Flashback Friday: 944 Gets an LS Swap and a New Body

Tipping the Scales

No one will deny that Porsche builds a well-balanced product, but what if you want to be just a little unbalanced? The Porsche 944 was never designed to be the quickest car sold by its manufacturer. Debuting in 1985, the 944 Turbo Type 951 laid 217hp at your disposal, rising to an eventual 247hp at model's end. Respectable numbers, especially in light of its slight heft. Porsche did the best it could with 4 cylinders, employing balance shafts licensed from Mitsubishi to keep the 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine (enlarged to an enormous 3.0-liters in the 9244S2) from shaking itself to death, but buyers with means opted for 928- or 930-flavored options if their appetite was for pure power.

Photos Courtesy of Super Street

A Car in Need

Enter Dave Norton, owner of Spec Clutches. He bought his wife a 944 Turbo, to use as a track day car, but it didn't see the track time they expected and it sat neglected, and eventually, it's the engine was pressed into service as a replacement engine for one of Dave's client's track cars with a blown motor. Now it was no longer a forgotten complete car, but rather a potential project. Like every good project, it generated interesting ideas and Dave soon built a 383 c.i. stroker iron-block Chevy LT engine for it. But Dave had second thoughts before he started the swap and decided a more balanced solution would be a lighter, and more powerful, LS motor. To that end, he chose an aluminum 6.6 liter LS2 fitted with larger-valved LS3 cylinder heads.

Photos Courtesy of Super Street

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More Need

Those LS3 heads received a port job as well as Ferrea valves and springs, and ultra-lightweight titanium retainers—actuated by Morel lifters, Manton pushrods, and an Ed Curtis cam. The bottom end boasts a Callies 4340 forged crank, Callies forged rods and forged aluminum Manley flat-top pistons. The engine sits on custom mounts, has a custom oil pan augmented by an Accusump system, and mounts to an upgraded 944 Turbo S five-speed gearbox via a Quick Time bell housing. The clutch is, of course, one of Dave's own Spec Clutches 10.5" stage 2+ clutches featuring a billet aluminum pressure plate. Fuel delivery is managed and ignited by a FAST XFi fuel injection and ignition system with 65 lb injectors, and exhaust exits through custom Danny Smith headers to a 4" custom exhaust, with a single SpinTech muffler for that stealthy look. 

Photos Courtesy of Super Street

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More Solid

Dave's attention went further than the engine and trans. He stiffened the chassis with the addition of a Lindsey Racing three-point cross member and installed a welded Kirk Racing roll cage. Recaro Profi SPG racing seats with Schroth safety harnesses were fitted, along with a quick-release Sparco steering wheel, and a Tilton floor-mounted pedal assembly. Dave worked with Hollywood Speedometer to adapt the stock Porsche gauges to function with the LS's wiring. Dave attributes the 944's smoother shifting to a custom spherical shift linkage from Lindsey Racing. 

Photos Courtesy of Super Street

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More Balance

Dave swears the 944 still feels like a 944 on the road despite having double the number of cylinders up front. The suspension sports Bilstein coilovers, Blaszak control arms in front, and Racer's Edge arms in the rear, while the brakes were upgraded to 928 GTS components up front, with the stock 944 Turbo units retained in the rear. Wheels are 18" Fiske Profile 5s—12 inches wide in the back and 11 up front—wearing Toyo R888 tires (295/30 front, 315/30 rear). Additional downforce is provided by a sizable Kognition Design carbon fiber and aluminum wing. If it looks a little odd, that might be because Dave mounted it to the roll cage to prevent any window-shattering distortion to the 968 hatch he used on the 944. Those wide Toyo tires necessitated a little fender surgery—a GT2 widebody kit from Broadfoot Racing did the trick. Dave also used a headlight-delete nose and fiberglass hood from GT Racing to help offset the weight of the new V8. 

Photos Courtesy of Super Street

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More Growl

Rather than going with something characteristically subdued, like one of the seemingly endless shades of grey common on European performance cars these days, Dave had the exterior of the German car sprayed with very American Ford Mustang GT500 Grabber Blue paint. Speaking of American, Dave's massaged LS puts a cool 540hp and 498 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels. The 944 sounds just a little different now. "It's an attention-getter," Dave relates, with a sound more like "a Nascar Sprint Cup car." Dave currently takes his 951 to time attack and NASA events, driving it both to and on the track. It's "streetable, but only just," says Dave. Sometimes it's good to be unbalanced... but only just.

Photos Courtesy of Super Street

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