folks... not turbo owners...

I figure if you buy them new and pay to have them installed, corner balanced, aligned, etc... all in you are looking at rougly $4K or so...

I know that motons and jrzs are the "best"... but i am not sure that I have the patience to mess around with them and/or the budget at this point. Part of the appeal of the damptronics is the plug and play nature

what say you?

tcsracing1

im pleased with mine. especially with the amount of street driving i do.

they are better then stock.

im not ready for a set of fully adjustables, nor do i wish to figure out how to tune them or live with them on the street.

they are firmer and on the track they are actually capable.

P.J.S.

forgot to add... I am somehwat under the impression that the damptronics are also going to be a compromise...

my car is 88% track and 12% street

one of my trusted advisors is telling me motons only...

hmmmm

tcsracing1

what other suspension mods will you have or already have?

im using fully adjustble RSR spec stuff and very pleased with overall package.

im not sure how much better motons would make the experience even with the ultimate tune on em......

but for 88% track duty, motons maybe wht you need as long as you know how to dial them in.

P.J.S.

I have the monoballs and all of the RSS adjustable stuff (control arms, toe links, etc...) and gmg sway bars front and rear...

rotated the front struts

car flies just the dampening sucks -- the car wallows in the soft setting and the firm setting is "okay" but far from great... I had KWv3 on my 996 gt3 and they were much better...

This time around I was going to consider the KW clubsports, but they are not available and are being "taken upmarket" which I think means more of a remote reservoir a la moton/jrz

hmmm... the good news is that I have plenty of time to mull this over as my budget needs to recover...

tcsracing1

with a good alignment/corner balance using all your adjustables you are definitly out-driving your stock shocks. The stock rear valving is lazy and the front springs are too soft especially with your adjustables dialed in and grippy tires.

im almost to the point of out-driving my Bilstiens in the rear. If i were to use Hoosier slicks im told i would need Motons to handle the grip in the coners properly.

All comes down to what tires you plan on using methinks?
slicks=motons
D.O.T race tires = Bilsteins will suffice.

P.J.S.

R6 almost exclusively...

I know what needs to be done...

:-)

tcsracing1

indeed

NJ-GT

I ran Michelin blue sticker slicks on the 997 GT3 RS at a high banking high speed track (NASCAR+infield), stock springs, stock shocks, rock solid grip, no bump stops problems, car had stiffer sway bars (a must).

B16 are the way to go, unless you consider yourself a suspension tuning guru.

I took out the Moton 3-way motorsports from the Scuderia, went back to stock shocks (Sachs electronically adjustable) and stiffer springs, gone are the painful (literally) times adjusting the shocks, lost track time, etc.

CRex

I'm in the same boat as PJS and in the market for a less "technical" solution than Motons/JRZs. The few shops that I've come to respect all seem to think the Bilsteins are no better than OEMs, matter of fact two of them said flat out they haven't seens Bilsteins on track-going RS's (TCS or NJGT I guess you ain't their customers LOL).

How does the PASM programming cope with the Bilsteins? Do you track with PASM on or off?

KWs appear to be an alternative here but I want to retain PASM ability.

NJ-GT

Misleading shops those ones...

The 2007 GT3 has PASM shocks, the 2007 RS has a different tuning for the PASM shocks (better), the system evolved and got even better with the 2008 GT2.

The B16 Damptronics are an upgrade for the 997 GT2, so Bilstein sells them as an upgrade to a car (7GT2) that already has better shocks than the 2007 GT3 and GT3 RS.

The stock PASM are built for Porsche by: Bilstein.

By the way, Bilstein makes racing shocks, good ones, as good as Moton MotorSports, Penske, Ohlins racing shocks.

mobonic

Bilsteins are great shocks, people just dont understand that there isn't magic shock thats soft for everyday street use and stiff for track use.... its give an take.. with compromise.

If you want bilstein just get them with the spring rate for what you are using them for, in this case stiffer than what they sell for the masses (masss are not doing heavy track or track only duty)

I have JRZ RS Pro's and I feel like I need a engineer on staff for every track I go to... but they also work a lot better than stock even if i leave them on the same setting for every track.

I say go with JRZ RS (non external but can still be adjusted for compression and rebound)

I have seen too many friends and track buddies buy a cheap set.. only to end up buying a re-valved or better set in the future,.. and end up spending 2 times the cost of the exp3ensive ones off the bat.

Listen to NJ-GT and get the B16's (plug and play) and order them with stiffer springs (they will come valved for the stiffer springs)

OR

Buy the JRZ RS and then you can change spring rates later down the road and don't have to get them revalaved.

Basically pay now or pay later is my opinion and in my experience.

YearOne

My 997.1 GT3 has 25k on it and I drive the wheels off it most of the time. A lot of my hard driving is done on bumpy back roads and the suspension takes a lot of abuse, it is off the ground quite regularly and that is added to the curbs on track, I am thinking that it is probably past its best now... Given that my car is is a road racer (we have great empty roads here in the UK and in Europe) I don't want to make the car stiffer but I do want to to perform at its best, anyone have any sugestions? I think Manthey can help the most here as the Nurburgring is similar in many ways to our roads and has been responsible for much of the pounding the suspension has taken.

I would suspect the damptronics are too stiff for what I want?

How resilient are the standard dampers and suspension components?

My car is aligned and has the GT2 rear bar but still has too much rear grip for the road to be really fun despite pushing it hard...

mikymu

I want to play now and mooty pay for me later

AllanJ

What say me? I say you're plenty fast already so if you were going to change shocks, I'd say to go to WalMart and see what they have on sale. Buy a set for Ed while you're at it.