Hey guys I've been away, but back just in time for winter.

I'm thinking of raising the Bilsteins for extra compliance. Right now I'm low, real low (guess I should measure that, hunh?) I scape all over the place.
Either I'm getting too old too quickly or the roads are getting worse, but the hard ride is getting on my nerves and my wife thinks I'm crazy to have lowered it at all.
I'm about ready to get the tt inside my shop and store for the winter at which time I can crawl around on a nice heated level floor and measure. What is the best height for a good compromise between handling and ride?
I guess this is pretty subjective, anyway I'd love to hear some opinions.
Bob

 

I love the way a lowered car looks but I drove in a car lowered by 1 inch and have to say that the slaps on the irregular pavement were far more pronounced. I know there are plenty of guys on the forums that criticize the stock suspension but I quite like it. Suits me just fine and I'll probably stick with stock ride height with the stock suspension. Maybe I'm just getting old too!

 

Stock ride height suits me for daily. TekArt has a system to rise and lower the car when you need more clearance. Even at stock heights the car scrapes when hitting off cambered turns.

 

Just remember, as a wise old sage once said, " Just because it has AWD doesn't mean it has to look like an SUV......."

 

Roads seem to be designed for 3" clearance (speed bumps, grades...) If you set your height for 3 inches, you'll be hitting everything. I have experimented with 3.75" and found that to be pretty reasonable. The only time there is a problem is on steep driveways, but it is totally stress-free on public roads.

 

-15mm should be good, but the ride will be very bouncy.

 

My kids like the extreme "slammed" look, although even they wonder how I can drive it like that.
At the moment if I eyeball the front wheels the tires look to be about even with the fender arch just forward of TDC of the arch.
I was a little disappointed that even running as low as I am right now there is still considerable bounce unless I engage sport. I figured it would be much steadier and wondered if raising it a little would put the shocks into a 'sweet' spot.
Thanks to everyone for the inputs.
On another note, my gorgeous and previously civilized SPI exhaust is beginning to drone in the low 2's. Is there a chance the packing is burning out? Maybe something is coming loose, need to check before whining too much

 

Hi Webtool1, I can't tell what you mean by bouncy, but would add that if you stay within specs, the compliance of a properly installed and functional coil-over system does NOT change with ride height. That is one of the fundamental operating principle of coilover.

It's hard for me to explain, but imagine spring sits on your hand, and car sits on spring. Now if you are to lower the hand, the spring will lower, and the car will drop lower with it, but the spring's relationship with the car does not change, and nor will its operation.

I went over this in my Bilstein thread here, post 187:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...-turbo-13.html

 

Here is quote of post 187; there is also a discussion of ride height measurement you might find interesting:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...-turbo-13.html

I have been asked several times about ride height measurement so think it's time to share what I've learned, with pictures. That's right... everything you ever want to know about ride height measurement. As always, this has been a cooperative effort (Alex's tuner provided stock Turbo's ride height that I couldn't find anywhere else, bbywu posted the diagram, etc.) and thanks to all who have contributed. Any pro lurking, if you see any error, please let me know.

Ride height is a most important parameter in suspension adjustment, yet the way that most of us measure it, fender height to ground, is grossly inaccurate. I too was guilty. The official way to measure is actually very simple and takes minutes. This is a key parameter to measure PRIOR to installation of the Bilstein. I did not do it and to this day wonder what my car's original ride height was.

FYI and one more important piece of info: For the Turbo, Bilstein's official recommendation is that ride heights be reduced 10mm-30 mm in the front, and 5mm-25mm in the rear. That is, they actually recommend that you do not use stock ride height, and that at least you should try to lower 5mm. (Sentence erased due to more current info LOL).
The risk of not lowering enough is coil bind, the risk of lowering too much (beyond 30mm) is hitting internal bump stops. Either would be a dangerous situation (very little or no compliance at all) in either situation.
If you stay within specs, then both dampening rates and spring rates should not changed with ride height. In other words, in a properly installed Bilstein system, ride height doesn't change spring/damper/ride/compliance characteristic. Any change in handling would be from the advantage of lowered center of gravity, and not change in the coilover system per se.

Keep in mind also, that if you are to do corner balancing, the ride height might no longer be equal from corner to corner. This is because, AFAIK, corner balancing's goal is to make the weight/force at RF + LR = LF + RR, with driver weight in the car. And the way to make these sums equal is by adjusting the ride height at each corner.

So... to start first the official diagram from Porsche is below. Using this diagram the stock Turbo height should be 132 mm front/153mm rear, stock GT2 for comparison 110/147. Blah blah blah -- pictures follow.

 

When I had my Bilstein raised to near stock height there was a notable ride difference. I'm almost certain it was still within the bilstein spec. It was not bad, but it was not the same, slightly bouncy would be a descriptive term.

 

Wow thank Can! you're a mine of info.
Amazing!
I can't wait to get under there and start dialing this in. I suppose I'll need a new alignment too.

 

^^^^^
You're welcome and am glad you find the info helpful. Finally "deciphering" ride height measurement (with help of Alex's tuner) was for me a most happy occasion, one crowning moment of my modding career . So simple yet took me forever to finally figure how exactly it's done.

Kidding aside, I encourage anyone new to this to take a look at the thread. You must know ride heights before and after you start modding to assure that the suspension has been set up correctly.