996 Turbo front spoiler ground clearance?

Evening All, I'm looking at 996 Turbos, some of which are lowered, some of which have the aero kit too. My concern is that my driveway opens onto a steep path then onto a road with a lot of camber. My 996C2 on M030 suspension occasionally rubbed its nose coming out as did my TVR Griffith. I'd rather not knock off a £1500 splitter as i drive home for the first time! The Lowered Turbos with Aero kits look VERY low. Are they as low as they look? Are there essentially 2 types of lower section / splitter to the front spoiler - the "Aero" type and the "Standard / C4S" type? Is the C4S type shallower, giving more clearance? I can see 2 types if i go to the Parts section on this website. To increase ground clearance on a Turbo with an Aerokit is it possible to swap out the aero splitter for a C4S type or even run without the lower element? With suspension ride height I've heard that one of the cars was at "GT2 height". Is this about 20mm lower than standard? I've also read that USA cars were 30mm higher than rest of world cars. So, as long as the coilovers fitted can accommodate theres some scope for raising somewhat. Cheers.

Then avoid anything with an aero kit and you won’t get onto any low driveway with that

Thanks - but the pool of available cars is small enough as it is! I’m trying to find a solution. Plenty retrofit aero kits - just investigation going the other way

You could put a front lift kit on any potential purchase or even better if you find one on a car for sale They can scrape quite easily especially on any sort of camber

Hi Marty, thanks for the suggestion. Whatever i buy i'll return to standard ride height anyway. I have looked at these lift kits but they look like at least £3k plus fitting. Looking at the two splitters / lower bumper / spoiler sections it "appears" that they are interchangeable. Just wondering if anyone has changed from one to the other. My 996C2 with M030 suspension only occasionally scraped.

I ran the aero kit front spoiler for a good few years, my cars at std height, it only touched occasionally and it was only the underneath that got scraped. A woman then clipped my front bumper while I was parked at the far end of an empty car park, when I got the car back from repair my aero spoiler was gone and they'd fitted a painted std spoiler. Obviously I wasn't happy about this, and as the repair was done through an OPC they got me a new aero spoiler which I decided not to fit as I quite liked the painted std one. The aero is in my spare bedroom, I'll measure it and compare to the std! I find I catch the std one around the same as the aero ie not very often. I think the ground clearance is around the same, the main difference is the aero one stick out 3 inches or so, that doesn't make a difference on speed bumps, but will make a small difference on slopes. One of the main considerations is the difference in cost, the aero is a lot more expensive and needs painting, it's also less flexible so more likely to be damaged by a minor impact. The C4s spoiler has much more clearance in the centre and is the cheapest and still looks good, if I had a lowered car I'd run this. Ps someone is likely to come on and say the car will be dangerous due to aero imbalance, I've not noticed any difference up to very high speeds!

Hi Mac996t, many thanks for this - very informative. Maybe i'm worrying about nothing! Looking at random photos from the side online the two do "look" similar height - but in the flesh the aero lip protruding forwards looks lower and as you say might have an issue with slopes. Looking at prices aero lip is about £1500 plus paint and the C4S/std lip about £500 and no paint needed. I'm sure there will be a "difference" in aero properties but my engineering degree tells me that this is likely to be minimal! Maybe i'll be ok at standard ride height.

I measured both spoilers yesterday in the centre from where they mount to the bumper to the lowest part, the std is 60mm deep and the Aero was slightly deeper at 65mm. I also measured the ground clearance a couple of times while out and about, this is at std ride height and with the std spoiler, I had between 120mm - 130mm clearance. I've re read my post above and I've made it seem like it'll never touch, but thinking about it that is probably also due to the way I use the car. I don't daily it so if I'm in it I usually have the time to always be careful and don't usually have a queue of impatient drivers behind me, also I don't go to the types of places where mishaps are more likely like multi story carparks etc. Another clue that they do catch in more normal use is you see quite a few cars with the aero rear and std front, I'm guessing they destroyed their front and couldn't face £1.7k for a new one!

Hi Mac, many thanks for this. I measured the clearance of the non aero car and it was about 100mm - which ties in with it being lowered about 20mm. I guess i just need to get on with it!

I’ve got a lowered aero car, just driven down to Monaco and it catches regularly on speed bumps, and was scraping on some of the downhill hairpins in the Gorge du Verdun, will be changing it for a stock lip as soon as I get home!

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Thanks - very helpful insight.

Hi searider, the standard front spoiler and the C4S are the same depth, just a slightly different design, I’ve had both fitted to my 996 Turbo. You can get much cheaper aftermarket versions of these off eBay which fit well and look the same as the Porsche item. The plastic is quite flexible so can handle a lot more impacts. However they don’t look as good as the painted aero.

Is the C4S splitter not higher in the middle?

It’s definitely not as nice as the standard turbo lip - which I prefer to the painted aerokit one anyway, but that’s personal preference

Thanks - the aero one is quite a bold look - so there are 3 "lips"? Aero STD Turbo C4S