Porsche 968 story

[Ron Earp]

I was on the phone with Russ Jones yesterday and he made some very good points about not building the blue car but going with the black one which already has M030 everything, decent Konis and probably just needs front coil overs a 30 mm torsion bar, cage and it would be track ready - not front running material yet, but on the track.

Hey Ben,

I am not a Porsche guru at all but Jeff and I did have Jakes old 944 S2 that we spent a lot of time evaluating for ITR and investigating parts. As Vaughn says, that M030 stuff is not up to serious racing work and you'd be better off not paying money for those parts. Yes, you might be on track but you'll be tossing them soon and buying something else which will probably cost you money in the long run.

In the end we sold the S2 (we still thought it a better choice than the 968, various reasons, most of which is that variable intake runner doesn't come into play for racing, weight is lower, brakes are great of either) and became slightly frightened of parts costs. We're used to paying like $67 for an engine gasket kit, not $400. $87 for a timing set instead of $750, and so on.

Cool cars though, I hope you gets yours on track. I'm not a Porsche Faithful drinking the 911 Coolaid and think a 968 at all levels of prep can be a serious race car. I tihnk I still have some articles from English magazines comparing the 968 and S2. Shoot me an email and I'll forward them to you.

Ron

[lateapex911]

I'm not a Porsche Faithful drinking the 911 Coolaid and ....
Ron

You dissin' a 911 Ron??

man I oughta get one and make it go...

[Ron Earp]

You dissin' a 911 Ron??

man I oughta get one and make it go...

Well, if you started to design a sports car and had a clean sheet of paper you probably wouldn't hang the engine out back of the car and put the tranny in the middle. You'd do something logical and put the engine in the middle like, oh, wait! Porsche did that with the Caymen like it was brand new or something! Everyone else has been designing mid engine sports cars for 50 years.....

And barring sticking the engine in the middle you'd probably put it in the front with the transmission in the rear.....like a 944!

And no matter what you did you damn sure wouldn't put the engine and transmission in the front of the car. That is plain nutz.

Just sayin....

[924Guy]

You dissin' a 911 Ron??

LOL... triumph of German bloody-mindedness over basic physics!!! :026:

By contrast... my wife's taking my 924 through driver's school this spring!

[benspeed]

Hey Vaughan - I'll take you up on that offer when I'm closer to buying the setup. Right now I'm zeroed in on getting all the safety stuff done up right - them move into the fun stuff.

Lotta folks are thinking this will be hugely expensive but remember - this car has a boatload of power on tap as she sits. A great suspension setup is where the money will need go so maybe this will be on track for around $12-13K. (God willing a little Porsche reliability and no major motor/trans troubles).

We will see - but so far it's been a good winter messing around with all these cars. I'm ready for spring.

[924Guy]

Cool - you have a PM!

[lateapex911]

There ARE advantages to the design...GREAT weight transfer under braking, for example, and ...yea...well, umm..it's got enough space in the trunk for a set of clubs!

Vaughan, I've used Chuck Moreland's Elephant Engineering stuff before, it's pretty sweet, as well as Smart Racing, Wevo, etc. Chucks got lots of stuff for the 944..is it desirable?

[924Guy]

Yeah, I would expect his expertise would translate just fine to the 944 platform, and I have heard good things about the stuff. For one, I think he's the only one making poly-bronze bushings for the spring plates, though I forget, they may not be compatible with torsion bars given the geometry (some compliance is required - those bearings may only be suitable for coilover conversion cars).

As much as you'd think the 911 would have an advantage putting the power down, that 924/944 rear suspension is excellent (as much as we love to loathe it)... I've never seen a car in ITB at least that can put the power down as well, as early in a corner. Of course, some of that advantage may fade in ITS and ITR, with more advanced competitors. And the 924/944 platform is excellent for deep-braking without fear of consequences... so the cars can own you on corner entry OR exit!

[924Guy]

Yeah, getting that whole rear suspension as a unit is a real time-saver, as well as money - great! Though I would definitely have recommended bigger t-bars, but those will at least do you well enough - basically what I'd consider the min allowable for true wheel-to-wheel racing. Used to run 30's, now on 34's. Good find on the shocks, too - sounds like you've got the foundation for a great, solid car right out of the box!

Keep up the good work!