Oddjob

The change was made pretty early in the MY89 production run, somewhere between July-Aug '88. Around US VIN#s 200-400, or so.

Is that consistent with your car's mfg date/VIN?

67King

1097. I don't know. I'm only the third owner. The second bought it in 1992, and never touched it as far as making changes to it.

Djbrand1

Heres a proof sheet from the past DE event I did to show you the amount of lean the car has.

ninefiveone

That's perfectly normal for a stockish 951S.

Two things:
- Never count on the out-of-the-box setting on the koni yellows. You should always max them out one direction or another and then bring them back to whatever setting you're looking for.
- 951's are fairly softly sprung from the factory (even the S's). They will lean. That's not necessarily bad although it can make transitions a little loose feeling.

DanR

All looks normal for a car in your spec. If anything I would not have been surprised to see more body roll. Keep pushing harder and you will get the inside front wheel to lift into the air. Check nothing is broke and then enjoy the car. It is (IMHO) a lot of fun to drive a stockish car. Yes a track prepared car is faster but for grin factor you are in a good spot right now. I am guessing that the guy next to you is an instructor and you are relatively new to DE? (please excuse me if this is incorrect) If so I would not worry to much about the car (as long as it is not broke) and learn to drive it to its current potential...... normally there is a lot more of it than you think

Failing that the car in my avatar is for sale

LS1Porch

Maybe you can ease into the modding... Max out the Koni's and install a set of 968 M030 sways ($325/shipped with all bushings from Sunset Porsche). Then decide if you want to go further.

Djbrand1

Been doing DE's for about 5 years now, so while I am def. no expert I am not a novice either. This is the third car I am now using for DE's. The first one was sold and the second is a 996 cabriolet that is retired from DE duty. Yes, it is an instructor riding along.He drives a full track prepared 951 and said even he has never been in a 951 that felt like that around the turns. I have no doubt the car as more potential as is, but the way the rear end feels around the turns does not inspire a lot of confidence.

Djbrand1

Just an FYI, the 968 sways front and rear are currently 380, plus 20 or so for shipping.

ritzblitz

I will trade you my m030 968 front sway bar for your turbo s front sway bar +cash. I live in quakertown...

Also, I think 41psi hot might be a tad too much, next time try taking a pound or two out of the front and rear tires and see what happens.

lejams

Some of your statements remind me of an experience I had not long after I purchased my 89 turbo S. At the time it had under 20k mileage and the under carriage was virtually spotless. It appeared untouched not having had a wrench on it.

I had been accustomed to driving a 89 S2 w/ M030/adjustable Koni's/245/45 & 225/50 & limited slip, (same equip. as turbo S). The owner that had the S2 before me had it set up for autocross and it was right. The *** on the car was pretty tight. To me it was perfect for street & autocross. Car was allot of fun and sold me on the 944.

Then I bought the turbo S. I didn't recognize immediately that it had a much higher stance than the S2, but it did. I did notice that the rear end sat a little higher because I noticed that it showed more of the rear tires. I didn't mind it because I liked that look more than I did the S2's rear stance.

Right after purchasing the TS, I installed a MAF w/ larger turbo kit. I picked it up form the shop to take it out for a test drive and this was where it got hairy. I entered the ramp and on to the expressway and I hammered it while sort of side stepping across lanes as I had done in the S2. With the kit the torque took me a bit by surprise and a big smile was coming over my face. But that smile turned to fear while having the **** scared out of me when the *** almost came loose wagging all over the place. It reminded me of when I once bought and was towing a homemade trailer. The axles were set wrong and the tongue weight was out of balance. It wagged all over the place too and I barley kept control of it before getting it to slow down.

I was so used to driving the S2 setup that I wasn't prepared for the way the TS handled with the additional power. I reproduced similar scenarios with the TS trying to understand what the problem was only to realize the car had a much higher stance and the rear Koni's were not dampened at all.

So this was the factory setup, high and soft. I had my tech lower & dampen the car like the S2 was and it made all the difference. I also had a semi-aggressive re-alignment. I run rear tires at 38 - 40psi cold, and, front at about 38 cold, all with good tire wear patterns. The car is tight enough that I can tell a pretty significant difference with new and worn tires. New having a fair amount of tread flex, and worn, 75% + tread wear with very little flex. If it's tight enough to sense tread ware, it can't be too bad. In fact I hate new tires.

Ride height certainly does effect inertia. Check out Wikipedia - Automobile handling

333pg333

Running with tyre pressure in the high 30's low 40's cold will definitely add to the possibility of the *** shaking loose under load. The steering will feel lighter and the car will handle better at slow speeds, but really this is a bit too high in general for a car with a bit of turbo whack following turbo lag. IMHO.

Djbrand1

Car is going in to be corner balanced, alignment re-checked, and Koni's getting set to almost full stiff. 968 M030's are going in as well. Figure this is good solid place to start. Holding off on new springs/shocks/torsion bar until after the next DE. Thanks all for your various input.

tritone75

i wished I had know you were at NJMP. I was there and would love to meet someone from the forum. I have the red/white checkered #10 car. I ran RED but I let my bro inlaw drive it in BLUE. were you in his group?
Anyway, i have a 88 turbo S street car that I have tracked before. the first time I brought it to the track I only had upgraded wheels to CCWs with Nitto Invos. I rubbed the sh*t out of my left front wheel well on the hard left turn @ lightning....not knowing I was doing this for a whole session. I agree with everyone...just get rid of those OEMs. I upgraded to a set of Leda's that were laying around the race shop for this car and ran it again at Pocono. Huge difference. Night and day. I know they aren't available anymore, but just get into something that will give you a good mix of what you are looking to do. How many DE events a year? Mostly street driving? Have you checked to see if the struts are leaking at all?
On the 951 race car that I ran this past event you were at I have Bilsitens. Love them.

dlr944

Are you using the Bilsiten Escort or Firehawk series? What springrate? I also have a 89 Turbo and feel the rear is not as planted. Was thinking about an overall upgrade.

TX951

Kind of surprised by the suggestions here to start out new dampers at the "max" setting. I've seen more than a handful of cars with new/different suspension end up off-track because of unexpected oversteer. Not only that, but I'd suggest to the OP to soften the rear dampers first if the rear end is squirrely.

Is oversteer that hard to enduce in these cars? Granted I've yet to put my newly-acquired 951 on the track, but so far it is fairly neutral with slight understeer in most cases. So slight though that I figured it would only need a small amount of increased stiffness in the rear; guess I was wrong.