I'm fascinated with the sway bar option for suspension tuning having only had 911s in the past...and, having had to buy wider rear tires (Nitto NT-01s)
as my track tire (because of size considerations). I also have clearance issues at my street/driveway. I wonder how viable the stiff rear swaybar option is in transforming the Cayman. Have many people explored a stiffer rear sway bar in a stock Cayman S given that that the aftermarket is young?
I have the fr/r H&R sways. The rear set to the soft (of the 2 settings). Still less roll. But I found at the stiff setting the car was a little too skittish.
if u want to see pics of the diff in roll check out
gotbluemilk.com
and see car #21dave on 7/27/2006 and car #51 on 6/29/2007. In 2006 it was stock. Now it has PSS9 and the sways.
If i had to do it all over again i would scrap the pss9s and the aftermkt sways and just get a set of motons (i'm tracking this car prob 15-20x/yr)
sway bars
Bob, thanks...but I was thinking of sway bars as the first, and, perhaps the only suspension mod (unless I move). I know, I know, a TBD is technically a suspension modification. I would like to know whether a stiffer rear sway bar will neutralize the handling a little bit considering my necessarily wider rear R-compound tires. My modification priorities:
Wheels/tires
Sway bars (?)
Brake Pads...Pagid Orange
TBD...Quaife
Exhaust...probably AWE because I live near Philly.
How wide are your rears? Did they really make the Cayman into an understeering pig? I think if you stiffen the rear u'll prob find yourself more in an oversteer scenario rather than more neutral.
Have u tried adjusting the camber (even with stock i think u can get over -1 deg)
a stiffer rear A/R bar is going to further unload the inside rear tire, possibly making wheelspin even more of an issue. you mention wider R-compounds, so you are probably rolling even more than stock.
Very good point.
I have a good friend who is a national level SCCA AX'er (he seems to always top 5 or better at Nats, and has a Pro Solo National Championship under his belt). He is currently running a non-Turbo MR2 (one of the last years made).
I mentioned to him that the Croc spins its inside rear wheel in certain AX situations (accelerating in slaloms, corner exit under power), and asked if his MR2 did the same, given that they are both mid engine, and lack any sort of LSD of TBD. He said it certainly did, but he went to a bigger front bar to tame the tendency.
In stock class SCCA AX, you can't touch the rear bar, so its a bit of a **** shoot as to whether or not a bigger front bar will help any given car be faster. In theory, a bigger front bar by itself would tend to promote understeer or reduce oversteer (assuming the car was already perfectly balanced) simply due to shifting more weight to the outside front wheel. But if a car is camber challenged, or has issues applying the power like the croc, the end result may be overall better performance in AX situations.
I thought I had read somewhere that some of the national level SCCA guys that were running Boxsters went with a GT3 front bar? Food for thought.
Brian
A friend and I have run MR2's for the last 8-10yrs in SCCA Auto-x and had some good success with only ft swaybar changes and R-compound tires and an alignment.
I picked up a 2.7 Cayman earlier this year as I'm a big fan of the mid-engine design and ran a couple auto-x's totally stock with r-tires... a little to much body roll and slight understeer. I put a ft GT3 bar on last week and with some limited testing using the softest 2 settings, it appears the turn-in is better for slaloms with less body roll and inside tire spin.
Auto-x setup is different than track/DE's, and we are limited by rules, so take this data accordingly. For track, you may try a larger rear along with the GT3 front and tune the car with the GT3 settings, but my guess is that you'll want adjustable shocks / springs to go with the swaybar changes so you can really tune it properly.
Aloha guys, do you just order the oem GT3 front sway bar from your porsche dealer. Will it fit in perfectly, and by just doing the front will it cut down on roll? I plan on using H&R springs later on as well.
Any advice is welcomed.
Thanks to the AX guys...do you recommend a GT-3 front and aftermarket rear
sway bar? Plus or minus a front (negative) camber change? I primarily use my CS for DE and may have to belly up for a PSS9; but, can't until I move. My rears are only 275/35 18s but I'm an oversteer driver.
PS; the TBD should help...right?
don't just throw parts at the car....start with a good alignment, as much neg camber as u can get in the front. at the track experiment with tire pressures. buy a pyrometer and learn how to use it.
Thanks 'ring but I think R compound tires are a must, as well as, a TBD
(an "oversight" by Porsche). Brake pads? I'm already running higher pressure
in my fronts and I plan on more negative camber...will that do it?
