Mike Bickell
Sussex, UK
Model 996 CARRERA 4S
Year 2002
Acquired MARCH 2015
Spring is always a busy time in the garage. Snowboards are put away and events start to populate the calender. While there’s always the opportunity for a cheeky 10 days final fling on the slopes in early April, with the snow this year being variable it’s unlikely we’ll chance another run.
A couple of up-and-coming events piqued our interested, with one being a track day in France put on by 911 Motorsports Belgium and the other, a club event in Norway which we attended last year in the 911. The current thinking is that we take the 928 up to the Arctic
Circle and down to the event, and the
911 to the track day in France. This means mobilising quickly to get both vehicles prepared, as 5,000 miles through Nordic spring and two full days of track action means that the cars need meticulous preparation if the events are to progress without the need for road or track-side spannering.
In the interim we’ve been gathering up parts to rebuild the C4S’S suspension almost totally. After months of research and advice from specialists and fellow 9WERKS members we have gone for a Spyder Performance rebuild kit, which covers everything from coffin arms right the way through to dog bones, drop links and a myriad of other bits of aluminium componentry.
I’ve elected to go the route of polybushes and paid a bit extra to have these factory fitted by Spyder Performance. These duly arrived in a massive box filled with more boxes neatly packaging shiny alloy bits and the size of the task at hand unfolded on the floor of the atrium as I unpacked and laid out the components on the floor.
To go with the total suspension component refit I went for the Ohlins R+T coilover struts, which are adjustable for both road and track while not being overly harshly sprung or dampened for touring the backroads of England and Europe. Those duly arrived in more boxes and were unpacked and added to the rapidly expanding aluminium bone yard in the centre of the house.
The Ohlins arrived disassembled and a full evening was spent on the floor with ipad in hand assembling the components into the strut assemblies. At least the actual damper itself was built. The rest of the family are used to finding and stepping over chunks of freshly unwrapped aluminium belonging to some vehicle or another.
The task now is to find someone who’s willing to fit nearly an entire undercarriage of a 911, or the task will fall to me once I’ve studied the many Youtube videos on the subject. Should I be forced to do it myself it’ll be imperative that it’s properly set up. It would be a waste to spend a small fortune on beautifully crafted parts only to then crab around a track, adrenalising the copilot wantonly. I’m sure next month’s episode will be filled with tales of angle grinders and lump hammers as I attempt to chisel off original componentry that’s done 140k miles.