PSS9 track feedback please

I have eibach lowering springs. I had a cracker at the track today and got 2nd place in class. I want to go faster... The car felt perfectly balanced, so what I am looking for is hard evidence of performance increase from installing PSS9's. Anyone seen any dramatic improvements in lap times from installing PSS9's? Can anyone explain where the performance will come from?

Someone has a before and after video for PSS9's that you can search on where his lap times improved. I installed the PSS Damptronic ( PASM version of PSS9) and lowered the car about 1.25-1.5 inches. The Damptronic allowed me to get some more negative camber but since I run MPSC's you really don't need a lot of negative camber with those tires thanks to their design. I found my lap times were a little faster on average and I checked with a G meter how I was doing, hit a peak of 1.28G's and a sustaned 1.21-1.22 in the carousel at our track. In April I was slower than a 996 Twin Turbo on Motons and in June with the PSS Damptronic I was faster. Keep in mind that just installing PSS9's doesn't automatically make you faster, you have to have the right suspension setups for your car, driving style and the track you are running to maximize any gains it can provide you. It is one thing to install a suspension, quite another to tune it properly. What sort of track event were you at? Driver improvement always tends to give the biggest gains.

OT: The neg camber target for MPSC is between -1.5 and -3 degrees which is far more than I could get with my stock CS. Where did the Damptronics allow you to end up by lowering?

Thanks for the feedback guys. What makes this hard is that I can't fault my current set-up. But then again I have never used anything else. I regularly kick the arse of a guy in a Boxster with PSS9's who is always coming in and complaining about set-up and then mucking with sway bars etc. I just go out and drive on every track with the same set-up, and never feel I have problems with oversteer or oversteer. Of course I experience both, but thats to be expected depending upon how you take a corner... I had been gunning for 3rd place in my class this year, but after my 2nd place yesterday I decided that I might up the ante and try for 2nd. There are only 5 or so points between me and the guy running in 2nd place. I have one of the most unmodified cars in my class, so I want to up the ante with the car as well as the driving. I was hoping to hear about someone who had been at the track, then had PSS9's installed, revisited the track to find an instant improvement in lap time. Any examples?

I think I am running about -1.5 camber on the fronts with my ebachs.

DT, unfortunately I do not have an in-car lap timer, so I can't comment on lap time improvements. I did run a few track days with just Eibach/Techart springs, stock dampers, 19" PS2s before I installed PSS9s though. What I can say that body movement is more "controlled", there is signifigantly less rebound motion when you are cresting hills or coming across "waves" in the track surface. As far as spring rates, the PSS9 seems (subjectively) to have similar rates to the Eibach/Techart spring. I find off throttle turn-in with PSS9s to be more aggressive than with just the springs... however.. this could be attributed to alignment and corner weight more than just a coilover change. So to try to answer your question without objective data, I would say that when I compare PSS9 to my old setup, I feel I may be able to attack some corners more aggressively, and feel more confident when I come across areas of the track that tend to unweight or upset the balance of the car. How that applies to your driving style and local tracks will most likely vary. :cheers:

Here's the video of before and after. It was all stock except pss9s (on the left in video). YouTube - Laguna Seca Stock Cayman S vs Bilstein PSS9 Much more stable. about 3 seconds quicker (~1:48 vs 1:51) but was i think 4th and 5th time at laguna seca so maybe (hopefully?) some driver improvement in those #s too. You can see it is MUCH more stable less bumpy. This system does work. But I think a bit of a compromise; if you want optimum performance (ie ability to set bump and rebound independently and don't mind a rattling car (ask mooty) go for motons. just finished skip barber 3 day at laguna it was awesome i highly recommend them. looking at that video i can spot a few errors that hopefully now won't become bad habits... mooty, see you at sears point

I just installed PSS9s and lowered the ride height 1.5". This is fine for the track but a little low for street use. I know the camber changes with height, and probably the caster also, so you technically need to have an alignment done with each height change but I want to avoid this. What I would like to do is set my ride height at a comfortable level for street use (maybe 1" lower than stock), have it aligned at that height, then dial it down another 1/2 or 3/4" for the track without another alignment, and dial it back up for the street, counting revolutions, to where I have notched the threaded plate (and hopefully back into alignment). Does anyone know how much that small amount of further lowering will affect the caster (if the camber goes more negative fine, that's what I want for the track) and if that small change will affect track handling (tire wear on the track probably won't change much with a small caster change since so much rubber is lost anyway)? How do others handle height changes with the PSS9? On the passerger side rear shock, I think I hear a small "knock" as I go over bumps with my new PSS9s. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it an improper install or just a loose bolt that can be easily tightened next time it is on the rack?

I have the exact same issue, I can reproduce the knocking noise by unweighting that corner (making a hard right turn and going over some road imperfections). Quite annoying isn't it? I've tried uninstalling, reinstalling, retorquing bolts, different torque values on the shaft locknut.. etc.. to no avail. Does not go away over time.

Motionless, I'm glad you replied because I was about to tighten everything up too. Does this only happen when you have the dampers set for "street"? I have not tracked yet after my install, so my damper is set on "9". Given a bouncy, underdamped ride, it might be coming from the shocks themselves. Let me know if you find out what causes the clunking sound. Do you do a realign after you change the ride height? I have mine set too low for street use now, and I had an alignment done at that height. I might have to crank it back up to maybe 1/2" below stock, align it at that height, then drop it to -1.5" or so for the track and not worry about caster for the track since the tires take a beating anyway, and more negative camber is OK with me for the track so I would acutally welcome more negative camber when I drop it for the track.