Generally speaking what's it going to cost to lower the 997.2?

Pics will becoming as soon as I can get a sunny dry day to wash/wax the car.... I just had Wheel Dynamics 19" 808's installed today

Black wheels on a Black Car.... They are absolutely Gorgeous Wheels!

The spokes are so big, no problem reaching in with my small hands to clean the rims/rotors/calipers

They fill the wheel well nicely... but one problem I foresee is that it would look a little more aggressive if the car were lowered about an inch....

I'm about ready to order the GT3 wing from Precision Performance as soon as they send me a Pay Pal request...

Once the wing is installed, all I need to do next is lower the car...

So what lowering springs/etc do I need and approximately what's the cost going to be? Is this a $500 lower job, or a $1500? I need to have an idea of what to budget for, for my Christmas present

 

BTW,

If its okay to give a thumbs up to one of our vendors... this is the email I sent Eli.

--------------------


Thanks again Eli, its raining today... as soon as I get a sunny dry day (hopefully friday), I plan to wash/wax my car and take some high quality pictures for you on my digital SLR camera...
In future, I also have plans to install a GT3 wing from Precision Porsche within the next couple weeks (going to order tonight). I'll send you updated pictures with the wing too when I do....

Only one slight problem I foresee with the new 19" rims! Hahaha... they look so good, now I foresee the need to spend money on a lowering kit! Lowering the car perhaps 3/4" to 1" would be the icing on the cake!

You know Eli, although briefly, it really was a pleasure speaking with you the few times we've done... your enthusiasm for cars and modding, and your commitment to customer service in terms of excellence, trust, and caring really comes across... This was like buying parts from my brother! I can't thank you enough for all your help, I hope your business prospers and life treats you well

Respectfully yours,
Mark

 

The cost of lowering will depend on whether or not you use coilovers or springs. For just casual driving, and even some light track use or occasional spirited driving, I'd say you'll love springs. If you want to track more often and want the added ability to fine tune the right, coilovers are the way to go.

Springs: $350 plus 4-5 hours for install. Say around $1000 total.

Coilovers: $2500-$4000 depending on brand. About the same install time.

Remember you'll also need an alignment after the install, and if you choose coilovers, you'll also want to corner-balance the car. Roughly $250 for both.

Hope this helps your decision. If you have questions, feel free to give me a call any time.

 

Thank you so much Tom.... very price instruction on how I should proceed.

I'm not into tracking per se... as you suggested, I think springs are going to be the way for me to go.

Do springs come in different lengths depending on how far you want to slam your car to the ground? All I want to do is lower as I said 3/4 -1 " to eliminate a little of the dead space above the tire for cosmetic reasons only. Or are the springs somewhat adjustable themselves?

Thanks again for your insight.

Mark

 

The springs are typically a fixed lowering amount. Our springs provide a 1.2 inch drop at all four corners, which is just enough to lower the fender so that the ugly wheel gap disappears.

 

Mark,

Also keep in mind that lowering the car will change the suspension geometry somewhat, you may have to swap some of the control arms depending on the alignment values you want to run when the lowering is all said and done. Is this only cosmetic or do you also plan on tracking the car?

We are very lucky to have sponsors like Champion, Sharkwerks, RSS, and others on this board. They know what they are doing, talk to them first and make sure you ask about the end result you are trying to achieve; like everything else in life, there is always give and take when trying to "improve" on what came out of Stuttgart.

Regards,

T.

 

Champion installed my TUBI exhaust and wheel spacers, springs are my next move................. Those guys know their stuff.............

Anyone with 19" wheels on a 997.2, I highly recommend going with 7mm fr/ 15mm rear spacers....................much more aggressive looks. Thx champion!!!

 

Lowered my car with TechArt springs. Very happy with the results.

 

No plans to track... this is strictly cosmetic for me.

Rob, Spacers on 19" wheels? As I'm learning here, isn't offset of the wheel to be taken into consideration if I'm trying to vision this concept correctly? With the wheel dynamics 808's installed... the side of the rear tire is now sticking out past the rear fender slightly and the front ones are pretty much flush with the front fender. In this case, I don't think I'd want them sticking out any further, that just increases rock chip damage potential to the fenders, right?

 

Spacers are usually a good addition only with stock wheels. If you have aftermarket wheels, they probably have a more aggressive offset to start off with.

 

Yeah, that's the beauty of going with a good quality and well respected aftermarket wheel. In my case, HRE is able to build the wheel to what fits each of our cars to exactly and what we want. I considered Champion's as well and they can do the same.

 

Thank you Mark,

We are blessed to have customers as yourself, as a Porsche owner myself, I enjoy the interaction with other Porsche enthusiast who share a similar passion.

We do hope that our level of commitment and service in the Porsche community from both Fast Forward Wheels and Wheel Dynamics goes noticed as we do have plans of expanding in the years to come.

We have moved into a shop double the size of our last and are already thinking of expanding but "baby-steps" as the changes in economy allow we have recently purchase the latest 2011 Road Force Balancer with all the bells and whistles scheduled to arrive on Nov. 2, 2010, we have also added a Nitrogen system for those who need the green-stuff..

Once again this all wouldn't have been possible without the support of our members here and out in the Porsche community. We are blessed and understand we are.

Mark, thank you for your kind words and for sharing them with other 6-spd members,

Sincerely,

-Eli

PS. bring that bad boy by and we'll install everything parts and labor for around $750, alignment a little more.. Kidding, I know you wouldn't come all this way to see us but hoping others might see our price and want to drop by... All installed by our Porsche factory trained and certified tech.

 

I can't resist chiming in on this one. I did some reading and calling, etc and here's what I came up with - YMMV

- first step is lowering springs or coilovers. Somewhat covered above (Champion, etc), including the fact that the install for either option is almost the same, but in various threads here and elsewhere, folks state that the ride is harsh with lowering springs. The way it seemed to net out for me was that, even for a street car, springs are the cheaper option, but coilovers are the proper way to do it.
- next, people in the know (in my case, my independent mechanic, but this is corroborated with some research) will tell you that you'll burn through rear tires unless you fix the suspension geometry with a rear toe link kit and probably a set of rear dogbones.
- in my case, I added in sway bars and adjustable drop links, but I think this is totally optional / extra.
- next on my list is control arms, for a more aggressive camber setting, but this seems to be optional as well.

Again, IMHO, the way to answer the OP question, even if just for the street, is first to ask - do you want to do it cheap or do you want to do it right? For cheap, go with springs only. For right, go with coilovers, toe kit, and dog bones at a minimum. I think this is about $6k. Add more $$ if you also want sways, drop links, control arms, etc. You guys are welcome to tell me I'm all wet on this one, and how great xxx brand of springs are, but - knowing that I'm going to keep my car for a long time, and probably track it a bit down the road, I decided to do it the right way. If I was only going to hold it for a short time, I may have taken the cheap way out - but I would have done that with eyes wide open (AFAIK).

One last note - I only drove my car for a couple of weeks after buying it, before I took it in for the suspension work. I really liked the stock suspension. It seemed great for the street. Many here will tell you that it's great on the track. So, for me, all that expense was to lower it. I really wanted to address the tire-fender gap issue, and it cost me ~$8k. To me, that was the cost to lower my car. But I know I did it the right way, and that it is better than stock - not that I drove the stock set-up long enough to even notice.

 

Mark,
Not to pile-on with info overload here but here's a couple quick comments.
Even if lowering is only for performance (and it rarely is) you still want the car to look good. Ask around an seek out pics of cars with the suspension you are considering. It’s ‘planning’…..versus you-get-what-you-get after you paid for it. Since I mentioned “current suspension”…..did I mis whether this was stock, PASM, or PASM Sport?.....we know that’ almost a 20mm swing right there and you know the way it looks right now….important. It also tells you something about suspension travel.

I have done springs-alone on Pcars (mainly the wife’s cars)...have nothing against them if they give you height and ride that you plan & expect (along with somewhat complimenting the rest of the OE suspension) . Again ‘plan and expect’ is kinda important cause after you pay the bill for hardware, install, align….you are done. If it’s not sitting where you like…..live with it.

A fairly significant upside of good quality coil-overs is you have full control of rake, height, corner balance……for the life of the car. Lastly….if you are looking to drop the car significantly (and it sounds like you already have low offset fitments....sorry not familiar with 808s) then you also need a stiffened suspension. Those 19s are not traveling inside the wheel arch…..per your description.

And on that point along with that comment about spacers…..needless to say they are a non-issue for you. If the rears are sticking slightly outside fender now, by some opins you have a tad low offset running there already…..anyway, definitely don’t want to push em out further. Of course, one of the nice things about upgrading to custom wheels is you can plan and order that offset.......have the wheel sit right where you want it.

Good luck on the rest of your mods…..but we definitely need pics .

 

I have to disagree with you Jack.

I had Bilstein Damptronics installed on my car and the front was set to the lowest possible position. All the other suspension bits were stock and had no problem with suspension geometry/alignment.

OP: If you just want better/lower look go with springs. As Tom mentioned you do need to get an alignment after the installation!