foxpaws

The 'new to me' '87 Targa is bone stock (except the radio - the old one is sliding around in the boot if I want to have really bad sound ) - and I will be just having fun at the track - nothing 'serious', but this thing has to get lowered a little, and I need a short throw... any favorites here?

It finally made it home today... now it is tucked in...

ivangene

short throw is going to be met with opposition - lowering is simple, but requires alignment after

simply turn the torsion bar stops... down she goes

more pics would be nice, looks sweet !

rusnak

Since it's an '87, it has a shortened shft throw. All you need is to change the shifter, which is bolted to the center tunnel. Wevo makes a superb one.
Lowering is complex if you want to do it right, and lower both the front and rear. If you end up having a shop do it, you should carefully select one, because most really do not understand the suspension on these cars. It's hard to tell from that pic if it's been lowered already. If you're thinking of tracking it, new suspension bushings and brake service are in your future.

rusnak

Edit: had to come back to clarify that '87 might have been the transition year to the G-50. A pic of the shifter would determine whether you have the 915 or G-50 before ordering a shifter. And again, Wevo makes both 915 and G-50 short shifters. They are well worth it.

foxpaws

Luckily I work for a great company that makes suspension tuning products - so alignment and bushings are easy... I'll rake out the caster as much as I can, look at some hi durometer bushings (polys squeak too much for my taste).

Brake service? Bigger rotors? Not to clear about this...

Here are a couple of the shifter for you rusnak - any ideas? I think it has the G50 tranny.





Ah - photos... he is rather dirty - and really could use a good waxing.

side shot - doesn't look lowered to me...

rusnak

Yes, that's a G-50 shifter. How much lower are you thinking about? That might be as low as you want to go without raising the front spindles. Check out Elephant Racing website for more info and ideas. By brake service, I meant flush the old fluid and a basic safety check, and check for pad and rotor wear.

ivangene

+1 for what rusnak said, pads, fluid and make sure they are working (not frozen)

pictures can be hard to tell, but the rear looks high, there should be chassis points to measure to (if its anything like newer ones, I have not checked) and yes... simple was a bad word.... easy is better, but simple it is not - easy to do, hard to do right

foxpaws

Well during the PPI they measured the pads (2/3 front - 3/4 back) and the rotors were smooth and not warped. I'll have it in for a fluids change/flush in a couple of weeks, along with a valve adjustment -

I am going to have them check the height - the back end does look like it is a little high to me as well.

theiceman

well i would still recommend a porsche allignment shop .. unless your boys know all about re-indexing torsion bars .. not a lot of places do outside of specialty Porsche shops..

whalebird

Indexing the rear bars is a game of cat and mouse. Experience goes a long way. You would be fine at the euro ride height. These cars like about 1-degree of rake measured at the bottom center of the door sills. "Raking out the caster" can be a bad idea on any chassis. A good alignment should be done afterwards while on corner scales. A set of adjustable rear drop links are money well spent and should be "zeroed" at corner weighting.

foxpaws

The guys here at work are pretty honest - if it is beyond them, they will tell me. But they have done lots of different things, and we build adjustable upper and lower arms and panhards and trailing arms (just not for Porsches). So, who knows - maybe they will figure out some aftermarket stuff for this suspension as well.

I know that 'vettes need to have the ride height set first before aligning, and we do a lot with those.

Whalebird - we only rake out the caster about 1/2 to 3/4 degrees on most things - I wouldn't do much more than that - last I checked it doesn't have power steering, and raking caster makes steering a little 'tougher'. What I hate to see is when kids push the camber out - gak - I like my tires.

Thanks so much for all the good info.

rusnak

The rear does look a little high in the side shot, but I'll bet it's influenced by the cement ramp under the right rear.

Very astute remarks by WB, our race wrench.

whalebird

A chassis can get twitchy real quick as caster is reduced. The 911 has somewhat of a delicate balance in it's chassis. Caster is fixed(not really adjustable) and changing the rake for caster's sake really upsets the handling in other negative ways. I'm pretty sure about the 1 degree rake, but maybe some smart guy's lurking here will chime in with alternate suggestions.
welcome to the forum Fox. You have a nice looking car and an appearant enthusiasm that I enjoy sharing in. Ask lots of questions here - the talent on rennlist is vast.
race wrench...well, I'm more shade tree than you may think. Just for the record, Fox'; rusnak is, arguably, one of the most effective "answer-man" amongst us.
Good luck.
Oh, and that Caddy. You don't see many of those anymore. I was a Mercedes tech for a good while and we would get a few of those for parts issues. They have a number of SL parts, the door latches have a star on them if you haven't noticed.

foxpaws

I'll go with the 1 degree, we'll see how that feels.

The Allante is quite a different choice than the 911. Sort of like comparing a fine analog timepiece with a state-of-the-art (for its day) digital watch. The caddy is a day long cruiser, complete with barcalounger seats . I took it out for a 2,000 mile trip this summer and the air blew ice cold, the engine was like a rock, even in 100 degree heat, and after being on the road for 14 hours, my butt wasn't sore. I do like it for what it is. We did do a lot of suspension work on it - so you can actually now feel the road in it - and it handles decently. It has quite the little history, and I have enjoyed owning it.

Oh race wRench - I thought it said race wench...

Auto_Werks 3.6

Bring it down!! A lot of people get wrapped up with what you "should do" for ride height and rake. I have never been too worried about the rake angle that everyone seems to require. I can assure you that my car handles in a very neutral manner on the track, if anything it pushes too much. I have toyed with bringing the front end down a little more to play with it, but I have never fealt the need.

Regarding the kids and their negative camber... Remember that the more you track the car, the more you will burn the outside edge off the tires without all the camber. Tires are a maintenance item on these things, and I have never gotten more than 10k miles out of a set of rears.