Its pretty much a standard practice around here for Vivid Racing Project Cars. Get car, add wheels, do JIC suspension. Whether it is the JIC Magic for our JDM cars like the EVO X, or the JIC Cross for our 996 C2, Audi A3, and 996 TT, we pick these coilovers because they are the best. This JIC Cross coilover seperates itself from the competition in many ways. Having run these coilovers on probably 10 of our own personal cars, I am very familiar with how they ride and perform. I know that this coilover is just not another off the shelf make, but is truly tested. Jon the owner of JIC Magic in Southern California works very closely with his partners in Japan to develop this suspension system. Every coilover he comes out with for the Porsche models he tests, races, and proves in his own Porsche. His most recent white 997TT (I almost bought!) was setup with the JIC Cross suspension and H&R sway bars. Jon has tested these in many different Time Attack events and even caught some air time on Speed TV for his vehicle test.
As you know, one of the biggest differences with JIC Cross compared to say a PSS10 or a KW is that it includes front camber plates and rear pillowball mounts. The front camber plates allow up to negative 3 degrees of camber for those serious track guys. But, eliminating the factory rubber strut tops that are used on the PSS10 and KW gives the JIC better steering responsiveness. However, this does offer a bit stiffer of a ride since the tops are made of 6061 aluminum and use a monoball bearing.
The coilovers feature full adjustable height with helper springs. You can set your coilovers to be the same as the stock height or as low as 2.5 inches. Jon was nice enough to duplicate the same setup he had on his 997TT with the 8/12KG spring rates and ride height. This is great for street driving which is mostly what my car will see. However, having had this same spring rate on my 996TT and tracked it, this coilover performs amazing on the course. It has a fast reacting damper that works very well and when balanced with the proper tire setup, will improve lap times tremendously.
1 disadvantage is that it does not work with the factory PASM system. It does have 16 way adjustable dampening that is manually done. For me, this was not a big deal. Having sold many sets of Bilstein PSS10 which work incredible on the street or track, that is a good alternative if you want to keep your PASM.
When it comes to alignments, doing a full corner balance is the way to go. However we have a great alignment shop we use that does a basic setup and to be honest, car rides great, runs straight, and instead of $400, it is $150. Soon we will be adding a set of front and rear GMG adjustable sway bars to improve the balance as the car still pushes slightly. We could go further and add our Agency Power front adjustable drop links and rear adjustable control arms, however this is a great setup for our purpose.
So final verdict… If you don’t mind getting rid of the PASM system and want a more aggressive suspension, JIC Cross is the way to go. If you want an OEM compatible system that handles excellent on the street and will perform well on the track, Bilstein PSS10 are great too.
Special thanks to Mike at AWE and Brandywine Porsche for their How To on disabling the PASM. Thanks to Garey at IAutohaus for helping us as well. Worked great and took us 15 mins.
Enjoy the pics! You can see all project car pics here – https://www.vividracing.com/forums/gallery/browseimages.php?c=342
