BGr Alex

I apologize if this has come up a bunch. I'm on my iPhone so I can search well at the moment.

Looking at buying a 1988 924s with low ish miles. I want to turn it into a track car while still keeping it street legal. Basically, strip the interior, replace seats, add cage, upgrade suspension. Not looking to do much with motor/transmission.

1. Anything I should look for in terms of warning signs?

2. What are some good sites for suspension upgrades?

If this all comes together, I'll be sure to start a build thread.

-Alex

BGr Alex

A little more about me quick too...

I'm a bit of a motorsports enthusiast, mainly motorcycles. I road race at the club level, which I where I get my speed fix. I've also owned some fun cars as well though:

e90 330i that I put a limited slip diff in
AP2 S2k
Currently have a wrx

xsboost90

read my blogs- you'll see what you need.

74goldtarga

I would consider building your car to 944 spec rules, they are fast and relatively cheap to run and you would have a lot of good drivers to run with at the track with similar performance (depending on where you live). Plus, a lot of the thought process on the suspension has been worked out. 924 S is a great platform to start with.

stv951

I have built a 924 S for track days and mountain drives and its an amazing car.
I have just completed a 3.0 ltr 944 S2 engine conversion. Its become quite fast and very competitive. It desperately needs a better suspension from the konis I am currently running with.

stv951

I wish Ipad would allow me to post some pix... Damn...

MAGK944

Get the photobucket.com app for iPad, it's free. Upload you photos there and post the image (IMG) tags in your post.

If you right click and look at the properties on the pic below you will see it's hosted on my photobucket account:

BGr Alex

Great info, thanks.

xsboost90 - your blog has a lot of good information in it. It will come in very handy as I work through my project.

stv951

Thanx for this, but isn't it more complicated than it should be ? Ipad is supposed to be simplifying things

MAGK944

It's not the iPad it's this forum, loading photos from a mobile device on here is like pulling teeth. Their app sux in so many ways, you would think on a paid forum like this they would do some upgrades to the code!

jdgunn

heh, my daily driver is a 2006 330i sports package and I have a gutted '88 924S sunroof delete m030 that I drive the crap out of on nice days. After coming from lots of earlier cars I was surprised with the extra power you get out of a fresh '88 engine. That car is a ton of fun. It certainly could use a limited slip, though.

BGr Alex

Nice!

My 330i was Alpine White and had the sports package as well as 6MT. Fun car. Very smooth.

I may be in contact with you with questions about gutting the 924s as I get to work on the project.

As for the limited slip, I thought I read that the anniversary edition 924s had it. I wonder if it would be possible to track one down...

chrisc

My advice having done this, after 5 years and $25K plus the cost of the car - DON'T do it!. I'm still several big bucks away from having a competitive SP2 car. If you are going to race then find a nicely built competitive SP2 car. My guess is you can find a real nice car in the $10/K range. If you are only going to DE & drive on the street find something with more HP.

Or, I will sell you my car for $15/K

Wish I had taken my own advice.

stv951

Hello and merry Xmas.
Why did you regret it ? Was it because of the build cost ? I really love my 924S.
What are your cars specs ? Any thread about it ?

chrisc

Merry Christmas! Depends on what you want to do with the car. If you want to autocross and occasional DE that's one thing. If the car's primary use is going to be Driver Education events at the track and racing that's another consideration. I do like the 924 S as a car but here in the states the number of well built race cars that are for sale makes this a buyer's market. For the money I spent on the 924 I could have a very nice 911 SC race car, a nicely sorted Spec Boxster, a very nice and very competitive 1995 BMW M3 race car etc. My regret is only from the fiscal side of the equation. I would like to sell the car so I can step up to something a little quicker but I will be very lucky to get .25 to each dollar spent on the car, granted all of the work done, with the exception of some very basic work was done by a professional race shop so the bills are a little higher than if I had done the work.

If the poster is interested in a dedicated 944 race car there's a lister here in Georgia with a very nicely built SP2 class car that he is selling to step up to Spec Boxster. The price he is asking no way covers the quality and expense that went into the car in my opinion.