Thinking of doing Bilstein Damptronic Coilovers, sportier alignment settings and sway bars. I don't want to lower the height.
How do you think this would affect the quality of the ride? This is a daily driver and I don't want to create a really harsh ride.
Is the soft setting of the Bilsteins much firmer than the stock?

 

From what I understand, you HAVE to lower the car a little bit with the Damptronics. Until I get mine fixed, I can't comment on the harshness with PASM on, but with it off, it's a noticeably jarring ride compared to stock. Mine is lowered to GT2 specs, and I combined it with sways and an 'aggressive' street alignment as well. It handles infinitely better, but you definitely don't want an open beverage in the car when your driving

 

you should find a car to drive first (if you're ever on the island you're welcome to drive mine). it will be stiffer than stock. For a DD on the roads of NJ only you will be able to determine if it's too much or not.

What's "tight" to one person can be bone jarring to someone else.

 

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https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...red-turbo.html
Bilstein can't perform a miracle; you will sense more road bumps. However, the feel is vastly superior to the jittery ride of PASM-Firm and is entirely acceptable for my daily 35 miles drive to or from work in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1>Los Angeles</st1></st1:city>. Road bumps create a more compliant feel & conventional thump sound (yes I am the type of person who listens to my car’s suspension--LOL), versus PASM-Firm’s choppy and somehow unnatural feel, and the louder noise when the car hits things like freeway’s expansion joints. For comfort level, if PASM-Normal is 10 out of 10, then Bilstein would be a 6 to 7, and PASM-Firm 1, tied with a Sherman M4.
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For OP: It's a matter of personal preference, but unless you have extremely sensitive butt dyno sensors, experience so far indicates for majority of people, Bilstein should be ok. Nearly every complaint I have been asked about Bilstein ride has been traced to tire pressure settings that are too high. For example, in California, it should be about 31/37 cold, 33/39 hot. The differential pressure reading should read 0 or so throughout.

Ed/BH: (Hope everything is working out ok?!) Ride should not be that bad, "bone jarring." Give it a couple of weeks and also see my comment on tire pressure above.

FWIW I recently drove a GT3 and as a result am now in the process of advancing to Stage 2 Bilstein. LOL. Now that is stiff . See this thread: Lucent spring setup for Bilstein stage 2: What steering... what cornering!

 

Good advice as usual, Can. I'll recheck my pressures. But I also overstated a bit. 98% of the time, the ride is quite comfortable. The roads that lead out of my subdivision are in a bit of disrepair. Although it's a small minority of my total driving, I have to experience it everytime I drive the car.

 

I have HRE's p40 in 20's and would you recommend 31/37 cold, 33/39 hot here in texas?

 

Ed, I am using even stiffer springs on my Bilstein now ("stage 2" :-)), and interestingly enough, your statement above is the exact same observation I have!
It's usually the last, smaller, roads leading to one's house or work place that cause the most problems. These tend to be, or could be, roads with multiple little bumps that require you to drive at low speed. And even at slow speed, the car jumps all over the place. This 1 minute of driving ends up being the most punishing, and the one one remembers most.

 

tranman, I was just giving Ed an example of what the reading should be currently in South West US. Tire pressure is temp dependent, so exact numbers depend on not just how long you've been driving the car, but the ambient temp at the time. With all these variables, the best way to follow tire pressure is to use the built in pressure reading, but... don't use the absolute numbers, best to use the differential reading in your car (the left stalk, that allows you to check "TPC" and gives 0, or +1, etc. as the result). This number should be around 0 or +/-1. Don't forget to set your car to "Partial Load" (versus "Full Load") -- this is also done with that left stalk and is in instruction manual somewhere.

I have never used 20 wheel so I can't tell you. But yes I do think that tire pressure adjustment, within reasons and with traction kept in mind, could be adjusted to your ride/handling preference. I wouldn't over do this though.

The can of worms that I don't want to open now as it confuses the issue too much: the built-in pressure gauge in the car in general reads too low, when compared against a reference digital gauge.

BTW, if you want to fine tune the pressure, I would recommend using a digital meter as it is more precise and much easier to use. I went a "little" over board and bought this one, but any less expensive one would do: http://www.longacreracing.com/catalo...id=982&catid=8

 

I've been on the damptronics for almost a year now and love it. I have mine lowered quite a bit. About 1.5 inches all the way around. I definitely feel the road more both on 19's and 20's but the ride is definitely better IMO. No more nose-diving when braking hard and no more squatting of the rear end when accelerating aggressively. I also like the dampening capabilities of these coilovers. Feels solid over bumps/etc.

I also track my car and I have no complaints at all on how she handles on the track. I have her aligned to GT2 specs. As for tire pressure, I have it at 31 F and 35 R cold on Michelin PS2s for street. For the track, I do 30 F and 34 R cold on PS Cups. I always use a digital tire gauge(especially at the track) and hardly rely on the computer's reading since it's always 2-3 lbs shy.

 

But are they worth the extra expense to lower the car an inch?
Compared to ther GMG setup, springs and adj bars.

 

springs are the more conservative and less expensive way to go. It'll lower your car close to an inch all the way around.

However, keep in mind that your stock shocks will have more wear and tear since they are designed for stock spring setup/heights/geometry/etc.

The beauty about upgrading sway bars is that they're adjustable. You can set the rears to full stiff and the fronts to full soft to help get rid of the inherent understeer that the 997TT's have.

Of all the mods I've done to the car, I have to say that changing the suspension is my favorite. It simply transforms the car.

 

Amen!

 

I want to thank everyone for their opinions on the suspension upgrade. I wonder how the bilstein damptronics upgrade compares to the 2010 Turbo. All of the magazines praise the suspension on the new model. It would be interesting to get some feedback from someone like Mike at AWE about the difference.
I am sure that the new suspension could not be put into the older cars but you never know.

 

I have driven the new 2010 Turbo. The suspension of new Turbo is still as soft as noodle and the car as a result has a lot of body roll in corner & does not feel sporty at all. In general as far as stiffness & "sportiness" are concerned, the 2010 Turbo is somewhere between the stock 997.1 Turbo and the Bilstein. That is, Bilstein in old car is MUCH better than new 2010 car's suspension.

Unfortunately, Porsche's corporate philosophy for Turbo since 996 onwards has been to make it a "grand touring car for the orthodontics" (just kidding) and this philosophy has not changed. This is why the track times of the Turbo have never been commensurate with its stupendous acceleration time. This is a point very frequently missed in all these threads about the Turbo's poor performance at the track. It's not fast there because Porsche didn't make it to be fast there; it's meant to be a soft grand touring car.

See spring rates of all the cars and you have an idea:
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http://www.rennteam.com/forum/thread...html#p20122197
Stock 997.1 Turbo:
Front: 206
Rear: 457 Linear

Stock 997.2 Turbo
Front: 206
Rear: 514 Progressive (342 initial, 514 final)

Bilstein Damptronic for 997 Turbo
Front: 340 Linear
Rear: 565 Linear
Helper springs 115 front, 145 rear (don't count towards rate).

Stock 996 Turbo:
Front: 187 Progressive
Rear: 340 Progressive

Stock 996 GT3:
Front: 225 Linear
Rear: 550 Progressive

Stock 997 GT3:
Front: 257
Rear: 600

 

THE biggest influence over ride harshness with Damptronics is ride height. The difference between -20mm and -15mm is massive. I have tried all combinations and -15mm (adjusted for sagging over 8k miles) is not harsh at all, even the heavily pregnant Mrs is fine with it!