Lowering an Early 911

[sng45]

As per the title - what's the best way to lower an early 911 by a cm or so ? I'm going to have a car built along the lines of a 911 S I owned some years ago - ex Josh Sadler road/race car that had a lower "stance" , and want to achieve the same look ( unfortunately I don't have any photos of it to post )

Is there any suspension set up off the shelf which will do the job , or a modification that can be made ?

Also any ideas as to the best place to buy a set of "steelies" ?

Thanks

[sng45]

Along the lines / stance of this.....

https://petrolicious.com/blogs/articles ... e-r-gruppe

[Ian Comerford]

These aren’t steel but mirror the look you may be after?
https://www.group4wheels.com/product-ca ... um-steels/
In terms of your suspension you should be able to achieve the height/stance you require by simply lowering the standard set up, it’s very adjustable.

[Ralph]

Tuthills have plenty of steel wheels for sale.

secondhandparts@tuthill.uk

[KS]

I may have a set of four 6x15 Group 4 'alu-steel' wheels for sale - silver centres, bare aluminium rims. Stock offset.

[Sam]

No parts needed to change the ride height. It’s all adjustable. The front is as simple as turning an 11mm bolt either side. The rear is more complicated but not much.

Just show the people building it that pic and they’ll set it accordingly when they put it together, before doing the final geometry.

If it’s only a cm lower than stock then standard dampers will work fine, if you go really low it’s worth doing some research.

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticl ... kXRLlYJVJK

[911hillclimber]

Not sure this will help:

I have an ex-hillclimb and road use 911T, 1973.
The ride height I have is about 15mm or so down on factory, looks nice 9imho) and practical for sleeping policemen etc of modern roads.

The method I use is simple and well proven over my 35 years with the car.

Set the front height by the 2 screws mentioned above such that the lower wishbones are horizontal to the floor the car is sat on. Be as precise as you can, ie floor level etc. Accuracy is king.
Place a level on the door sill and adjust the rear height such that the rear is higher than the front by 1 degree, thus the car has a slight nose-down stance.

This is a lot harder than the front when the rear spring plates are one piece.

Get all the other geo specs correct, camber toe etc.

If the suspension is rusty, the time to sort it all out will increase, so ensure the parts are free to be adjusted and clean and free of ANY grit between the surfaces.

This has worked for me for decades.

[hot66]

Your r-gruppe car pic looks similar heights to where I run my 2.4S at



Originally all done purely on adjusting the stock suspension so easy to achieve .

These days the rear end is adjusted on the spring plates with sport Bilstein and the front end runs raised spindles on modified Bilstein struts ( removes bump steer) . I also run thin spacers all round on the wheels ( need to with the strut set up I have ) . Set up all done at centre gravity many years ago . Also running elephant racing polybronze bushes

[Lightweight_911]

.

Along the lines / stance of this.....

That car - Cris Huergas' '69 911S - had a big influence on my early 911 interest & I was fortunate enough to get a ride in it alongside Cris when I was over in California with R Gruppe for Rennsport Reunion IV some years ago ...


.

[Gary71]

My car runs at a similar height to James.
I have run it lower but for road use the tank starts to get a bit intimate with the ground and you run out of travel on a bumpy road making it hard to drive.

I replaced my rear spring plates with the adjustable ones to avoid the faff of trying to do do it on splines.

[hot66]

yes you can see in my pic, I run a plastic 85lt tank that hangs low and it does hit the tarmac on the dales roads

[911hillclimber]

Above info given to me in 1992 by Bob Watson for a road/hill car.
No bump steer (rack has no 10mm spacers) and the car does not bottom out but I don't drive it in Yorkshire!

2 piece rear plates make a lot of difference in time and frustration, and cost if you are not doing it all DIY.

I don't think I have as much rake as Gary and James but generally about 10mm lower?

[Ollie]

Get yourself a set of these and a used pair of LWB rear spring plates.

https://www.rsrproducts.com/product-pag ... r-adjuster

or spend a fair bit more and get the whole setup in one go...

https://www.rsrproducts.com/product-pag ... ing-plates

[anglophone1]

i have these - same idea!
https://www.elephantracing.com/porsche/ ... plate-kit/

[Gary71]

For reference my arch to ground heights are
644 LF 635 RF
635 LR 635 RR

This is where I ended up to get the corner weights level ish.