blown 944

I am getting ready to start tearing into my 83 s/c car's suspension while doing the engine and....

I have an 86 NA that is pretty clean but I have swapped a lot of parts to the 951 to make it a nicer car. My thoughts are that the 86 is using Aluminum for the arms and also in the rear suspension.

i am trying to make this a lightweight car ultimately so I have no problem sacrificing the 86, but If there is minimal differnce I may stick with the steel parts on the 83.

So My question is: has anyone weighed the difference and/ or succesfully swapped components into the earlier car??

I have the car pretty much gutted out now and it is pretty light (was 2600 w/o stripping) Not sure what it is now but from what I have weighed I have shed about 200#'s so far. I have a lot more to go but since I am getting ready to do this I thought I'd check to see if it is worth it.

TIA

white924s

I may be mistaken, but I think that the suspension components between an 86 and an 83 aren't interchangeable because of the different offsets. If you want to pull weight out of the 83 suspension, you might be best off looking for aftermarket pieces (Racer's Edge maybe? or these guys: http://www.elephantracing.com/ - they seem to have a lot of stuff)

Campeck

aren't 83's early offset? as are 86's?

blown 944

Pretty sure that is correct. I can swap wheels between cars very easy.

I just don't now about the interchangability between the parts and the weights

V2Rocket

iirc the steel a-arms weren't very heavy...i think the biggest weight to lose in suspension would be deleting tbars. those tubes are pretty big heavy sumbitches. leave the trailing arms on there and just put a coilover setup on the back and youll save big weight.

Campeck

steel vs aluminum is weight well worth put off. I'm sorry I don't know for sure. but If I had an early car and you could do this. It would be on my #1. especially since history shows I like my vehicles VERY light....bwahaha!

Darwantae951

Your car is a testiment to "super model Porsches!" I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have any problems swapping aluminum parts onto an 83. the arms were the same dimensions right? (I'm referring to mounting points for cater blocks, etc...)

white924s

If you can swap wheels between the two and one has aluminum and the other has steel, then it should work.

i just didn't realize that they made aluminum as well as steel control arms for the early offset cars. But then again, maybe the offset change was from a change in design in the wheel hub?

I would say though that you should check the weights because there may not be a huge savings. Although aluminum is lighter than steel, usually you'll need more aluminum than you would steel to complete a given task

blown 944

This is where my question derives from

white924s

sorry...i got sidetracked with the "is it possible?" question and forgot that the weight was the original question.

wish I knew...perhaps the folks over at pelican or paragon could help? you might be able to compare shipping weights for the 2 versions to get an idea

KuHL 951

I think the arms on the 83 are lighter in stock form but if you go with a bigger sway than the 83 it does stress the mount quite a bit. IMO The best thing about steel arms are the $10/each ball joints and 3 bolts to install them plus you can buy a brand new arm for $30. The steel arms can be beefed up (welded bar strips) at the edges and drop link mount to add more strength and reduce flex.