For round two of our SoCal tour we drove our 4.1L 997 GT3RS, now equipped with our Bilstein Clubsport Suspension, down to meet up with comedian/UFC MMA commentator Joe Rogan and his 2008 SharKWerks 3.9LGT3RS built in early 2013. On tap was a full day of canyon driving/testing with journalist Matt Farah of Drive/The Smoking Tire. Also included was a full day of testing and tuning with Bilstein NA at Willow Springs (it's a hard life we know!) and of course we then performed further compliance testing for hours and hours on LA's gnarliest freeways to stop-in on Magnus Walker in DTLA.

Arriving on-scene to drive, test and shoot in the Canyons of Socal. Who says it never rains in California?


The only cars you'll ever need for canyons:


A super-rare James Hendry sighting @ Sharkwerks with his mate Joe Rogan talking about roads to 3.9 and 4.1:


Matt Farah starts with Joe's white/black 3.9L GT3RS first:


Then he goes into the 4.1:


Joe takes the Blue pill:


And again...


Coffee break and on-camera interview time:




Hard act to follow but here goes Ze Sharky fella:


That's 8Liters:


They work on the street too:


Hell of a nice guy, funny and a great driver too. He really "gets it" as far as the manual, the gt3 engine and visceral feel. He's a gt3'er just like us:


A full day of driving and we all have energy for Joe's Podcast to chat about all things manual transmission related and car stuff in general. I remember a lot but he had some amazing Thai Coconut water. Powerful stuff!


And #505 JRE podcast not for the feint-hearted but a lot of car-talk, 6speed vs PDK, GT3, NSX and then some:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7-GjzIUs14#t=64

Post-production shot:


Next day we feed the fish and chill out at Magnus' awesome DTLA garage:


Rooftop shots!


Kissing the 277:


Brits, Porsches and in the US & A:


Getting cleaned up:


Last stop was the Streets of Willow Springs. Having had Tony @ TC Design fine tune the alignment/set up I knew it would be good:


The Bilstein NA and film crew setting up:


Without getting too deep into a debate we all know that the gen1 GT3 PASM suspension has taken a lot of heat over the years for being over-reactionary and not especially compliant. Those of us with gen1 and gen2 systems have felt the difference and although Porsche really got it "right" on the 4.0 there's still room for improvement. We feel this will be somewhat of a game changer on gen1 997GT3/RS cars and a great step-up for those of you not overly-thrilled with their stock suspension.


This Bilstein set-up uses Motorsport parts but is very user friendly and easy to adjust in terms of separate rebound and compression. Without having lines and remote reservoirs it will not fail/leak etc... and should last the same as OE. Playing around with a GSR Autosports Bilstein equipped M3 on-track:


Alex scratching his bum:


The 2-way adjustable suspension system, complete with integrated reservoir, even has a weight advantage for racing and clubsport use compared to systems with external reservoirs. Rebound and compression forces can be adjusted independently via the two easily accessible motorsport-proven aluminum adjustment dials. So no more PASM button but with 10 click positions for rebound and 10 click positions for compression, a wide range of handling options can be selected in just seconds, allowing for instant back-to-back set-up modification and testing which we were able to do on this trip.


Taking a terrible line but the car is still flat and poised as can be:


Trouble-maker 4.1. We will keep you posted but for GT3 folks we should have some fun videos, clips and the like from Bilstein and a Smoking Tire video soon so watch this space:

 

wow. Awesome pics !


thanks for sharing ~ !

 

Sure was fun!