suspension upgrades

[JTL]

I pulled the trigger on a pair of 28mm Sanders hollow rear tbars. According to the manufacturer these go for about $180/pc so I got them 1/2 price, which was a pretty good deal, right?

My car already has new rear sport bilsteins and will probably need a larger anti-sway bar. I run a couple of DE's every year but the car is mostly street.

What do you guys think I should put in the front? I'm thinking about duplicating the rear: new sport bilsteins, 22mm tbars and adding a upper sway bar. Also, possibly some polybronze bushings since the right front is currently noisy.

Some more - camber would be nice too - sheesh, I'm getting sucked in...
BTW, my buddy keeps telling me: it's never gonna be a track car because it's a targa so don't try to make it one; but I saw this quote a while back that said: run the Porsche you have, not the one you wish you had.

jt
-84 targa

[johnsjmc]

The 21/22 swaybar combo from a 1986 up Carrera is a good budget move.Add 21 or 22 mm front torsions to match your 28 mm rears . I think the stock HD front bilsteins will work OK with that size T bar and compliment the sport rears. This combo should still be very streetable (ride won,t suffer much) but should be much tighter handling.You can,t go very much stiffer without the Targa body becoming the limiting factor.

[Moke81]

Alignment and corner balancing

[JTL]

The car originally had green sport bilsteins. I thought after 20 some years they should be replaced. The rears were done at the same time as the clutch last winter. The fronts are still the originals. Corner balance was done 3 years ago and all 4 were within 15 lbs.
As far as the sway bars the 86 bars sound like a good idea, although why did the factory decrease the sizes in -89?

jt

[johnsjmc]

The front swaybar is interchangeable from 74 to 88(biggest in 86up) The rear changed in 78 and bigger in 86 and then changed again with the g50 trans in 87. The G50 rear bar is the same dia. as 86 but has a bend in it to clear the trans so the part # changed I do,nt think it got smaller. The 964 uses completely diff suspension and swaybars.Is that what you mean by 89.??

[jhynesrockmtn]

I wouldn't let the targa stop you. Saw a local guy at the last DE in a late (very rare) 89 targa turbo. He had a stiffening bar that ran across the pillars, down to the floors and then had bars that ran to the sills that were not at all intrusive to the front seats. Of course the back seats were not accessible. It was all bolt in. He said it stiffened the car up considerably and that thing was fast. He was fast as a driver as well, instructs for skills days, they are trying to get him to instruct DE's as well, great driver.

[johnsjmc]

If you have Bilsteins now you can have them rebuilt for less than half the price of new ones.It,s done at the Bilstein plant in Calif.(do a search) RaceDept is run by a man named Jack Turn around time is usually less than 2 weeks.A good project for the winter would be to redo your front suspension (bars Tbars shocks bushings etc)

[JTL]

According to Bruce the 86 911turbo sways were upgraded from front 20mm to 22mm and rear 18mm to 21mm. In 1989 the rear swaybar was downsized from 20mm to 18mm probably because of larger tbars.

I had my eye on a dark blue 88 turbo targa 3 years ago. The owner wanted high 30s which put it out of my price range at the time. It was very nice and I shouldda bought it?!

Great suggestion on the Bilsteins - thanks. I should have thought of that with the rears too.

I have a harness bar in the back now which runs in between the upper seat belt mounts. The side pieces run between the outer rear belts mounts and upper front belt mounts. I had a Weltmeister front strut brace but took it off. BA thinks it does very little with Carrera 1's and I don't feel any difference with it gone.

The Winter project list is building. Last year I dropped the engine for a clutch and clenup job.

jt

[johnsjmc]

The swaybars I am talking about are on the NA Carreras .I thought the Turbos were the same except they used a slightly thicker stock (26mm) rear torsion bar and wider wheels.If the rear turbo swaybar got smaller it would add more understeer to help keep the turbo driver out of trouble when the boost comes on.

[Bobboloo]

My setup is very similar. I have a 73' Targa with F/R, 22/28mm TBars, 22/21mm sways, and Koni/Bilstein sport.

I think a 21mm T bar up front would have been a better choice than the 22mm I went with. The front feels a tad harsh.

[JTL]

The Elephant website has the Street/track2 setup with 22s front matched with 29s rear. They have street/track1 setup with 21s front and 28s rear. $370 is their price for a hollow set of rear tbars.
Guess I got a pretty good deal then?! BTW, they were advertised as used but look absolutely brand new.
Bobby - what's your ride height set at? Mine was euro but the new rear shocks raised it a little. Doesn't matter now that I have to install the new tbars anyway. Are your Konis adjustable - how do you like them?

jt

[johnsjmc]

I suggested the 21 fronts because you already bought the 28 for the rear. You will get more understeer with a larger front (undesirable). I am using 23 F/30R with 21/22 sways and custom valved Bilsteins in a 3.6 SC coupe.17/7/8.5 wheels.Handles awesome and ridesOK on pavement.I,ve used Konis in the past and found they rode a little stiffer than Bilstein.(They are seldom readjusted once installed)

[Bobboloo]

JT, I don't know my ride height. It's a lower than stock. I just had Tyson Schmidt, when he was at TRE, do his thing.

John, I've considered that the Konis might be part of the harshness but it's not so bad that I would change them at this point. The car does feel very balanced with maybe a slight edge toward understeer which is not such a bad thing. At any rate the car is way more capable than anything I can throw at it on the street.