Anatomy to getting the perfect 997 Turbo suspension by atomic80

12 minute read

Anatomy to getting the perfect 997 Turbo suspension

Compliments of atomic80 @ www.teamspeed.com

Anatomy to getting the perfect 997 Turbo suspension

What is the perfect suspension? That is the age old question, how do you create something that will fit everyone's tastes?

By Jason Tang

The 997 Turbo was designed essentially as a "GT" touring machine with a somewhat cushy ride adjustable with a push of a button intended to firm up things a bit. When I first drove my Turbo after taking delivery, I set out to analyze the way the car felt under varying road conditions. From that I determined that the stock setup was a bit too soft for my tastes especially with the rear "jiggle" around undulating sweepers. I knew I needed to find a way to tighten things up as well as improve the overall steering feel. I had no way of knowing that this was the beginning of a man's 3 year journey in finding perfection. 

Step 1

Parts list of parts acquired over the span of 3 years. 

Billstein B16 Damptronics

H&R adjustable swaybars

Tarrett swaybar droplinks

Metal balls/connectors instead of rubber or plastic balls/connectors

2nd step:

RSS lower control arms for both the front and rear

RSS adjustable rear link kit

RSS adjustable rear toe steer kit

3rd and final step:

Mode Inc Camber Plate Kit

The process

In the beginning, there was the stock form and then one day, the Car Gods deemed it was necessary to banish these into the great parts graveyard nestled in the dark corner of the attic

Damptronics and H&R sways

Manufactured by Bilstein

Part numbers

Rear subwoofer removed

Rear PASM wire connector

View from under rear shock opening

Marking the mounting points for the sway bars

Installing the H&R sway bars

Side view

New coilovers from underneath

Damptronic coilover

Comparing the stock non adjustable droplinks with the new fully adjustable droplinks

New swaybar droplinks are installed

Rear Tarett droplink

Rear 

H&R rear swaybar

Massive rear RS wheel

Final adjustment before putting everything back together

Corner balancing

4 wheel alignment

A few months down the road, it was deemed necessary to install rubber boots to insulate the droplinks from the weather elements to prevent corrosion and binding. 

Rubber boots in place

Installed

GT3 RS alignment specifications that was used:

Front

Left camber: -1.0

Right camber: - 1.0

Left caster: 7.5

Right caster: 7.5

Left toe: 0.4mm

Right toe: 0.4mm

Rear

Left camber: -1.8

Right camber: -1.8

Left toe: 2.0mm

Right toe: 1.9mm

My first impressions were that I was very impressed with the changes in handling Ive experienced so far! It feels much more neutral and compliant over most roads. There are times when it does feel a bit stiff (really rough roads) but for the most part, its a must-have upgrade. The suspension motions are very well controlled especially around sweepers. It no longer jiggles over slight adulations/bumps mid-turn and is now very flat. Its now just flat and very easy to control. It also feels much lighter on its feet which I didnt think was possible. Id say that it handles/feels more like the 997 GT3 I drove. This upgrade is relatively inexpensive compared to most out there and highly recommended! The differences in ride height between stock and lowered form is less than I thought it would be. ½ lower in front from the ground to the bottom of the wheel opening on top. ¾Â lower in the rear. But the most important one of all is the front lip which was less than ½Â lower on mine. No major worries about additionally scraping the front end. The shop that did the install did adjust the coilover height for me. I believe it comes set to be a bit lower from the factory. Bottom line is, if you were on the fence about doing this upgrade, my advice is DO IT! The last note is, yes, theres a difference between the normal and sport PASM mode. Both feels very compliant but Id say that the sport mode is a bit too harsh for daily driving. Id save that for those spirited runs where it really shines.

Step 2

Fast forward a few years, I made the mistake of driving a friend's 997.2 GT3 RS that had just gotten a number of modifications done to it. And let me tell you guys, it was a revelation! I'd driven a number of other GT3/GT3RS before and it just does not compare to the way this example felt. The way it handled felt almost telepathic to the point where you literally could think where you'd want it to go. I was impressed and far from it for me to think that it'd be possible to make my Turbo handle exactly the same way but I knew I probably could get close. And so, I decided to order the same kit for mine. My Turbo was already in the shop because the front coilovers needed to be rebuilt for unrelated reasons so I figured I might as well get the new bits installed. I had them installed by the very capable techs from Motoring Unlimited whom also installed my tailights last year too. The next step was to get the new RSS parts.

Lower control arms

Control Arms in the rear

Specs

Afterwards, the Turbo was delivered to my home where I had a chance to try her out briefly because of rush hour traffic. A real drive would have to wait until a later date.

Step 3

It was determined that further modifications would be needed to ensure that the front coilovers worked properly with the mounting points. As it stands now with the stock mounts there were a fair amount of spring binding due to the fact that the mounts were not "turning" with the coilovers as steering inputs were made. We needed to find a type of mount that would allow the coilovers to properly "turn." A "pillow shock mount with ball bearings were found that would allow proper spring adjustment as steering inputs were made.

Bilstein Damptronic with stock shock mount

Stock mounting cup. No fitting issues initially but later I discovered that there are binding issues with the mounts and springs.

Top view of new vs old shock mounts

New vs old shock mount

Bottom view

Top view

Comparing coilovers with old vs new shock mounts

Final alignment and corner balancing

The view most will see now that the handling has been perfected

Many thanks to the team at Cantrell Motorsport and Motoring Unlimited for their hard work in making my Turbo the perfect handling machine.

997TT at Cantrell Motorsport

Motoring Unlimited

Now that I've managed to soak it all in and think about my impressions since these new bits were installed, I can share them with you. First off, I can't stop raving about the change then and now because of these simple modifications. It really did go a long way in improving the overall feel/handling of my Turbo. I already had Bilstein damptronics, H&R sways and Tarret droplinks previously which definitely improved handling from stock form but these new RSS bits took it one step further. My car feels almost much more assured around the corners and the steering feel has especially been taken to a new level. I was also very impressed at how compliant this setup was. Not quite bone jarring but hardly Cadillac smooth either. Have I managed to discover the holy grail of suspension perfection yet? Time to hit the track to find out!

At ORP, ready to go!

My impressions after multiple sessions around ORP is that the Turbo has achieved near 100% perfection. Not quite like the GT3 RS that served as its inspiration but about as close as one can get given the fact that the Turbo has extra weight and AWD hardware. The Turbo handled very well around the corners and was well planted. I received plenty of road feedback from the varying road surfaces and was able to make adjustments accordingly. I'm very pleased with the overall feel and this is the anatomy to this man's perfection suspension setup for the Turbo.