So I have a set of SC Bilstein struts for my six and I want the car to sit lower than when it was new but I do not want to reduce suspension travel because I want the car to still have a nice ride. Sound reasonable?

I have heard rumors that the Bilstein strut is one of the struts which is easier to do this with.

1. Is that true?

2. How much would one typically raise the spindle? This is going to be a street car that will not see track use. I want the car to sit somewhere between stock and "holy crap that is low" without having ride issues if possible.

Feel free to set me straight if I am just all screwed up here. I am going to have the struts soda blasted and painted so I would like to make this modification prior to having them painted.

Thanks for your thoughts.
Michael

Michael

You want to Raise the spindle on the strut to lower the car.Here's a couple of people that could do it.

http://rebelracingproducts.com/Suspension/Steering.html

http://www.elephantracing.com/suspension/s...s/914struts.htm

Cheers

Chris:

I figured I could count on you. Thanks for straightening me out; I corrected my posting. I will give them both a call. I will also ask them if a camber modification is necessary/desired.

What struts do you have and have you done anything to them?

Thanks again,
Michael

In my opinion, go stock with your Bilstein spindles and lower the car just a little if you want better handling. The assumption here is that you do the associated changes to the rear and alignments (and more) to match.

For a street car, going too low is unacceptable because it'll decrease the number of places you can drive, and increase your maintenance.

I have Bilstein 911 struts and a lowered car with "Sport" inserts. The spindles are stock height and all you need are spacers on the rack to get the tie-rods level again to combat the bump-steer that would increase otherwise.

I've taken out a couple of front dams and spoilers not just on speed-bumps, but on uneven pavement where there were deep tire groves on asphalt. Makes for loud noises and broken fiberglass when you hit it at speed.

On a track car I might do it for better ground effects in concert with a splitter. but I'd run better ventilation for the engine to offset the loss of air under the car. A couple of thoughts to make this a complete design...

- You can get the car lower with low profile tires. 40's or 45's and especially if you run 15 in. rims.
- Your tire selection will have a camber setting that they operate best at. More than 1 degr. neg and your tire wear will increase. DOT legal track tires want more than that.
- Your rear alignment/ spring rate / ride-height choices will factor into the equation too since they're part-n-parcel with the front choices.
- Have you chosen the torsion-bar and sway-bar sizes yet?

I vote for planning it all out at the same time.

Good luck!

Michael

I have later Boge struts w/ the wedge pin type ball joint with a elephant racing bumpsteer kit. The problem i have at my ride height the A arm is very close to the unibody. With the raised spindle you retain the suspension travel with the lowered ride height and with adjustable spring perches in the rear you get much more adjustment for corner balancing and ride height. Chuck at Elephant racing can give you all the details and help you with the suspension bushings as well.He sells and installs the polybronze as well as stock rubber bushings.IMHO it is better to lower the car this way and use close to stock tire profiles to retain ride quality.

Cheers

I appreciate the feedback from everyone. I tend to side with Elmonte here so far as I do not want to run a low-profle tire like one in the 40's on the streets.

Yeah, I know sidewalls in the 30's are pretty common now but so are those cars sitting on the side of the road with bent rims and blown tires.

They want to raise the spindle 19mm which is really not much. They apparently raise them 19, 30 or 44mm, I think. I would be going with the most conservative approach as I want to run the deep 6 wheels (15x6).

I talked with Chuck at Elephant Racing this morning and he explained the process and why raising the spindle is the best way to lower your car and maintain the correct geometry. Apparently there is also a positive impact on the camber when you raise the spindle.

Clearly, I need to talk with some more experts prior to making a decision because I do not want to be putting money into something that I have to re-do later.

Keep the information coming please.
Thanks,
Michael

Bilstein sells front struts with raised spindles. You might want to just buy those.

I have heard that might be the most you can raise them with 15" wheels. I haven't checked it on my car though.

If you are running a 15 inch rim the most you can raise the spindles is between 17mm and 19mm or you will have fitment issues with the tie rod arm hitting the rim. That said, if you raise the spindles, you will need to run a bump steer kit to get the geometry back in line. I have seen the spacer kits work for this but I have also seen them not be enough which means a bump up to a real Bump steer kit which means Turbo Tie Rods if you do not already have them.

Now you talked about lowering your car. Are you going to lower it more than 19mm? if you are then, even if you do raise the spindles 19mm, you are going to be on the bottom side of the center of travel of your inserts, in relation to stock. Remember 19mm is less than an inch. Lots of cars are lowered a lot more than an inch.

I basically agree with pcar916 except for the tires, but to toss out another solution on the other extreme, I have raised my spindles 17mm (I have a set of deep 6’s I am going to run), added a coil over kit and I have shortened my front Bilstein struts and inserts by 1.5 inches. Turbo tie rods and RSR bump steer kit also required.

Interesting....I was investigating a bump steer kit like the one Elephant Racing sells as I know I am going to need to do something.

As far as lowering it I don't know what the stock ride height was but I am betting I want to be 2", or maybe more, lower than that. I had coil-overs on my 993 and loved the ride and handling.

Thank you for the input.

I use this bump steer kit, works great:

http://www.automotion.com/weltmeister-bump...-porsche-1.html

Keep in mind raising the spindle also raises the steering arm, so you will only need to adjust the rack up for any lowering you do past 19mm.

Oh, and turbo tie rods are a must.

Raising the spindles beyone 18mm will cause the bottom of the "Ball joint" to rub. Ask me how I know.

I had raised spindles on my 911 and I was not happy with the ride. Also, whoever did them did not get good enough penetration in the large rosette... they began to sag.

I went back to regular Bilsteins. I have fairly high profile tires now (65's up front and 60's in the rear). I have my adjusters set almost mid-way and my ride height is l-o-w.

Just not sure I'd call it a great idea for a regular street driven car. That said, if they're done right and you have proper geometry it should be fine.

Yes, Bilstein's with their straight tube are easier to modify.