BADpolizei

Well today I went out to the track with the local PCA club and have rethought what I'm going to do with my 944. My new thoughts are suspension first and foremost as most upgrades to the engine for performance would not be worth the cost ratio until I put a new engine in it someday. Anyway, as I have a 85.5 dose this mean I could use 86-87 suspension or pre 85? I understand that this may be asked all the time here so I will add something elce, if you track your car and it's a 85.5. What is your setup?

Thank you, Added is a photo of my car.

tifosiman

Your car is what I call a "tweener" car, meaning that is it not quite an "early car" (83-85) and not a "late car" (87-89). This means that it has a strange mix of parts from the parts bins that are bolt-on mods, and others that are possible with modifications.

Sways from any model can be used. Most desirable IMHO would be the 968 M030 set up (30mm front, 19mm adjustable rear).

Rear shocks have to be for an 85.5 or later car (all models) due to the mount points. Koni yellows are the most common upgrade here.

Struts that are on the car now take drop in cartridge replacements (83-86 N/A only). Koni yellows are great for this application as well.

Springs on the front can take standard aftermarket springs (weltmeister available up to 250lbs). Or you can purchase aftermarket 2.5" springs and adustable spring perches if you want adjustability or higher spring rates than 250lbs. If that is the case keep in mind that Koni yelloe struts can only take you up to a 400lb rate due to valving unless you go custom, and if you upgrade the rate in the front to anything over 200lbs, you would want to go to larger t-bars in the back or go to coil-overs on the rear, in order to keep the car from having a large amount of understeer.

The discussion gets a little more complicated if you want to do some sort of brake upgrades in addition to the suspension upgrades, and you should consider this if you are planning on doing any brake upgrades in the future. My reason for saying this is some critical parts (such as the front spindles) need to be changed in order to run larger brakes, and if that happens the strut housings you have won't work (would hate to see you spend the cash to upgrade the N/A struts only to have to replace them with others when you change out the brakes and spindles). Also any brake upgrades would probably necessitate a change in wheels due to clearance issues.

BADpolizei

I don't think that I will be doing any brake upgrades for some time as I'm not utilizing them now. I was thinking some coil-overs all around though the Koni's look like they should work as its not going to be an all the time track car or anything. If you have them how would you adjust the rear?

J Silverman

The Koni rear shocks have to be removed to be adjusted, then you compress the shock to engage the adjusting cam, and rotate to adjust. The rear shocks take about 5 minutes to remove.

BADpolizei

Know of any all around coil-over kits that can be used on the 85.5's?

Hawk36

Other then shocks and sway bars what else should be changed/upgraded? Bushings and the like?

M758

Springs, shocks, & sways bars.

Do the bushings while you are in there and that is all you need.


Oh... then you will need to align it and then dial-in the car to get it to handle the way it needs to.

944 spec cars run on basic suspension like this and with stripped interior on a stock motor run quite well.

dmjames

Not using the brakes?

Dynamite 76

I recommend you go with 944 Spec/Cup suspension. There seems to be more value in a car that is already set up for Spec/Cup racing, especially, if you later on find an interest in it.

BADpolizei

I don't use them right, I need to do a driving class to learn when and how much to brake.

I was looking at the BILSTEIN ESCORT CUP kit on Lindsey Racing, but it is listed as 87-89 944's any links to other CUP kit's out there?

M758

The 944 spec suspension is not package you can buy.

It does have the following parts however

Springs = 250 to 400lbs front, 28 to 30 mm torsion bars in the back
Shocks = Koni Yellows front & rear
Sways = 968 M030 or Weltmeister sway bars
Others= Camberplates in front, delrin or poly graphite bushings as needed.

This is about it. Cost is very reasonable and performance is quite good considering the cost. There are many much more expensive options, but this gets you 85% of the way there with 25 to 40% of the cost of the really really nice fancy set-ups. (ie Moton's, spherical bearings, 1000lbs spring rates, etc). I would put the Bilsten Escort Cup at probably 88% peformance at 50% cost of the really fancy stuff.

Remember that as you try to get that last bit of suspension performance the cost skyrocket.