rally 914

[josh22]

My family are avid off-road enthusiasts. While I was talking with my father the other day and an interesting idea popped up. He said that since the 914 suspension is basically the same as that of the volkswagon bug, it would be easy to reposition the torsion bars to get a few extra inches of ground clearance for some moderate off-road use like I did with my baja. I would like to know if others think that this is possible and if it is, what sort of problems might I encounter in doing this.

[Jim Smolka]

I imagine someone could put different shock assemblies in the back to increase travel. The front bars could be adj to increase the ride height.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Your dad is wrong. The suspension in the 914 is not the same as in the Bug--not even that similar.

It does have torsion bars in the front, and you can indeed re-index the bars and use the adjustment bolts to raise the car up. But the suspension is almost identical to the 911, which is different from the Bug.

In the rear, the 914 has coil-over springs. Very different from the Bug or the 911. You adjust the rear ride height by changing the springs. If you have Koni or Bilstein rear shocks, you may also be able to move a circlip on the shock body (or a sleeve) to move the lower spring perch up or down. And there are threaded lower perch kits that you can buy that will let you change the ride height by spinning the lower perch.

If you are serious about offorading your 914, you really need to reinforce it. Jeff Zwart ran his -6 GT in an off-road long distance event and had real problems with where the rear suspension loads get carried from the pickup points to the main part of the body. That main part was strengthened by a roll cage, I believe, so it was strong enough. What failed were the parts connecting the passenger area to the rear suspension.

--DD