Lifted? Anybody install a lift kit?

Yeah I searched. Wondering about sufficient down travel and suspension geometry getting funkay with like 1-3" of suspension lift. Anybody have experience with this on a 987? Not interested in anything too wild just something like the height below, so hopefully the budget for keeping the suspension within reasonable adjustment stays mild to the wallet. I figured some 2" or 3" spacers might do in place of $3000 of coilovers like these guys did.. anybody? https://********.com/articles/safari-themed-porsche-911-gets-an-electric-power-boost/

yeah I've thought I safari'd 986 with front bash bar, lights and rothmans style livery would be an awesome winter car rally 986 Scroll down to the post by Tarret

Appreciate that, I read through those. Gave me ideas. I should get that c4.. then do this. The payoff might be better. But I wont. Basically just looking for an inexpensive way to get it bouncing off some potholes and uneven pavement, the last thing I'm thinking is serious off road use. Like the one guy said in your link, maybe I'll start with stuffing in a bunch of spring wedges and see how the toe/camber/caster reacts. Also like he said, not wanting a rally beast here.. just thought 2-4" of more ground clearance with the fatter tires would suit its commute life. Will be nice not having quite as low a sight line in the sea of SUV too. Like with the old Golf hatchbacks you could just swap in some Tiguan fronts and Sportwagen rears and you're good to go. I thought somebody may have done that with Cayenne stuff. Maybe that was hoping for too much. This is just excellent: 6 months to live build thread - Page 3 - 986 Forum - for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Damn, that rally cross stuff looks fun!

Turns out the three strut mount bolts are not in an equilateral bolt spacing on the fronts. I had been thinking some ebay Ford or GM spacers slotted out may fit. But yeah no, doesn't look that way. Another thing that is problematic is the short studs. No extra thread. Bolts would make a DIY solution a lot simpler. Maybe it would possible to hammer out the studs and instead fit bolts...

If the intent was to re-use the existing struts you could make a spacer in the same manner as the larger wheel spacers

The thought crossed my mind. Maybe modifying some smartcar 3x112mm 25mm wheel spacers would be easier than from scratch. Another question is how much leverage ratio is there. Would a 25mm spacer result in 50mm of lift or what..

they make spacers for smart cars??? huh, ok. only one way to find out how much lift it gives you....actually theres a few ways but why not unbolt one of your struts, put in a timber spacer and remeasure your ground clearance. There's also the height to be gained by taller tires .

Anybody know what these cheesy little spacers are? I think this may work well enough for what I need..

I'm going to guess something from the 4x4 offroad industry, I had a quick look and couldn't find them. Looks like a stacking system doesn't it?

Its not an ideal solution.. they are preloading the feces out of the spring. May be better to use a spacer between the strut top and chassis strut mount point to maintain ride quality. With Cayenne and similar it is a little easier to do it this way because they use 3 bolts instead of 3 studs. You just sandwich a spacer in there with longer bolts. Flip side is the sandwich job may cause alignment issues. Which issues are worse I guess is what you ask yourself.... alignment or topping out & harsh spring rate. I'm thinking alignment is the lesser evil to have to deal with. I pulled the plastic off and had a look, there is not much extra length on those Porsche strut studs to shim with a sandwich spacer plate. Also.. the face where the strut touches the chassis is not flat, it looks concave. If you were to CNC or 3D a spacer, that curve would complicate the making of it.

So if anybody cares, I put some little 6061 spacers between the struts and upper mounts. Been driving it for a couple months. It didn't do much of anything that I could tell a difference. Still scrape my front bumper every dang place. I guess the leverage ratio isn't as lopsided as I'd hoped. I think for me, the best solution is going to be fatter tires .

How big was the spacer? Photos?

No pics, they are like 7mm iirc. I was hoping it would end up being double or triple out at the end of the control arm but I guess not. Maybe I'll try something thicker when I have some time to play with it.

It would be cool if you share if the thicker spacers would work. My buddy recently acquired this 987 project that we'll work on after we finished installing the bumper and truck shocks on the Ram this week and clear the garage. He's looking to lift it for the winter.

On the stock strut studs there is only 7mm of slack to work with. Any more than that, one would need spacers that have built in studs. Which nobody makes for 986 /996/987/997 front struts. I think I'm going to knock the short studs out of the struts soon and try thick spacers. I will have to use long bolts to hold everything. Hopefully I will get free time by January to play around it. This method works well for other makes, I don't see why it shouldn't here.

Just wanted to post an update for anybody with similar druthers to mine. This a thing for 2022. LIFT KIT - BOXSTER 986/CAYMAN 987/911 Eurowise 2” Lift Kit for Porsche Boxster/Cayman (987 Chassis) Unlock a new level of adventure with your Porsche Boxster or Cayman. The Eurowise 2” Lift Kit is a bolt-on spacer system that installs directly onto the OEM front and rear struts, delivering approximately 2 inches of lift. Ride... shop.eurowise.com Alloy spacers go for $585 and are 43mm taller than 7mm. Seems that front camber gets wacky without camber plates which add $295. Also seems that rear toe gets wacky without rear toe links which add $265. Total: $1145. I want to say the 987 has the same front upper strut mounts as 996 or 997? I forget. Anybody remember? Anyway also looks like the skateboard wheel material front 40mm spacers which used to be on ebay are not currently available for 996 or 997. They were built in and shipped from eastern europe iirc so understandable.

Long term update on the topic of to lift or not to lift now commences. I still have and drive this car. I now have rather pedestrian compound 205/60/17 front and 225/60/17 rear and I like them. The front to rear percentage differential in diameter is higher than the factory sizes, at least by the claimed sidewall numbers. The car seems to behave well. I slide this around and do push past the traction limits when appropriate. Never has complained about the larger percentage difference front to back. Traction control computer seems fine. No difference I can notice. I have run the factory 17" tire sizes and the factory 18" tire sizes. So I have tried three tire sizes so far and this is my favorite, for whatever that is worth. Reasons.. that little bit more tire diameter seems helps the thing not scrape in a lot of places where I used to scrape. Now I can bomb over speed bumps 20mph without an issue. Still contemplating the 50mm lift kit. If the larger tire diameter had not helped, honestly I probably would have pulled the trigger by now. I kind of wish they hadn't so I would have had my excuse to do it. I still may do it. /tireReview

clearly we need a new photo

I will never go back. Ever. Thicc sidewall 4life.

Did you install the lift kit?

As in - to lift the suspension and make the vehicle ride higher? I can't recall ever hearing of anyone doing this with a 987. There were some specially built 911 's built as Dakar cars.. and certainly Cayennes..