Newbie Intro and Suspension Guidance request

Hello all, I'm avid reader of the "List" but haven't participated in posting until now. A little intro....I have owned a 2002 C4S for about 2 years. It is a nice example with about 58K miles. We are in the young children phase of life so I haven't driven the car much thus far. My goal is to get out and drive this year! To spur myself, I am attending a Chicago-Nashville exotic car rally in August. To be able to confidently navigate roughly 2000 miles in one adventure, the car needs some mechanical refreshing. Planning to do brakes and suspension for sure and then we will see where the road takes me. I know there are many threads on suspension setups. My specific usage will be mostly rally events, cruises, and the occasional track day to hone skills(with no intention of becoming a serious racer). I am leaning toward H&R Street Coilovers or possibly PSS10's. What guidance can you give on my areas of focus for suspension refresh when installing coilovers? I'm planning to install new front strut mounts and I'm open to replacing whatever is necessary to freshen it up but I also want to avoid creating a harsh track-only type setup. Thoughts? Here she is-

I daily drive my 996 with PSS10's. I find them acceptable for daily commuting, even with semi solid motor mounds. Definitely not a harsh, track only ride quality. IIRC, the strut mount is the only oem part that is re-used during installation, so unless you have any items that have worm prematurely I don't really see why you need to replace anything else at <60k miles. My two cents would be to inspect your tires; check for any dry rotting, wear, and tire pressure.

i also have the pss10’s and they are much softer than the stock suspension on bumps, i adjust the dampers down for daily use and if i am going to the track turn them up it only takes a few mins the others to comsider is the ohlin road and track that you can get on ebay

Porsche X74. Lowers the car, great ride, insane track ability, won't break the bank. The forum member Slakker has a set (I think still) for sale - but they also haven't been listed yet.

unless you are trying to shave 1/10ths off your lap times, I dont think anybody needs to put big bucks in competition suspension parts. Use a spring like H&R or the stock porsche row springs and use the stock porsche shocks. I think it will be ample for any non race car. And put all that extra money in tires or a ecu upgrade

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Hi! When you get to Nashville check out Prince's and 'gitchu some hot chicken. Hattie B's can suck it. Gorgeous car, btw! How's the inside holding up?

Have you read about the �hlins Road and Tracks. I have been looking into coilovers and they are top on the list for me right now. I believe they are less and have adjustments that allow for a good street ride.

I would do Ohlins Road and track coilovers and all new polyurethane bushings. Check this out. You Tube

Beautiful car. For what you are doing, I’d go with a Euro (edited, I guess this is called ROW based on Blue Chip's post below) M030 suspension, new strut top mounts, and replace worn bushings with OEM rubber. Coilovers are great, but just unnecessary complexity or cost for what you plan to do with the car, especially if you just plan to set it and forget it and don’t have extreme ride height goals. Both coilovers and lowering suspensions are likely to add to the harshness you said you are trying to avoid. Everything is a trade off. Where is this perspective coming from? I've had many cars with stock performance suspensions and three cars with coilovers. I currently have the Bilstein PSS11 coilovers and M030 sway bars on my 2000 C2, and it is great for what I want, but I wouldn't recommend it for someone who leans toward comfort rather than firm ride and handling. While the dampers are adjustable, it isn't something you are going to do all the time - the rears are behind a carpet shelf (luckily my used turbo carpets had a removable cutout when I got it so it is easier to get to) and the fronts are underneath the car. Coilovers are great for height adjustability - my rally car had a very raised suspension that coilovers handed easily, and I had the ability to change them based on the kind of race (stages) I was going to be running. It was miserable on the street. I had some on an autocross and DE leaning BMW, and I had it very low, very harsh, but perfect for events. For my current C2, I wanted to go lower than the available struts allowed => but I had to be careful since I am maxed out on some of the stock suspension adjustability - any lower and I'm into adjustable (expensive) swaybar links, control arms, etc. Its really all about how you want to use the car and what tradeoffs you're willing to make

I have found that the M030 is the US spec suspension - looks and, in my opinion, rides like a monster truck. The ROW is the 'rest of world' version - which is a bit lower and firmer. The X74 is the Porsche performance bias suspension. As for the X74 being for 02 and newer - that's untrue - mine is a 99 and works brilliantly.

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The X74 is the holy grail however it is no longer made. I would contact Gert Carnewal http://www.carnewal.com/info/Contact to see if he can piece something together. I bought my X74 from him years ago and was a great guy to deal with.

I've got the street performance coilovers and have used them for a couple years now . I previously had row mo30 units. The h&r sp areonly a few hundred bucks more than a b8 bilstein shock and stiff spring set up , but the handling and ride quality as well as height adjustability are better than going the stiff spring and shock route so worth the 300to 500 extra they are almost half the cost of the high end fully adjustable ohlins etc options for a street focused car with occasional de or track days a good option . For a full track focused car or if you just have deep pockets , ohlins are amazing and pss10s a close second You can quickly adjust the stiffness on both of those I would budget for adjustable drop links and toe arms for lowering the car uprated sway bars are a good idea as is replacing all the bushes ( at a minimum any worn ones ) I used powerflex polybushes im really happy with the set up on my car and h&r make coilovers for every 911 variant the h&r sp coilovers are a jointly developed unit between h&r and bilstein and are very similar to the h&r bilstein jointly developed coilovers that the factory used on 996 gt3 cars

At almost 20 years old, all the bushings should be replaced.

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Beautiful car! But I must admit I'm a bit biased -- I recently acquired an '03 C4s in silver on black Just completed a full cooling system refresh and next week it's IMSB, RMS and clutch. After that, it's time for a new suspension set up, so please keep us posted with what you ultimately do. What little I've researched, the M030 (ROW) for the C4s is a lot pricier than for the RWD 996's, so for me that's out. I'd rather spend a few bucks more and go w/ Ohlins or Bilstein PSSx, i just haven't vetted through all offerings just yet. btw, feel free to hit me up via PM closer to rally time -- I'm in Nashville and would be up to grab a beer and hear about the adventure. LOL, spoken like a local albeit Im a bigger fan of Boltons.

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I forgot all about this fact. X74 was for NB's only. X73 was for the C4S and Turbo.