Suspension Upgrades?

Point of reference... My 2003 996, C2 is coming up on 200k, and I will refurb/rebuild/renovate it. (In the middle of that now). Guy across the hall is talking about lowering it and upgrading suspension... Can someone give me a short summary on this... Without a lot of big brain stuff? I am not an engineer or suspension guy. I understand lower center of gravity and suspension travel and roll but not too much deeper than that. If my car is a 3.6, to be bumped up to 3.8 at rebuild and slight performance enhancements but not much... Stock brakes, spirited driving in Atlanta and N. GA mountains but nothing too crazy... Daily driver through Atlanta suburbs and on long road trips for work, but I am a pretty die hard sports car guy... Given that frame of reference... Am I going to notice an improvement? Thanks, JKC

Do a quick search of this form for "ROW M030" and "X74" and you will find all the answers you want. And yes, compared to the stock USA suspension, either of the above options will make a HUGE improvement in handling the curves, all while preserving the integrity of your car with factory parts.

Good god, yes. I put on PSS9 and can only kick myself for not doing it years ago. They actually sat in my garage for like 2 years, because I kept wanting to do more things all at the same time. Wasted a lot of good driving time. I only paid $1200 for mine, and around $400 for the new parts. Low mileage or used ones come up pretty often and can either be rebuilt to new from Bilstein or jsut used as is. You want to get all new rubber bits for the struts, and front strut bearings, but afterwards, you will be in heaven. ROW30 is another option, but doesn't lower the car as much or at all, but comes with ARBs. The ride is adjustable with the PSS9s (or Pss10s if you can afford them) and is much more comfortable than ROW30, while also sportier. They're amazing, IMHO, for a spirited driven street car.

Thanks, guys. I'll start reading up and post again when I get done. JKC

Another POV ... if this is your DD and you don't plan to track it, you might think twice. Your handling will certainly improve, but your ride will be noticeably less comfortable. The latter will be 100% of the time ... what % of the time will you be on the kinds of roads where you'll notice? I lowered mine w/ stiffer H&R springs last year. On the track, it's a HUGE improvement - I love it. But I drive it less now off the track as a result (it's not my DD).

I don't track my car, nor do I plan to, so the RoW M030 upgrade was perfect for me. The ride is slightly more harsh, but what a difference in handling.

ROW 030 is the perfect suspension for the OP ! not too low and not harsh in my opinion... if you decide to get into tracking it also works well... for the $$$ you can't beat it...

just so you know, while PSS9/10 will most definitely lower the car so you have to be a little more careful that you don't scrape the nose, they really do ride so much better than stock or ROW30. I've driven them both, stock really sucks for expansion joints and any upset, IMHO. PSS9 is Very DD friendly, even at midway. Full soft is very comfy, yet still out handles stock. Better handling & much better ride, just more $$ and you have to get your own ARBs if you want really less roll. I got a used set of ROW30s from an RLer, who donated all the proceeds to their charity..Love driving this car!

My car is a daily driven c4s ans I just put in kw v3 coilovers, WAY better than stock. Currently set up with the x74 alignment and height for winter, most likely will put at gt3 setup for summer. These coilovers are amazing, I was humming and hahing v3s vs pss10 and got to ride in a 911 with both, v3s hands down. Stiff but compliant. I only wish I'd done it sooner! Got my v3s for only a few hundred more than pss10 so it was a no brainier for me. The rest of my set up is stock, just new bushings as the car has 100k kms on it.

Yes, they are supposed to be nice! How much?

If you want to spend close to $3K on suspension components the PSS9,10 is a good way to go. You may spend $400 to $1K for the install and corner balancing. With your mileage the installer could spend another up to $2k or more replacing worn control arms, rod ends and such. So this could turn in to a $6K or more job without batting an eye. In your situation I think I'd buy some new control arms, tie rod ends, sway bar links and look for some low mile used OE take off struts and springs. You could probably do this for $2500-$3K installed if you shop right for parts. If price is not too much of an object go with some KV3s or Ohlins shocks.

yes, if you buy new/full price, it's a lot more & may be hard to justify. Except for the alignment, I did all my own work & with only paying $1200 for the PSS9s, by the time I replaced the TREs, ARBs, rubber bits & bearings, added FVD 7mm spacers, alignment, etc, it was well over $2k. Then $1400 for tires. I measured the corners repeatedly, and was advised that unless I was a regular track person, corner balancing was a waste. If possible, make sure you have the new tires on the rims, then set all the heights. I thought the tires that I had on the car, which had very few miles on them, and a ton of tread (around 15k, Sumi IIs) but were hard and poor handling, would be OK to set everything up with, then have the alignment done with the new tires installed. It changed the heights a lot more than I would have thought. With adjustable COs, you REALLY have to know what height (within the accepted design range) you want your car to end up with, or every time you adjust/fine tune the height, you will need another alignment to compensate for the camber change. (if you want to align for a good combination of wear & handling).

Skip the PSS9's and get the new Motion Control Single Adjustable Dampers.... These will give you quality of the full MCS remote dampers at half the cost, while not giving up on the DD performance.

I have a 99' C2 and put take off GT3 Shocks, Struts and Sway bars on mine. A world of difference. You can see pictures under my post of Things you can do to a 99' C2 cab. If you can find them the stock GT3 Height is great. The only tricky part is you need GT3 Drop links in the rear and adjustable Tarret or similar in the front. I am actually using my stock strut mounts in front that I will be changing out.

Great to see another high-mileage car! Lots of good advice here.

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+1000

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If I didn't have my GT3 CO's, my top pick would def be Ohlins , now that they have a street friendly version with the DFW technology specifically for the 996 model. They have some trick technology that seems pretty interesting in the world of CO models these days. I would gladly pay a few hundred more for their quality and rep, having had that great history. I've had Ohlins on my BMW and Aprilia bikes and never looked back. http://www.ohlinsusa.com/road-track-tech Just another great option.

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Without a doubt Ohlins is the way to go. This is the first ive heard of them making coilvers for the 996. Ive used them on my Aprilia and Ducatis over the years too. Nothing else compares... I wish they were around 6 months ago!

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The Road &Track DFW CO's are relatively new and I'm glad they decided to include a specific 996 application too considering that the 996 model is 12 years old now and it would've been just as easy for manufacturers to exclude older models. It does puzzle me though on why the 996 GT3 versions are $200 cheaper. I'll have to inquire and see what the deal is.

Koni has 2 applications for the 996, the FSD (Frequency Selective Dampening) that has been very popular...a lot of talk on the 993 section: http://www.paragon-products.com/product-p/2100-4110.htm and Sport Yellow: http://www.paragon-products.com/prod...-1543sport.htm http://www.paragon-products.com/prod...-1274sport.htm