MAGK944

When you raise the rear the front will lower a little anyway, by raising the rear you are shifting the weight to the front.

In your situation I would be very tempted to delete the tb's and go coilover at the back. It would save a lot of time & effort reindexing and replacing tb's. springs for coilovers (esp 2.5in) come in many sizes and heights and are cheap so you can experiment better and get exactly what you want.

gamman

Robin, its Gerry here. This is the place you needed to find! Guys I have been trying to see this thing in person for a while. We will meet up sooner or later. I will take photos and videos. The idea is great. In 5 years or maybe 10, it would be awesome to have a 944 track car that just has spare batteries for track nights.

Robin W.

Hey Gerry,

Nice to see you on here!
These guys have been a huge help, I still have lots to learn but at least now I know how the suspension works, how it's adjusted, the pro's and con's of keeping/deleting the TB's, and most importantly some spring rates to start with.

I bought a 36mm wrench at princess auto yesterday so on saturday I'm going to adjust the ride height till I can replace the TB's, while I'm at it I'll try and look through the guides and see how hard it's going to be to replace the TB's, I have no exhaust in the way so that might help.

Todays batteries force you to choose the application, IE if you want a track car you need the higher end batteries (more expensive), for a street car that may not be practical since to keep the weight/cost down on a track car you may not have the range you want with those high end batteries. Hopefully in 5-10 years there will be a battery that does both for less money, I think the EV tuner/converter market will be big in the future. Forget the green aspect, and saving money on gas, the torque of the electric drive system just provides a much more fun driving experience.

I do have to admit though, there is something lost to spectators watching an electric drag race/auto cross etc because the only noise is squealing tires and there is no ROAR of the engines.

Robin W.

Ok, got a 36mm wrench which allowed me to properly adjust the rear ride height.
The first picture is the same one I posted at the beginning of the thread and the 2nd is the ride height after adjustment and a short drive.








This obviously isn't a solution, I still need more spring rate in the rear, the question is does this change any of the recommendations for torsion bars? Most had recommended 26-27mm, given the current stance with stock bars should 26mm be enough?

Thanks again everyone, it would have been a lot of trial and error fumbling through this myself.

Arominus

I'd go still go 27 based on the amount of weight you have in the back.

Robin W.

So I placed the order with Paragon, Koni sport shocks front and rear, the coilover kit with 200lb springs for the front. I ordered the 27mm torsion bars from the canadian place.

In stock form I was finally able to do a 0 - 60mph run and I'm quite happy. The battery was about 60% full, the tires were cold, I had to launch gently then get on the throttle but I managed a 5.0 second 0 - 60 time. With some electrical changes I'm making along with the stiffer suspension a fully charged battery and warm tires I'd be willing to bet I can get down in the 4.5 - 4.8 second range, maybe even quicker if I push my battery pack to the limit of my controller which should be fine for a 4ish second burst.

admiralkhole

Nice! Sounds like you're definitely on the right path. Now we need videos!

Roy Henneberger

Before addressing the ride height issue, the more important questions would be what is the maximum luggage load you would put in the trunk and whether it now has the tendency to over-steer due to the weight. I built a tire carrier for my 1989 944 to carry my track tires to DE events. 200 pounds cantilevered behind the rear bumper increased the rear axle load by 300 pounds (within the load ratings in the owner's manual) and decreased the front axle load by 100 pounds (in the case of my car it made it the same as a 1988 base model which had the same springs).

Re indexing the torsion bars is not out of the question if you do not carry a lot of luggage, but you might need the 30 mm front sway bars to control over-steer at the limit. Adding weight to the rear will tend to cause over-steer. Higher spring rate in the rear will increase the over-steer. You might even want to consider 160 to 250 Weltmiester springs at the front which will lower the front about an inch.

My 944 sags more than that when loaded with race tires and all my track gear, but I want neutral handling when I get there and drive cautiously enroute.

Roy Henneberger
Nord Stern
1989 944 & 1995 968

Toran

Keep up the good work Robin!

Looking forward to staying up-to-date with your progress.
So many questions to ask, and some many answers to be had!
Hoping my next car will be an electric 944!

Rock on!

hopps

Maybe this will help?

https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...-coilover.html

thirdgenbird

I'm sorta wanting an electric 924. I could easily go full electric, small town, short commute...

Robin W.

Thank you, I'll see what I can do, I've tried a cheap camera mount (to the hatch glass) and while driving there is too much vibration/motion to get decent video, I'll have to find a different mount or find someone up for taking some decent video of the car, inside and out.

I couldn't be happier now that I'm driving it on a regular basis! The car is just a blast, In theory I have around 200hp right now but I've done 0-60 in 5 seconds and should be able to improve that. Those numbers don't compute for a 3000lb gas 944.

Thank you, I've seen that and seriously considered it, perhaps it sounds weird given the countless custom parts in my 944 but I'd rather use an off the shelf suspension solution.

If you can wrench on a 924 you can build an electric one, if you ever decide to go ahead with it give me a shout I'd be happy to get you started with component choices to meet your range and performance goals.

Robin W.

Got the parts in from Jason at Paragon, the front is installed, still tweaking the ride height but it's getting better. Very happy so far!

Before:


Rear adjusted, everything stock:


Front Koni Sport shocks with coilover kit:


Tomorrow I hope to tackle the torsion bars and rear shocks.

Butters944

looks great so far, good luck with the rest!