Silver Track Car – The Beginning

As I stated in my previous post, I acquired a 1984 Porsche 944 that was in rough condition, for the princely sum of $1000.  The engine ran and it came with a set of Fuchs so I considered it to be a good deal.  At some point, I decided not to just strip it for parts but to get it roadworthy as a street legal back-up track car.

I plan to document my build efforts here.  Just to give folks an idea of costs, I’m going to list my parts costs and what little outside labor costs I incur.  Because this car is very similar to my orange track car, there are some parts from that car that I will be able to use.  Here is my basic plan for the build.

Safety – Install a rollbar and a harness bar.  As the car came with Porsche Sport seats, which have generous bolsters and lateral support, I’m going to stick with them for now.  They don’t appear to lend themselves to the installation of a 5 point harness so I’m going to stick with the shoulder/lap belts for now.  Install a handheld fire extinguisher.  Tie-down battery securely.  External kill switch.  New fuel lines in the engine compartment.

Reliability – The entire engine will be rebuilt, including a new clutch.  All 4 corners are going to get new tires, new wheel bearings, rebuilt brake calipers, braided teflon brake flex lines, new rotors in front, old reconditioned rotors in back, new street/track pads, ATE fluid. Steering links will be checked for slop and replaced as required.

Performance – Fuchs wheels with Kumho Ecsta AST tires.  Weltmeister 200# front springs (these are 1″ lower than stock).  Turbo front and rear sway bars.  Stock rear torsion bars.  Torsion bars re-indexed to bring rear level with front.  Koni yellow struts in front.  Koni orange shocks in the rear. Note- the 200# springs, shocks, and the sway bars came off my orange track car when I fitted it with the Koni944Spec suspension.  Delrin or urethane bushings at all suspension points.  Solid motor mounts.  Track spec wheel alignment.  Power steering gear is being converted to a manual setup.

Appearance – a quickee paint job in roughly the same color (silver) when I can get around to it.

Here is my rough budget.  We’ll see how this works out.