Improving on Perfection - Suspension Secrets

Matt from Suspension Secrets explains why it’s possible to improve upon the perfection of a Porsche GT car.

Written by: Matt Cowley

The Porsche 911 GT3 and GT3 RS are considered some of the apex supercars when it comes to sheer performance and driver engagement out on track. As one of the best handling machines you can buy out of the box, it is no surprise that Porsche have spent countless hours testing these cars in many different environments, tracks and of course, ‘The Green Hell’ aka the Nürburgring, to fine-tune the setup and decrease lap times as much as possible. Unfortunately, all major manufacturers then need to succumb to the wider market, safety regulations and tyre wear regulations, and Porsche is no exception. As well as adhering to the rules, they also need to ensure that people buying the cars will not immediately head out and have a crash which will reflect badly upon the brand. Usually, at this point, a lot of the suspension development work is reversed. The accounting department gets involved and downgrades the dampers, roll bars and bushes to make the car appeal to the wider market and work on all terrains and in all weathers. For Porsche, this is only partly true with their GT models. Instead of downgrading the components, they left them all in place, with adjustable anti-roll bars, adjustable ride heights and adjustable camber and toe front and rear, so although the geometry and suspension settings are not the same on a car purchased from a dealer as they were on the Nürburgring test cars, the potential is still there beneath the skin to unleash the incredible handling that was designed into the car by Porsche.

Knowing that so much more capability was hiding beneath the bodywork, we decided to take to different tracks with different drivers in different GT cars to develop these settings using the standard adjustment within the car to find the ultimate setup for the GT3, GT3 RS and GT4. We started by working with different drivers on the RMA track days at circuits such as Donington Park, Silverstone and Snetterton, installing settings and taking driver feedback from the setups before confirming it all by taking tyre data to measure how well the setups were working the tyres and generating grip. Using our tyre pyrometer, we are able to take tyre temperatures from all four tyres across the breadth of the tread to ensure that the camber settings are working at their most optimum to generate heat evenly across the compound through the corners. Once we had developed the setup using different drivers and cars, we arranged a day to have three drivers and three cars all in the same place at the same time at Donington Park. We began the day by having each driver on a slightly different setup, unbeknown to them, so that we could make sure that each driver could provide unique feedback about what they were feeling from the car out on circuit. After the first outing, each driver did indeed provide different feedback as expected, pointing us in the right direction with the setup. We made sure to set some settings the same across two cars but with one factor different so that we could find the common denominator between the setups when good feedback was reported after an outing. Throughout the day, we dissolved the differences in the setups piece by piece by focusing on tyre data and feedback from the drivers relating to understeer, oversteer, mid-corner grip, turn-in response, agility and high-speed stability. Eventually, at the end of the day, we had arrived at our ultimate setup for the Porsche GT models, bringing the car to life out on track.

One of the biggest issues with the Porsche GT setup is that not enough camber is provided at the front wheels. This causes the outside edge of the tyre to be used excessively, leading to increased tyre wear and, more importantly, less grip. The standard camber setting causes the front of the car to understeer at the limit of grip rather than provide a neutral, balanced chassis through the twisties — this is one of the most important changes that we make to the car. With the camber setting correct, it allows the tyre to be fully engaged as the car begins to lean over onto the contact patch, forcing the whole width of the tyre into the ground. This sharpens up the front end and provides much more grip, allowing more speed to be carried through the corner whilst maintaining stability throughout. As an added benefit, tyre wear is actually improved on cars where they are only used for fast road use or track driving due to this optimisation of the camber angle. Our Porsche GT setup alters the ride height, corner weights, anti-roll bar settings as well as camber and toe geometry to optimise the handling and generate much more grip. One of the most common pieces of feedback about the setup is the huge increase in front-end grip, providing almost go-kart-like handling without compromising on high-speed stability or overall grip. Once we had developed and recorded our perfect track settings, we began working with the same drivers as well as other customers to see how well the setup transferred across to daily, more regular use of the car. Despite being very different from the standard settings, the setup still works very well on the road. For some customers with much more road use than track use, we have developed a slightly more subtle version of our track settings to manage motorway tyre wear better and make the front end slightly less responsive to provide more comfort when cruising. If you have not had your Porsche GT car set up yet, we would strongly advise you do. There is no other upgrade you can make that provides so much enhancement for the price. To feel the benefits on your own car, please contact us through our social media pages or at www.suspensionsecrets.co.uk. @suspensionsecrets