Hey Guy's, I'm looking to place an order for a fromt sway bar over the next couple of days.

I'm leaning towads the GT3 unit since it is a factory part although, I have been reading some positive reviews on the H&R bar.

Are there pro's and con's for each?

Also, will I need drop links for both unit's?

Thanks for your help.

 

sounds like you are going through what I did a few months ago. I ended up getting TPC Sway Bars, Drop links and Toe Links. I currently have H&R springs on my Cayman but am most likely going to take them off this spring and get either PSS10 coilovers or JRZ RS Coilovers. I have found that the springs make the car way to bouncey. The Sway bars make the car feel like it is on rails going around turns. Before I would feel the car pull in a tight turn now i am able to push the car much harder and have much more control. The car is considerably more stiffer than it was before. If you want to find out more info and get some reviews planet 9 porsche has plenty of info on them. Also I assume you are getting both front and rear sway bars yuor post only said front. If you only switch out one your car will not handle correctly it is rcommended to switch both.


dave

 

I would go with either the RSS or TPC bars. I'm going with the TPC bars in a couple of months.

 

I'm curious about the GT3 bar versus the TPC bar... I never was able to get a real answer from TPC with any quantitative data comparison about how much stiffer, or how the bars are better....only response I've got is that they claim they're just better... Hard to justify the 3-4x cost difference due to that...

And as far as your question about the droplinks... I'm not sure about the H&R bar, but the GT3 bar you'll need some aftermarket drop links...

 

Thanks for the information guy''s. I've been reading a few additional post's based on the information provided on the sway bars but now I have a few more questions based on what my end goal is ...

I am planning on purchasing Bilstein PSS9 coilovers and my local shop recommended a front sway bar as well.

Here is my motivation for the upgrades .. I recently moved into the city from the burbs and the roads out here are brutal in terms of large bumps rail tracks ... I've been reading that when the Bilsteins are set at the comfort setting they are about 30% softer then stock ... would this allow for a more comfortable ride in city driving?

Also, I purchased a membership to the local track so having the ability to crank up the suspension on track days and drives up north to the cottage where the roads are smoothe and full of twists and turns would be great

Given my goal what is the ideal set up ...

Option 1
Bilstein coilovers & corner balance

Option 2
coilovers, GT3 sway bar (front & rear), drop links & corner balance

Option 3
GT3 front or rear control arms (or both?) along with the options above.

I really appreciate your input ... I am a new to the after martket and I want to select the right parts for my Porsche.

Take Care

 

H&R makes some OEM parts for Porsche, so I don't think you have to worry about their quality!

 

Casey is right. Tires first, then adjustable sways, PSS9s last.

Coilovers allow you to lower your ride height, add negative camber, and corner balance the car. None of these things will improve your ride comfort on bad roads unless your current shocks are simply worn out. A good set of tires will make a huge difference.

 

Casey, so the 40% stiffer middle setting on the TPC bar is in comparison to the middle setting of the GT3 bar? Or compared to the stiffest setting on the GT3 bar? Aside from stiffness ratings, is there anything else in the difference in the design that helps with handling? I'm curious since most people with the 996 GT3 bar usually leave the front at the softest setting... So, with that being said, if just taking stiffness into account, are certain settings of the GT3 bar similar in stiffness to a certain setting on the TPC bar? (Or, is the softest setting of the TPC bar stiffer than the stiffest setting of the GT3 bar?) ...just trying to understand what about the TPC bar makes it what it is...

 

Can you recommend another option rather then the Bilsteins that will allow for a more comfortable ride and allow me to adjust to a firmer setting when needed?

The stage one kit looks like a good option. The site says there is no negative side effects to the ride quality which is great!

AS for the tires I currently have the stock set with about half a season of use left. What would you recomend as a replacement?

Thanks for input ... this noobie appreciates it.

 

What are you driving? (Year, model, mileage)
What are your current tires? (Brand, model, tire and wheel sizes)

 

Currently I have ...

Michelin Pilot Sport PS2
Front - 235/35/19
Rear - 265/35/19

2006 Cayman S (Non PASM)
Just hit 53KM's

 

Good info! In my experience 19" wheels are pretty harsh on bad roads with all but the PASM cars. The 35 sidewalls are necessarily firm to protect your wheels in the event of pothole contact. The PS2 tires are as good as any for driving comfort but if they are original (5yrs) they are old and turning into hockey pucks. Old tires get stiff and compound the problems of 35 sidewalls. If it were my car (and it isn't) I would look for a nice takeoff set of 18" wheels and mount a fresh set of Continental or Sumitomo HTRZ III tires to seriously improve ride comfort. For smooth roads or track days just mount up your 19s and things will firm up a bunch.

Keep in mind that this is only one drivers opinion. There will surely be others. Before changing wheels see if you can get a ride in a Cay S with fresh 18" tires to see if this is right for you.

 

I solved my problem with the harsh city roads ... I bought Honda Civic as a 2nd car/city commuter!

After looking at all of the options I thought to my self why the heck would I want to turn a great sports car into a softer ride.

Now I can add a few mod's with performance in mind!

 

Get a new shop. That recommendation smells of a shop that has a catalogue on the front desk that thinks they know how much you can spend. You will drop $$$ and leave with a car that does not perform better than before you dropped it off.

Casey,

Do you a graph or can you provide data to compare your bars to the GT3 bars or the H&R ones?

I run 19s on my Cayman S on the street (18's on the track) and have not had any issues on our suspect BC roads. These are aftermarket 3 piece wheels as well, not factory wheels. Car is lowered with KW V3 coilovers as well.

Cheers

 

Casey, I hope you understand this is exactly why it's hard for us as the consumer to make the choice to go with a TPC bar... I understand that you guys have spent a lot of money into the R&D of the bars and want to keep the proprietary information secret, but when the consumer sees the bars at 3x the cost of other bars and has no concrete quantitative data or reasoning behind why the TPC bar is better, it's hard to make the choice based simply off trusting that the manufacturer says its better because they use it in their race series and that customers love it.

I've posted and asked the same thing on other forums asking if anyone had any experience with comparing the GT3 bar to the TPC bar, and I still haven't yet found anyone that had that direct comparison. Yes, there has been an ample amount of praise about how great the TPC bars were, but to be honest, most of the people who gave reviews were going from a stock setup, to the full TPC setup with either both bars, or both bars along with coilovers, links, control arms and spec'd alignments. It doesn't surprise me that all of those say they've seen a night and day difference... simply going from any stock setup to such a big change isn't a big surprise, but the question still always remains about how to justify a TPC front/rear setup versus a GT3 front and Tarett rear, for example, given the extreme price difference and no supporting data about why we'd be spending the extra money.