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Stance

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Stance encompasses ride height, body rake, and wheel spread.

Regarding ride height, the lower the center of gravity, the better a Porsche handles. In simple physics: lower means there's less vertical mass/weight above a car's bottom plane for inertia to force straight when the car turns. As a Porsche's stance height is lowered, suspension travel is reduced. This tightens suspension creating a more stable, but harder feeling ride. This is optimal for competitive / high performance driving. For the street, it's a matter of handling preference. Apart from a tighter ride, less below-car clearance translates into the need for driving with increased road surface awareness for the pavement ahead. This is a constant focus when driving unfamiliar roads. 

        Rake refers to the pitch of your Porsche front-to-back. Ideally, the setting is a 2 degree nose-down incline. The purpose in this setting is to improve front wheel breaking. Given a Porsche's heavy weighting on the rear wheels, the front wheels are at an immediate disadvantage in terms of frictional contact force against the pavement when brakes are applied. Rake improves frictional contact of the front tires through the pre-angulation of the chassis. In simple terms, rake partially eliminates the nose down travel the chassis of a car goes through when braking. While this is not a tremendous stopping advancement, any performance gain when braking should be considered beneficial.

        Wheel spread is the distance between the outer contact points of the tires to the pavement measured side-to-side. Generally speaking, the greater the distance, the more stable a car's handling is. As spread increases, so too do wheel & tire widths.

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Corner Balance

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If you have a professional 4-wheel alignment with proper air pressure in all 4 tires and your car pulls to one side, there's a very high probability your Porsche's not properly corner balanced. Not only does this condition adversely effect steering in a straight line but also when cornering and braking. In a nutshell, the more unbalanced a Porsche's corner weighting is, the more poorly that car will handle.

          What is corner balance? It is the weight of a car as distributed to the pavement through each tire. In a perfect world, (with scales under each tire,) the front left & right side weight of your car would be equal with a driver in the driver's seat. Left & right rear weights would also be equal. Deviations from the perfect world are acceptable to a certain degree. The less deviation the better. Speak with any number of professionals concerning corner balancing tolerances and you'll get different deviation tolerance opinions. GP preference for street driven Porsches is a side-to-side deviation of 15 lbs (or less) in the front. 25 lbs (or less) in the rear. For racing, 10 lbs (or less) front as well as rear for medium competition. Equal side-to-side for serious competition.

          The weight of each corner is controlled by adjusting ride height at each corner. This might seem a simple matter but as one corner's weight is adjusted, the other corners weights change. (The higher the chassis' corner is, the greater the weight being placed on that particular corner. Inversely, the lower the chassis' corner is, the less weight there is on that corner.)

          Regardless of all other handling considerations, to truly handle as a Porsche is designed to, corner balance is a fundamental requirement.

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Tires

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Driving style has a great deal to do with what type of tires are most appropriate for a car. Hard compound tires are for casual drivers. Soft compound are for the more aggressive. 

          Tire profile also affects handling. Generally speaking, the lower a tire's profile, the higher the performance. Small profile changes do not require wheel changes. Beyond a certain point, a higher or lower profile will not fit existing wheels correctly. Nor will extremes fit in the space a Porsche's wheel wells allow. Modifications to accommodate tire size preferences can be made to some degree. Flared wheel wells for instance.

          Tire width contributes significantly to handling because more width means more contact with the pavement. Wheels, spacers, and fender flaring can come into play when modifying tire widths.

          Racing is another dimension entirely. Tire selection can and is elevated to a science. Pavement type, weather including ambient temperature, altitude, a track's composition including number and profile of corners, and driver preferences are all considerations. GP can offer competitive tire advice to help you out-think your competition.

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