RSflared72e

My 2 cents having owned several 951s and my current S2:

An S2 beat a 951 in a head-to-head on an autocross course in Excellence last year. The turbo is no guarantee of superior measured performance on a given track, but it will ultimately beat an S2 in a straight line.

Bottom line: If you are a horsepower junkie, who wants the ability to (relatively) cheaply modify your car incrementally until you are satisfied, or until your wallet or car breaks, get the 951.

But: If you want great low end torque and overall driveability, with the caveat that you will need to spend big bucks for any horsepower increases, get the S2.

Vote with your wallet! YMMV Al

turbo944

I'm almost (just a few days!) away from completing the first year of ownership on my turbo. I have to say in town driving, unless you are trying hard to beat every person off the line and slip into every little hole in traffic when one appears, the turbo isn't bad. Even off boost when warming up, it's fairly comparable to the Saturn I use as my POS/parts car runner/bad weather car right now as far as accelerating. So off boost driving isn't THAT bad. Sure, having 300ft-lbs of torque like my Mustang 5.0 had at the drop of a hat is nice, but the boost is like nothing else.

Now, that said, if you keep them stock and drive around town a lot, an S2 is probably a better car. If you want to mod for a lot more power and have a major kick in the pants, a turbo is the way to go. Once I am up to temp though, keeping it around 3k driving around town means I have very quick boost response. You can get a great deal more power and response in a turbo car by doing some fairly inexpensive mods like a good set of chips and a boost controller. However by this time in a turbo cars life, there will be some things that need to be checked to make sure that you can take advantage of that power and aren't losing it through the vacuum system, weak wastegate, broken CV, broken recycling valve, and so forth. If all of those are in good shape, you can easily make 250+ RWHP pretty easy with a couple of mods. With an S2 to make a significant amount of additional power, you will spend a LOT of money.

This question comes up a great deal....some searching back through the archives will reveal this question over and over again.....the debate rages on! However when it came time for me to find my Porsche, I knew what I had to have

porschefig

ive asked this ? before with no good long answer:

with a larger wallet...doesnt the larger s2 engine, and its 4 valves per cylinder head, mean more power capabilities...i know people have tubo'd 968s (with the 16 valve head: ive heard of them converting to the old 8v head to save money and conversion/design work)...with that 16v head and got major power....i.e. latest excellence issue.
i have however always seen higher power from a 951 modded
arent the larger 16v engines capable of more????
wouldnt a 944s2 turbo'd by a Co. like power haus be the ultimate 944?????
oh, or supercharged?

schnellfahrer

This is an interesting debate as I'm in the middle of the prosess of buying either an S2 or a 951. After the purchase I will have ~$5000 to spend on engine mods. The choice is between a 951 with some sort of kit making ~320RWHP+ or a S2 with a supercharger making ~280RWHP (?). The low end power of the S2 is perfect for Norwegian roads (and AutoX), but the max power potential of the 951 is tempting.
Would someone care to make the decision for me?

Red1

Brian is entitled to his opinion, but I respectfully disagree. Then again, I know nothing of Atlanta's traffic patterns. It doesn't give me any problems here. If anything, it makes the commute more enjoyable. (On the rare occasions I drive it to work). I've lived with a different 951 as a daily driver, and it was fine.

I would caution that a 951 at 125K is probably ready for some maintenance. Once you get started tearing into it, it's all too easy to slide down that slope of "While I'm in there, I'll just replace the......". And the next thing you know, the bills haved stacked up. I haven't driven my car in six weeks because I have been suffering from "While I'm in there-itis" very badly here lately.

If you're looking for a project garage queen, and you really enjoy the wrenching experience, the 951 is the way to go. If you're not into that, and it'll be a DD, with a few autox's thrown in, the S2 would merit first consideration. An opportunity to acquire an S2 with only 62K would be very hard to turn away from.

Jake951

They are both good vehicles for different styles of driving. The Turbo is not too happy when you tool around town at just 2000 rpm, where the S2 would do better. If you learn to adjust your driving style to keep the revs up a bit in the Turbo, it's quite satisfactory in all kinds of driving. Most people buy the Turbo these days to modify it to higher levels of power. Some of the aftermarket kits have engineered out much of the turbo lag that was present in stock form. But beware--boost is VERY addictive!

It's worth noting that the original MSRP's on the two cars were not that different, the Turbo being only slightly more, which tells you that the factory didn't see one as being superior to the other.

HyperDeathKill

Thanks for all the opinions. I was originally considering the Turbo and then turning into a low 13 second car, but after checking out DE and also considering some AutoX. Besides the 944 really isn't meant for drag eh?

I think I'm going to keep the car relatively stock so that I don't end up throwing myself into the street prepared class. It's going to be somewhat of a daily driver, except in the winter too.

Fishey

I don't see the downside of the S2 anymore.. The Superchargers are putting out big numbers for around 6-7k and for the same you might be slightly ahead with a 951 engine... However when you go a step farther you are finding yourself looking for a S2 block. When trying to get the large HP numbers... Since everything that has to do with the turbo is swapped out at that level anyways and you need the 3.0L block it has to be cheaper to start with the S2. Just my $.02

I know from racing a few 951 cars in my car that they only really have a accleration advantage (stock) after 70mph. I think if my car was a coupe I could hold them off till 80 or 90mph... I know the two cars that I went against are some fine examples and not poorly maintained machines. With good driver of approx the same skill as me.

jim944s2

If you want to be competitive in stock or near stock auto-x, the S2 is the only choice. Only on the most wide-open auto-x courses is the 951 competitive w/ the S2. If a course is tight, you may as well take the 951 home. I struggled for several years in autox w/ a 951, now with my S2 I'm the guy to beat in my group. I still miss my 951, what a cool car that was, I loved the 'whoosh'. I had both in my garage for about 2 weeks, -that looked so right.

Michael Stephenson

I am an S2 owner and I am glad that i got an S2. i do mostly in town driviong and I use all of that low end torque on a daily basis.

Also, I like not having to worry about controlling the turbo spool as I get a little aggressive on an off/on ramp.

There are many times I wish I had the power of the Turbo, but for daily driving on crowded streets the S2 does the job nicely.

I do wish I had limited slip, however. The S2 has the power to kick the tail out and this can be a little troublesome on rain-slick roads and as well as pullin out into traffic. All that low-end torque has made for more than a few unsolicited and unwanted burn-outs.

elvisizer

that's tough, but i'd probably go for the s2 because of the low-end torque advantage, since I rarely (if ever) see the track. If i was a more track-oriented kinda guy, i'd probably go turbo.

turbo944

Ugh...I know what you mean. I just got off the phone with Chuck at Paragon ordering up some hoses and details for my car. Been apart for 2 weeks now (holidays have slowed it all down, too) and will hopefully be back together this weekend for a month or two until I do the belts/seals/waterpump/rollers. May remove the intake and do the hoses under there then, too... However I'm finding the parts are actually in good shape outside of that. Recycling valve seems very tight, no flow through on it and the turbo is in great shape too.

By 125k a lot of details will be done, but there are sooo many details that you'll likely have to or want to do that you can keep yourself busy with little weekend projects for a while. No biggie to me as long as I have parts on hand to do them. Nice to have something to get away from the computer to do sometimes.

ahofam123

Living in the city, I would take the S2 for its low end torque and lack of turbo lag.

Cloud964

How much do they want for the cars ? The S2 seems to be the better choice if the price is right.

nine-44

There's ways of beating lag, prototype time is hopefully this spring!