All my parts came in today so Mike Courtney's team here in Minneapolis began my build-out. Before I start though - I hope everyone can find a crew like Mike's to work on their cars. I bring the parts, they bring the labor. They have tons of experience working on Pcars and own and race them. The shop is clean and they have all the equipment. They have opinions and are willing to share them. Perfect.
So what did we have done?
1) Quaife. The
TBD is a very nice piece of equipment - very solid. Mike told me that he has put many Quaife's into various different racing machines and suggested I get new bearings. He told me that I'm at about 50% risk for losing a bearing (and hence mobility) if I reuse the ones there.
We had Carousel Porsche deliver a set of bearings. They sent the Boxster ones that don't fit. So we are waiting for the right ones air freighted from Germany.
2)
TPC Sway Bars. These things are huge! Mike's comment was that they are bigger than the sway bars on the 993. They are a solid piece of kit, powder coated and shiny. I tried to squeeze them in a he-man like move. No go.
I wasn't there for the install (got called to Chicago on business Thursday) - but they look pretty sweet when all tucked in.
3) PSS9s. These are pretty nice looking. The color springs, the shiny stainless. The adjustment nut on the bottom is pretty easy to access when the car is on the ground. Slide on a piece of cardboard and you should have no problems.
Because of the stiffer suspension, we decided the lower the car by about 20mmm and Mike adjusted the camber so the car would be a bit more aggressive cornering.
4) Blizzaks. We took the summer tires off the rim. The tire guy asked me if I wanted to keep the tires? They were still good so I said 'yes'. He said that he wasn't sure 'cuz the Porsche guys are weird'.
Mike told me a story about a Zone 10
PCA member who frequents this board.
They brought in their car early in the summer and decided to swap out the tires before they were completely done. Mike stored the tires. Later in the season they came back needing new tires but not wanting to pay for them so late in the season. Mike showed them the stored tires and they said 'how much'. He then told them it was their own tires.
The Results
Perhaps in a week I will get the Quaife unit installed. But I can tell you about the results of the suspension mods.
The car is much, much tighter sprung than factory. This translates into a faster bump dynamic. The car moves less, but quicker. The result is that the ride quality is a bit rougher but the big bumps are quite attenuated.
The CS always felt like a solid slab going around corners. With the swaybars, it's hard to believe, but it's even more solid. This is by far the biggest thing I have noticed. This is a combination of all the changes, but it's a nice feeling.
I chucked the car around a few corners and got some drift happening. The car restabilized with much less to-and-fro. It felt really nice.
I also got a bit of power oversteer happening and the car settled much faster than before.
When doing my first DE a couple months ago, I started thinking 'stabilize the platform before making the turn' - I can see how these mods will stabilize the platform faster - letting me take corners later.
Good news - trunk clunk is almost gone. Note from the survey that people with
PASM (hence 10mm lower) rarely report it. Manual lowering seems to have the same result.
Bad news - trunk boom happened. If you are wondering what the difference is - trunk boom scares the **** out of you. It's like a kettle drum! The dynamic settling difference means that when you hit a big bump, the hatch settles quickly. I'm gonna have to fix that!
I'll give another update when the Quaife unit is finally installed.
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PASM - Porsche Active Suspension Management
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This active damping system offers continuous adjustment of individual damping forces based on current road conditions and driving style.
The driver can choose from two setup modes, ‘Normal’ and ‘Sport’, using a separate ‘damper’ button on the center console. ‘Normal’ mode is designed for general road driving and circuits with uneven tarmac. ‘Sport’ mode is intended for smoother track surfaces, where the harder settings help eliminate pitch and roll.
In either mode, PASM continuously evaluates the current conditions while automatically selecting the corresponding damper rates from the respective set of mapped values.
A range of sensors are used to monitor the movement of the body under acceleration, braking and cornering maneuvers, as well as on poor road surfaces. The PASM control unit then evaluates this data and modifies the damping force on each individual wheel in accordance with the selected mode. The result is a significant reduction in body movement as well as a better grip on the road.
For example: if ‘Sport’ mode is selected, the suspension is automatically set to a harder damper rating. If the quality of the track surface falls below a certain threshold, the system immediately changes to a softer rating within the ‘Sport’ setup range. When the quality of the tarmac improves once more, PASM automatically returns to the original, harder rating.
Need more information about PASM? Click this link: FAQ for PASM |
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LSD - Limited Slip Differential
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A limited slip differential (LSD) is a modified or derived type of differential gear arrangement that allows for some difference in rotational velocity of the output shafts, but does not allow the difference in speed to increase beyond a preset amount. In an automobile, such limited slip differentials are sometimes used in place of a standard differential, where they convey certain dynamic advantages, at the expense of greater complexity.
The main advantage of a limited slip differential is found by considering the case of a standard (or "open") differential where one wheel has no contact with the ground at all. In such a case, the contacting wheel will remain stationary, and the non-contacting wheel will rotate freely– the torque transmitted will be equal at both wheels, but will not exceed the threshold of torque needed to move the vehicle, thus the vehicle will remain stationary. In everyday use on typical roads, such a situation is very unlikely, and so a normal differential suffices. For more demanding use however, such as driving off-road, or for high performance vehicles, such a state of affairs is undesirable, and the LSD can be employed to deal with it. By limiting the velocity difference between a pair of driven wheels, useful torque can be transmitted as long as there is some friction available on at least one of the wheels.
To see the installation of a LSD style unit Click Here -> Article Forthcoming Stay Tuned |
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Linear Mode
