Suspension

Hello. I bought a 996 and took it to the track. It was great. My instructor told me if I really wanted to get into being at a track I could do some modifications to my car. He told me #1 would be to work on my suspension. Any ideas on what I can do and not ruin my car. It's my daily driver. I haven't talked to a mechanic yet -- I'd like to sound like I know what I'm talking about. Can you help? Thank you.

Search is your friend. Lots has been written about M030 (US and RoW) PSS9 X74 JICS Motons and many others...

seat,harness and roll over protection. then the choices are limitless. Find a local Porsche shop that supports the sport. Go slowly: one mod (system) at a time. Learn how to drive the car.

As stated above, your first move is DAS roll bar, race seats and properly mounted harnesses for you and your passenger. At the speeds you are already traveling, an upgrade in safety should be the very first thing you do. After that, optomize your current suspension set up and maybe a pair of stiffer lowering springs and you'll be set for a while. Learn to drive the car the way the manufacturer set it up. Right now, you are probably driving your car at 60-70% of its potential. Work on you......then work on the car. But, saftey first.

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Your car is fine as is. Run stock until you move up a group or two. When you have a basic set of driving skills you can start doing little things to your car. As mentioned many times, safety is paramount. Keep in mind, when travelling at triple digit speeds, there is always the chance you will come to a sudden, complete and unintended stop. Part of this is routine maintenance including brake bleeds, oil changes and proper tech inspections. -td

your initial upgrades should be safety gear as mentioned above. the stock setup is pretty good and should be able to take you through several levels. The primary downside to the stock suspension is the understeer on the track. But, think safety before investing into the "go fast" gear. Steve

the seats and harness are safety and performance. The seat maintains your position preventing you from sliding around. This enables you to focus and not to have to position yourself when cornering. The harness will keep your arms from keeping you pushed back into the seat when braking. This also will help performance.

If you are just starting out in DEs, you have a while to go before ylou will ever see the benefits from major suspension upgrades. The very first thing you should do is get a good track alignment. This will help improve the tire wear from running at the track initially and your drivign later. Once you are able to drive at the limit of the stiock suspension then either look at upgrading the suspension or moving up to another set of wheels and track tires.

Seat time is crucial, and as suggested get to know your car before doing too many mods.I recently upgraded from a stock to M030 suspension and love the improvement, but many track junkies would most likely prefer ROW or PSS9, KW, Konis, etc.

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true, these can help your performance, but they are safety items. And I'm sure that if you were to go around most paddock areas, they would be considered as safety items. These same people would also tell you to invest in proper safety gear before the "go fast" stuff. Also, with many drivers and instructors using H&N restraints, they'd prefer to have the safety gear installed rather than an upgraded suspension.

I would say don't do anything just yet. I know the 1st time you're on the track, excitement hits and the list of mods is limitless. If I may make some suggestions, as I and many other RL's have been where you are: If this is your 1st DE, chances are you aren't anywhere near the limits of you car as it comes from the factory. You have a seat belt and air bag that's designed to work in the speed range you are currently driving. Look at the speed of other stock 996's on the track you drove with similar conditions. Are they faster than you? If so, then work on the driver and not the car. There's planty of things to do and money to spend in this area. I agree that safety is the 1st place to start. Just be aware that if you start putting roll cages and 5-6 point harness systems in you car, the value is going DOWN, not UP. Cars prepared for the track lose value as most Porsche enthusiasts don't want to by some elses track car for their daily driver. If you do several more DE's, get closer to the speed other's do in your car; then It's time to look at costs and rewards. Cost all the safety equiptment, spare wheels that you will need for your Hooziers (that will come), new suspension, big brakes, brake pads that will stop you on the track but sqawk like a chicken on the streets. Then add the labor to do all this, the depreciation to your 996, and decide if you want a 996 that you track or a track decicated car you can trailor to the track. If you can't stand it and simply must buy stuff for the 996, then think down the road. What can I buy now that I could possibly use on another car down the road when I take my 996 back to stock. Some things that come to mind are traqmate or similar lap timers, brake kits, maybe even bolt on roll cages if you stick with the 996 theme. I know this response probably sounds far out, but if you continuue on this DE path, you WILL get to this point. So save this response and review it before you spend any money and refer to it 2 years from now. I think you'll say I gave good, sound advice.

What he ^^^^ said...you're probably going to be better off investing in track wheels & tires before you need a suspension upgrade. Rennlist is your best site, and search is your best friend! Take some time to read what other experienced drivers have written and welcome aboard!

THE best track mod: driver. Seat time, seat time, and...... seat time. Your Porsche is engineered way over the average Joe's capability, and you have a lot of catching up to do. Take your time with other mods. Once you have several DE weekends under your belt, the next best performance mod is suspension. Until that time comes, enjoy the learning experience, talk to all the track junkies you will encounter, learn from the limitless fund of knowledge at the track, and you will likely come up with your own best first performance mod. And your second. And your third, fourth, fifth..........1 millionth .

... seat time and learn to drive SMOOTH ! IMO most people want to be fast and drive like sh%$ as they are too stressed behind the wheel. This makes them actually slow and feel they need upgrades to their suspension, more power ... Speed is the reward of making no or a limited number of mistakes and not of having the best suspension or the fastest car in a straight line. The 996 is not an easy car to drive but it's very rewarding when you drive smooth (even in it's stock set-up). Let the car know what you make next and prepare the car for your next steering, throttle, brake, gear change input; then you'll see how high the limit of this car actually is.

guys... he wants to put a suspension on. Thats not gonna hurt him in DE or as a DD.... yeah yeah seat time is all good but an upgraded suspension is all good too! Pss9 are a great all around setup as a DD and an occassional DE.

I totally agree with the recommendations for seat time. A driver with more seat time in a slower car can blow you away. That being said however, check out the new Bilstein PSS10, even better than the PSS9. I just had them installed on my '02 C4S, which BTW I've been tracking for 2+ years. No need to rush into these mods.

Sorry, but I disagree. Learn to drive whatcha got, then get the changes that work best for you. Right now he would be getting the changes that work best for someone else. Plus he running street tires. If he puts DOT's on the car, he may opt for something else and the set up would be different. I heard him say he's wanting something for the track. He'll get faster with seat time and then moving to Hooziers than he would with any suspension at this point, IMHO.

With PSS9/10 you can do this: -td

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NICE! I beg to differ, though. You can also do that with stock suspension, on track tires. The real question, though, is can he do it well, and can he do it at the appropriate time, and, above all, can he do it safely? Seat time, man, seat time at the track first. Seat time and a good attitude will improve performance, will improve safety, better than anything out there. PSS9/10, M030, X74, Bilsteins, R-compounds,GT3 sways, MPSC vs Corsa vs Toyo, brake pads, slotted vs drilled rotors, Super Blue, Super Gold, Motul, Hans, roll bars, harness bars, 6 or 5 point harnesses.............. all the million little things will sort themselves out later. He seems still early in the scheme of things. No good to spend $$$$$$ on something someone said was good only to find that for your own specific needs something else was better. Who knows, when he's ready, there may be a PSS 12.

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+1 That photo actually shows the weakness of the PSS9's...not enough spring rate for the track esp with good tires. GREAT compromise / dual-use suspension though. Andy

ty guys - you are right. I just spoke with a PCA Certified Instructor -- he wants to take me out at my next DE. He told me to focus on my driving - and be smooth. He even started singing it. Then he told me once I get smooth he can think of all sorts of ways to spend my money. He told me he wanted to take me out because of what I told him my instructor said -- he wants to see what it is doing right now. I'm game. Can't wait.

Wow, the poor guy just asked what his suspension options were, and y'all are preaching to him! Your options are many, but the common ones were pointed out in the very first response. US M030 is the sport suspension that was available as a factory option. It can be purchased today, authentic Porsche design and parts. It lowers the car slightly, and is a moderate improvement to handling. RoW M030 (RoW stands for Rest of World, ie, not US) is the sport suspension available as a factory option for people outside the US. It is a lower stance, and is more improvement to handling than US M030. x74 is a Porsche suspension option that is more aggressive tan RoW M030, with corresponding improvements to handling. All of the above are Porsche designed and tested for the 996. You can order them from a variety of locations. They do not fundamentally change the suspension, 'just' lower the car and put different springs and shocks and sways on. After that, you have more options, both Porsche and aftermarket. Very popular aftermarket is the PSS9 (now obsolete) and PSS10 setups. These are adjustable, and many people with daily drivers that occasionally track the car like them because they can dial in comfort for daily drive and performance for track days. Adjustment is a DIY and is relatively straightforward. You can also stay Porsche and slap on the GT3 suspension bits. I'm not an expert in this area, for this I would recommend asking LVDell or someone else over on the GT3 forums. Do some searching in this forum and you will find a ton of info on all of what I just listed.

Himself. Nice car! What track is that? JABS911...so you said your instructor started singing to you?? Are you in LA?

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Check. + crate engine, Cobra seats, GT3 control arms, adjustable drop links, track rims, 3rd radiator, muffler bypass, agressive alignment, and camber dialed in. I'm sure I missed something. The point of this is -> if you like the track, be prepard to spend some dough. The biggest performance improvement for the buck (outside of seat time), IMO: R-tires Seats / Harness Suspension. Hard to say what order, so best to just get them all at once Eagles Canyon - Slidell, TX. Below are some other pics of that event, and a short video showing how crappy a drover I am -td

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Not LA... my instructor told me about one of his instructors that would always sing "if you want to be fast... you've got to be smooth" and he says he can't drive around a track without it playing in his head. If he isn't talking to his student -- then he is singing to his student.

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LOL!!!! I did say a "million" in my earlier post. I know it's a slippery slope, but I did not quite think it was a fall off a cliff . Nice pics. Nice car and mods. So, did you fall off the cliff rather than slide down the slope ?

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If we were preaching, I apologize to the OP. He did, however, ask what suspension in the context of a track newbie looking to improve performance. My answer was that the best suspension for a track newbie is the stock one , and concentrate on driving. If that was preaching I apologize.

I hear what everyone is saying, but a key question for the OP is how many miles are on the original shocks? If much more than 50-60k, they may be pretty tired by now, and if you're going to change the shocks, you might as well do it right...

To the OP, everyone is correctly discouraging you from running out and getting new suspension but nobody has said why. One of the most important skills to master in track driving is weight management. Understanding and controlling how the weight of the car moves from front to back and side to side is critical to going fast. You can experience this weight transfer and practice controlling it with your gas, brake and steering inputs at much lower speeds with stock suspension. You'll also develop a much better understanding of how to use an adjustable suspension once you take the leap.

Himself, If you're going to lift a tire, lift a frickin tire!

if you need to make one mod first that will be the most beneficial to your driving position it is seats... whether it be a GT3 seat or some type of other racing seat... make sure you fit snugly in the seat before you buy it... driving these cars without a GT3 type seat... well.. in my opinion you've never really driven the car at all unless you have a great seat to hold you in so your not sliding around... having the seat first will definitely give you a perspective into what *future* mods do to your car's handling... cause you'll be able to feel them in the seat! seat first.. your probably sliding all around the place... which is *dangerous* and no fun...

Getting in late but I agree that safety is FIRST and then X-73/X-74 suspension. eric

Dunno when this thread took a turn, but I like the pics!

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The first pic (interior of car) is a bit overkill for a DE. Well, a lot overkill. The third pic (exterior of car) is perfect for a DE. Way perfect. -td

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td - who's the chick in the blue cayman?? I mean she is ALL OVER you. Like stink on.... Oh wait. She must have just pointed you by...

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lol. Or about to get a point by I'm at MSR this weekend with Apex. After TDE cancelled ECR, I was going through withdrawals. There's still room I hear... -td