Quote:
Originally Posted by Potomac-Greg
To facilitate your research, many of the 944s will be up on jackstands, so you'll be able to look at their suspension from underneath.  |
Yeah, I was on jackstands this weekend so I wasn't doing anything to help the stereotype.
Fortunately my "issues" were limited to (a) a loose hub bolt (weird!) and lost wheel weights. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Anyway Raffi, I didn't know you were looking to actually upgrade your suspension, otherwise I could've spent some time going over my car with you.
I spent the time "doing it right" and let me tell you, it ain't easy. BUT, I've been hugely happy with it. I chose a setup that is just about as stiff as you'd want it for the street.
Many people have been doing rear coilovers nowadays and just leaving their stock t-bars alone. Alternatively, some are choosing to remove the T-bars altogether. I chose to replace my t-bars with stiffer units because the coilover thing was relatively new to the "normal guy" scene and I didn't trust the mounting points. Seems like I was wrong; I've never heard of a shock mounting point failure on these cars (the reason I was skeptical was because the shock is a non-stressed member, but as soon as you put coilovers there, it becomes a stressed member).
Anyway, here's what I did, and it has made for a ridiculously well-balanced track car that has so far been able to run circles around most cars at SP:
-- Koni Yellows
-- 350# springs front
-- 30mm torsion bars
-- 27.5mm front sway (from a Turbo S -- you don't need any more than this with this setup)
-- 19mm adjustable 968 MO30 rear sway (I'm in the middle)
One thing to note: it does make the ride fairly harsh for a street car; some might say it's too stiff if you're going to street drive it often. But as long as your bushings/balljoints/wheel bearings are also in good shape, it will feel nice and tight.
Like I said about t-bars -- it's kind of a "dying breed": most people are installing coilovers nowadays.
Since the N/A is such a softly-sprung car, you really will need to do both the front and rear suspension together (whereas you can get away with modestly upgrading the front susp and leave the rear alone with a 951). Also, as a point of reference, the 250# spring is the stiffest spring you can install before you need to go to coilovers.
If memory serves, the N/A spring rate is something around 125#. The 951 is in the neighborhood of 150-175# (the Turbo S is stiffer).