KampungBoy

I’m going to buy myself a good condition ’84 944N/A soon I read through many discussions here and found out that in stock form, 968CS with M030 suspension upgrade is the best handling car in the family (924/944/951/968) as one of the best affordable FR 2+2 coupe in the market (new or used).. My question is how to improve pre-85.5 944NA handling to match the 968CS. Advantage of the pre-85.5 944 is lighter weight iirc. I don’t really want to work on engine/performance upgrade, for now..

Here are the suspension improvements over the years:
o post-85.5: new front and rear cast alloy control arms and semi-trailing arms, front sway bar mountings are different.
o 951: thicker anti-roll bars (22.5mm up front and 18mm in the rear). Stiffer front spring? Thicker torsion bar?
o 968: M030 with upgraded Koni adjustable shocks front and rear, ride height adjusting threaded collars on the front struts, progressive springs, larger rear torsion bars (30mm?), harder bushings throughout, larger 26.8 mm (1.1 in) anti-roll bars at the front, and chassis stiffening brackets in the front frame rails, LSD.

My car mainly for road use/B-roads, ~10% track work.. Do I need to have all these suspension upgrades (mainly M030 with alloy arms front and rear)? OR actually no significant handling difference if the 944NA is mainly for road use?

Thanks for advice.

krystar

for road use, yer not gonna be pushing it at 95% traction anyway. not unless yer crazy and want to hit curbs/embankments/ditches.

Teeson

and most importantly, what kind of tires?

ritzblitz

Dunlop Star Specs are always a good choice, especially if you're on a budget. Sounds like you're interested in tracking the car so they will be a good compromise between an r-compound tire.

krystar

yea tires and shocks are going to be the big factors. more than suspension parts.

falken azenis, yoko advan, hankook ventus rs2, kumho mx's are some of the good choices in extreme summer street tires.

Reimu

I imagine a 944 with the usual suspension mods and sticky modern rubber would be well within the same league as the 968cs as far as handling

thingo

You left out a pretty important change to the the suspension when they went to the 968.

Darwantae951

Go all out, get a modern coil over system (Ground Control, KW, etc...), delete the torsion bars, select appropriate spring rates, get some M030 sways, and call it a day.

KampungBoy

thanks for all the suggestions.. car is not with me yet.. will definately get a good set of tyres..

what's that change that i left out?

Darwin, what's the spec of M030 sways? any suggestion on the spring rate?

FRporscheman

Some days I feel like my '84 handles better than my 968. And my 968 has konis and 245/255 tires.

An '84 with konis, 16" or 17" wheels with GOOD tires, 968 sway bars (non-m030 is great, m030 might be overkill), 225lb or 250lb springs, and slightly stiffer torsion bars would totally rock.

By far the most important thing is tires so don't skimp out. I know it sucks because tires wear out and you need to keep buying more... but it's worth it.

The 968 got a lot of new changes. Brake coolers, larger front brake pistons, smaller diameter front springs, etc. The 968 m030 or 968CS with m030 came with rear shocks with added coilover springs, among other cool things like giant brakes.

barkerd427

I believe the 88 turbo S and 89 Turbo had the same upgrades as the 968, and I have seen several places saying that you won't be able to get replacements. Tire Rack suggest sending them to Koni to get rebuilt. The 968 has been lauded as the best handling mid engine car ever made, but the 944 is just barely below it. I am sure with some good coilovers you will be more than satisfied on the street. If you get too performance oriented then you are just gonna make yourself uncomfortable for the majority of the time you are driving. Another cheap and sticky tire that has held up well for me is the Kuhmo Ecsta XS. It was highly recommended by the guys at Grassroots Motorsports. I would just like to remind everyone that unlike today Porsche used to be known solely for making high performance sports cars, and as such we should allow our cars more time to play at the track. If you wanna drive a porsche around town then you can get a Cayenne or that hideous sedan thing that Ferdinand would have vomitted all over....what just happened? I think I blacked out...

Darwantae951

What?...

FRporscheman

It's funny when the snobs call the 944 "not a real Porsche"... Well it's a sports car, high performance (in its day), stylish yet simple, and handles great (the best). I'd say its more of a Porsche than anything. Especially those new 4-door pieces of garbage.

Yeah it's not mid-engine, it's front-engine. But I have heard it referred to as mid-front engine because the engine's center is behind the front axles (BARELY). Still, usually this term is reserved for the 928.

barkerd427

I was wondering why some of the articles called it a mid engine car. I figured there must be more than one kind and they probably know better than I do. Thanks for the correction.

Damian in NJ

Best mod taken from the CS is the CS steering wheel-you feel the car much more, so you drive better.