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944S2 Track Car Project - Spa April 2019

edh

New member
I've been meaning to start this for a couple of weeks - dropping the car off at the bodyshop this morning has prompted me to get started...

I've had a fair few track cars, including a very nice 944 turbo

Oulton2.jpg


which was replaced by something completely different

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Which is now going to be replaced by this:

P1000480.jpg


P1000488.jpg


Some of you will remember this car. It belonged to Jon Lavis who used to post on here. It has now done over 230k, but came with some interesting bits & pieces including KWv3 suspension, recently replaced cams, H&S exhaust, split rims, cup mirrors & 968 door handles, linen leather sports seats and a c/f rear wing (not fitted). It drives pretty well but us a bit tatty inside, and has a few minor glitches to work through.. I know it's a slow 944, but at least it's a fast colour..

Actually I might keep the Honda for a while - it's a lot of fun to drive, a bit different, and surprisingly quick.

My plan is to build the S2 into a "clubsport" track car, making it lighter, but still usable on the road. So, in order

1. Bodywork
The car is off to the bodyshop to get the o/s sill replaced, n/s/f wing and the o/s suspension mount repaired. You can see from the pics there is a fair bit of rust inside

P1000499.jpg


The rest of the body is pretty good. While it's there the mirrors & door handles will be coming off (not long now Scott [;)]), with standard 944 handles & lightweight manual mirrors fitted. I think I will leave off the black sill trims. I'm also going to get holes cut for the torsion bars - just in case...

2. Maintenance & brakes
When the bodywork is done, the car is going next door to ph sportscars for belts, waterpump and brakes. I have sourced some very nice refurbed calipers & will fit with Mintex 1155 pads. I've also got some 9products brake ducts to fit to the hubs. I plan to remove the front fogs and fit brake duct intakes in there. PH will also change the brake fluid and coolant, and replace the brake servo, which is very rusty. There is quite a bit of corrosion under the bonnet, I need to give it a good clean.

3. Seats / strip out
When the car gets home i'll do the oil, filters, plugs... I'm going to try Mobil 1 10w60 & see how that goes. Then I'll start on the interior. I plan to keep the carpets but remove the sound deadening. I hope to get a fair bit of electrics out of there as well - there's at least two alarms that need to come out. The sunroof isn't working properly, so for now i think i will remove the inner parts and just bond it in. I have some black sparco evo seats to go in - I hope the will fit on side mounts bolted to the seat runners - anyone got any comments on this? I'm not going to fit a cage, and will keep the three point belts. I want to move the side lights into the clear indicators - anyone got any tips there?

4. Wheels
The split rims look good, but aren't very practical to keep clean for a track car. I weighed them with tyres, and was surprised that F&R both weigh around 21kg, which I thought was quite light. I have some 16" cup 1's to go on, 7"F, 8"R, with continentals fitted. That will do for now, but I have a cunning plan.... I noticed that Neil had said all the racers run 19mm spacers on their 944's. So if I could find some wheels with ET around 40, that might be a good idea... the Cayman / Boxster 2 17" rears are 8J ET40 - I found 2 on ebay for £100, so just need 2 more for the set.

5. Suspension
I know that the torsion bars weren't re-indexed when the KW's were fitted, and the geometry is road biased. I plan to take the car to Promax to get it set up properly. Re-indexing should be simpler with the holes for t/b removal, and I can get a bit more camber & caster added. I was wondering whether it's possible to cut a hole in the rear arch to get access to the top adjuster? I've also got some stiffer springs on the way from bigdave. I think a promax chip is in order while it's there...

6. If there's any more money
Which there isn't for now, then I think 968 030 ARB's, lighter battery, GTS lights, fibreglass panels are all on the menu. anything to make it lighter will be good.

Then I'll be out chasing turbos [:D] (and supercharged lux'ish types)

It will be a couple of weeks before I get the car back, so there won't be many updates, but I hope to track the progress over the next few months
 
Looks nice............... Sounds like fun...................keep both [;)] Keep us posted [:)]
 
Edd. If they havnt been done ide reccomend replacing the suspension bushes with poly, as this WILL make a great deal of difference.... Just depends on the ££££££....[:D][;)][:D][;)]
 
An interesting project, I'd be intersted to know how far you can go re lightening the car without spoiling its usability on the road, although as a dedicated track car it will be of less importance to you.. Edd
 
Keep the updates coming as and when you can Ed. Love reading about track conversion projects [8D]
 
ORIGINAL: deafasapost looks beautiful as is!! are you selling the wheels off?
The wheels will be up for sale in a couple of weeks. They need some work on the rims to make them nice again.
 
ORIGINAL: 944Scott Mmmmmm mirrors [:)] im also after the black front sill trims if you want to sell those.
I'll ask the bodyshop to try and get them off in one piece..
 
ORIGINAL: edh
ORIGINAL: deafasapost looks beautiful as is!! are you selling the wheels off?
The wheels will be up for sale in a couple of weeks. They need some work on the rims to make them nice again.
i might well be very interested! i think they'll look rather nice on my cabrio. first dibs depending on funds?? ta :)
 
I noticed you mention all the racers are running 19mm spacers? I'm running an S2 race car (well slowly but surely turning it into a race car!) and haven't got any spacers but seen a shed load of different options / sizes, if I go too big do you know or heard of a negative impact to the handling performance? I.e. don't go over 25mm? Also is it fair to say keep the spacing equal all round? I.e. is running 19mm on front and 30mm on back a real big no no? (or vis versa?) Cheers Tommy
 
ORIGINAL: Tommys86 I noticed you mention all the racers are running 19mm spacers? I'm running an S2 race car (well slowly but surely turning it into a race car!) and haven't got any spacers but seen a shed load of different options / sizes, if I go too big do you know or heard of a negative impact to the handling performance? I.e. don't go over 25mm? Also is it fair to say keep the spacing equal all round? I.e. is running 19mm on front and 30mm on back a real big no no? (or vis versa?) Cheers Tommy
Sorry - I know no more than that - I'm sure that's what Neil Haughey posted some time ago (maybe in his weight reduction thread?) [link]http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=441581&mpage=1[/link] - I'd send him a pm Ed
 
Ed knew you would be back to the fold good luck with the new car guards red must be your fav colour can you send me a high res of the image you posted, old car is alive and kicking see sig pic Dvm
 
Hi Dave, glad to see it's broken cover at last. We need a long post from you on that green monster ;-)
 
ORIGINAL: edh Hi Dave, glad to see it's broken cover at last. We need a long post from you on that green monster ;-)
With plenty of pics - the tiny avatar looks awesome [8D]
 
19mm all round on my car, can't say exactly what anyone else runs. Best thing as always is to have a poke around the paddock of a club championship race and have a look at all the cars. Most 944/968 do run spacers but of varying sizes, its something you can tune a touch however on an S2 it makes sense to get as much track width as possible on the front thus getting as much performance as possible from cornering. Remember that in the championship the S2 weighs in much less than a 968 or a 964/993 but has nowhere near the power and straight line grunt of the rear engined class 1 cars in particular. Personally I find that there is a penalty in that spacers change the scrub radius http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrub_radius ....but its not really any worse just that the steering feels much more reactive to me and can sometimes kick back very hard in a spin, enough on one occasion to kick the wheel out of my hands. Definitely worth it overall though, first few times I drove my car it was a shock just how lively it became. Seriously if one went from an S2 road car to a full on S2 race car you wouldn't believe its the same car.
 
Oi - keep that off my puny 944S2 thread please!! [:D]
ORIGINAL: darkvisorman taster
F6E4D89AD98C43ABAEBD0BD91C7FB8C9.jpg
Glad to see there's a passenger seat though - I'm looking forward to a ride in my old car [:D]
 

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