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I had Hank from Hanksville Hotrods make my rollbar. He does all the 944 Spec cages locally and sells a kit for the 944 Specs. It's a great rollbar, fits extremely tightly and mounts to structural parts of the car.
The Redline "rollbar" bolts into reinforced areas, but all the bolts are in shear, there's no triangulation and it's totally untested. It's a harness bar, no more and they've admitted as much to me.
Jcamper wrote:Since you are about to have your first little one, I think you would really regret a roll cage in the car. The cage is way more dangerous to your head when on the street, and in a few years (after you are able to ditch the rear facing seat), it may be really nice to be able to take the little one with you in the back seat. I went through this same line of questioning a few years ago with my SVO and my kids love riding in the "race car". Logically the cage won't make a huge safety difference anyways in the 944 (hardtop with relatively thick pillars in the area the cage would be). Just my .02. Jcamper
Cage is out for sure. It's either bar or nothing. This car won't make it to her riding phase as I have automotive ADD. Also, the Javelin has a back seat. 
Javelin wrote:Que pasa??!?!?!?
I own a $2000 944! I ain't blowing $5000-$6000 on it unless the word "LS1" is involved! I'm going to spend about $2000 max and do 99% of the work myself in the garage over the winter.
Like a said, you're probably looking for something streetable, which this is very not. I'm just kind of fishing for interest because selling this will really help my funds to go to school. I was mostly being facetious, but if there's a 10% chance someone seeing this thread will want a fully prepped track car, I'll take it.
If you're looking at a minimum of clutch, shocks, and rollbar, that's probably $2000 right there ($500-$700 for each). And doing the clutch on a 944 is a pretty big job. Doable in a garage, but involved.
For someone who doesn't care about street legal and wants the track basics: roll cage, shocks, springs, bushings, wheels, tires, seat, clutch, etc., that's easily more than $5000. I've got more than that into my Miata, and it can't run wheel-to-wheel.
You're already talking about blowing $4000 ($2000 car + $2000 just to meet your basic needs).
Yeah, but I already blew the first $2K, my car is a known quantity (with an LSD), and I haz friends with benefits 
so I won't be spending $2K on the parts.
No problem on your advertising though. I suppose you have it up on the 944.org, Pelican Forum, Rennlist, NASA Forum, and BaT as well?
I should put it up on Pelican and Rennlist. I have it on NASA, SCCA, and 944Spec. BaT costs money, and doesn't seem as focused for spec racers. I'm going to start spreading a wider net now that I've dropped my asking price to $5500. I figure that's cheap enough to appeal even to track-day folks as opposed to just 944Spec racers.
Yeah, 5500 is a steal. If I had that laying around, that sucker would be in my garage already.
Good luck dude!
Javelin wrote: * Lightness: My main competition is a 914-4 and some original narrow-body 911's that are all way lighter than me. I've lost 30Lbs off of me (and am angling for 10-15 more), but the car is a loaded out chunkmuffin and needs a diet.Can I dump the back seat for a roll bar?
Don't know what seats you have in the car now. We dropped 100# from my neighbors 944 S2 buy taking out all the seats ant putting in 2 Sparco race seats. The drivers power seat weighed 60# by itself!
I've got power full leather Sport Seats (the giant bolster ones). They a zillion pounds! I'm replacing them with Corbeau knock-offs. It's the useless back "seat" that I want to dump completely.
If you've got the solid cast headers, you can shed quite a bit of weight by switching to tubular headers. Some years came with tubular ones stock, and you should be able to find some used for pretty cheap.
If you have a sunroof, you could delete that to save weight. I presume you're removing the spare tire.
How much does your car currently weight? How low are you trying to get the weight of your car down to? Minimum weight for a 944Spec is 2600#, and very few people have to add any ballast back in to meet that. By comparison, Spec 911 weights are 2300# for 2.7 engine cars up to 2400# for 3.0 engines with 3.6 intake plenums. You're going to be hard pressed to get a your's down to 914-4 weight.
Salanis wrote:If you've got the solid cast headers, you can shed quite a bit of weight by switching to tubular headers. Some years came with tubular ones stock, and you should be able to find some used for pretty cheap.
Interesting. I never knew that. Just looked it up and it looks like the '83-early '85 had the cast manifolds, and late '85-'89 had the tubular manifolds. Hmmm....I do know where there's an '86 being parted. I think I might get some new manifolds for my '84!
Salanis wrote: You're going to be hard pressed to get yours down to 914-4 power levels.
FTFY
Mine's an 86 and has the tubular manifold. I don't need 914-4 weight, as he's only making 96HP, but less is good.
I would love a sunroof that wasn't steel. It's stupid scary to take off (because you're afraid of breaking all of the clips and stuff), so I'd rather it war lexan or something.
I have not weighed it yet. I should as it's currently "all stock" for weight (the steering wheel should be a wash). I can drive it to our truck scale, take a pic of the readout, drive home and take out the hatch carpet, tools, jack, and spare and drive back for a "race trim" weight. Repeat next spring after mods are done.
I'm pretty sure the sunroof is fiberglass. If it's power, you can lose 20+ lbs by dumping all that stuff and going with the early manual latches. They sell used on Rennlist for $50-70.
Hmmm, manual latches you say? And I'm 99% sure my magnetic AX #'s stick to the sunroof, but I'll check it again just to be sure.
Javelin wrote:Hmmm, manual latches you say? And I'm 99% sure my magnetic AX #'s stick to the sunroof, but I'll check it again just to be sure.
Unless someone built one in steel, it's definitely fiberglass.
Yep, the early 944's came with manual latched sunroofs. Between taking out the motor, gears, etc, etc it's probably 15-20 lbs worth of crap.
I have a set of manual latches waiting to go into my car.
Instead of fixing up the 944 for racing, fix the major issues and buy this instead:
http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/cto/2662459838.html
turboswede wrote:Instead of fixing up the 944 for racing, fix the major issues and buy this instead:
http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/cto/2662459838.html
Only if my 401 will fit instead of that puny Corolla motor
Javelin wrote:I've got power full leather Sport Seats (the giant bolster ones). They a zillion pounds! I'm replacing them with Corbeau knock-offs. It's the useless back "seat" that I want to dump completely.
Seats are a really good place to save weight. The ones in the Celica were more than 30 lbs. each. I replaced them with fixed back race seats- 11 lbs. each. Close to 50 lbs. with one change is good. Your power seats are no doubt even heavier.
May get to more money than you want to spend, but the lightweight flywheel was a fantastic upgrade, and since you have to do a clutch anyway you might think about it. In lower gears, where you spend all your autocross time, it does give you some power. It feels much faster.
I built coil-overs for the Celica. It's not that expensive. If you want to do an SP build, you should do it. The expensive part is struts. I did short strokes and Koni 8610s.
Here's what's going to happen, just so you know. You'll do some work, get it going well and take it out to an event. Then you'll start down the slippery slope. "If I just do a little more it will be competitive!" You'll get to a point where the engine rules in SP will be holding you back. You can do a .040 overbore, balance, and some minimal port matching work on the head. Under-drive pulleys, that kind of stuff. It all ads up to a few HP. But if the engine can get you through another season or two, you can put that all off until your fever gets a little worse.
fast_eddie_72 wrote:I built coil-overs for the Celica. It's not that expensive. If you want to do an SP build, you should do it. The expensive part is struts. I did short strokes and Koni 8610s.
944 has a rear torsion bar. Coil over struts up front. Still not that expensive. A pair of new torsion bars are only about $300.
