jmj951

Hello all,
Thanks in advance for your responses. I recently purchased my first 951, a 1986 951 with 137k miles. Its main purpose is to use at the track, but the car will remain street legal and I won't be stripping it. One of the possible changes I've been back and forth on are control arm replacements. I've read about their weaknesses in racing applications, and possible problems resulting from geometry changes on cars that have been lowered or run bigger sway bars. I don't want to spend a lot of $$ on something that may not be a real problem in my particular situation, but I need more information to figure this out. Specifically, if I run an M030 front sway bar, 18" wheels with track tires, and 400# springs, how much can the car be lowered before I risk binding the ball joint or otherwise damaging the control arm?
Thanks!
John

ehall

You can get a ball joint kit to take care of the lowered suspenion.
As for the rest, I'll leave that for the race guys.

333pg333

You'll probably find that you will also start stripping it over time. Some of the best mods are taking stuff out.

ehall

ofcourse stripping out the control arms creates certain unsolvable problems!

Acetylene

jmj951

If I could always keep it as a third vehicle... that would definitely be the case. Before long, we'll be moving to Napoli, Italy to spend three years. The insurance on the 996 there is outrageous and from what I hear it will either be stolen or bashed up within months if we use it as a daily driver, so we're not going to bring it with us. The 951 is 1/3 the cost to insure, and probably not quite as much of a theft target, so that will become our second vehicle there. I can't wait for a DE at Imola.

jmj951

GCK Kit ordered, w/ Aluminum Bronze bushings. Thanks!

333pg333

Naples? Don't worry about stripping your car, they'll do it for you. lol
Still, an hours drive from Positano has to be a plus. What a place. As for driving in Italy, well good luck

333pg333

Might be just the thing to stop the car from being stolen in Naples though.

Ski

I don't think the control arms should be classified as weak, there are just better options for the track. However, if you choose to run factory arms, get another set that you can have ready to install and rotate them out, have the old ones rebuilt and crack checked.

We did this for almost 3 years on the car in the avatar, then we got charlie arms, with a set of spindles already done. Still keep the old arms and spindles in the trailer, just in case.

Track time just puts undo stresses on all parts. Factory arms weak - no but there are better bushings available for the ball joint if you want to use the factory arm, stock ones are plastic. Even if you do have other style control arms, you should do good maintenance and checks.

Have a set of these still


now these

aben8057

Do control arms com in steel as well as aluminum?

Red!

Yes (ish) Markus Blassak makes 951 control arms by modding Eibach replacement BMW 3 Series arms, they are steel and make sense if you're going to drive your car on the road.

One thing people forget is that the rubber is there for a reason - it gives. When you're tooling around and hit a pothole with a race suspension (no give) you will bend or stress things that will fail later.

I broke a control arm in Turn 2 @ Mosport, and don't want to experience that again, so I went with steel, I like the fact it can bend/give a little, protects the other components, like the bushings and mounting points (a bit) and doen't seem to hurt my performance in any noticeable way.