Work finished. (For now) The result >>>

My baby's got new shoes and a new suspension. The springs still need to settle, though. I love it. Can't wait to drive her in the morning... Edit: Beautiful evening..took some pics after the springs settled a bit: Chad

Did you take a before/after measurment for comparison of lowering, etc.? I am getting my sport suspension ptu on in the next couple weeks and first things I do this weekend before I forget is to take measurements so I can compare.

Looks sweet! What are the wheels? 18 or 19's?

Very nice! Know anyone that can update the picture in your sig? hehe

LVDell: I am going to give it a couple of days for the springs to settle. They already have as far sa I am concerned. They do need to break in a bit. JC: The wheels are Porsche Sport classics. 18x8 front and 18x10 rear. I have always liked these. Now for my feedback on driving the new suspension: Slow cornering / turn in - Very nice. Much more quick, less body roll and response has been reduced. Feels much better, more solidly attached to the road. Fast / at speed lane changing - AWESOME. Again response is quick, definately fells lower to the ground. Particularly next to an SUV monster. Steering wheel seems firmer, and much more direct. Ride - Firmer than stock but not nearly as stiff as the coilovers I had on my M3. (I could drive over a penny and tell you if it was heads or tails. ) I would say it would be right in the middle between coilovers and OEM (non M030) suspension. Overall, much better. I shouldbe participating in an autoX soon to test the handling. I will have a better write-up then. cheers, Chad

Looks good Chad! How did the shift **** work out for you? Robert

Chad, your car looks GREAT! Good job!

Nice job!

Very nice! How did the drive go this morning?!? Cheers.

Those are some of the best wheels on a 996 narrowbody.

Hey Fast - See above. (post #5) C.

Nice Chad, are you up to $40k yet?

Nope!!

Wow, Chad, looks great. Let me know how it is on the track. I'm taking mine to Buttonwillow in a couple of weeks to do some instructing - I'm going to use the oppurtunity to sort out my new GT3 bars. What bar settings did you start with?

SRL - They are not on yet, I need to get drop links for the front. However, I was informed that you need to start with the "middle" setting on each one. Then adjust to taste. More to come. BTW - Did you get drop links? And, where? Chad

Chad, looking good. Nice shoes! Take some pics after the car settles...looks almost stock height in that picture.

My GT3 bars have 5 hole adjustments front, 4 holes rear. I started 1 hole from full soft in the rear and 2 holes from full stiff in front, and will start there at the track to tailor it to my preference (neutral with bias to oversteer, NO understeer if possible). So far the understeer on the street is better but not gone. This could have been acheived purely from the coilovers/alignment/cornerweighting and have nothing to do with the bar settings. I've been told that with the engine in the rear you need to think opposite on bar settings from a front engine car. I'm not sure if I buy that myself so I will figure it out on my own. The settings currently on the car (suggested by someone else) would tend to encourage understeer if they were on a front-engine car. My fabricator modified (shortened) my links. Not sure if the modification is the same for your spring/shock upgrade as it was for my coilovers, but it's probably similar.

You are coreect about the weight. Having a tiny smidge of understeer is perfectly fine. If you intend on running it on the street, its not a bad idea. I did this on the M3 track / street car. It is the same instance with my combo. How much shorter are the links? I know of a good fabricator. Maybe I can get them made as well. Chad

It doesn't look like it's lowered at all. That's a big DIY, good job. Did you do an alignment?

Chad, not sure about the actual dimensions. I think the rears worked as is, and the fronts had to be shortened a half-inch or so, if I remember right. I wasn't there when he did it.

Rob, yep..it took awhile. I should have the alignment done soon. SRL - Could you measure the O.D. (outside dimension) of the drop links for me? I will get them fabricated. Who knows, maybe I could have a bunch manufactured and sell them. Chad

Chad, The front seems to be sitting too high with the H&R's. Seems like it will need to settle A LOT to get the proper look. Maybe it is the picture angle??? Take a few measurements from the floor to the center of the fender arch and let us know where she comes in at... might want to measure the rear while you are at it...

Took some shots tonight. See my first post... Chad

You are correct. Good eye. The car had literally just been dropped. Nothing settled yet. See my edit to the first post. Chad

Looking good Chad. One suggestion though, take the pic with the fron wheels straight so we can actually see the final product Also, maybe take it in the garage where you took the first one so the naysayers can see the before and after settling pics. One again, great work! Saved yourself a cool $1K in install costs that you can use for more mods!!! Cheers, Dell

LOOKS GREAT!

You're right. Your little birdie told you wrong. Basically, in a corner, weight will shift to the stiffer end--either from springs or swaybars or shocks (transitionally only). Doesn't matter where the engine is. The more the relative weight shift, the more load that end (the stiffer end) takes on and the more that end's tires work and will tend to slide out (greater slip angles) under the additional stress. You have the front pretty stiff and the rear pretty soft, so these settings are biased towards understeer. I have found personally, however, that although the stiffer end gets much more weight transfer, it doesn't tend to slide as much as I would expect based on past cars I've modded. After extensive playing around with alignments, I've found this to be because our cars have such low-profile wide contact patch tires that the increased load on the tire is partially offset by reduced body roll from the swaybars which keeps the tire patch in better position. It's kind of a win-win situation and why I love big swaybars. Also, understeer and oversteer are transitional conditions. Slower corners will tend towards more understeer while higher speeds will tend towards more oversteer. A car set up for low-speed autocrossing will be handicapped for high-speed road racing. Personally, I like to have the non-driven end slide more (greater slip angles). For example, FWD cars, I like oversteer so I can power understeer it through the corner. For RWD, I prefer an understeer bias so I can power oversteer it in a corner. Right now, I'd like to get a little more understeer bias so I can put more power down in a corner as I'm limited to 3rd gear for most sweepers. One of the biggest factors I've found for tuning under/oversteer is tire pressures. For me, the factory fronts are way to low (Boxster S). In skilled hands, oversteer can get you out of trouble while you countersteer and bleed off speed or hook the rear around while understeer will only get you to plow off the road. In unskilled hands, oversteer can get you in a spin with disastrous results while understeer is more forgiving. A lot also depends on your alignment and driving technique and I'm sure my technique is biased towards wrangling my FWD cars of the past (ricers).