si

I have a question about ride height, have read numerous articles written by various technical people on the net which suggests that the ride height front and rear on a Euro spec 951 should be the same as measured at the front and rear sill. Well I have a Euro (UK spec 91 951) which has stock suspension (sadly without front adjustable coilovers) with 17inch cups and the rear is approx 3/4 inch higher than the front. So question is, is this correct, and should I adjust the rear ride height so that it is the same as the rear (will this improve handling and braking).

Also does anyone know of a (cheap) kit) to upgrade my front struts to adjustables???
Thanks SI

91 951s Silver/blue, 17in cups, chips, wastegate shims, boost enhancer.

Kool

Koni inserts. I don't know how much they are but Excellence put them in their 951 and liked them.

Russ Murphy

They're $150 per I believe at Paragon Products. They also sell inexpensive front coil-over conversion kits for $240.00. Have you checked to see if the rear spring plate ride height adjustment will allow you to lower the rear? If it's not already lowered it can lower the back end by a little over an inch and it's easy to do.

Loki

The euro cars were suppose to be level to decrease nose dive during braking. American models had the rear raised due to bumper height requirements(i believe). I think they also extended the rear bumper.
The koni adjustable inserts work great. I had the boge/sachs suspension, so i had to cut the top of the struts off(329mm measured from bottom of strut). Paragon has a tech article and koni supplies instructions with the inserts.
Chris

boost feen

Loki is right the rear was up in the USA because of bumper laws and also extended with longer bumper struts. Anyway I imagine that if your rear end is that hi that you need to take the spring plates up 3/4" to make the car sit level. It also improves your traction in the back because the torsion bars dont have to travel so much and it puts all the cars weight down I did this in my car and it hooked up alot better and there was alot less body roll in the back. It makes the car look great. No more huge spaces in the fender wells!

B Hayes

Russ is correct with the Paragon coil setup for the 951 at around $540 with Koni yellows. I just changed mine last weekend in about 4 hours. A nice, simple package. I am very pleased with mine!

yarin

Adrial's '89 S. Stock suspension. Right after I had it corned balanced, aligned and lowered. Before it was definetely jacked up a bit, now it sits very low...

The car is perfectly level front vs rear. Coilovers and rear are about maxed out.

krickmann

adrial - could you explain a little more in detail how you lowered your stock suspension? Is there an adjustment on the front as well as the rear adjustment mentioned in the post above? What does corner balancing involve? I can imagine that an alignment is required after any lowering. Does this apply to all years - I have an '86? Thanks ahead of time for your reply!

Nico

Hmm... Excessive lowering? Isn't that a NO NO???

adrial

[quote]Originally posted by krickmann:
<strong>adrial - could you explain a little more in detail how you lowered your stock suspension? Is there an adjustment on the front as well as the rear adjustment mentioned in the post above? What does corner balancing involve? I can imagine that an alignment is required after any lowering. Does this apply to all years - I have an '86? Thanks ahead of time for your reply!</strong><hr></blockquote>

The front of the 88 turbo S's and 89 turbo's have coilovers up front, which are easily adjustable. All other year turbo's need parts to be swapped out to lower the front. Although the rear can be lowered using the eccentrics on the T-bars, or reindexing the T-bars if more lowering is desired.

Corner balancing involves making sure that the Front right and Left Rear corner have the same weight on them as the Ffront Left and Right Rear...this helps handling, I would think primarily balance/tossability.

Alignment is definetely necesary after lowering.


[quote]Originally posted by Nico:
<strong> "Hmm... Excessive lowering? Isn't that a NO NO???"
</strong><hr></blockquote>

The rear could be lowered more in theory if the T-bars are reindexed, I dont know the details of the position of the eccentrics...but I would assume its a near the max because the car was lowered from stock ride height to that with just the eccentrics....and the eccentrics only have about an inch of travel in them...

As far as the front, the guy at Eurotire said that the coilovers were just about maxxed out...I haven't gone under to look yet. He could have meant at the max of the safety margin, or just flat out maxed out. Either way, Eurotire knows their stuff so I trust that they didn't do anything that is excessive. Will have to keep an eye out for stress cracks in the A-arms though I suppose???

--adrial

Edit:

Here's a side view, tops of the tires are about level with the wheel well...perhaps a little bit of gap.

Nico

OK, I was just thinking about something I read in a Haynes book. Don't have it at hand right now, but I remember it said, the biggest concern was the ball joints after lowering... Or something... Got to get the book again...

Russ Murphy

Here's the info you're looking for:<a href="http://LINDSEYRACING.COM/944sus8.htm" target="_blank">Lindsay Racing 944 suspension geometry correction kit</a>

Nico

Thanks Russ! I found the book also, no need to explain after that link though...

adrial

Quote from the lindsey site, "Lowering the car changes the position of the lower control arm from one of angling downward to angling up. "

Don't we want the A-arms to be perfectly horizontal? I remember there was a big discussion on this a while ago.

BTW those lindsey pieces look pretty trick...if I was rich I'd be all over that...