mpw

The brakes are worth the premium alone in my opinion. And, while I'm looking forward to eventually upgrading the suspension, that this car has the M030 stuff on it, hopefully means that I won't need to drop the cash for new suspension for a while. I'd really like to learn the car stock, before I go about changing anything. The Leda comment was more something I'd do down the road, rather than a week or two after purchasing the car.

- Matt

jonnybgood

I still have many miles of learning ahead of me in my 944S before I will need to consider upgrading the differential and sway bars. Looking at ads though the rear M030 roll bar is at least $300 new (Weltmeister aftermarket). An LSD used is usually $800 to $1k, new racer LSD is $1k before installing into the case. To have all that on the car without having to spend a few weekends away from my girlfriend to install is worth at least $1,500 to me!

pete944

The M030 option is more than the sway bars. It includes stiffer springs, Koni shocks, bigger brakes, and more.
That S2 is starting to look like a bargain, isn't it?

pete944

I'm not 100% positive about the brakes either but I know the M030 package was more of a complete suspension package.
My NA never had great torque but if you kept the revs between 5 and 6K it was a lot of fun. I would miss the torque but I never owned a car that 'fit' me like a 944 does.

tifosiman

From http://www.944s2.com/brakes/brakes.htm :

"A 944 S2 equipped with the very rare M030 Sports Suspension option uses the same size front brakes as those used on the 1988 944 Turbo S or 1989 944 Turbo. These larger Brembo calipers first appeared on the 928 S4 so are routinely referred to as the "S4 brakes." The piston sizes are 36 and 44 mm and the corresponding brake pad width is a very substantial 132 mm. The front rotors used with these "S4" calipers have a diameter of 304 mm (11.97 in) and a thickness of 32 mm (1.26 in).

M030 cars use different steering knuckles and hubs. Different knuckles are required because the S4 caliper attaches using a radial mount as opposed to the axial mount for the standard caliper. Different hubs are used to accommodate the 4 mm increased thickness of the M030 rotor."

Riff

The S2 MO30 was a complete suspension package including the height adj. Koni's of the 951S and an increase of spring rate from 136 in-lbs to 160in-lbs. I do not think that there was any difference in the sway bars. The front calipers were the same as the 951S/928S4.

Now the other thing is the condition of the suspension components. Even though they are MO30, they are still 12 yrs old!

BTW MPW in case you have not found it, check out this site for some very useful info on the S2 Tom's S2 site

I am not tryin to sway you from the purchase of this car, but the MO30 suspension was not "that" great of an upgrade. On my S2, I installed some M474 Koni's (precursor to MO30, not externally adj.) with the stock springs, but by far the better upgrade was the front and rear sway bars from the 968 MO30.

The larger front brakes would be nice, but since I mostly AX, I do not come close to maxing out the braking system. I will be trying to attend DE's again this year in the NE after a few year hiatus, but at previous events (Mid-Ohio, Putnam Park) I always had plenty of brakes.

Good luck with the PPI,

mpw

Thanks, yeah, I realize that even though they are the M030 stuff, they're old and have 100k miles on them. That's ok. This car will probably see some decent track time, so the upgraded brakes are something that I want. I thinking it might save me from buying big reds in the future. I'll look into the 968 M030 sways. For now, I'm just glad I found a nice 944 S2. That it has the M030 is just a bonus, but my no means is it THAT important. Thanks for the link!

- Matt

craig001

This is an interesting post for many reasons.

First, I'm not sure what the printed valuations matter; i.e. Excellence, NADA, KBB; since you need to decide what the car is worth to you. I know that the ACV on my 1990 cab is $15k. This is from Leland-West. The PCA valuation on the car is $18k. I paid $13900. These quotes are around two years old. When I was looking I think Luis's Champagne and Black cab was for sale in the neighborhood of $14k with 125k on the clock.

My car is your basic 944S2 Cab Rad/Black/Black and now has 101500 miles on the clock. Actual miles are around 91k because my speedometer/ odometer is about 10% on the happy side. I do TSD Road Rallies and this difference seems to be fairly consistent.

In the course of three years of ownership I've probably dropped $4k in service and pieces parts, some of which are still sitting in boxes. What you want to do is irrelevant to the seller. As long as the car is solid and gets a good PPI and how bad do you want it, that is what the price will hinge on.

Anyway, Koni will rebuild the shocks for $100 each and the struts for $140 each and you cover shipping. It should take about four weeks. Here's a contact, Paul Mclaughlin <PMclaugh@fluids.ittind.com>.

Sorry about the ramble, but everyone has an opinion on price points, but the only person that really matters is you.

mpw

Thanks for pointing this out, I wasn't sure if Koni would rebuild the OEM stuff, good to know.

- Matt