[evan9eleven]

Originally Posted by Driven97

Pretty car.

=snip=

More caster = the wheel wants to go back to straight more.

911s have quite a bit of caster, but it's not super adjustable so you can't really wreck anything by being a little off. Technically your car is listed as out-of-spec low on caster, but I don't think a 911 can physically be at 6° so I think the measurement is wrong.

Just out of curiosity, you're not running any spacers up front or anything, are you? Those are factory wheels (or at least factory offsets)?

Factory Fuchs 7" and 8" widths, no spacers front, 7mm rear. Thanks for the caster explanation!

Originally Posted by jpnovak

The updated castor settings look good at 6'15* and 6'22*.

A full tank of gas as well as a front boot loaded with luggage will certainly take away from the light steering feel.

You can go up to about 5.8 deg front castor. But that might make the car feel nervous at speed. I typically do not exceed 6.0 deg.

IMO you should also add some rear toe-in and front negative camber. The rear will feel more stable and steering will be sharper for sure

Since your car is so low, adding travel weight to the front will make it lower. This will increase castor and make steering more heavy (combination of weight and alignment.

How does the car ride unloaded?

Jamie, do you think I need to raise the ride height? I haven't driven the same roads so hard without a passenger with the quick rack, but unloaded on normal roads it feels pretty good. I'll look at the toe and camber!

Originally Posted by acme911

Tire age? Tire pressure’s? Did you play with tire pressure due to added weight?

29F 34R as above. Tires are 2.5 years old.

Originally Posted by Mahler9th

One of the references I always suggest is Puhn's How to Make Your Car Handle. Relatively inexpensive and a good reference. I have recommended it for a really long time. The car on the cover has some significant local history...

If you still lived here I'd invite you over and we'd set up your car in my garage...

At some point, you may need to decide what "type" of alignment specs that you want to run. You have obviously invested a lot of time and money and are very meticulous in your approach to developing your car.

I view alignment specs along a continuum, based on use case. One one end is bone stock daily driver, save the tires, et cetera.

=snip=

Lots of great input-- thank you! I'll look for the Puhn book. I don't care about tire life as I only drive the car a coulple thousand miles a year, so good sharp handling is a goal, without the car being nervous. Wish I could just drop by...

Originally Posted by Kraftwerk

Just guessing, from an armchair on another continent, is that considering the car was set-up, corner balanced to a certain weight, THEN you added a lot of weight: passenger and a full trunk ...it's going to perform differently.

This makes complete sense. Either the wife needs to pack less shoes next time or stay home. Or the setup needs to accomodate the wife and her shoes!

Originally Posted by Kraftwerk

Sports cars are sensitive to weight gains and losses, you just feel it more now since every thing is set up the way it is.. again, just a guess. What I don't have to guess about is the gorgeousness of that Minerva Blue

Thanks! I love it. The paint is trashed but the money hasn't been used on the outside of this car.

Originally Posted by Driven97

All of the above is good advice, but not much addresses the change in steering effort. Just to be clear, the steering effort was fine before the upgrades?

I forgot to mentiion that the ER upgrades have been on the car for 3 seasons, just this past summer was the first season with the quick rack. The suspension was setup by the same guy after the ER install and again after I upgraded the rack. The car also got about 50-60 lbs lighter with removal of AC and CIS so needed a full adjustment. The steering effort seemed normal before, and seems normal now... right up until I push the car hard on really small roads with a passenger.

Originally Posted by reddogmotrsprts

IMO, anyone quick to blame the quick rack is on the right track.

It's a great upgrade and I personally love it in all turns, but it does add more steering effort than any of your other upgrades. I'm not surprised you are finding it a bit harder to drive tight twisties on the street, where you aren't going very fast or reaching the limits of adhesion, lifting a wheel, transferring weight, etc.

I would add some toe and camber up front to let the car rotate a little easier, but be careful that you test the result on all the roads you plan on driving. It's pretty easy to make some small modifications at home and test-drive the result; you can always have your wrench dial it in on the rack once you show him in which direction you want to take it.

Have fun with it -- these cars are really rewarding to experiment with.

Thanks! I've got some settings to play with I think. Thing is I like the quicker steering on better roads without a passenger. Bit of a dilemma.

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

It says you came in with nearly zero caster, was that a random result after the suspension upgrade (put the new parts on, and button it up just enough to get to the alignment rack), or did you drive it much like that before getting the alignment done? Maybe you got used to that feeling (which would have been incredibly touchy...) which means ANY caster would make the car feel heavy.

I can't explain the wacky initial settings. The ER upgrades went on two years ago and the car was aligned and setup then. Only suspension-related change after that was the rack install.

Originally Posted by eastbay

Good advice, I like zero toe to a little toe out and I would bump up the front tire pressure, should make the front dance.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by tirwin

I am going to ask some dumb questions.

As long as your usual sense of humor is present, you can ask as many dumb questions as you want!

Originally Posted by tirwin

What kind of steering wheel do you have? Is it aftermarket and if so what is the diameter? When I replaced the factory steering wheel with the smaller diameter Prototipo the steering effort increased.

I have the stock station wagon cheap $hit plastic thing from 1981. Planning on a Moto Lita, but that will have to wait.

Originally Posted by tirwin

Are you running any spacers as Driven97 asked? I used to have spacers on my 16s. When I switched to 17x7.5 & 9s the steering effort decreased. I think this was because of scrub radius but I don’t think I could explain it as well as Mr. Verberg. I think it has to do with contact patch size and the scrub radius was improved with the right offsets (no spacers).

7mm, only in the rear, Stock Fuchs in 7' and 8" which I've had a couple years.[QUOTE]

Originally Posted by tirwin

I will also add that I recently drove another Pelican’s widebody and I was amazed at how his steering felt easier than mine.

I’ve done most of the exact same things as you have.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments about my car, and all the great input. It would be good to get an old school 911 guy to drive my car and critique the handling. It could be I just suck and need driving school... anyway, that will have to wait for spring. I'll get to doing some reading about suspension setups.