cooz

Looking to evolve a stock late 944/951/TS suspension into a DE tracker and eventual racer.

what is the best approach/solution to dealing with A-ARM dilema when modifying suspension into tracker/racer to be strong, safe, reliable/durable ?

Charley's, Fabcar's, remanufactured, etc

Please enlighten

Cooz 95 993 C2

jerome951

Stay away from remanufactured arms for heavy track use. I had to remanned units fail in a couple of years (luckily each was caught before going on the track).

There are several options you'll see if you search the archives.

A few years ago I was upgrading my arms and narrowed the choice down to Fabcar and Charley. Since both are about the same price, I chose the Charley's due to lighter weight.

I narrowed the list down to Fabcar and Charley based on a history of good performance. In my mind, arms are not a place where you want to be a guinea pig. Both Dave Klem and Charley Spira have a history of producing safe, reliable products.

Mike S.

Charlie Arms and Fabcars are your highest end way to go.

Some use arms from Markus Blaszak (Toronto area)

http://www.blaszakprecision.com

He does rebuilds, reinforced arms, and I believe his own fabricated version.

Certainly check your race series rules to make sure what you put on is acceptable. Markus should be able to steer you right when it comes to this...especially if you're thinking PCA racing as he's quite involved with the PCA I see.

Suggest you cross post this question on the Perf. & Comp. Racing forum

Mike

Oddjob

You can use stock arms if the balljoints are in good condition.

If you have a high mileage car, the ball joints will be suspect and the arms should probably be replaced. If you have a low miles car in good condition, check for play in the balljoints, and if they are tight, they can be used on the track. Just keep a close eye on them, find out the correct procedure and inspect them for play between events.

Sure the Charlie arms and the Fabcar arms are very good (and expensive) aftermarket upgrade/replacements, and tend to reduce/eliminate the balljoint and a-arm failure problems.

I would also not recommend using rebuilt factory arms for hard track use.

I have had good luck buying and using new factory arms (now the superceeded 968 part) from discounted mail order dealers (half of the price of the Charlie and Fabcar arms). Ive been using these on two different track cars for several seasons and have not had to replace them yet.

Mike S.

Jim,

Are you allowed to use the cast aluminum OEM arms on your 944 based PCA club race cars?

Mike

jerome951

Yes, stock arms are allowed for PCA racing, but we're encouraged to upgrade to an approved aftermarket unit (or Porsche Motorsport version) for obvious reasons.

Oddjob

Here is what the PCA Club Racing rule book states under the stock class rules regarding control arms:

“944/968 aluminum front control arms (A-arms) may be replaced with an approved replacement unit or appropriately modified early factory steel part.”

That implies that the stock arms are approved and I have never heard of any issue that a scrutineer had with standard aluminum arms. It never identifies an “approved replacement” by brand or manufacturer.

Most late model 944s that I have seen at DE events are running stock aluminum A-arms. In Club Racing, many of the top end prepped cars are using Charlie Arms (more common these days than the Fabcar arms), but there are still a lot of stock A-arms in use.