RajDatta

Luis, what you want is the S2 M474's, which would show up under 944's in PET. They are dimensionally identical to our shocks and are direct bolt-on, allow us to use same id springs.
I would expect koni shocks to be somewhat stiffer.
Raj

Luis de Prat

OK, thanks. I've contacted Tommye who also owns a factory 951 cab, since I'm not sure the turbo cabs came with the same shocks as the S2s. He's getting the part numbers off his car, which should be interesting!

Luis de Prat

Okay, I heard back from Tommye and the sticker on his Turbo cab's left front shock says: 951 343 031 12 instead of 951 343 031 11.

I don't have a new enough edition of PET to check if the part numbers Raj posted have been superseded. What else could it mean when the last digit is increased by 1?

If that were the case, I guess this would this suggest that the 944 Turbo Cabriolet had 944S2 M474 option shocks from the factory?

Thom

You haven't looked in PET hard enough.

Tommye has got base 90/91 turbo shocks on his turbo cab, which are more or less the same as base 968 shocks, which means they work with springs of the smaller diameter (same as S2 with or without M474).

As Raj said, and assuming your cab still has its original shocks (which will be the same as Tommye's), you can therefore fit S2 M474 struts and reuse your springs, which will feature grey dots, but the front will be ridiculously high so you will be better off fitting along 968 CS springs (blue dots).

HTH.

Luis de Prat

Sorry, but I lost my old PET copy and now have the download available from Porsche.com which shows 85-88.

https://techinfo.porsche.com/techinf...85_KATALOG.pdf

Thanks!

RajDatta

I tried S2 springs on my 968 cab and it was too high to my liking. I went back to CS springs.
Raj

Luis de Prat

Are you on 17" wheels or larger? If I'm forced to fit new springs into the equation I'm tempted to just buy the same kind of shocks the car has on now. Thanks.

RajDatta

Luis, I am running 18" Speedline Alesio wheels.
Raj

Madridcab

Luis, I just put KONI yellows on my 968 cab, with 160K kms on the original Sachs, they had started to leak. I just got the front inserts that is built into the original strut and the rear shocks. Compared with the old Sachs, they are about the same or slightly better in terms of harshness, but much more stable on the highway at speed, and night and day on the twisties, the old suspension really "wallowed" a bit when pushed, now it is rock steady. I have them set 1/2 turn from full soft in the rear and 1 turn from full soft up front. Set me back €600 for the 4 shocks, and another €200 for installation and alignment. Original Sachs at OPC were €1100, and OPC Koni's €1200. In the end quite pleased with this little upgrade. However, original Sachs with M030 sways might give you a more compliant ride, and still good stability in the turns, but that would for me have meant €2000 spent on this project. I also hate soft suspensions, and was afraid I would find the new Sachs too much "limo" like, the old ones certainly were, but possibly because they were shot.

If you are ever up in Madrid, you would be more than welcome to a drive to see how you like it.

Luis de Prat

This is some good information, thank you.

I am curious if you had to hack into your factory struts to fit the front inserts? I believe there's no way around this unless you use the dealer SACHS inserts, correct?

I already pulled the trigger on a set of Koni rears, and figure I'll fit them in the default setting since I have the 19mm 968 M030 rear sway on there, but I'm still undecided between the different options for the front. Thanks again for the kind offer to try yours out!

Madridcab

Yes, we cut open the original Sachs dampers to fit the KONI inserts (cartridges).
I did not check availability, but found pricing for both the original Sachs as well as Koni front dampers from Porsche (I believe neither sells them aftermarket) From memory the KONI's were some €800ish versus the €300ish for the KONI inserts I bought. My mechanic suggested the performance of the inserts would not be significantly different than the full dampers sold by Porsche, but in truth, I really do not know - the process of cutting etc. seems a bit cheap but appears to work and is not complex. If you go with KONI's in the rear, I think Sachs up front may be too soft.

lsinlv

has anyone used or have any feedback using the Ground Control kit?

http://www.ground-control-store.com/.../II=685/CA=159

For $1,100 it seems reasonable and does include the Koni's. I am just not sure if the coils (you have a choice of rates) is compatable with our Cabs?

Anyone?

Luis de Prat

Thanks, but it turns out the Turbo cabrio set up is different. The dealer parts counter told me Porsche only serves KONI rear shocks for the Turbo cabrio with my VIN number.

Fronts are indeed either SACHS (non adjustable) priced at € 211.75 + 16% VAT each, or KONI (adjustable) priced at a whopping € 629.47 + 16% VAT each (overkill on a cab, I think).

From the squeaking sound they've been making, I can tell my rears need replacing. The fronts, OTOH, are holding up quite well at "only" 128K km and I will probably replace them with factory SACHS inserts, given the good performance I'm getting from them plus their relative affordability.

Thanks again for the helpful information, and kind regards from Barcelona.

lsinlv

no responses??? does anyone have any feedback on the GC suspensions on a 968 Cab??

Luis de Prat

OK, I finally was able to try out my 951 with new Koni yellow rears. I installed them 3 weeks ago, but the car was laid up with a pretty complicated firewall repair (don't ask!), so I wasn't able to really drive it until yesterday. While the car was at the Porsche Centre, I had them run a full suspension check on all four corners and the result was up to standards, so I'm leaving the fronts be for now. The car just turned 129K km (80K miles), so I figure they still have some miles to go.

Yesterday I think I had a pretty good opportunity to test the suspension, as the roads I drove on had many sweeping uphill and downhill turns, and I topped the experience off with a test drive in a friend's 965 immediately after, which really put my car's handling into perspective.

Overall, I think the combination of the stock 951 cabriolet front struts (see part number above from Tommye's 951 cab), Koni yellow rears, and 968 M030 bars is a great combination. I distinctly recall taking the turns at speed in 5th gear and the car leveling out wonderfully. Doing the same in the stock 965 was definitely exciting, with its hopped-up VW bug chassis feel, but not quite as reassuring!

I left the factory setting on the Koni rears, so ride quality on the street is still not harsh at all in spite of the 17" Cup1s. I wonder if the stiffer setting would lend to oversteering?

Thanks to all who helped with this.