BlueDog944

OK.. so I'm starting to look into collecting the parts needed to replace my growing tired suspension in the 84 844 n/a.

Having searched and found so much info to get my head spinning I thought I'd try this....

The car's main purpose in life is for DEs, but will remain street legal. I don't mind sacrificing street comfort for track handling, but I also don't want to spend a fortune. It seems impossible to find any coilover kits for the early 944s, so I'm looking into strut/shock combos.

Right now I'm looking at:
Front - Koni Sport Struts
Rear - Koni Sport Socks



Paragon has a coil over kit for the fronts. Anyone use this kit? Thoughts? They offer many spring rates. What would people suggest?



Also, any thoughts, impression on the Weltmeister springs? 200 or 250 lbs?

I'm not sure what the car has in it right now for sway bars, but I'd be looking at the 19/30mm combo.

I think the folks from Paragon sometimes read this forum? If so, your advice?

aeronautica86

how much are you looking to spend?

M758

944 spec cars can be kept street legal.

We run 250 to 400 lbs front springs. Either welt springs or Paragon coilovers and camber plates
Rears we run 28 to 30 mm t-bars. Koni yellows or bilsteins. Poly or delrin bushings.
Weltmeister or 968 M030 sway bars. Cars are stripped and 2600 bls with driver.

BlueDog944

Minus the sway bars, I'm trying to keep it in the $1k neighborhood. The Koni Sport Yellows from Paragon come out to $537.24 for all four corner. Then figure in springs and/or the coil over kit.

Camber plates would be good and probably brings me more to $1.5k.

M758

If you do front springs you will need to address the torsion bars. Otherwise the balance will be off.

Then you will probalby want to do bushings as the stock rubber one are either old or just plain suck.

Note I destroyed the rubber bushings on my front steel control arms. This is whey they mount to the cross member. I put ploy bushigns in and destroy them too. I put delrin in and they have held up for a long time. Also old steel control arms tend to have cracks in area around this bushing. Now that could be a problem, but you can get them new for I think it was about $25 each. At the same time you can by new ball joints and then put the red welt ploy caster blocks on the back. I think all of that is maybe $225with $100 of that being the the delrin bushings.

BTW in the rear I belive Delrins are better than the poly bushings. The poly once tend to sweak like mad. I don't care on my track only car, but for car that sees any street time it is a major pain.

The suspension cost for most spec cars run about $2000 to $2500. I know it sounds like alot, but in the world of racing suspesion that is dirt cheap. Some folks spend 5k just on dampers and can have 8k-10k in a 944 suspension with things like motons, rear coilovers, speherical bushings, etc

smlporsche

"Cars are stripped and 2600 bls with driver"

How do you get so low. On my S2 that I'm prepping for a dedicated track car I'll be lucky to get down to 2800# w/o the driver. I've stripped the interior, removed the A/C, sunroof motor, stock seats etc. I had to add 100# for the full roll cage and the only other things I can think of is to gut the doors, rewmove the headlights & motor but I doubt that will add up to 200#.
Please help w/ other suggestions.
Sorry if this is a hyjack...

FRporscheman

I hate it myself, but maybe carbon fiber hood and sunroof? Some hardcore people replace glass with something lighter like plexiglas or something. I know someone who wants to buy lightweight wheels - I hear unsprung weight is very good to get rid of.

tod84944

On your S2, remove the fans for the a/c, the inside A/C system, the condensor outfront, and the lines, if you haven't already. All that itself is almost 100lbs.

L8 APEKS

I forget the numbers...but what torsion bar is supposed to be well-suited for 250 lb front springs? Was it a 28mm solid bar? I think that's the route I'm gonna go. I thought about piggyback rear coilovers and re-indexed OE torsions, but it takes just as much work to re-index as it does to install new bars...and they are cheaper than the coilovers...so I may as well put in new torsions.

tifosiman

You'd be correct, sir.

M758

First compared to the S2 remember this is a 2.5L NA with small brakes.

My car is 2600lbs with me in the car and 40lbs of pure ballast.

The car is all steel and still has working power windows. Everything else that is not used to make the car go around the race track has been removed. A/C, Heat, headlights, firewall heat shielding, the list goes on.

Porsche-O-Phile

2600# in an early car is not that hard to get to. You don't have to remove all that much stuff.

tifosiman

Yes, but this discussion is "with driver". That means you need to get the car down to under 2400lbs which, even in an early car, that is still a lot of deletions.

RMills944

I'd like to lower mine about an inch when I do the suspension - is that a big deal? One shop near me said don't do it because the bump steer is a lot more noticeable and it just cause pre-mature wear on joints. I don't think an inch would be that bad though...even with the manual steering.

M758

I would not worry on an 84 steel arm car. Lower it.