Good Morning All,

Can someone send me in the right direction and/or educate me on what the best bang for your buck suspension upgrades would be?

A little about how the car is used:
I am not looking for a coilover as the car is not going to the track (boxster is for the track), so just spirited drives and cruises. I live in New England so the roads are never good no matter how much the cities try and its only seeing roads in the summer. Its stored in the winter. I am not looking to spend a ton of money but the car is crossing 70k miles soon and will need some refreshment. I just got RSS engine mounts and the 997 Transmission mount which should be going on in the next two weekends. But, up next it will definitely need some shocks/struts and if I am going in there, what is a good direction for a OEM+ to "stage 1" kind of performance parts (control arms? Sway bars?) The car has an exhaust and will be getting a tune soon as well. I may do intercoolers but that is down the road.

The car is a 04 X50 with the aero package. So going lower is not ideal. I may want to go to 19" wheels though at some point as well!

 

Depends on how rough of a life the car had for 70k but if you're looking at a basic refresh, I'd do the shock/struts you mentioned and rear sway bars for now.
Popular sways are H&R and eibach....there are a few more companies.
Regarding shock/struts you can go OEM stock or OEM sport springs/shocks or aftermarket bilstein. They used to be 1.5k or so + 500 or so additional for top hat hardware....not sure what they go for now.
Or you can go coilovers. Most popular coilovers are 2k-8k+ plus top hat hardware depending how "good" of a setup you want.
If you just want to have fun on the street with some adjustability, there's quite a few coilovers that are sub 1.5k that includes top hat/camber plates. They are more than sufficient for the streets

 

good advice and OP if you are staying "street" onl;y and just seeking a refresh, the bilstein b6 ( closest to oem replacement for dampers ... or b8 sport ) if you want a bit lower ) are more than sufficient. i would add a gt3 sway bar in the rear ( or as noted an eibach or h&r ) and you'll be fresh without spending "coilover dough". be advised b8's are increasingly harder to source of late.

if you do lower the car -40 mm or so, you'll gain better stance and handling AND looks and avoid going to 19" wheels which - depending upon your daily roads can be a "bit" harsher ride. plus, the car was built for 18"s and gt2 sized wheel are the way to go for "dual duty" setups, imo.

 

It's a little more expensive, but I would highly recommend PSS10s (coil over). They are not specifically intended for track at all - they are amazing just for street use. I rarely track, but the improvement is extreme. There is an offramp near my house where the car used to go almost airborne and then almost ground out on landing. I had to make sure I was down to 40 mph before I got there before I upgraded to PSS10. After the upgrade, there is no more speed limit - anything goes. I can understand the improvement on landing, but I don't even get close to the airborne feeling anymore and I can't explain that. If you do upgrade with anything that will lower the stance, the camber plates to get are the ones from Elephant Racing (and I have gone through a bunch of brands). The Elephant ones are more adjustable than any other and are very well made and ready to use without modification. That's my 2 cents.

 

Lots of people talk about how good the Ohlins are and I'd probably try those or KW if I ever buy another mainly street 996.
PSS10s were on mine when I bought it and they are good all around for the $. Used them on track for a while and they can be easily adjusted for ride comfort/performance.

Fresh OE top hats/mounts, Bilsteins and if you want more neg just slot the tower a little with some monoball dog bones, new tie rods and GT3 LCAs is the least costly if you don't want to change ride height/springs.

 

JIC Magic will build u a custom set for juust over 2k money.

I have them & really like them.