badcoupe

I put a welt rear bar in my car with my bilsteins all around and it made a night and day difference!

951North

Could you elaborate on the Bilsteins? Is this on an early offset car, i.e. '86? or does this matter? I'm still trying to figure out how to get bilsteins on my '87.

Thanks.

badcoupe

my car is an 86 turbo. I put bilstein HD shocks and the back and I had an early parts car with bilstein inserts, so I put the struts on my 86. It took a little modding to make it work.

TedA

Guys

Any thoughts on how springs play into the equation? I'm looking to deal with major body roll issues under DE conditions. I'm close to dragging the rocker panels. Are sways and shocks by themself a good starting place to level things out?

TheRealLefty

If you're starting bone stock with ten year old components, no doubt that upgrading sway bars, adding fresh bushings and swapping in Yellow Koni's or Bilsteins will bring instant improvement to performance at the limit. Front strut braces help keep the front square and a B-pillar harness bar in the interior can deliver surprising increases in rear chassis stiffness.

There are real drawbacks and limitations to trying to accomplish too much of the work of the spring with anti-roll tricks and overly stiff shock settings. Shocks that are set too stiff for the springs will create bounce at their respective ends and the shocks (especially single valve ones) can "work themselves down", not recovering between compressions. On single adjustable shocks you are really adjusting rebound, not compression when you make them stiffer.

If you go back out on the track after some basic fixes like this....and the car still dives, squats and rolls over...then you'll have to deal with spring rates.

Stock springs are really not very stiff, 125-175 lbs depending on your model. 200 and 250 pound fronts are mild upgrades and sometimes to do not require matching rear upgrades if you have a big rear sway bar. Once you get above that spring rate for the front, you need to start thinking about either rear coil over helpers or torsion bar upgrades (lower cost, more work) in the rear so you don't create too much understeer by overrstiffening the front.

Rule of thumb with rear drive cars is basic. Which ever end you want make grip, stiffen the opposite end. 944's are very adjustable and the odds are that you can control your body roll with modest refurb and upgrades and still have a car that is not so stiff and low that it loses streetability.

On paper Rabbit based front struts and Super Beetle trailing arms don't make for a very sexy chassis...but over the 20+ years that Porsche worked over the 924/944/968 series it got better and better to the point where our cars will track with all but the most exotic current models.

TedA

Getting back to the theme of the thread, from a cost effective standpoint (as in I'm going to have to fix it when I have more track time) are 250 lb springs up front with a stiffer rear bar the way to go? Did I mention a body lean problem? I could show pictures but it's just embarassng.......

TheRealLefty

You oughtta call Jason or Skip at Paragon Products in Texas. Straight shooters. 951/968 racers themselves. Jason sells an adjustable perch front strut/spring combo that is just the cheese, kills three birds with one stone...let's you pick a spring rate, freshens the front shocks and provides adjustable ride height a la later M030 cars.