Lowering a 996 Carrera - Photos required

[KeithRobinson]

Hi All,

I want to lower the ride height on my mk2 996 C2.

Two options are the Porsche upgrade, which costs around £650 and includes uprated anti-roll bars, this lowers 10mm. The other is the Bilstein B12 kit which doesn't include any uprated anti-roll bars, lowered 30mm and costs £1300.

I'd really appreciate it if any of you could show me some photos of your lowered 996 Carrera's to help me decide, and what suspension you've fitted to achieve the ride height.

Also, when going for the B12 kit, is there anything else I should change? (Car is tight, all bush's are fine, and it will get a full geo once installed)

Cheers

Keith

[monthefish]

I've always thought the GT3 should be the benchmark for Carrera lowering....


Whereas this is the M030 option....
(I think)





(p.s. I know these are 996.1's)

[M@1975]

Mine has MO30 and is lower than the picture, mine looks a LOT more like the GT3 pic in height, I'll get a pic up when I can.

[ScottMc91]

I am also very interested in hearing the answer to this as I'm having the M030 kit installed next month to my 3.4 Carrera.

Interestingly, i thought that the M030 was a -20mm drop on the front and -10mm on the back rather than 10mm all round, can anyone confirm this?
I'll be pretty disappointed if i have the kit fitted and do not notice an improvement to the looks.

I was told that using springs lower than the MO30 can lead to issues with other suspension components and increased tyre wear.

Maybe using +5mm wheel spacers would help reduce the gap between the tyres and wheel arches rather than using lower springs?

A further option to consider is the X74 kit from Porsche - i think this is -40mm front and -30mm back and should be roughly the same ride height as a GT3 but it's much more expensive than the M030.

for comparison - here is my car currently on standard suspension.

[M@1975]

Possibly not the best angle to illustrate but you can see it's clearly lower than the suggested MO30 height.

[m030]

ScottMc91 said:

A further option to consider is the X74 kit from Porsche - i think this is -40mm front and -30mm back ...

The X74 lowers a RoW 996 with 30mm all around , the US cars drop 40/30.
The bad news is that the X74 retrofit kit is no longer available.
Buying the kit in separate parts is possible but will cost a fortune.

[M@1975]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

You've got me wondering now, I'll check this evening, it was originally specced with the option suspension and thinking about the number of other "GT3 alike" bits you may well be right that it's X74.

[Ian_UK1]

KeithRobinson said:

Hi All,

I want to lower the ride height on my mk2 996 C2.

Two options are the Porsche upgrade, which costs around £650 and includes uprated anti-roll bars, this lowers 10mm. The other is the Bilstein B12 kit which doesn't include any uprated anti-roll bars, lowered 30mm and costs £1300.

I'd really appreciate it if any of you could show me some photos of your lowered 996 Carrera's to help me decide, and what suspension you've fitted to achieve the ride height.

Also, when going for the B12 kit, is there anything else I should change? (Car is tight, all bush's are fine, and it will get a full geo once installed)

Cheers

Keith

I'm tempted to ask what you are wanting to achieve by lowering the car? For track day use, this course of action makes sense. If you only use the car on the road, you'll potentially cause yourself a lot of headaches with speed bumps, car park ramps etc. Not to mention that the car will not be any quicker (and possibly quite a bit slower) over a typical bumpy British B road due to the underside forever hitting the tarmac. The ideal setup for really bumpy B roads is a reasonable ride height, plenty of wheel travel and tight damping. As Chris at CG once told me, despite their prowess on track, GT3s are often slower across the really bumpy stuff than other Porsche models due to simply being too low.

If you're going for a road setup, then retain the standard ride height (or lower minimally) uprate the dampers and anti-roll bars and use cup arms to allow a good setup. A couple of options for 996 are 1) Bilstein B6 Sport dampers (I had these on a 996.2 a few years ago - great all-round compromise and keeps the standard ride height) and 2) PSS 9/10 coilovers. The Coilovers have much firmer spring rates that allow you to run a little lower without hitting every bump and of course allow you (sorry, your suspension specialist) to play with the ride heights until your're happy. You also have the benefit of being able to accurately set cornerweights and adjust the damping as required.

I'd definitely recommend a trip to CG to discuss options with Chris, based on what you want from the car.

[fioran0]

front axle height:
USA versions, 17" wheels 157mm+/-10, 18' wheels 158mm +/-10
ROW versions, 17" wheels 147mm +/-10, 18" wheels 148mm +/-10
M030 versions, 112mm -10 (ie 102-112)

rear axle height:
USA versions, 17" wheels 157mm +/-10, 18' wheels 163mm +/- 10
ROW versions, 17" wheels 157mm +/-10, 18" wheels 163mm +/-10
M030 versions, 125mm +10 (ie 125-135)

Edited by fioran0 on Monday 4th February 17:50

[MrC986]

Just to add my 2pence worth on lowering 911...my Carerra has KWV3 & when l bought it the settings were to GT3 RS settings with GT3 front topmounts running massive neg. camber & very low/firm suspension & on a heavily cambered road it was like a terrier on acid as it weaved around & it easily triggered the ABS under braking given the lack of compliance in the system - I'm sure on a perfectly flat road it would be fine. CofG sorted it out though it is a lesson that there is a fine line between fun to drive & a wild ride.

OP think carefully before you start seriously dropping the ride height.

[Magic919]

This is not very scientific, but my M030 lowered C2 doesn't look any lower than my standard C4S. Drives quite differently, but looks same.

Tonight I got out the tape and measured through the centre of the wheel to underside of wheel arch. Both cars around 67cm at the rear, but M030 was 66cm versus 67cm at front. M030 car scrapes front on occasion, but haven't ever decked the C4S.

[ScottMc91]

Sounds like MO30 will fit the bill then, I don't want to compromise drive ability, just think that a slight drop will look better with the aerokit. Definitely some good information posted here.

I'll post up some before and after photos when I have the kit fitted.

[anonymous-user]

Hi,

I looked in to the options available to me from the OPC - 10mm drop or 30mm drop. After discussing it with the person I dealt with at the OPC at the time I went for the 10mm drop as the 30mm kit was expensive for what it was and it would severely compromise the useability of the car (since I use it everyday over all road types/conditions). These kits weren't referred to by their option numbers (X74 or M030).

I've looked through my file of receipts and I can't find the quote but the bill gives a number of P000.044.500.27 which has the name 'Retrofit Kit SP' on the bill. I believe that this is the RoW M030 kit. Streather's 996 book gives the M030 as a 20mm drop, but then states that there is a tolerance of 10mm so you get a drop of at least 10mm and a max drop of 20mm. The X74 (for narrowbodies) and X73 (for widebodies) Porsche Exclusive options drop by up to 30mm.

Actual fitment of the kit required a lot of extra work on my car (at the time mileage was just under 65k) in terms of bringing the bits of the suspension that aren't changed with this kit up to spec. After a further 20k it feels great. I did have the GT3RS splitter but lost that at Wilton House (so much for paying extra for VIP parking that never happened...). If I hadn't lost it there I'd have lost it in the localised flash floods on my journey at some point...that splitter made it home in the back of the car a few times! I'll put a new one on in the spring. In general, clearance was never an issue - and putting the splitter back on was quick enough with a trim removal tool.

Here are a couple of pics of my car taken today.









It's got a bit of rake - very nice rooster tails on wet motorways!

[r4_rick]

I looked into this just before xmas, just to clarify that the kits available from opc for about £600+vat are not the full on M030, they are C2/4S spec and only lower car by 10mm, apologies if that's already known to all. Still good value, but i think the full M030 kit is dearer and lowers by 30mm.

[anonymous-user]

Nope, it's a bit lower but useable everywhere I go - and that's the key thing for me. The drop is less important to me than the better vehicle control on my fave B roads. I can just get a standard car jack to the jack points (jack cup only). Any lower and I've had to swap to a much lower platform jack.

At the other end of the scale that Boxster just isn't useable in my opinion.

[r4_rick]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

...was only passing on what the parts guy said at OPC...! but i think I'm getting the jist of M030 and X74 Now !

[m030]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Front 112 and 125mm rear is the GT3 height !

[KeithRobinson]

Sorry for my late response to my own thread, but thank you for all the replies!

I'm in a position now to buy a suspension kit so I'll be able to make a better decision now.

I do a lot of miles with work but use another car. The 911 is a weekend/evening/event toy, I want to lower it because I always think they are a little high standard (maybe I need to grow up! Lol)

Going to price up the x kit and make a final decision

Regards

Keith

[mrgill]

i have the x73 on my 996 c4s, i wouldnt really advise going any lower!!!

[monthefish]

KeithRobinson said:

Sorry for my late response to my own thread, but thank you for all the replies!

I'm in a position now to buy a suspension kit so I'll be able to make a better decision now.

I do a lot of miles with work but use another car. The 911 is a weekend/evening/event toy, I want to lower it because I always think they are a little high standard (maybe I need to grow up! Lol)

Going to price up the x kit and make a final decision

Regards

Keith

So, what did you go with in the end?