Porsche 968 story

[benspeed]

Well - I'm all about the entertainment value to my fellow racers.

Stevo - no plans to sell the Mazda quite yet - it's been fully gone over and it ready to race as she sits. I know I'm a glutton for financial punishment with the P car but it will be very fast.

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.

I ran the numbers including cost of car and came up saving $2k at the end of the day building the black one and if I sell the blue car for about $3500 I can fund most of what I need to do.

So - I will be getting a title for the blue car and putting it up for sale to fund development of the black car. Anybody on this forum want is first - I make special deal.

Thanks for the pointers on the suspension - the stuff you guys are telling me is the same stuff I'm hearing from the guys at Farnbacher Lowles and Power Tech.

Cheers

[dj10]

No Koni's Ben!

[Russ Jones]

...and the black car has a limited slip too.

[lateapex911]

What's up with the koni hate?

[924Guy]

Um... well, they are better than Boges...

The M030 stuff isn't up to serious track work. Sorry. But Russ is right about the diff - that's worth $2000 right there, and you will need it.

You're far better off to SELL the M030 crap to someone who wants to track his street car, and use the proceeds on a real race suspension, like the Bilstein system!!! PS - I do have valving that will get you pretty close, happy to share it - whether you go with 30 or 34mm t-bars.

Again, the offer stands (and is highly encouraged) - give me a ring if you want to know more about these cars in the wheel-to-wheel environment.

[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, 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!