Extended ball joints to lower car without effecting roll center

[truegearhead]

I’m running coilovers and elephant racing control arms with removable ball joints and was wondering if anyone has installed longer ball joints to lower the car further without effecting suspension geometry and the roll center. It’s a common practice on stockcar racing and other racing but I’ve never heard of it with Porsche’s. I emailed Elephant Racing and they say they don’t support it. They use common ball joints so I could just buy extended ones but man the risk of having something brake scares me... that being said it’s a common practice elsewhere. Has anyone done this?

[LAP1DOUG]

Originally Posted by truegearhead

I’m running coilovers and elephant racing control arms with removable ball joints and was wondering if anyone has installed longer ball joints to lower the car further without effecting suspension geometry and the roll center. It’s a common practice on stockcar racing and other racing but I’ve never heard of it with Porsche’s. I emailed Elephant Racing and they say they don’t support it. They use common ball joints so I could just buy extended ones but man the risk of having something brake scares me... that being said it’s a common practice elsewhere. Has anyone done this?

I wouldn't do that - These ball joint studs are under significant stress.

Early on, another manufacturer of aftermarket lower control arms (RSS) had a problem with the ball joint studs breaking. They were originally designed with an abrupt change in diameter at the bottom of the threads, which caused a stress raiser. RSS recalled them all, and sent out new ones with a chamfered transition similar to the Elephant ones, free of charge.

Obviously this anecdote is a bit different than your proposed change, but it does show that these studs are highly stressed in single shear.