Roock Suspension Upgrade for 964 T2
Discussion
Well now that you ask.....
So for those who have been spared my ramblings in the past, the story so far. Bought a T2, which was advertised as having RS suspension fitted. Seemed like a good idea to me (the uninitiated). Well, once I had overcome the sheer terror of guiding 350+ horses around our tarmac bridleways, I began to focus on the subtleties of handling. Without wanting to put too fine a point on it, it was shite. So what exactly does 'shite' mean. In this instance it means teeth rattlingly (sic) hard suspension, with less than an inch of play before the bump-stops. This also means a lot of negative camber up front (understeer central). More worryingly the passive rear wheel steering (which was a gentle hint that you were about to park your car in a ditch) was a daily treat Oh and the uneven tire wear up front was unwelcome. The only way I can think to describe the feeling of driving at speed as-was, and this only helps if you have seen them, is to imagine your road holding resembles that of an unlimited-hydrofoil. Skitting from one edge to the other, with daylight oscillating between corners, scuttling if you will. This, as you may have guessed, did not make for relaxed high-speed driving.
So, what too do? Ring JZ seemed to be a half decent idea So I dropped the car off and asked them to 'make it good'. Got a ring latter that week, they had taken the dampers off to discover they were all dead or very close too. It also transpires that RS suspension, in this case, resembles standard dampers with 993 race springs. These are 6 inches shorter than the standard 965 springs This all happened to coincide with a worldwide shortage of Porsche 965 dampers. My only choice was to upgrade to the Roock system. I had heard a lot of good things, however most people had opted for slightly cheaper alternatives, like RUF. It seemed that very few actually had installed the Roock system.
So I gave the go-a-head for the Roock suspension and also to space the wheels correctly. It took about a week for all the work to be done (they also noticed a brake pump on its way out so this was replaced too). I popped over to JZ on the Saturday and met Steve (chief technical guy) outside. He seemed almost as excited as I was. I had asked him to give it a good hiding, in the interest of science you understand, and to ensure I wasn’t going to be unpleasantly surprised at speed. He was very animated in his enthusiasm for what they had achieved. All I needed to do was pay up (approx. £2000 for suspension a loan) and drive home
The car was totally transformed. It seem to dynamically adapt to your driving requirements. 40 MPH on crappy country roads with epileptic camber, no problem. Almost comfortable. XXX MPH on slightly undulating motorway (tramline hell before) was a one hand on the wheel job. Great. The problem I now have, is that before the car very politely suggested that 100 MPH was a bad thing. Now? Well have a look at the power/speed curve for the T2 and read off at 5500 RPM in 5th
This weekend I’m up North. I will be in close proximity to the Welsh hills which should give even more opportunity to explore the new handling envolope
So for those who have been spared my ramblings in the past, the story so far. Bought a T2, which was advertised as having RS suspension fitted. Seemed like a good idea to me (the uninitiated). Well, once I had overcome the sheer terror of guiding 350+ horses around our tarmac bridleways, I began to focus on the subtleties of handling. Without wanting to put too fine a point on it, it was shite. So what exactly does 'shite' mean. In this instance it means teeth rattlingly (sic) hard suspension, with less than an inch of play before the bump-stops. This also means a lot of negative camber up front (understeer central). More worryingly the passive rear wheel steering (which was a gentle hint that you were about to park your car in a ditch) was a daily treat Oh and the uneven tire wear up front was unwelcome. The only way I can think to describe the feeling of driving at speed as-was, and this only helps if you have seen them, is to imagine your road holding resembles that of an unlimited-hydrofoil. Skitting from one edge to the other, with daylight oscillating between corners, scuttling if you will. This, as you may have guessed, did not make for relaxed high-speed driving.
So, what too do? Ring JZ seemed to be a half decent idea So I dropped the car off and asked them to 'make it good'. Got a ring latter that week, they had taken the dampers off to discover they were all dead or very close too. It also transpires that RS suspension, in this case, resembles standard dampers with 993 race springs. These are 6 inches shorter than the standard 965 springs This all happened to coincide with a worldwide shortage of Porsche 965 dampers. My only choice was to upgrade to the Roock system. I had heard a lot of good things, however most people had opted for slightly cheaper alternatives, like RUF. It seemed that very few actually had installed the Roock system.
So I gave the go-a-head for the Roock suspension and also to space the wheels correctly. It took about a week for all the work to be done (they also noticed a brake pump on its way out so this was replaced too). I popped over to JZ on the Saturday and met Steve (chief technical guy) outside. He seemed almost as excited as I was. I had asked him to give it a good hiding, in the interest of science you understand, and to ensure I wasn’t going to be unpleasantly surprised at speed. He was very animated in his enthusiasm for what they had achieved. All I needed to do was pay up (approx. £2000 for suspension a loan) and drive home
The car was totally transformed. It seem to dynamically adapt to your driving requirements. 40 MPH on crappy country roads with epileptic camber, no problem. Almost comfortable. XXX MPH on slightly undulating motorway (tramline hell before) was a one hand on the wheel job. Great. The problem I now have, is that before the car very politely suggested that 100 MPH was a bad thing. Now? Well have a look at the power/speed curve for the T2 and read off at 5500 RPM in 5th
This weekend I’m up North. I will be in close proximity to the Welsh hills which should give even more opportunity to explore the new handling envolope
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