gforgie

I have recently purchased a 1989 944 Turbo which will be used mostly as a dedicated DE car. I am looking for suggestions for suspension setup and also tires and wheels. I currently am working with Karl at the Racer's Edge Inc. on the suspension setup and would be interested in any feedback on them and/or any other suggestions. As for wheel and tire combinations, I am having a little trouble. I like Kumho tires(good value for the money) but am not against changing. If I go with 17" wheels I have a better selection of rubber than 18". Should I go with 8.5" wheels and 245/45 17" Kumhos all the way around (I could rotate them this way)? Should I try to find 8.5" and 10" wheels and go with 245/45 17" and 275/40 17"? Or should I go to an 18" wheel. Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks Much!

User 41221

If you've just purchased it, I'd suggest you spend a season or two just driving the car and get to know what its capable of, before you start modding it. Its a very capable machine right out of the box.

The only think I would suggest would be a harness bar with a decent set of harnesses.

If you HAVE to mod it, I would suggest Pagid Orange brake pads, and 968 M030 front and rear sway bars, and stop there. Make sure everything else is up to snuff, and have fun with it.

Regards,

rhesus

eh, don't you need racing seats if you get harnesses? i was under the impression that they have a tendency to slip off the sides of your shoulders if you're using stock seats...

Sam Lin

The Racer's Edge is excellent, carries good products and they know a lot about tracking our cars, with good service.

Sam

Danno

I say go for the following setup:

F: 17x10", 255/40-17 tyre
R: 17x11", 275/40-17 tyre

Alignment for better performance than stock would be:

F: -2.75 to -3.50 camber, 3.5 caster (maximum), 1/32-1/16" total toe-in
R: -2.00 to -3.00 camber, 1/32" total toe-in

Some people like zero toe on the rear, but I find it's a little hairy under braking.

Jim H.

Well I have an 89 turbo that is used primarily for DE events. The previous owner spent quite a bit on professional preparation and it shows. The car is amazingly fast on a track. I'd be happy to share the setup with you as I have most of the records. Some of the work was custom (Koni's revalved up front, Bilstein coilovers in back, etc) and details are lacking but in general the car emulates a cup car's suspension. Pretty stiff on the road but with matched springs and shocks, there is no oscillating over bumps.

I agree that your car is probably great to start off as is. I use Hawk Blues for pads and think they're great. I also run C2 8.5 x 16 rims with 245s all the way around (Toyo Proxes RA-1s). Definitely the way to go for DE. In fact, with this setup, I'm only 2 seconds slower than the PCA racers with 18" hoosiers. Plenty fast and being able to rotate the tires helps wear. One of my instructors has raced a 944T in PCA and said he always ran equal sized tires front and rear as the car had more balance (his opinion but he's generally regarded as an ultra fast racer so it is likely sound advice).

You can run a harness with stock seats but an additional strap across your chest must be used just for the reason mentioned above. The straps can slip off the side of your shoulders otherwise.

After brake pads and harness, I'd recommend a track seat (I run a Recaro SRD) The cornering loads are quite high and a seat which locks you in place greatly reduces fatigue and improves "precision" when it comes to turning the wheel.

Good luck.

Jim H.

ninefiveone

I've been looking for that additional strap across the strap. Anyone have a lead on where I can find one? Seems most of the sternum straps I've seen are integral to the shoulder straps. I'd like to just add a sternum strap to the harnesses I already have. Assuming that's not a naive idea.

DAR951

I don't believe add-on sternum straps exist. Could be wrong, but I doubt it... problem is with locating it on the harness and the need for it to be sewn in place to keep it there... no way to pierce and/or sew the web after it's been manufactured and retain the safety rating, and anything less than sewing just isn't adequate to keep it where it needs to be.

Also, while I've seen it done, using the sternum strap to keep the shoulder belts from sliding down the sides of the stock seats is a marginal solution at best, and probably won't pass some/many tech inspections, even for DE. It's becoming more common at the DE level (as opposed to actual racing, where it's been the case for some time) to think of the seat, seat mounting, and harness as all part of a single, integrated system... hard/impossible to change one part without accounting for how it works with what's left.

While I know not everyone agrees, if you're ready for a harness, you're ready for a race seat and at least a roll bar, maybe a cage... until then, live with the three points.

richmason

How would running the same sized wheels on all four corners work for the street? Are the 8.5s substantially bigger (and harder to maneuver) than the stock wheels? I have the 16'' phone dials but am looking at changing to 17''s. Would the 8.5x17 all around work well on the street?

smokey

If you're serious about track, just cut to the chase and get 400 lb springs and Leda struts up front, plus helper springs and Leda's at the back, with the 968 M030 sway bars. It won't be comfortable on the street, but still driveable. It's where you'll end up, unless you trailer your car, and any halfway steps you'll undo anyway. Check with Karl, but that was my solution.

Jason Judd

Karl at Racer's Edge is a great guy, and he provides really good products.

Certainly a nice combination!

I've used him for 968 parts, and that's mostly the same stuff.

By the way, I'm running 9.5 X 18 up front and 11 X 18 in the rear, with 265 and 295 Micheline Pilot Sport Cups...scared to death of the rain, though!

Jason

Deetz

Exactly!

I did one DE and got hooked, for the second, I did 245/45/16 Yok A032Rs
for the third I did S4 brakes and Pagid orange
for the forth we added Recaro SRD's and a harness bar with 5 points

This winter did Charlie Arms, Tarret Sway bars, full sphericals, full solids,
LSD at 80% lockup, solid trans mount, Leda doulble adj w/remote res.
with 400# front and 28mm rear torsion bars and 200# helpers

Should be a fun season...

BTW, for my second DE, my instructor had a great idea - She took a Rubber
Cutting board mat and put them on both of our seats - Amazing! really keeps
you for slip sliding around! Cheap too. But no subst. for Recaro + 5pt

Deetz