Hi, This may be a lame question, I'm not particularly retarded and have done a reasonably exhaustive search but cannot seem to answer my exact question. Is PSAM a stand alone option, or part of sport chrono? There is nothing on the window sticker specifically noting PSAM. However, there are 2 buttons relative to sport chrono on the center stack, one labled sport and the other has an illistration of a damper. Of possible relevance is the X51 package wich by default has the sport exhaust. When sport is pressed, both that and the damper buttons illuminate. You can turn off the damper button alone while the sport botton remains illuminated, keeping the flaps open on exhaust. While driving and turning the damper button back on from off position, there is no doubt steering, mapping and most noticably damping all increase. I'm about to buy coilovers and know there is a different product required for cars w/ PASM. Having written all this and concurently contemplating, can you buy a regular set of coilovers (for example std pss10 w/o damptronics) on a PASM car w/o consequence other than losing PASM functionality? Thanks in advance

 

All 997 'S' models have PASM. That is the little shock absorber button. By default when you activate sport mode PASM switches to sport/stiff settings. You can then change the PASM back if you want the rest of sport mode on (Sport exhaust, throttle mapping, etc) but still have the smoother ride.

You can replace the PASM shocks with regular ones if you really want - your dealer would have to reset the error code that will appear.
But most peole seem to prefer the Damptronics (Bilstein) for most replacement applications. PSS10's ouwld make the ride stiffer than stock "sport" mode all the time. How smooth are the roads in your area?

 

JT- thanks for the response, that asnwers all questions clearly.

i live in the santa cruz mountains, southern SF bay area. road conditions range from great to **** and everything in between. i've sport/PASM on 96% of the time, essentially my default. there is one section of road leading to my house where i have the damper button off for about 1/2 mile. i do like this luxury, but not critical. i had JIZ cross dampers w/ a GT3 rear sway on my 996TT w/ dampers adjusted pretty stiff and was ok with it as a DD. i think the damptronic pss10's are almost 2x in price, or at least some significant markup.

truth be told, for the street i'm mostly happy w/ suspension & handling and am looking for a slight drop for cosmetic reasons. of all the 911's and audi's i've had in the past, i've always sprung for dampers (no pun intended) instead of just springs with the thought that lowering springs not being a very good solution. i do see somewhat recent thread of people using h&r springs w/ PASM and being happy...