911 Upgrades

[Brian Minkin]

Larry is right in what he is saying.  The stock capabilities of an SC or Carrera that is in good mechanical shape exceed the drivers abilities for some time before you would benefit from modification. Track events and Autocross both will teach the driver a lot about the handling of the car but getting to the point where the driver can exceed the capabilities of the car takes some work and lots of seat time.

[Vytenis]

I agree with both of you.  I really do.

Driving on the street was there ever a time that you thought to yourself that it would be nice to accelerate a little faster?

[Brian Minkin]

When I had my 1986 carerra I found that I left everything like it was standing still when leaving a traffic light.  Only the big American muscle cars got away faster.  So no I dont not think more HP would be a benefit on the street.  Once I got heavly involved in the track program I even found that my street driving got a lttle more sensible.

[Mike Andrews]

Vytenis wrote:

I agree with both of you. I really do.

Driving on the street was there ever a time that you thought to yourself that it would be nice to accelerate a little faster?

Of course............

[tchecko]

I wrote a tech article years ago for the De Gasser concerning this topic and after evaluating several things to do, the best and cheapest thing to do to improve your handling hence performance  was to Lower the car. Look at the Formula 1 cars where cost isn't a limiting factor. Tony Checkowski

[Vytenis]

Update 2+ years later...

Back in 2006 at 75K miles shortly after posting, discovered my front torsion bar rubber bushings had sagged to the point where torsion bars were rubbing.

Doing a bounce test on the car to check the shocks indicated they were OK.  Upon removal found that they were shot.

It would have been nice to replace one thing at a time, but the budget didn't allow a corner balance and an alignment after each iteration.

Replaced torsion bars, bushings, shocks, struts, ball joints, trailing arm bushings and a few other things "while you're in there".  Car was lowered to Euro ride height, corner balanced, and aligned. 

Handling is much improved.  Now we just to have to work on the giant nut behind the wheel.