My 944 Track Car Project

[Highwayman]

Well, I've been a member on here for a while, but haven't really posted a great deal, as my car has been in development for a while, and it never seemed like the right stage to post anything. The car is now, however, approaching completion in readiness for next year's trackday season, so I thought I'd post up a few details and see if anyone has got anything else to suggest to get finished over the winter whilst the car is laid up.

The car is a 1990 S2 with a bog standard engine that seems to be in pretty good shape and having been well maintained over it's 180+k miles. It's running a modified chip in the ECU of unknown origin, plus a K&N element, but that's it for tuning. I'm considering putting a straight-through pipe in place of the first silencer on the downpipe (not a cat at present), but not sure that will make a lot of difference. I'm not particularly chasing power, and have concentrated my efforts on the braking and handling so far, but not averse to a bit more driveability if it's not too expensive to achieve, and doesn't come at the expense of reliability .

Brakes are standard Brembo callipers all round, but with Pagid Blue pads on the fronts and new discs and brake lines all round. Suspension is where most of the effort has gone so far, with Gaz Gold coilovers fitted (including removal of rear torsion bars...) plus Gaz front adjustable top-mounts and a strut brace. Ride height is just nice now, having the option to set it to whatever I want without the torsion bars, and I have had the car corner weighted and set up with some neg-camber as well. All bushes have been changed for Powerflex poly ones, including rear trailing arms, as the whole of the rear suspension has been rebuilt as well.

The interior has been stripped to a degree, with all sound deadening removed, but I've left in the front section of the carpets for some comfort... Seats are now Cobra fixed race seats with Willans four-point harnesses. I've also had a half rear roll-cage fitted for extra rigidity, and obviously for safety with the fixed seats. Steering wheel is a nice Momo suede item with a rather rare Porsche crest on the horn push. I've added a few decals on the outside to make it look a little more like a track car. Wheels are currently refurbished D90s, but these are my road wheels, and I have a set of Boxster twists in Black that will be fitted with R888s as soon as I can find some rear tyres at a reasonable price.

I think that's about it for now, so I'll leave you with a few photos as well, and look forward to any comments or suggestions for what else I might consider before next season starts...

Phil

 

[edh]

looks very nice Phil ..180k is just run in as well[]

here's my first suggestion - Dec 30th at donington with javelin...

brake ducts are also worth considering....see my thread

see you on track next year []

 

[MarkK]

If you need any used Michelin Cups ideal for track days in 17 inch drop me a PM !
Car looks great

 

[barks944]

Car looks great. She will be great on the track no doubt!

 

[Frenchy]

Too nice to track !
Look after it.

 

[Highwayman]

Thanks for the comments. Nice idea about December, but I've spent my budget on car prep for this year, so have SORNed the car for a few months . I'll certainly look into the brake ducts though...

Mark - I've sent you a message about your kind offer []

Phil

 

[Will1981]

Looks great, nice attention to detail. If I still have mine let me know when you book a Trackday and I'll come along too!

 

[Copperman05]

ORIGINAL: Will1981

Looks great, nice attention to detail. If I still have mine let me know when you book a Trackday and I'll come along too!

And me!

Car looks great BTW, looks like you've got it all covered. Have you driven it on track yet?


Edd

 

[Highwayman]

No, unfortunately not. I've had it two years, and had every intention to track it soon after I bought it, but ended up finding rather too many jobs to do before I was happy to inflict a track day on it. I had a previous track car (Fiat Coupe of all things), and learnt a lot of expensive lessons with that, so decided to do this one right (reliability, handling and brakes being the priority).

Consequently, it has spent most of the last two summers having some major work completed before MoT time in August, and so somehow I've missed the last two seasons almost entirely [8|]. To date, it has had to have a replacement water pump (the old one was pretty much held on with mastic...), front and rear wings/sills cut out and replaced, new solid brake pipes across the rear axle, which also included complete refurbishment of the axle whilst it was off.

The car is now in a position to be ready for action, but the budget has been rather hit getting it finished, so I've SORNed it now for the off-season, and intend to get to as many track days as I can manage next year [].

Phil

 

[Ex Skyline]

Very nice car Phil' and a great effort! You've certainly got your priorities the right way round [8D]. Iv'e got a Black '44 Turbo that i'm doing the same sort of things to over the winter period. Hopefuly, see you on at a few track day's next season []. Incidently, where are you based? Do you intend to drive to your trackdays or trailer your car?
Pete

 

[Martin Sage]

Wow that looks great Phil. No torsion bars though, how does that work? [&:]

 

[nicksonmsport]

looks good phil!

with regards to no torsion bars, you basically remove the torsion bars which provide spring effect through the twisting of the torsion bar, and replace with standard coilover shocks where the original dampers sit. when removing the torsion bars you must make sure you replace all the standard rubber bushes which hold the spring plate in place in the torsion tube with solid items, otherwise the rear trailing arm can wonder about all over the place and the handling will be terrible and dangerous.

this setup simplifies the adjustment and setup of the rear suspension which when running torsion bars can be specialist and long winded when reindexing the rear torsion bars. it allows lowering/raising of the rear suspension in minutes rather than hours, and makes corner weighting etc much easier/quicker.

there are mixed opinions on the setup and wether it adversley effects the handling of the 944, but this is most probably due to people doing it and just removing the bars without beefing everything up afterwards. there are many cars with the same rear beam/trailing arm setup as a 944 without torsion bars which handle perfectly fine, so why its any different on a 944 i cant see? as long as you put the support back into the rear end that the torsion bar supplied i cant see it being any different

i know one chap with 3 transaxle 944/968s and he has converted all of them to non torsion bar setups and swears by it!
it certainly makes things much easier if nothing else!

 

[Highwayman]

ORIGINAL: Ex Skyline

Very nice car Phil' and a great effort! You've certainly got your priorities the right way round [8D]. Iv'e got a Black '44 Turbo that i'm doing the same sort of things to over the winter period. Hopefuly, see you on at a few track day's next season []. Incidently, where are you based? Do you intend to drive to your trackdays or trailer your car?
Pete

Thanks Pete. I'm in Hampshire and plan on driving to trackdays. although I do have the option of trailer as well, as my other half has a suitable tow vehicle, and I have a friendly mechanic with a suitable trailer []. Thruxton is my local track, but they don't do trackdays [X(], so it will be Castle Combe otherwise.

@ Martin Sage - Nick has covered some of it. I'll be honest that I didn't listen to the sceptics, and my mechanic managed to sort it no problem. As Nick says, so it properly, and it's not an issue...

Phil