SWB Suspension Upgrades?

[Flieger]

Is the op's car a 911 or a 912? I thought 911.

[hoffman912]

Is the op's car a 911 or a 912? I thought 911.

The Op's was a 911, but i had some follow up and clarification questions because i am doing the suspension on my swb 912.. john was just reminding me not to look at them as apples to apples comparisions, that the weight distribution causes the 911 to handle differently than my 912.

[Chris Pomares]

I'm also looking for a sporty street ride. Mostly mountains outside of Denver and the hills from Carpinteria to Big Sur. The 2 places the car will be mostly used. This is exactly the information I've been mulling for 3 months. I've talked to several of the more well know independent shops from Denver to North and Southern California. 19, 20, 21mm front, 24, 25, 26mm rear torsion bars. Rubber, polybronze, monoball bushings. Sway bar size. SWB or change to LWB front suspension. Unfortunitly there is a different answer from everyone. I feel like the guy with 2 watches who has two different times and never really knows what time it is. To make matters even a little more difficult my 912 is also SWB but it has the POLO engine . Lighter than a 911 engine, heaver than a 912 engine. At this point I'm more confused than ever. I'm running 195/55/16 front on 6's and 205/55/16 on 6 1/2's (custom) rears Fuchs. Any thoughts?
It seems many of us are looking for a similar result. Good luck to all. Chris

[edmayo]

Advising someone what suspension set-up he/she needs is like trying to define what the best mate selection will be,,,,different for everyone !
And then as happens to many of us,,,,it'll all change someday any how!! Some people seem to advise a really trick set-up worthy of a full blown track car, then you come to find out they never drive more than 20 miles at a time. What you can tolerate for that length of trip is different than spending three days in a car going cross country on all kinds of roads. In general I usually tend to think Porsche got it right based on the compromises they have to make between good handling and all day drives. With that caveat I'd say to listen to John T. 24 torsion bars in the rear, stock t. bars in front, Koni shocks, (set slightly stiffer in rear, but NEVER full stiff) for street use a stock sway bar set-up of 15mm front/14 rear or reasonably small aftermarket (you really don't need trick adjustable bars, be honest, how often are you going to get underneath and adjust them?) and RUBBER suspension bushings (stiffer aftermarket is fine) You're NOT trying to build a race car, you don't need solid bushings. From the picture of your car I'd say you are at the limits of low ride height, maybe should even be 3/4" higher. You are very close to running into the shock bump stops. Have you checked as to how much suspension travel you have before contact? Set suspension for reasonable negative camber, about -1 1/2 degrees, slight toe-in at each end. Keep reminding yourself, this a street car, not a dedicated track car. This is NOT an optimum set-up, this is the compromise like Porsche did, only slightly more aggressive.
So now you have ONE MORE opinion. Like a mate maybe this will be good for awhile

[Bob Harriman]

I have been satisfied with stock torsions, koni's adjusted to mid range, 19mm front and 16 rear sway bars adjusted to the minimum and rubber. I am lowered but not quite as much as cmpski. A slightly rough ride but I am ok with that as I drive for pleasure not comfort, precision not racing. By the way I am a 912.

[Bob Harriman]

Forgot to show picture. 69 LWB. Those are 205/55/15 nitto extreme performance

[Chris Pomares]

The suspension has not been changed since I bought the car. 24 1/2 front and 23 3/4 rear. I think it was set 24 in the rear but the spring plate bushings are now compressed. Once I source parts I'll probally go 25 front and 24 1/2 rear. I just bought 26mm rear t bars. Maybe over kill for my purposes. If I don't use them I might go from 18/23 to SC 19/24 or just a 24 rear. By the way my car has factory 15mm rear and I think 15 or 16mm front sway bars.
Guys thank you for your input.

[JohnT]

I think the biggest problem with suspension changes (particularly small adjustments) is testing. For performance gains, the stopwatch is the truest measurement. This means you need a test run that you can repeat. City streets are difficult because of traffic and other movable obstacles (some uncaring jerk parks his pickup right on your apex), and cops. Next one has to be a good enough driver to do multiple identical passes over the test run. If one early apexes a corner one time and late apexes next time is the tim difference due to the suspension change or the different route?

Remember that comfortable and easy to drive may not be adjectives used to describe a "fast" setup. Most fast cars have a bit of "nervosa" in the handling and this can be really difficult to deal with on public roads. But just because the seat of your pants says the car feels better isn't really a true test of it is faster. Like Ed for street cars I advocate drives better or easier over is actually faster as the handling goal for a street car.

There is no doubt that big changes can make cars feel better and go faster (installing a front sway bar where there was none, or replacing worn out bushings for example. Otherwise be careful what you ask for.... .

[Chris Pomares]

It seems a common thread of the people asking the questions is, we are looking for a seat of the pants, "it feels good" road car. I'm guessing what feels right to one person might be quite different to another. I suppose all we can do is take insight from those of you who have gone before us then step up and make our choices. I'm looking forward to the process. Here is my local playground. To the right of the picture is Boulder, Co and to the left is Golden, Co. The mountains are about 6 - 8 miles away and housing covers 3 of those miles then a 3 mile run before UP. Up can be 14,000 feet to the top of Mount Evans in mid to late summer. At the moment the picture is quite different, as in ALL white. Oh well, 3 months to go.

[edmayo]

Ahhhh Colorado, some of the best driving roads in the country!!