Brantley

What is the best bang for buck suspension upgrade for a stock 951, non-S?

I am not to much interested in lowering the car, just looking for improved cornering.

Thanks.

Mike1982

Well, do you want to touch the shocks/springs or more in sway bars?? If you want in cornering so you don't sway as much, for cheap, I would say the M030 sway bars would at least be a good start.

Brantley

Either shocks / springs or sway bars...

968 M030 or Turbo S M030? Or, are they one in the same?

Skip Wolfe

IMHO the best bang for the buck by far are the 968 M030 sway bars. 30mm front, 19mm rear. Last I checked Sunset Porsche had the best prices.

jturbo

I would say that upgrading the sway bars are the best "bang for buck" suspension modification. Go with the 968 MO30 sway bars (30mm hollow front sway bar 19mm three way adjustable rear sway bars).

Brantley

Thanks for the feedback...

That sounds good. I was also looking at getting the Weltmeister swaybars. Any major differences between the two?

Sounds like I'll go with the 968 swaybars.

jimbo1111

I agree with the guy's up top about the sway bars but I would most definitely get a set of new koni adjustables. This is the best improvement over the stock 86 suspension.

badass951

Sway bars as others have said. I highly recommend the Weltmeister sway bars.

Chas

you can upgrade sway bars all day long but you are going to still get the same buck and dive that hurt lap times...

theedge

Swaybars. Ive got Weltmeisters on my car and love them. Can be kinda harsh on rough roads due to the hard bushings and solid mounts to the control arms, but that doesnt bother me.

TheRealLefty

The range of "improvement" is virtually endless...if "improvement" is defined a no-compromise increased grip at the limit. If you are looking for better street handling, 968 M030 bars your lowest cost, easiest to install option. With fresh rubber bushings all around you will experience immediately improvement in grip and very little difference in ride quality. The only non-OE part that I use on my Turbo S with this set up is a set of KLA rear drop links. They are much better than OE "dog bones" because their spherical bearings don't bind up/wind up under load and don't seem to make ride any harsher. My car also has the 968 M030 shock package, with the rear coil overs so it does rattle your fillings on harsh or uneven surfaces.

Welts are very good bars, but are heavier and generally result in a rougher ride. Unless you are using your car for competition/track days their adjustability is not much of an advantage, measured against their higher cost and more complex installation, IMO.

My 86 NA track car has 200# front Welts with an 1.25 inch drop, Yellow Konis and the 951 M030 bars (26.8 tubular front instead of 30mm) and Delrin center bushings front and back. Works very well and I find it has more than enough adjustability using the rear three hole 19mm. Sometimes you ned to play with front shock settings and air pressures, but it's not that hard to get front/rear balance correct for any given event. Note, though that with an 86 or any early offset 944 you have a narrower range of available front camber which can be an issue on R compounds....and has a big effect on turn-in/understeer. My NA has 16" Club Sports with Better Bodies spacers to get a little extra track width which car really make the car feel quick.

Many NA club racers use 15 x 8 Fuchs all around...for some magical reason that extra half inch of track makes the car dart like an arrow at the beginning of your steering wheel input...which, in theory, is good assuming slightly more driving talent than I bring to the party 944's "natural" state is slightly toward the understeer side of the equation, perhaps to keep us from backing into fences at speed.

Interesting that Derek Bell, one of the people who first raced 944 variants at LeMans, thinks that most modern 944 racers use too much front tire and too much front bite, preferring slightly more "polar moment of inertia" that we tend to tune for.

CanyonBlaster

Do you have all the maintenenace records? When were the current shocks replaced, if ever? What miles you at? Only reason I ask is if high miles and original shocks, you really need new shocks. I replaced my original ones at 100K and it made a nice improvement. The old ones were really shot!!

Then I installed welt adjust. sways. HUGE improvement in cornering. Handles nice and flat. I can rotate the car "at will" on the track or tight back roads.

This combo is working out pretty well. I might go to coilovers someday though.

951North

These will install without modification on an '87 951 Non M030?

Jason.

TheRealLefty

Yeppers. You just need the proper center and end bushings for the front and new center bushings for the rear. Most parts houses will ship with same. Front 30 mm bar is tubular and tapered, so it uses different end bushings from many earlier 944 OE bars.

IIRC, the front 30 mm also comes with big circlips for either end to prevent the bar from slipping out of the drop links under extreme maneuvers, although from the looks of it, that might be the least of your problems if the control arm ever moved that far!

Weston Dillard

IMHO the best bang for the buck is the REAR M030 sway bar. I have found it hard to get the push out of my 951. The bigger rear bar with the stock front bar balances the car nicely. The rear also costs about 1/2 what the front does.

West