rtc113

I recently bought an 89 944 Turbo S to turn into a dedicated track car. The purpose of the car will be HPDE and maybe time trials, but I'm very much a newbie so the time trials will come much later.

I'm very safety conscious and I have a paranoid wife (she would would probably have me wear a bike helmet just to walk out the front door if it were socially acceptable...). So, my primary focus on modifying the car is around safety gear.

Here's what I plan on doing before the car even sees the track

1. A welded half roll cage from TC Design in Milpitas.
2. Racing seats
3. Harnesses
4. Airbag removal and new removable steering wheel

The reason I'm going with a half cage instead of a full cage is that the car will be driven to the track (but that's pretty much it, aside from the occasional trip to the mechanic).

My understanding is that it is unsafe to drive a fully caged car on the street with no helmet. Is that correct? Is it a bigger risk to have a half cage in a track accident or run a full cage on the street?

I'm also contemplating when it makes sense to get a HANS and fire safety equipment. However, the thing that I'm not sure about is whether I should have these things on day one or should add them progressively.

What are the most important things to do beyond what I already have planned?

Thanks in advance for the help!

My993C2

Yes a full roll cage is hazardous when you are not wearing a helmet. I would consider a bolt in roll bar instead. But there are more knowledgeable people than myself on this topic, so I yield the floor to them. However I would vote for adding your safety mods progressively if doing them all at once is an issue. Sure these safety mods are good and one day you may need them. But remember it is you who is in control of the car on the track and even though we try to drive hard to push our limits during our track days, we are not racing and our primary goal should be to explore our limits, but do not exceed them to the point where you are putting your safety in jeopardy.

Now watch myself either miss my braking point on turn #9 or have a brake/tire failure at my local track (our most dangerous turn) and drive myself into the wall for giving advice about not doing all the safety mods at once since my car is not equipped with an special safety features.

PS: if you are adding some sort of roll bar, it makes sense to install the racing seats and harness at the same time as well as getting a HANS device and modifying your helmet to secure the HANS device to.

rlm328

Add Items:
1) If you are doing harnesses you need to have a hans.
2) I would also consider some type of fire suppression system, it is a 944 after all.
3) High Density Foam for the roll over device

Roll Bar vs Cage $0.02:
The mounting points for roll over protection are important, if they are to the floor punch through can be an issue. The one reason I would vote against a roll bar is that it offers no side protection. You see alot of incidents where some one will get tagged from the side. I have not done the research to see whivh occurs more often, roll over vs tbone. But either would be a bad day.

mglobe

Really good advice right here. As far as doing all or going incrementally, I don't see a problem with doing the roll bar first, and then doing seats, harness, HANS as a next step. Will you be safer with all three? Yes. But you will be safer with the roll bar than without it.

As far as full cage vs roll bar, you will have to do the calculation on which is a bigger risk. A small wreck on the street that whacks your bare head on a cage vs a large wreck on the track.

Gary R.

Please use water and water wetter for coolant when on the track
Replace any hoses that look even the slightest bit questionable, one of the air lines, IIRC from Dan R's experience, will kill the motor (power steering) and brakes at the same time when it lets go. I think there are about 30 different hoses to blow/pop off on a 944T, Dan always spent 16 hours a race weekend working on his car.

Optional -
Wrap the block in oil absorbant blast cloth to catch the rods and pistons when the engine explodes.

And yes, i'm bored today as I took the day off to go to Limerock and my road was flooded out.. stuck home.

Mahler9th

Hello there. I also live in the SF Bay Area. I started track driving a 944 at LRP in 1987. I moved to the SF Bay Area around 20 years ago, and campaigned a 944 in AX and track events, then later a 944 Turbo S that was a track and street car. By the time I was done with that car it had a cage, a 360 bhp engine (the build was featured in Excellence) and a lot of suspension and other modifications, including big sticky tires. I got a lot of help and advice along the way, from local folks and from professionals like the guys at Kelly Moss and from John Milledge.

I have a lot of friends in the area that campaigned similar cars. One has a 944 Turbo factory race car that ran in the Rothman's series up in Canada and later in Firehawk. The Turbo S cars can be very potent... even at nearly factory weight.

I am happy to help if you want to contact me directly... I still have a lot of information, including set-up stuff in my files.

Mahler9th

I have known Tony for years and you are in good hands there. Make sure that you have your seat installed before the half-cage so the geometry is optimized. You will also need to drill holds for the inside lap belt mounts on each side.

I would not worry about a fire system.

I would do something about the braking system right away.

There are some tricks to airbag removal.

There are some tricks to suspension set-up.

Some of the parts you may want as you go down this path may be unadvertised yet available in our area from some of my contacts.

I would do something about the oiling system right away.

I have a lot of experience with these cars at our local tracks. And I have a network of experienced comrades.

And by the way, I strongly suggest making PCA GGR events your "home base," as you climb the learning curve.

MUSSBERGER

Gary that was cruel..........lol

A good look over by a reputable shop would be money well spent.