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4 minute(s) of a 612 minute read
2-23-2014
2-23-2014
Thanks for the kind words and sorry for late reply. No, Bilstein is not "really" stiff on the road. Stiffer than stock, yes, but most definitely not too bad at all. Remember this is designed by Bilstein to be a "mainly road, occasional track" system. In comparison, I would say it feels similar to the stiff setting of the BMW 2011 M3.
I have not driven on Scottish roads, but if it's similar to southern England's roads, you should be perfectly fine.
In return for the mild/mod increase in stiffness, a 997 Turbo with aftermarket coilover is a bucket list item that any motorsports fan should once have a chance to ride; a COMPLETELY different car because, for me anyway, it improves two major "issues" of the stock 997.1 Turbo:
1. Mushy and boring handling
2. Lazy and mushy steering
4-26-2014
^^^^Thanks for the nice comment. Ahh... you commute through canyon roads and own a highly modded race car, so I am preaching to the choir, but yes, stiffening the suspension is an absolute must for our Turbo on mountain roads. I guarantee you will love it :-). You simply cannot go fast in our stock Turbo in tight turning radius as the body rolls too much. It takes ALL the fun out of driving. I learned this hard lesson chasing a GT3 on Muholland with a professional driver - we switched cars back and forth, I followed he led; my experience appeared in Car and Driver's lead article reviewing 2010 GT3.
A dealer I would recommend is AWE Tuning - authorized Bilstein dealer for the lifetime warranty and these people seemingly have inside connection with Bilstein and will go to bat for you if there is any problem. In Los Angeles, Tom of Lucent (cell # 310-733-7324) would be extremely highly recommended for Bilstein installation. Besides his considerable suspension tuning experience (he tunes Porsche/Ferrari/BMW for the track), Tom is cheap 
, a win win situation.
As you already know, the ride height of coilover is adjustable. With Bilstein, if you lower the minimum amount, 5 mm, the scrape would be minimum and very much doable for city driving; I've been driving this way in LA for 6 years. This adjustable height is one advantage of coilover as a majority of lowering springs on market lower the car a fixed 20-24 mm.
The ride compromise is minimum, yes stiffer but really is not bad at all on LA road. In comparison, a Bilstein Turbo feels similar to my BMW M3 on its stiff suspension setting; meaning, for sports drivers, it's a nothing. I rarely talk about it so as not to scare people off LOL, but actually in my car the springs have been changed to be even stiffer because like you, I live in a mountainous area of Los Angeles. There is a switchback right behind my house, no kidding.
Not for Chris, but I encourage anyone who is new to suspension, and to Porsche, to read the first page of this thread. It's information I gathered from knowledgeable people - guarantee :-) to be on the mark and no bs. Suspension tuning is always a trade-off of personal preferences, there is NO right or wrong, but know a world of extremely fun and sharp handling behavior is readily available if you so desire.