jim968

Andrew... gearing does make a difference, don't it? It & weight reduction are probably the two most overlooked performance "tricks" in the book.

Jim, ex-'67 IHC Scout, 304 V8, granny-low 4-speed _&_ low range...

TimC

Ahmet - JEEZ! It scared the crap out of me the one time I accidentally went airborne maybe 6 INCHES high!

Wow.

T

Dave

Craig, Looking forward to the next clutch?

Ahmet, VWs stall on landing (impact) after that kind of air. Do Porsches have this problem? For real air I suggest boating, 30' Scarab+75mph+8 to 10 foot wave=30' up for 300' (witnesses said boat lenght high for at least 10 boat lengths)

keith

...ummm, I'm gonna have to see the ramp on that one...

I used to jump my fiat in high school for kicks (and run it in the mud, climb hills to amuse the 4x4 guys), and jumps of INCHES for several feet are very very hard on a car...

- makes for a POS in no time.

Dave

You're close, what I thought was just a slight incline, turned out to be a mound of dirt about 3 feet high. I wasn't planning to jump it, I was just going 40 in the dark in a spot where 5 mph would have been a good idea. Result, off the ground for 20-30 feet, up 4-5 feet. Car shut off, dents in oil pan, floor, and gas tank(!). No, that was almost 20 years ago, and I haven't done it again since.

Adam Richman

I am no Geometry wiz but by my **** estimation 10^2 + 7^2 = 12.2075^2. That means that Ahmet got a car to launch nearly ~30 degrees (28.372?) into the air for a distance of 20 feet. Hmmmm, we are talking about moving a 2900 pound object up into the ether around 30 degrees for a distance of ten feet and then downward at an angle of ~30 degrees for an additional 10 feet right?

My car ramps are less than 25 degrees and I need boards to get my car on them. Just wondering how this is within the realm of possibility. Am I that bad at math? What speed did this launch a la Hooper require?

Ahmet

There are 2 spots I used to do this at, one of them a 30mph zone, the other a 25. After two fatalities at one of them, and a serious accident at the other (within 2 months of each other) I stopped. Anyway, I've never driven my car off ramps or anything before, it's basically driving to the top of a hill, and getting airborne for a while as the road drops from under you. Going about 35mph or so gets my parents accord off the ground at either(one is accompanied by a turn slightly afterwards, which is where some high school kids lost it in a vette, one dead one severely injured if I remember correctly). I would say the incline is a tad over 30 degrees, but that's just a guess.

Landing is usually not so bad, as the road is still dropping(even sharper at around where the car lands), but I have had to replace strut mounts twice so far, and have gone through all the bushings in the suspension since I did that stuff, but the chasis still looks straight on the alignment machine, and there are no cracks/seperation, so I figure I'm good. Still no rattles, tight feeling car. Anyway, I'll take pictures of the place(s) when I get a chanse, actually I want to get a few pictures/videos of my 944 in the air. Anyway, don't quote me on the #s, for all I know they're probably off, but at least for the car going forward, I'm pretty positive it's over 10 feet, in the air...

PS: Keith, I'm trying to plan on 4 events the week I get my license back, we're bound to see each other again sometime.

Documented abuse to date:








And here's a short clip: http://personal.rdu.bellsouth.net/rdu/o/z/ozisik/2.avi

My point is, not only have I abused the car, but it has taken it, better than any other car I can think of...
Ahmet

MAS

My 87 924S can chirp going into 3rd (occasionally). 2nd is no problem, even at medium RPMs.

-MAS

Greg Hammond

"Chirping" Gears sure is fun, and it also places extreme stress on your CV joints as the amount of sudden torque applied far exceeds that of normal driving (and smooth hard accelleration) situations. When you find you need a $300 axle because you've been banging your tranny - at least you'll know why.

Greg

BTW: My 951 regularly chips 2nd without trying, and 3rd if I'm working it hard. My tires as so sticky, it's hard to get loose traction without intentionally revving it up and popping the clutch. But, I don't do that!

Manning

Ahmet,

I didn't say the cars were crap. If they were I wouldn't own one. They do have significant deficiencies in quality. How many times have people brought up the following:

Sunroof (motor/gear/microswitch)
Oil cooler (oil in coolant)
Cracked Dash
Ball Joint (85.5 a-arms)
Rear window coming unglued
And many others including inconsistent panel gaps.

Again, I do not think these cars a sh*t, but they are not on the same level as their top shelf brethren and pretty much all of the auto industry journalists agreed. However, and I eluded to this, it has far superior build quality to anything offered by any US company, though I must say that my 86 Taurus LX was driven at least as hard as your 944 and faired very well. This includes many many sudo-rally escapades in the north Georgia mountains with mighty jumps and all wheel drifts through corners.

Ahmet

My personal opinion is that most of the failures you see can be traced back to mis-use at some point...

The hatch forexample, if you don't shut it holding the thing from both sides, it'll flex, and seperate in time... The sunroof motor could be somebody trying to remove it, or goo on the switch getting it stuck, completing the circuit for a long time, over tightenning the clutch in the back instead of a simple height adjustment, oil cooler seals to an overheated engine, so forth. Keep in mind there were many updates, as far as mechanical updates I know of, most of them are checked over on my car... Antifreeze/Oil heat exchanger seals, powersteering cooler, waterpump, belt tensioner, etc. And if you think that list is excessive, you should see an updated parts list for Hondas. Last time I checked, they had over 70? within the first 5 months of the (then new) 1998 Honda Accord, including stuff like transmissions, heads, interior lights, alarm control unit, etc. (We had one of the first 10 or so in NC), and it's been a pain to keep up with it. At less than 50k, it rattles more than my 944)!

Panel gaps are large, but I haven't seen one with 'inconsistent' gaps, as far as finish goes (that hasn't been involved in an accident ofcourse), my car is an 84, and looks better than an 88 Honda Prelude, which was garaged it's whole life, that was washed, and waxed often. The car had 14k or so miles when I got it years ago, my 944 feels tighter than that car too, with over 10x the milage, and my hard driving mind you...

I've also owned other cars, including another honda accord, and two vws. I work as a mechanic, and get to see/drive MANY cars, including 911s, and let me tell you (I don't care what which journalist says), 944s are NOT sub par. Interesting thing is though, those that haven't been cared for are falling apart, but are still in better shape then almost any other car that has been similarly treated. And I hate to bring it up again, but I have read many articles on 944s (I would say just about everything that I could find in the last 2 years or so) and the majority of the opinion is that it was one of the best, most fun to drive chasis around...
Ahmet

Manning

Oh absolutely best handling, most fun Porsche ever. This was clearly the case from the first press coverage. AutoX (now Grassroots Motorsports) did an article back in the day that said the 924S may become one of the best sleeper AutoX cars of the day.

And think of all the work Porsche has had to do to make the 911 actually handle so that the average schmoe can drive one. All I ever heard about when the 930 came out was how easy it was to loop on if you didn't get back on (or off) the gas at the right time.

Ahmet

Well I'm glad we agree on somethings!
Ahmet