It seems like everyone around here is into lowering his car. I on the other hand, just raised mine. From the ground to the top of the wheel arch is now 27" in the rear and 26" in the front. Check it out:



Does that look cool or what? Just kidding, I actually just installed a set of 968 M030 shock absorbers, which also have helper springs on them. This raised the rear end by about 1". Hopefully I can bring it back down to the stock ride height by just adjusting the eccentric bolts. I really don't want to have to re-index the torsion bars.

By the way, the car handles terribly right now. If I so much as look at it the wrong way, the tail end will come flying out. But I noticed a huge difference in how quickly the rear end reacts now. I'm planning on upgrading the front suspension with Paragon's coil-over kit and 250 or 300 lbs/in springs. I'm leaning more toward 250 though, because this is my daily driver and I don't want the ride to be too harsh.

Here are the old shocks:


Here are the "new" ones. They're actually used, but they only have like 1000 miles on them:


And here are some pictures of them installed on the car:

 

whoa, why would those shocks raise a 944 and not a 968?

 

Are you talking about the rear cam-centric camber bolts? I dont believe those will affect the ride height in any way...I had to redo the torsion bars 3 times to get it to the correct height.

 

I wouldn't go above 250# springs on the front when you do that, or else your balljoints will wear out like crazy!

 

Yes, they can it seems.

I loosened mine off, bam *** end dropped dow a good half inch at least. Maybe more. HUGE improvement in overall road grip and cornering. Also A LOT less squat. My cars *** would squat down HARD and get WAY down on hard acceleration, now its a lot less pronounced.

Search for "eccentric lowering" and/or http://boerger.golden-tech.com/
for a how-to.

Yes it prolly isnt the ideal way... But I saw a tbar adjust howto and I wigged out, thinking I was in grade 12 honors math... Only without the graphing calc

 

well then you would certainly be screwing up your rear alignment, no?

I see you are referring to the triangulations that I have seen people talk about. Its really not all that complicated and it can be done with measuring from a few points on the arms of the torsion bars. No math. Of course, I did have to redo it to get it right...Still, not as hard as some people make it seem.

 

That im not too sure on, I think if the eccentric is lengthened it anyway that will change the alignment (its purpose is to change the toe in IIRC according to my alignment guy) but I dont see how pivoting it around the pivot bolt changes anything?

 

Oh they would raise a normal 968, but I think the ones with M030 option have the torsion bars indexed differently to make up for them.

 

Wow MTM, those things are beautiful!!!

 

How come higher spring rate would wear out the balljoints? I thought lowering your car is what does that, since it changes the angle of the control arm relative to the wheel.

 

I believe that's an opinion. If not, where's your data? Any changes to stiffen up the suspension will accelerate wear. None so much as lowering beyond "the" safe limit, but you do have a point. The real deal is that this is purported to happen with cars running too much spring (much more than 250) and not enough sway - the biggest problem is running underdamped - wrong struts for the job leaves the suspension to rattle about aimlessly. Again, the accelerated ball joint wear is subjective. Folks who increase spring rates do also usually lower the car and do usually drive a little more sprited, increase wheel size and even track the car - all of these things lead to ball joint wear and failure.

 

It was more of a clueless request for information than anything. Thanks for clearing it up Skip.

 

Sweet deal, maybe i can stop by and check it out sometime.

 

There are so many choices out there for the ball joints for heavy use now its ridiculous.
What some people do when rebuilding the ball joints (aluminum arms) for a heavily tracked/autox'd car is they go with our lifetime replacement plan. That way the can change out the ball joint bushings (on the car) whenever they like. Once you get used to the procedure its as easy as changing the accessory belts.
BTW, the lifetime replacement program is not listed on the Rennbay site but its a $35, one time fee and each replacement costs $15 a set (for both sides).

 

Sorry, Matt - my response was directed at macfreak. Further, no disrespect intended... as I read back through my response I see that I may be sitting on my high horse throwing stones at other's glass houses whilst looking down from my ivory tower