Any Rally-cross 996 builds out there?

[tadink]

Looking to take advantage of the ultra-low prices on many of the 996's out there - so let's talk about what it would take to make a 996 C4 Rally-cross??? My goal would be to soften the ride enough to navigate my miserable 9 mile road up to the property, and build the ultimate 'Tahoe Terror' for ski trips into the hills. I'm thinking the C4 w/ Cayenne 17's or 18's w/ 70 series snow tires. Couple of questions -

1. How high would I need to raise the car to get the Cayenne tires under the fenders?
2. Would it be a good handler in the snow with the right tires all around? ie, tall and narrow vs. the huge footprint it has stock?
3. Talked this morning w/ Chuck at Elephant - he thinks some spacers plus plus plus would do the trick, although he has never done one. worried about suspension geometry if we go too crazy - valid concern I think.

What's the group consensus here - 'go for it' or just buy another Cayenne and be done. I'm having trouble pulling my wife out of the turbo Cayenne - she loves it and has deemed it the sexiest car she has ever driven.

Anyone done this before?

cheers from Napa!
td
Dos Lagos Vineyards (still here, shaken but not stirred after the fires!)

[Evan Fullerton]

Raising a 996 could be accomplished easily enough. If longer springs and dampers don’t get you where you want before the geometry gets too bad, you could just start spacing the subframes down. We used to do the opposite for lowered cars and machine the tops of the subframe mounts down like the late Cup car ones but no reason you couldn’t machine up some sub frame bushings that spaces things down.

The real issue I think though is 996 C4’s AWD system pretty much sucks. Open front diff and a viscous coupler center diff. Even if you get a custom LSD made up for the front, the viscous coupler leaves a lot to be desired and the whole system isn’t all that beefy. I imagine if you got a locking front diff in there, with big wheels and tires you would quickly start breaking front axles.

The 964 AWD system was much better suited to performance on loose surfaces but they aren’t cheap anymore and transmission parts are specific to 964 C4s so parts availability isn’t great.

Just buy a cheap Cayenne S with the option diff locks and put some BFG All Terrains on it and call it a day.

[faverymi]

[faverymi]

[Matt Monson]

Originally Posted by Evan Fullerton

Raising a 996 could be accomplished easily enough. If longer springs and dampers don’t get you where you want before the geometry gets too bad, you could just start spacing the subframes down. We used to do the opposite for lowered cars and machine the tops of the subframe mounts down like the late Cup car ones but no reason you couldn’t machine up some sub frame bushings that spaces things down.

The real issue I think though is 996 C4’s AWD system pretty much sucks. Open front diff and a viscous coupler center diff. Even if you get a custom LSD made up for the front, the viscous coupler leaves a lot to be desired and the whole system isn’t all that beefy. I imagine if you got a locking front diff in there, with big wheels and tires you would quickly start breaking front axles.

The 964 AWD system was much better suited to performance on loose surfaces but they aren’t cheap anymore and transmission parts are specific to 964 C4s so parts availability isn’t great.

Just buy a cheap Cayenne S with the option diff locks and put some BFG All Terrains on it and call it a day.

The front diff is smaller than a 901. A performance diff isn’t going to happen. I went down that rabbit hole for a customer. We deemed the packaging too small for reliability. Our mkV vw lsd is bigger, and that thing is teeny.