Advice Sought: Handling of my 944S2 Cabriolet
 

Hello, if you don't care about my back story, jump to the bottom for my question, I tend to overexplain haha.

Back story: In 2008 I bought my dream car in a near mint (9 out of 10) black 1986 944 Turbo. It even had the exact color combination (tan interior) I had dreamed of when I decided I wanted one 8 years earlier. But... about 5 months later I crashed it :-( 95% of the damage is to the front bumper/headlight area so I wrongly assumed it wouldn't be too expensive, but I had it quoted at shops and the lowest price came in at 11,000 dollars, lesson learned! So I figured I would garage it and just monitor the forums and craigslist and collect the parts over time, then just pay the labor costs to have a shop do it in the future (~4000 dollars). Well after a year it became clear parts are very hard to come by in my area and the front end of a turbo even worse, so I bought a 1990 944S2 Cabriolet Black on Black. It is in pretty good condition (7 out of 10), but not mint like the turbo, and has about 125k on it but runs fantastic. My intention was still to find parts for the Turbo but here it is another year having gone by and not only have I not found any parts but I have only seen a handful of 944s sell in the Minneapolis area on craigslist! These cars are getting more and more rare, and the prices around here are getting out of hand (12,000 for a high mileage turbo! i bought my low mileage one for 8500 just two years ago!). So it became decision time...

I have conceded I need to sell the Turbo for whatever I can get. I won't be able to fix it and I just want the garage space back. So now onto the S2 Cab. I searched my soul and realized I NEED a 944 in my life, both for its rareness and its handling, and have realized the speed/performance of a turbo is not really necessary especially when you consider I want a very reliable 944 that I can drive very often, after all a Turbo doesn't do much good sitting in my garage waiting for a repair! So with my cab I feel I have a well-maintained and reliable engine and it most certainly has the rareness factor, but I am very skeptical about the handling. When I drive the Cab it pales in comparison to my '86, in fact it at times scares me because it feels so unpredictable, and it rides bumpy as hell anyway! While I expected it to be worse than the turbo I am a bit surprised by how much worse it is, and I am hoping (praying) its because it needs a suspension refresh.

So my two choices become:
1) Sell both 944s and search for a 944S2 coupe and make it my baby
2) Keep my cab, upgrade its suspension, wheels/tires, etc to get its handling back, and make it my baby

I don't want to settle for less engine than the S2 because the performance is right where I want it, but unless I find a suitable coupe VERY shortly, I am pretty sure I am going to stick with my cabriolet. I really want to have it as my ONE focus so I can start spending money and doing all the fun stuff, really making it my own

:to_order:
SO, my question to all of you, is it reasonable to think I could get a cabriolet to handle even close to how an S2 coupe would with, say, $3500 or less? I won't be racing it, purely street usage, but I want it to feel predictable and precise like my turbo does. I have looked into suspension refreshes and/or upgrades and it seems most people are happy, but there are so few cabriolets being talked about I just worry I am trying to make a mule into a race horse, what do you think? Did this car handle well new? Perhaps something is wrong with mine? Any first hand experience with the handling of cabs will be most appreciated! Thanks!

hi I own a 1990 s2 cab that I just completely freshened . for the suspension I used lindsey racing camber plates , bilstien coilovers ( dont ask me the poundage , dave lindsey recomened them he said " street and mid track " ) anyway the bilstiens have adjustable ride hight... which stiffend up the ride and lowers the car about one inch easy... pair that with some performance 17 / 255 rears 17 /225 fronts WHAT A DIFFERENCE !!! also I did a rear seat delete , and took that 40 # damper out of the trunck wheel well... vertex chip for maybe ten more ponies ANYWAY the car is fricken awesome .... 968 CS steering wheel, new interior ON AND ON... I LOVE MY 944 CAB THEY SIT REAL LOW AND LOOK AWESOME IMO redo the cab !! YOU will not be sorry ... 3 liter NA BABY , TUNE IT UP , LIGHTEN HER UP, STIFFEN HER UP ,LOWER IT A LITTLE, PUT THE TOP DOWN ...AND ROCK AND ROLL !!!!!!

1990 944 S2 CAB TRIPLE BLACK dansk ss exhaust

so let me get this straight (sorry to hear you crashed the turbo btw...) you have a perfect turbo powertrain and a perfect s2 cab just sitting next to each other?!?

build a turbo cab! are you kidding me, this would be a dream come true! transfer all turbo suspension over because its obviously in better condition, turbo motor, take all the good from both cars and combine! then sell your good 3.0 litre, the second transaxle and everything you didn't use and you'll definitely be ahead of the game compared to just "getting what you can" out of the busted turbo!

Please do this so that i may live vicariously through you and the process. so... for me.
Chris

all that being said, an S2 in itself is a phenomenal car to drive when refreshed! per fittrjoe's instructions, its even better!

You know, I never even considered this option simply because I live in an apartment and rent a double stall garage and just don't have the ability to take on what you say (both skill wise and garage/tool-wise). And yes, they are literally sitting right next to each other, sad I know, and believe me the fact I can't use the turbo sucks, but once I crashed it I died a little bit inside anyway...

listen here man, i know where you're coming from. i love sports cars and off roading, right? well two summers ago i threw a rod in my '87 951, about the time i was selling my z71 tahoe to "consolidate" since i was recently engaged at the time. long story short, i made the mistake of selling the car instead of fixing it, was already selling my beloved tahoe so that was gone and i ended up having only the damn ford fusion...:banghead:

those were some dark days.

but i guess all's well that ends well. i ended up getting another truck, picked up a 968 (hence my appreciation of the S2) and the fusion's computer died under warranty so i have an excuse to chuck that thing out now.

I think you've got a good plan to enjoy the S2 and refresh the car up a bit. Let me at least encourage you to part the turbo out so that you get your money's worth and build one heck of an S2 driver...

Good luck!

They did a lot of reinforcing on the cabs to ensure they handled well, so something is definitely wrong with your car. You say the cab rides "bumpy" - is the suspension stock? what "scares" you about it? What about tires?

The cab had extra weight down low as the floor is doubled which technically shouldn't hurt handling as it moves the center of gravity down. On the down side there is more flex in the structure.

By no means was my car scary with the 20 year old stock suspension but it definitely was sloppier then it should be. I was able to keep up with 2 turbos and an S2 coupe in vigorous driving in the fall and was never scared.

If your turbo suspension was intact and you loved the way that car handled then just swap that in. I just swapped an upgraded turbo suspension into my S2 Cab and it was easy. I never did DIY work before I got the car 1 year ago and was able to get it done with jack stands, a ratchet set, breaker bar and torque wrench. I swapped in Koni sport adjustables all around from a 951, changed the A arms because my ball joints were not great, put in 968 style casters, 200# welmeister springs, KLA strut top mounts and all new sway bar bushings. This project is quite a bit cheaper then your budget even if you dont take anything from your turbo.

I will be replacing the tires ASAP, and if I find it is safe to go to 17" wheels on a cab (the PCNA bulletin warns not to) then I will upgrade my wheels too (turbo twists likely). As for the scary, when I am going around a "sharp" corner on the freeway, lets say one where 55MPH is the max recommended, my car feels like it is going to jump off the road every time I hit a small bump or crack, plus it just doesn't feel stuck to the road at all. I avoid driving it because of that, and thats why all these thoughts of suspension upgrades.

Great advice and I will be sure to think about that when I decide how I will refresh the suspension! Money is much less the concern than is having a very predictable handling car, plus I guess there is a small part of me that still wishes I could sell the turbo to the right person who would fix up the body in their spare time and it would live again!

You can go to 17" but you should upgrade to 968 caster blocks. Mine had 17" when I got it with the old caster blocks. I drove 6000miles without problems. But they are cheap to upgrade.

The S2 already has the "turbo suspension". What it likely needs is a refresh after 20 years. Not sure what tires you run, but at the very least a 225front would help remarkably. It is getting harder to find the same tire in 225-50-16 front and 245-45-16 rear, so upgrading to a 17" wheel would be a no brainer. Plenty of 17" boxster/993/996 wheels out there that are a true bolt on upgrade. As mentioned, you should upgrade your caster blocks to 968 parts as they work well with the 17" wheel combos.

Beyond that.. what are you trying to do? Stiffen the car up? Make it understeer more/less? What are the current dynamics you are trying to get rid of? imho, I don't know if you would want to run more than 250# front springs. Plenty of places out there to sell you parts, but the key is gettin CURRENT CAB owners to chime in with experience.

JSAinDC posts out here fairly often and I know last winter he upgraded his S2 Cab and was really pleased with it.. I just can't remember the specifics of his upgrades.

I think that was understood, it was just meant that the OP could transfer the suspension from his "Turbo" to the S2. that would constitue a refresh if he was happy with that car's suspension before the incident.:to_order:

Also consider that an '86 turbo to a 91 S2 swap would be considerable, and he'd have to change hubs or wheels as the two are not entirely the same set ups.. which was what I was getting at. And, since I didn't read his lengthly post too closely, it was unclear how old (or updgraded) his Turbo's suspension was.

engaged: check
selling truck: check
buying ford fusion: check (most likely)
selling porsche: not a chance :)


as far as the OP goes, i love the idea of a 951 cab.

yeah yeah yeah. :p