Porsche 944 S track car - lots of bitty updates

All sorts of things have been happening with the Porsche the past few weeks. I might not get all of these updates in right order, but here it goes.

First of all I replaced the front wing. I sourced one and Adrian picked it up (just fitting in his XKR! Much bigger than you would think). Not too much of a big job, undo a lot of bolts and screws, fight some rusty ones and rusty brackets and get the new wing on. It fitted pretty well, even if it looks a little odd due to the red edges (courtesy of a previous owner). Some pictures (we all love pictures):

Wing int front of cat-protected bucket

Odd looking wing fitted in an evening

So then it was a question of what had happened to the suspension, it was after all, driving like it was going in two different directions. Enter Buckley Tyres who plopped it on the 4 wheel alignment machine and had a good look around. After adjusting the tracking to at least make it driveable we noticed this:

Lower arm mount looking odd

Basically if you look at the bolts either side of where the lower arm mounts to the chassis, they are not in line. This is bad of course and probably causing the issue. Let’s just hope it isn’t major chassis damage!

This put us in a quandary. We’d heard of Lodge Motorsport in Manchester off quite a few people as a recommendation so I gave them a call. Ernie was very helpful so we went down their to their workshop to have a look around – lots of bits and 944s everywhere – we were in the right place. We left the 944 with him to sort out the suspension and fit the new drive shafts.

A week or so later she was ready to collect all done. A lower arm and strut arm later and the suspension is all back to normal, relieving us of just over 300 notes. Not too bad considering. Still a good tip not to crash your track car.

So she’s back. There’s still a knocking from a rear but all that can be now is the gearbox/diff carrier bearings and it’s Ernie’s thought to run it until the ‘box dies as it’s not worth changing anything unless there’s a major problem.

This weekend, I have had the soul destroying task of removing all of the little bits of sound deadening from the 944 (of which there was a lot) before giving her some paint (although I ran out) so that the inside is a lot more presentable than it is currently. Nearly there, couple more cans of paint and we’ll be there. Sadly I don’t have a ‘before’ picture, which is major fail on my part it has to be said! Next track day is at Donnington, but myself and Adrian are hoping to get at least an evening session in beforehand.