944 Front Bumper Questions
 

I just had my front nose panel, bumper, and air dam repainted to get rid of all of the nasty paint chips.

Here is a picture:
http://content.communities.msn.com/isapi/fetch.dll?action=show_photo&ID_Community=19852Pors che944&ID_Topic=1&ID_Message=10

There was a silver 944 emblem on the front of the bumper. Is this a stock piece? There are no front liscence plate requirements in Michigan, so did the cars sold here have an emblem in place of the liscence holder?

Kaos 1985/2

Here is a picture of my car with the new wheels I will be using for Autocrossing.

I have brand new 225/50-15 Kumho V700's on them now, and I can't wait until the first auto-x next week.

How do you guys think they look? I know they aren't as cool as 17", but I can stay in stock class with them, and they were cheap and not too heavy.

http://content.communities.msn.com/isapi/fetch.dll?ac tion=show_photo&ID_Community=19852Porsche944&ID_To pic=1&ID_Message=7

Compare with stock

http://content.communities.msn.com/isapi/fetch.dll?action=show_photo&ID_Community=19852Pors che944&ID_Topic=1&ID_Message=8

[This message has been edited by Kaos (edited 04-10-2001).]

Kaos, where in MI are you?

Looks nice, what did it cost you to have those parts painted?

Hey,

I'm in the Detroit area (Wayne). To get the front nose panel, light covers, bumper, air dam, and mirrors prepped and painted cost $300. The guy said he lost money on the deal. I don't know, but it sure looks alot better now than before.

Hey, what color of black do you have. I have the Y9Y Satin Metallic. Was curious if you had the same. I'm in need of a front-end repaint myself.

I forgot to mention that I pulled off all of the parts to be painted myself and delivered them to the paint shop. That way I could make sure there would be no masking lines anywhere.

I'm sure it made the price a little cheaper as well.

As far as I know, my car is just the plain old standard black. Unfortunately, I can tell that the car has been repainted before.

Does anyone know the answer to my original question: Does a silver 944 emblem belong on the front bumper?

I saw one mounted there too, don't know if it's SUPPOSED to be there or not. I do know that shaun doesn't know it's not supposed to be there.
Ahmet

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It's all the driver...

The front end looks great!...As far as wheels...you don't want to put 17's on a 944na, because they're too heavy-not enough ponies to make it worth it...Besides, for autocross, you will get more accelleration out of 15's...The emplem did not come on the front, but many 944 owners have purchased emblems and mounted them there...I think it looks good on most cars...anyway...the car looks good...good luck with the autocrossing......cya...Cus

You will only get faster acceleration if you total tire/wheel package has a smaller diameter. which essentially gives you a lower(numerically higher) final drive ratio. But with the tires hes running he should be staying fairly close to stock diameter. Its hard to get 40 or 30 series tires for 15 inch rims. But that would both lower the car without affecting suspension geometry and provide lower final drive ratio. But i dont know how legal it would be for running in the stock catagory.

225/50-15 Tires are about 1/2" shorter sidewall height than the stock 215/60-15. A 205/50-15 would be even lower, but then you start to lose absolute grip, which is more important in a auto-x situation than acceleration.

Also available are Hoosier 225/45-15 or 245/50-15, but I couldn't afford them at the time. Maybe if I kill these Kumho's halfway through this season, I will buy the big-ass hoosiers.

As far as remaining in stock class, the wheels must be the same diameter and width as stock, and have an offset within 0.25".

The revolution RFX wheels I bought are 15 x 7" with the same offset as stock. They weigh 15 lbs, which isn't incredibly light, but isn't worse than the stock phone dials. I was just looking for a decent looking set of replacements. The set of four cost me $650 brand new. I thought that was a better deal than a set of beat up phone dials with 15 years of curb rash on them for $500.

Another thought on wheel diameter:

Lets compare two wheel and tire packages; a 15" and a 17" with the exact same tire diameter and identical total weight. The 15" would allow better acceleration because even though the total weight is the same, the polar moment of inertia would be lower. This is because the material of the 15" wheel is closer to the center of rotation. This is kind of the same idea as lightening a flywheel.

On the other hand, the 17" would provide better turn in response due to a shorter/stiffer sidewall.

I beleive that the largest advantage to large diameter wheels (besides looking cool) is the ability to have larger brakes inside the wheel.

I designed a front spindle (hub carrier) for the Formula SAE car at my university a few years ago that put the front brakes on the inside of the spindle. This put the brake rotor far inside of the wheel and right in the flow of cold air. This eliminated the required use of larger diameter wheels with large diameter brake rotors.

My 1987 944 brochure from the dealer shows 944's with the emblem on the front bumbper