well it's a long long story but the short version is back in 2006 my wife and I decided we missed having a sports car so we got a 997S Cab. The cab was her idea. I was staring out at DE's and I went to alot of them and progressed to solo. In late 2007 my dealer said I should get a coupe since I DE'd so much and he could make me a deal on a 2007 997S Coupe Tiptronic. The deal was incredible so we went for it. He said at that time during the deal that in late 2008 when the PDK comes out he would get me out of the 2007 for a 2009 PDK. I did not believe him but he called me up and let me order a 2009 997S how I would want it. No money changed hands no issue if I could not get the 2009 when it came in. When the car came in he called me and we went over the numbers and it was a pretty good deal so he sharpened his pencil a little more and we got the deal done.

Now you might need to know why I drove a Tiptronic. I lost my entire left leg 6 years ago when I was hit by an on coming mini van making a quick left turn across a higway. We had to sell our Vette and Boxster S because they were 6 speed manuals. I have a prosthetic leg but there is no way to push a clutch pedal with it. So a Tip was the only way for me to enjoy a Porsche. The PDK has been unbelivable for me as I will have the transmission performance I need.

If I had 2 legs and could push a clutch I would have still got the 2007 997S Coupe but would be keeping it and moding it to make it more of my own.

 

you can only corner balance if you have adjustable shocks on every corner...unless the damptronics are at all four corners and adjustable you will only require an alignment...lowering the ride height will make it look very good...

 

This is not a race alignment but a very agressive street/track alignment. Everythign is extremely dialed in and with in Porsche specs except for the front camber is more negitive than Porsche stock specs. This is the type of alignment I have been putting on my other 2 997S cars. Tire wear is greatly improved. I had a little over 10,000 street miles on my last cars tires and they looked like they could go another 10k miles.

It's not the camber that eats up tires it is too much negitive or positive toe and from the factory Porsche does a horrible job in dialing in the alignment. Vortex Motorsports which specializes in Porsches spent an hour and a half dialing in everything. $145 a couple times a year for a good alignment is cheap compared to the cost of tires...plus the car drives so nice now.

 

Thanks for the info guys. Mike if I may be so bold, my regrets on your mishap, but glad you are enjoying the pcars, now that the PDK is as good if not better for reaching speed, I know you must miss the shift, it's part of the thrill. Hope to meet you at Sebring..

 

Oh don;t worry about me I get along just fine. If I was all depressed about my deal I would not be on these forums and out with my car enjoying life. Things happen and you have 2 choices
1- to get depress and ruin your life and everyone elses around you
2- do the best you can stay positive, deal with it and be glad you are alive and for the things you have and try to help other the best you can.

I hope I've informed many on these forums. I learn a lot from others on these forums and started out not knowing anything. We are all in this together.

see ya, Mike

 

Great attitude Mike! These forums are great. lots of info, you guys convinced me about the coil over damptronics, can't wait to try them out, still being installed today.

 

I just had Bob do my alignment too. I have the specs around here somewhere, unfortunately the numbers mean nothing to me

What I am going to do this time around is swap my rears side to side. Being that the only wear I'm seeing is on the inside edge, I should be able to get at least 15K out of my rears going that route vs the 8K I'm getting now. $50 is a lot cheaper than $800. I am on my 3rd or 4th set of rears and the same fronts. My rears literally look almost new other than that damn inside edge. I just had my latest set of rears put on and after a couple AX's and a DE, I think I'm already due for that tire swap.

 

"This is not a race alignment but a very agressive street/track alignment. Everythign is extremely dialed in and with in Porsche specs except for the front camber is more negitive than Porsche stock specs. This is the type of alignment I have been putting on my other 2 997S cars. Tire wear is greatly improved. I had a little over 10,000 street miles on my last cars tires and they looked like they could go another 10k miles.

It's not the camber that eats up tires it is too much negitive or positive toe and from the factory Porsche does a horrible job in dialing in the alignment. Vortex Motorsports which specializes in Porsches spent an hour and a half dialing in everything. $145 a couple times a year for a good alignment is cheap compared to the cost of tires...plus the car drives so nice now."

this is spot on. toe is the real tire wear killer. no street car (that I know of) is going to get the amount of negative camber required to get weird camber tire wear (anything at -2.5 or less is fine really for wear IMO). And i also echo the trade off between an alignment and tires. If you get only 3 more months out of the tires, that still more then covers the alignment. Adding castor and zero-ing the toe up front will make a more dramatic handling affect then any suspension change (IMO), especially in this car.

now my question, is the "good" 997 C2 alignment to have little rear toe in? Also, under compression does the rear toe in? I'd think to help with putting power down you'd want a little more rear toe in (maybe 1/4" a side?). I'm new to porsche alignments.