X74 Track Impressions

Tried the X74 at Laguna the other week. Love the looks and for that, it's a keeper. Far less body roll, but not too impressed w/ the balance. Could be a whole raft of factors like tires, new track surface, don't know how to drive, but assuming all else equal, my car is one pushy little piggie now. I liked/needed to trail brake the stock setup and always got a little nervous about overdoing it. Not now, boy. I used to be able to throttle steer, but now all that does push the car off the line. Can't rotate into the line. It is a takeoff from another car and I wonder if I got the stock rear bar by mistake. Need to check part numbers. Front bar is easy to tell on weight alone, but couldn't tell on rear bar by heft. Had it realigned to -1 front and -2.3 rears. Was 0/-2.1 before. I now lift the inside front tire looking at photos. Assuming everything is right, I'm thinking I need to rebalance the car w/ different tire sizes? Too much heat on the outside fronts? Didn't have time to check temps or anything. Didn't expect perfection or anything, but I didn't think I'd go in the opposite direction. I'll drive it a few more times at the track, but any general thoughts? Might this be why Porsche doesn't recommend it on my 2001? Just kidding... Thanks.

I'd play with tire pressures a bit. I don't experience any significant understeer in my car (99 C2 w/ X74). I am using the factory specs on the alignment too. Of course, my experience is not from the track but probably at similar speeds in some cases.

I find the car pushes huge with stock tire pressures (35/45), but once I bumped the front up to 40 it balanced out quite nicely. How was the comfort for the ride home? How rough are your city streets? I'm considering X74 but am paranoid of a harsh ride around town.

Play will your pressures, check the bars to make sure you have the correct units installed. Additionally, you could consider some additional front camber.

Assuming all is installed correctly, try putting the stock front bar back on and see how it does.

Doesn't sound right to me. the X73/X74 use the M030 sway bars. My car used to have M030 and it certainly did not understeer more than a stock 996. IMHO the X73/X74 really wants the adjustable GT3 sway bars to be ideal, check it out.

Quotes source post: 4594330

I agree. When I put the x74 on my car it decreased understeer over stock.

Y'all are making me want the X-74 bad.

Lifting the front inside tire? What setting is the front sway at? It may be set too stiff. You may want to fix that first and work from there. Not sure what sways the x74 comes with - I would think GT3 sways. I have the ROW M030 and upgraded to GT3 sways - and they are very different from one another.

Quotes source post: 4593798

I have it on my '99 C2 and it is not harsh at all. Now the car is a lot lower so pot holes, steep drive ways, speed bumps, etc. you have to be more careful with (avoid them if possible), but the ride is 'solid' or 'firm' whatever word you want to use, just not harsh. It's a great setup if you want to street and track the car and not have to deal with adjusting anything.

Quotes source post: 4594507

RoW M030's

Both the tire lifting and the understeer would point to a soft rear sway. That's a good place to start checking along with the pressures.

Thanks for all the input. Sounds like if all is well generally, X74 should not be pushing more than stock. I'll check rear bar p/n's this weekend. 1) Tires - Dunlop SSR's - 26 cold, 35 hot f/r. Not great tires, but I am used to them and they like it a little low. 2) Sways are non-adjustable. 3) Toe is 0 front. Don't recall the backs, but slight toe in. A knowledgable friend is recommending negative toe if all else checks out. I was thinking I need to go to 245/285 F/R tire sizes anyways. Really need to check that rear bar first. Lifting the inside front I think is a bit extreme for what is still a soft suspension (X74). Gotta be the wrong rear bar. BTW, I didn't get the 2 little plates that bolt in the rear engine bay somewhere. I'd be surprised if that made any diff, but.... Thanks for the input folks. Gotta love this board...

Quotes source post: 4594685

Here are the part numbers for bars, bushings and Reinforcement Braces (that you said you are missing and should be installed - GT3's of the same year had them and I got them with my kit): 996-502-813-90-GRV - L/R Reinforcement Brace 996-502-814-90-GRV - R/R/ Reinforcement Brace 996-343-701-21 - Front Swaybar 996-343-792-12 - Front Swaybar Bushings 996-343-701-26 - Rear Swaybar 996-333-792-25 - Rear Swaybar Bushings 245's on 18's right, 245's on 19's will rub on turning. There is also a colour code to know what bars you have, I have seen it on another thread but cannot recall which one.

Speeddemon - Thanks for the info. That will make it a lot simpler. I am on 18's.

I think your pressures are way low personally. I'm running about 35 fr / 44 rr (cold). Also, the sways for the X74 are the same as for the US and ROW M030 cars. Identical.

The reinforcement plates are installed on the inside of the taillights, on the bulkhead between the engine bay and the light module. That isn't going to do anything to your handling. And rear toe out sounds very scary to me for a street car.

track = JIC but not for normal street drive.....unless you love the BUMP

Viper 35/44 cold = 42/50 hot. That would be very high PSI and SLIP-PER-EEE. I'd say almost undrivable. I've run 42/42 hot and it starts to get to be a handful. The pyrometer give me even tread temps around 35/35 in the past. Just my opinion and am open to trying most anything once :-). Toe out would be on the front, not the rear. Not an uncommon practice in race cars to help w/ turn-in. Don't know on a 996 though. PorscheSmile I'm w/ ya buddy. To me, track=MOTON. MOTON=impo$$ible. Therefore track=used X74. Funny, though how once you get used to what you have, how fast you can push these cars. W/ X74 I lost 3 seconds / lap over stock. It'll take me a bit to get dialed back in and hoping to pick up a couple more seconds.