Who designed the 986 rear suspension?
07-29-2022, 05:21 AM
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Who designed the 986 rear suspension?
With the 25th anniversary of the Boxster, many scholarly articles detailing the history of the original Boxster’s design have appeared. While I understand that the rear suspension design was a cost-cutting decision, has there been any mention of the engineer that made that feasible? With Porsche’s rich racing history, was it a beautiful fluke that the Boxster’s suspension design amounted to an amazingly great handling car? I own/owned 911, 914, 928, 95B, and 986 vehicles. In cornering/handling at the limits of traction, the 986 feels the sweetest, in my and many others’ opinion.
What is the name of the Porsche engineer that got this so right?
What is the name of the Porsche engineer that got this so right?
07-29-2022, 09:34 AM
#2
Grant Larson
07-29-2022, 10:26 AM
#3
Grant Larson designed the exterior. He is not a suspension designer. The general layout was designed some 50 years earlier by a Mr. MacPherson.
The kinematics - things like roll centers, caster angle, etc. was likely designed, tested, and tuned by the contemporary suspension engineers and test drivers. Then it's tuned further with shock damping, springs, and swaybars which frequently vary between models. Not a fluke - they surely spent thousands of hours with a chassis jig, computer programs, manual calculations, and Weissach testing. Not to mention consultation with engineers from tire, shock, and spring companies; benchmarking other cars, etc.
As far as I can tell, the Boxster lower control arms were designed to be used on all corners. I'm not sure if they are all interchangeable; they may have small changes to the arm for each corner. The trailing/caster arms are of course longer in the rear. The 986 and 996 use similar rear main lower control arm (I don't think they are the same), but the 996 has two upper links to create a multilink setup. It was actually quite clever.
At the end of the day, Porsche knew a lot more about designing a car than they did when older cars such as the 928 were designed. The Macan is a totally different animal. The weight distribution is totally different, and the car isn't designed to be a sports car.
The kinematics - things like roll centers, caster angle, etc. was likely designed, tested, and tuned by the contemporary suspension engineers and test drivers. Then it's tuned further with shock damping, springs, and swaybars which frequently vary between models. Not a fluke - they surely spent thousands of hours with a chassis jig, computer programs, manual calculations, and Weissach testing. Not to mention consultation with engineers from tire, shock, and spring companies; benchmarking other cars, etc.
As far as I can tell, the Boxster lower control arms were designed to be used on all corners. I'm not sure if they are all interchangeable; they may have small changes to the arm for each corner. The trailing/caster arms are of course longer in the rear. The 986 and 996 use similar rear main lower control arm (I don't think they are the same), but the 996 has two upper links to create a multilink setup. It was actually quite clever.
At the end of the day, Porsche knew a lot more about designing a car than they did when older cars such as the 928 were designed. The Macan is a totally different animal. The weight distribution is totally different, and the car isn't designed to be a sports car.
Last edited by FrenchToast; 07-29-2022 at 07:00 PM.
07-30-2022, 01:40 AM
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No, the Macan S is not a sportscar, but I was chased by a crazed driver for an extended time in California and had to take extreme measures to evade them, not knowing of their ultimate intent. I drove that vehicle at 10/10ths on public streets while calling the police on the vehicle phone. The cornering, acceleration, and braking exhibited at the limit made me very happy I was in a Porsche! Easily outperformed many sportscars on the market!
Grant Larson designed the exterior. He is not a suspension designer. The general layout was designed some 50 years earlier by a Mr. MacPherson.
The kinematics - things like roll centers, caster angle, etc. was likely designed, tested, and tuned by the contemporary suspension engineers and test drivers. Then it's tuned further with shock damping, springs, and swaybars which frequently vary between models. Not a fluke - they surely spent thousands of hours with a chassis jig, computer programs, manual calculations, and Weissach testing. Not to mention consultation with engineers from tire, shock, and spring companies; benchmarking other cars, etc.
As far as I can tell, the Boxster lower control arms were designed to be used on all corners. I'm not sure if they are all interchangeable; they may have small changes to the arm for each corner. The trailing/caster arms are of course longer in the rear. The 986 and 996 use similar rear main lower control arm (I don't think they are the same), but the 996 has two upper links to create a multilink setup. It was actually quite clever.
At the end of the day, Porsche knew a lot more about designing a car than they did when older cars such as the 928 were designed. The Macan is a totally different animal. The weight distribution is totally different, and the car isn't designed to be a sports car.
The kinematics - things like roll centers, caster angle, etc. was likely designed, tested, and tuned by the contemporary suspension engineers and test drivers. Then it's tuned further with shock damping, springs, and swaybars which frequently vary between models. Not a fluke - they surely spent thousands of hours with a chassis jig, computer programs, manual calculations, and Weissach testing. Not to mention consultation with engineers from tire, shock, and spring companies; benchmarking other cars, etc.
As far as I can tell, the Boxster lower control arms were designed to be used on all corners. I'm not sure if they are all interchangeable; they may have small changes to the arm for each corner. The trailing/caster arms are of course longer in the rear. The 986 and 996 use similar rear main lower control arm (I don't think they are the same), but the 996 has two upper links to create a multilink setup. It was actually quite clever.
At the end of the day, Porsche knew a lot more about designing a car than they did when older cars such as the 928 were designed. The Macan is a totally different animal. The weight distribution is totally different, and the car isn't designed to be a sports car.