CurBrwn79

May be a dumb ?, new to 911's, just switch from a 951 and have a million questions about my new car!!...Does anyone make a coil over kit for a 87' 911, or is my only option torsion bars and adjustable shocks?

theiceman

tr paragon-products.com. I was just doin some research there and found they had some good info.

CurBrwn79

Thanks Ice Man, what are popular suspension upgrades for these cars to make them handle better on the track?

racer

ERP makes a coil-over replacement kit. It's pretty expensive but does offer greater adjustability and is often referred to as "935 style" suspension. Most folks simply upgrade existing torsion bars/shocks and sway bars. I am sure there have been many threads about 'pre '89 911 suspension upgrades. It really depends on what you want to do with the car and how stiff a ride you will put up with.

CurBrwn79

Ride quality is not much of a concern, more focused on handling on the track and AutoX.

racer

The next question would be budget!

Most track folks would run at minimum a 22mm front and 28 mm rear torsion bars. The next step up seems to be 23/31 combo. Some go even stiffer, 23/33 or 34. Also take into consideration ride height, alignment, wheel and tire sizes; bushings/monoballs will also impact ride and performance quality. As a reference, elephan racing's website has a neat "guide" to suspension upgrades. Might want to use that as a handy reference. As to shocks, Koni and Bilstein are the options. Folks seem rather evenly split. Must mean they both have positive feedback. I ran Konis for a longtime but switched to custom valved Bilsteins and they seem great.

Not sure how much experience you have with the "older" 911's, but you may just want to keep it stock for a bit and learn the car before you mod it out and don't have a good baseline on the cars main characteristics.

CurBrwn79

The suspension is completly shot...its got more roll than pilsbury..I figured if I am going to spend the money on replacing, mine as well upgrade while am at it and before my fiance finds out how much I am spending... ) I may try upgrading the torsions and shocks. Do I have to replace the shock assembly to upgrade to the koni's or bilstein's?


Thanks for the advice, and by the way-you've got a great looking car. Love to see some pics if you have a few.

racer

I just re-did my suspension in '04. A friend of mine just redid his, after redoing it in maybe '02. He originally went with the 22/28 set up with 22mm sways. Then he dropped a 3.6 in his car... then upgraded suspension yet again, in the back, to the ERP set up.

I like to keep things simple. I went with 23/30 torsion bars and 22 mm sways. Polyeurothane bushings.. revalved bilsteins. You will have to determine which front strut you have. Some are Boge. Some are Koni. That will determine what additional changes you may want to incur.

All these parts add up quickly ($$$) and even quicker if a shop will be doing the work. You will also want to address tie rods (turbo tie rods are nice), and a bump steer kit/solution. Maybe even a strut brace. Also check the rear trailing arm bushings. Then add to that a good set of tires, a 4 wheel alignment, corner balancing and ride height setting. I would encourage checking out the elephant racing site as a guide to potential costs (it can easily add up to the thousands of dollars for parts alone!) and then have at it!

JackOlsen

Coils can be a downgrade in some respects. It really only makes sense if you need stiffer spring rates than torsion bars can provide. In the front of a 911, coils reduce the width of tires you can fit. You're also raising (albeit slightly) the center of gravity, and hurting (albeit slightly) your car's unsprung weight. In the back, switching to coils requires that you weld in reinforcements to the chassis and rear crossmember, since this wasn't the way the car was designed to carry weight.

Stiffer torsion bars are the way most guys go. Put in 23/31 bars with shocks valved to match, along with aggressive, adjustable antiswaybars, monoballs, etc., and your body roll will become a distant memory.

g-50cab

Coil overs are an overkill in a pre 1989 911. Look here for Suspension ****

Elephant



WEVO rear sway mounts

Smart Racing

panzerkardinal

As other have said you can use the ERP 935 suspension kit.

I have just recently explored going to coil over's, and this is what I've found.

You can do it, but there's no real "bolt-on" solution. It requires quite alot of fabrication. Every one who has done it successfully has had to fabricate an entire tubular subframe for the rear suspension, and if you're going to a tubular subframe you might as well have a full cage built.

The best estimate was about 60 - 100 hours.

So as with all things Porsche, it doable if you have enough $$$.

theiceman

A Porsche is a race car, so the options are endless. I would start with racers recomendations. Or Start with a budget and work backwards. Konis on all 4 corners, a turbo tie rod upgrade, bump steer kit, new suspension bushings, maybe upgraded sway bar and strut brace would be a good start and I think could be done on a "reasonable" budget. Once you get into coil over kits and the like things start ramping up pretty quickly. The only other suggestion I might have is consult a true Porsche expert before throwing parts in . All these parts have to work together and a real pro could save you a lot of time , money and heartache.

good luck !

altonj

I run all the ERP 935 stuff (coil overs) etc. It is bolt on except for the rear crossmember reinforcements. Lot's of threads over on Pelican on how to do that part of the job. Pricey, yes, but price out doing a COMPLETE overhaul of your torision bar suspension and it is not cheap either!

I can still run a 225/45/17 on the front of my 84 standard body with the coils up front, no problem there. If you have a wide body and want to run really wide tires, like Jack does, then the coils limit tire size slighty.

The whole package is quite a bit lighter in overall weight than a torsion bar setup if that is of interest at all.

It is extremely easy to adjust and offers greater adjustment range. The geometry is slightly improved with raised pick up points too.

Like others have said though, I agree it is overkill on a street driven car.

Cheers

JackOlsen

That's just it, though. I was able to fit 245's in front on my RS replica with custom-offset wheels. And on my widebody, I recently got rid of the front coils (went back to torsion bars) in order to go from 255 to 275's in front.

altonj

Jack, I am not sure what I could stuff up front with different wheels. I use a +32 offset 7.5 inch which is inset to the car quite a bit. I still have at least 3/8 of an inch clearance with the spring. Put a +23.3 (common) on there and who knows what will fit. Not many people running more than a 225 on the front of a standard bosy car. Some use a 235 Toyo because that particular tire is not available in a 225/45/17. But very very few folks running a 245 in the front, (on a standard body car) especially without a custom offset wheel.

I am not saying there is not more room without the coil over, becuase there clearly is. Just saying that a descent sized tire could still be put up front there. If you use the dust cover on the shock, the difference between it and the coil spring is about 1/4 inch in overall OD- so about 1/8 inch between it and the tire....

Cheers