Hi Guys,

So, as most of you guys that know me, know that I autoX my 986.

Currently, I have 19's on the car with 7mm spacers on the rears in order to clear the shocks. i don't like the handling as much as the OEM 17's, but since it's my DD, I want it to look good even though it doesn't handle as well.

I don't want to dump a bunch of money into the car as far as PSS9's, etc. but at the same token, I'd like it to handle a bit better (tighter) around corners.

Will sway bars accomplish this? or is is pointless? I know very little about suspension, sway bars, etc.

Any feedback/advice you have will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks Much!

 

oh..one last question.....do you just have one installed? or two?

 

you can either have the front, rear, or both... in the rear your only options are OEM, OEM M030 (sport option), HR, or Tarrett.... front you have all those plus any bar that fits a 996... most go with the GT3... a Front bar will help and should be all that you want. A upgraded rear can help too, but you may feel it causes too much oversteer. I run a GT3 front and a HR rear bar... you will need upgraded droplinks to work with which ever bar you go with. I recommend Tarrett.

 

easyc,

thank you so much! your info has been very helpful. i'll take a look online and see what the bars are running for the front as well as the rear. thank you for the droplink info as well.

thanks again!

 

EasyC lists a few. A lot depends on what you're trying to accomplish. (Anti-)swaybars do three main things: first, they "tighten" up the car (reduce body lean, improve responsiveness), but second, they do this by transferring MORE weight than your current setup. The trade-off is that by transferring more weight, the loads will be less evenly distributed at all 4 tires. With 19" wheels, your car will be more sensitive to this. Too stiff is not good for low speed work. Third, and a main use of swaybars, is to affect the general understeer/oversteer tendencies of the car.

You do not have to do both front and rear. In fact, I would recommend doing one end first and then do the other end only if you need it. There is no significant cost savings in doing them together. I would highly recommend adjustable bars as they afford a large degree of tuning for your understeer/oversteer preferences and your driving style. I think adjustability is a huge benefit of swaybars. For adjustable bars, I would recommend TRG or the GT3 factory bars (for the front). With truly adjustable bars in the front, you will need shorter drop/end links. For the rear, you can use the stock end links fine, even with adjustable bars. I would definitely pick TRG's front endlinks over Tarrett's, especially if you can get the curved ones which reduce the chances of binding. Note that quality end links are the major cost in upgrading sway bars. I would not go with cheap ones like Agency Power. If you do, you can get binding or breakage. This is not something you want to happen at high speed or loads as your car will snap oversteer (very, very bad).

If you would like a more oversteering tendency, then you could start with the rear first. If you would like more understeering tendency, then start with the front first. Note that a larger front bar does not increase understeer as radically as some might expect. The reason is that the reduced body roll decreases the need for extreme camber which, in turn, improves grip, so the change in understeer is actually fairly small. Boxsters are camber challenged in the front.

For the front bar, as mentioned, I would recommend TRG or the factory 996 GT3 one. Contact Jeff at Sunset Imports (Oregon) for their cost + 15% deal. Wait a week as new pricing brings the price back to reality ($140) from the current $250 or more. For the end links, I make very nice ones, but not as a production deal. I would recommend and insist on the curved/bent ones from TRG. Don't let them talk you into the straight ones. For the rear, use the stock end links. I am rusty on specific rear bars to recommend, but adjustability is preferred. The TRG rear one is adjustable. I believe Austin is back working at TRG (The Racer's Group, NorCal).

Personally, I would not waste my time with OEM, RoW, 030 factory Boxster bars. They are too small a change to me. The front bar, IMO, has a more pronounced effect on steering responsiveness than the rear bar, so all other things equal, I would do that first, then do something like the HR second if you need it (like EasyC). Although cheaper, a rear bar alone will do little to reduce the camber needs in the front which will also be particularly acute for you if you are running ultra-low profile 19" tires in the front. You need to do what you can to keep that contact patch level to the ground.

Good luck!

 

arenared,

wow! thank you so very much for all of your info! i've learned a ton already. i really appreciate your advice and information.

we have a great shop here in WA. that many of us go to for mods and upgrades. perhaps i should talk with him a little bit about my goal for the car and see what he suggests. i'll share the info that you've suggested and look into this a little bit more. my interest is very sparked!

thanks again!!!

 

Jody

do the GT3 front with new drop links... Done!

 

I've got a spare brand new ROW M030 "S" spec rear swaybar, if you want to go that route.

 

Arena... awesome info... I forgot about TRG... as far as adjustable rear bars.. I think tarrett and HR make them...

 

EasyC, thank you, for your information as well There was a great thread on the Boxster Racing Board on this subject a couple years ago, but I think it went away when they changed servers/forum software.

I've had both TRG and GT3 bars--they are about a wash in terms of adjustability and stiffness. (The TRG is a clone of sorts.) There are some front bars that claim to be adjustable, but the holes go up and down so that you can use the stock end links. They are not adjustable, per se, because you are not changing the lever arm.

A problem you run into if you go stiffer than the middle hole on the GT3 or TRG bars is binding. This is particularly bad at full wheel lock, and you can easily bend/break end links. Thus, I like TRG's curved ones, or you have to finagle the end link dimensions/geometry/attachment points.

I recall significant variation in rear swaybar diameters among different aftermarket sources. Back when I had the TRG rear bar, I recall it was too similar in stiffness to my stock bar. In other words, the loss of the 2-hole rear bar was about the effect of losing one hole of adjustability on the front bar which I decided I could live with considering the additional cost. A lot of that cost involved was for the trick TRG adjustable end links in the rear which are not really needed unless you are racing. Using my butt-o-meter, I would say that the stiffer/beefier TRG rear end links were about "a half a hole stiffer" if you can figure out what I mean. An 030 rear bar like chaud's might still be OK since the cost is probably next to nothing, but I would do the front bar first and see how you will like it. Playing around with the adjustments (and your alignment) will keep you busy for a while anyway

Answering the other question of what I'm running, I wound up running only the front GT3 bar (similar to JP-S-St.Louis), and mine is an early 986S as well. But the rest of my car is a mix of this and that, and I drive weird. A lot depends on other factors such as alignment, tire pressures, what kind of driving, your driving style, and other suspension/tire choices which can have a major impact.

 

josh....do you have one?

ohh...i know where you live...so at night, while you guys are fasttt asleep......

and then....all of a sudden, you'll notice my car corning like its on rails! hahahaha!

 

I'm glad I read this topic before going any further. I was in the market for the RoW M030. I would like a bit more understeer, what would you suggest. Also with the RoW, it would lower the car about an inch. Do you have any other suggestions? I'm not looking for an extremely harsh ride, but I would like to have it lowered about the same as the row.

Thanks

 

Really? I thought it was at most about 1/2 to 3/4 inch only after settling... PSS9s can be had for 1900 and are world's apart from ROW... Boxster's have inherent understeer from the factory... are you saying you want more? or would you like to dial it out to neutral? Increasing your front tire width will help with the later...

 

I'm most likely incorrect about how much it lowers the car, I was just looking for something that could provide the same ride height while maintaining somewhat of a comfortable ride.

 

I was looking for better handling over stock in my '01 Boxster, so last year I had the ROW M030 setup installed. I didn't know anything about suspensions when I started, but talked to several suspension specialists. I don't auto-X, but do a lot of canyon driving and was looking for something to enhance my enjoyment in the twisty sections. I also drive the car on a regular basis (I telecommute and fly a lot for work, so daily driver doesn't really apply), so I wanted something that wouldn't have a significant adverse impact on ride. I also didn't want it so low I scraped on everything.

All the suspension guys I talked to said they spent as much time taking out suspensions as putting them in, since so many owners were unhappy with lower, stiffer, bouncier, etc. with the sports suspensions. They all said to think of the suspension as a complete system, and to balance out the sway bars, springs, shocks, etc., otherwise you get some weird handling when you least expect it.

I also didn't want to spend an inordinate amount of $$, which is easy to do.

In the end, I got the Porsche rest of world (ROW) M030 sport suspension from Sunset in Oregon (just under $1K for parts), and had it installed locally for $600. The front dropped 20 mm and the rear dropped 10 mm compared to stock. I scrape on the bottom of my driveway all the time now. The ride isn't much worse than before, but the handling is much improved. It comes with front and rear sway bars, shocks and springs.

I'm pretty sure you can buy just the front and rear sway bars, but you lose out on some of the handling benefits. http://www.cb-racing.com/boxster_030.html has a really good comparison of all the OEM suspension options. Also http://www.pca.org/panorama/sample_article_3.html has a great article comparing the stock with 030 suspensions (on a 996, but it still applies to the Boxster)

If money is no object, the Bilestein PSS9 setup looks pretty nice.

One comment I read on the Boxster racing board when I was researching options was most interesting - as the sway bars get stiffer and stiffer, at some point your car starts driving like it no longer has and independent suspension, as the two sides are tied together almost like a solid axle. There appears to be a point of diminishing returns when it comes to sway bar stiffness