tlarocque

Finally buying my dad's '88 Carrera! Need advice on setting the car up for very light street usage and 4-6 times/year DE events.

Thinking of upgrading torsion bars, shocks, and sways. Any advice on a good set-up? What am I looking at spending?

Any thoughts on freeing up the exhaust? I see a lot of guys running SSI heat exchangers with aftermarket mufflers.

So I'm used to my '05 M3 Competition but I got to go for a ride with an instructor who was running a 911 SC. He claimed he had done nothing but the above mentioned mods plus tires (and a little weight saving) and his car ripped! Would these changes make good first mods?

Thanks!

jester911

IMHO you need a baseline to start with before throwing parts at it. Do a DE in it before you do anything to it. Get a good feel for where the car is now and work from there. As for SSIs save your money. They do well on SCs but they really don't improve much on Carreras. Go with a good sport muffler and cat bypass and maybe a SW chip for a couple more horseys.

As for cost it depends on how far you want to go and what has been done. First off you need to know what condition all the various rubber bushings are in. Spring plate bushings. a-arm bushings, sway bar etc. If you are replacing those you can go to Elephant racing bushings or something similar. More costly but more bang for the buck.
Also cost will depend on how much you DIY or take to a shop. If you redo all the suspension and exhaust like your talking about it will be several grand pretty easily. A little more info is needed to narrow it down.

JRRSA

I was in this same boat earlier this year with an 87 Carrera. I received some advice from a couple listers on the "Perf. & Comp. forum. Here is what I have done to my coupe since I bought it in FL back on March 17:

- MAJOR Service, valve adjustment, fuel filter, plugs, plug wires, new clutch, trans flush, brake flush etc.
- Street/track combination pads
- Stainless brake lines
- Lowered to euro specs, corner balanced and aligned
- New Koni adjustable struts
- Cat bypass with M&K muffler (the best addition)
- Tires, still need another set of fuchs

It runs fantastic, sounds great, handles much better and is like a rock at high speed. Still a bit soft for my taste in the turns. I tried to cut corners by not spending the extra money to do the torsion bars when I did the struts. I'm kicking myself now. If I had to do it over again I would have sucked it up and done it all at once. It was just starting to get a bit too expensive (just a bit) .

Capt. Carrera

Here's my best-guess rock bottom estimate. This is with you doing all the work except for the balance and alignment. Be sure to add in more money if you out-source the welding, parts instalation and what-not. It's also assuming your car has a fresh tune up.

• $260 - 23mm front bars
• $345 - 31mm rear bars
• $530 - Tarret sway bars
• $530 - Bilstein shocks (out of the box)
• $90 - Wevo sway bar mounts
• $250 - AJ brake ducting kit
• $750 - Bushings & Ball joints
• $225 - Front strut tower brace
• $230 - Turbo tie rods
• $500 - Align & corner balance
• $400 - PF97 track pads
• $20 - ATE brake fluid
• $50 - Caliper rebuild kit
• $120 braided brake lines.
• $300 - Four new rotors.
• $200 - New ball joints & hardware
• $600 - Toyo RA1s - Installed
• $800 - Used 16" 7 & 9" BBS wheels.
• $30 - BF Hammer
• $100 - "Customized" and specialized tools
• $500 - Fixing worn out & broken stuff aliong the way
• $100 - Shipping
  -------

If my hasty math holds, that's a total of...
$6,830

(FWIW, I have WAY more than that amount invested in making my 911 track ready.)



Skip the SSIs for now. There a bit on the small side for a 3.2 anyway.

tlarocque

Thanks for the tips. I spoke to one of the guys at Don Jackson in Phoenix who really reiterated the above advice. They recommended to start with Bilsteins, lowering the ride height, sways, and perhaps a cat bypass and exhaust. From what you all are saying it sounds like that will make for a pretty fun ride.

racer

Um.. lets just take a moment... Your dad is thinking about buying a 20 year old car. Unless there are records that document recent refreshening, I would encourage money be spent on things like shocks, torsion bars, bushings, tie rod ends, belts, tires, Oil, filters, valve adjustments, brake rotors? pads? Fluid? etc. Everybit of rubber in the cars suspension is likely all dried out. Replacing these items, even if with stock components, will provide a true "awakening" in the cars feel and performance. This alone could cost thousands of dollars!

Depending on the skill level of your dad, I would not rush to throw on large (23/31 Torsion bars) or sways. I would encourage learning to drive the vehicle "stock" to learn the cars behavior and then dial out the traits that are not desired.

Having bought an SC when it was 22 years old, and having driven it, AS IS for de and ax for 1-2 years, it really allowed me the time to learn how to handle the car and more importantly, make the modifications that improved the car in ways I wanted it improved.

JV911

+1...in fact everyone has made good points

just give it a good service & tune and get in and do a couple of DEs and take it from there.

believe me these cars get real expensive real quick when you start modding them (i've spend as much on mods as what i paid for the car itself)

i think he's the car off his dad

JRRSA

That is a great list. Labor will add quite a bit to the $6830 unless you are able to do all of this yourself.

g-50cab

My advice is to do a major service and drive the car. I drove my car stock for 8 or so DE's. A stock 911 is so far above ,most peoples ability, especially at the track. Unless your last name is shumacher I'd focus on maintenace, safety, removing weight, suspension, then adding power.

MUSSBERGER

Racer makes some very good points.

Before I went crazy to make it quicker around the track I would make sure what I have is track worthy and after that the first money I would spend would be on safety equipment.


But then again what do I know. I moved to New Jersey from California.