997 Replacement Coilovers

[Terry Winks]

Ok, so this was on my planned list of jobs for the winter, but the car is on the ramp for some other work and the shocks I must be the originals and they look absolutely shot, so the time is now.

What options have people gone for? I am swaying towards Ohlins Road and Track, I think KW V3's are overkill, possiblly V2's

The car is more fast road, than track, I want something that is better damped and keeps that all around ability but is better than stock.

Don't really know what else to say to be honest.

[KarlHungus]

Interested to know what you go for. I had the struts replaced about 4 years ago and had a similar requirement i.e. fast road, maybe occasional track day, and better damping than stock.

I talked to the guys at Center Gravity, they recommended sticking with the OE Bilstein B4s for our wonderful British roads.

I assumed that in the intervening years there would be options to improve on the original units but without a bone-jarring, crashy ride. I went with CG's recommendation as the risk of fitting the wrong suspension can really ruin a car in my experience.

[maz8062]

If you’ve got PASM, stock is best, but I can see why folk go down the road of adjustable coilovers which include top mounts, springs, bump stops etc.

For the price of coilovers, Spyder Performance offer a full suspension refresh, in parts only, but that would be night and day better than simply swapping to coilovers.

[Terry Winks]

maz8062 said:

If you’ve got PASM, stock is best, but I can see why folk go down the road of adjustable coilovers which include top mounts, springs, bump stops etc.

For the price of coilovers, Spyder Performance offer a full suspension refresh, in parts only, but that would be night and day better than simply swapping to coilovers.

So that was in the offering, getting that whole Spyder Performance kit but up on the ramp, the suspension hardware is all in good nick and that would be a waste of cash right now, it’ll definitely happen in the future. It’s the shocks that are well shocking that really need attention.

After some deliberation all day I’ve decided to down the BC Racing route. They’re a 1/3 of the price of KW and Ohlins but in no means a 1/3 of the performance of them. This was too, if coilovers isn’t what I want I’m not unpicking a 4 grand problem, if the BC’s don’t cut it then we’ll go again. I’m sure you’ll understand there is some killer man maths and mental gymnastics in all of this.

Obviously a good fast road setup and tune shortly after.

It failed its MoT on brake line corrosion, and now this, gonna be an expensive week!

[Discombobulate]

If PASM, go stock with DSC controller. I had KW coilovers on my 996 - quite firm for road use.

[cvega]

Ohlins road and track should be called "TRACK and maybe sometimes road if you really have to".
They're on the very stiff side even dialled all the way soft.

[GTRene]

Terry Winks said:

So that was in the offering, getting that whole Spyder Performance kit but up on the ramp, the suspension hardware is all in good nick and that would be a waste of cash right now, it’ll definitely happen in the future. It’s the shocks that are well shocking that really need attention.

After some deliberation all day I’ve decided to down the BC Racing route. They’re a 1/3 of the price of KW and Ohlins but in no means a 1/3 of the performance of them. This was too, if coilovers isn’t what I want I’m not unpicking a 4 grand problem, if the BC’s don’t cut it then we’ll go again. I’m sure you’ll understand there is some killer man maths and mental gymnastics in all of this.

Obviously a good fast road setup and tune shortly after.

It failed its MoT on brake line corrosion, and now this, gonna be an expensive week!

BC is a nice system, not that expensive and yo can choose the strength of the springs, also great way of high/lowering the setup were you don't need those extra little springs.

but you need to know what strength springs is best for you, yes you can change the soft/firm settings, but when say in the softest setting, the dampers do not work properly, so best is say, the right springs so that the setting can almost stay more in the firm side so to speak, so the dampers work best en let the springs do their job.

at least thats my experience with such on 3 of my BMW M coupe's with BC on the road.

[Terry Winks]

Thanks for that, some good insight.

luckily the guy who is installing them has access to all the gear so a fine tuning setup after shall be happening, full geo and all that once we're on, there is a great mountain loop out of the garage too, looking forward to doing some testing.

[gareth h]

Terry Winks said:

Thanks for that, some good insight.

luckily the guy who is installing them has access to all the gear so a fine tuning setup after shall be happening, full geo and all that once we're on, there is a great mountain loop out of the garage too, looking forward to doing some testing.

Porsche and 911 world did a feature with Centre Gravity looking at coilovers fitted to a dozen or so 996’s all with different spring rates, it was pretty interesting, I’ll see if I can find a copy.

[gareth h]

Just the overview and conclusions:

[Terry Winks]

GTRene said:

but you need to know what strength springs is best for you, yes you can change the soft/firm settings, but when say in the softest setting, the dampers do not work properly, so best is say, the right springs so that the setting can almost stay more in the firm side so to speak, so the dampers work best en let the springs do their job.

This has been really helpful for that chat so thanks. We are waiting on stock to arrive 10-15 days, but this has given us the time to consider this up properly.

Gutted I am not going to have the car back for a few weeks, but will be more excited when I do.

[Slippydiff]

cvega said:

Ohlins road and track should be called "TRACK and maybe sometimes road if you really have to".
They're on the very stiff side even dialled all the way soft.

I’ve recently fitted a set of R&T’s to a Gen 1 997 3.8 S (along with a complete suspension overhaul.
I used my own custom spring rates which where chosen primarily for fast road use, the owner is still raving about it

[Terry Winks]

Out of interest what spring rates did you go for?

[Slippydiff]

Terry Winks said:

Out of interest what spring rates did you go for?

Tried to PM you, but your PH account doesn’t accept emails.

[Terry Winks]

Should be sorted now.