951 Heaven

[bennyboy]

I know a lot of you guys on here also frequent the rennlist forums so will have seen this car, but it really does deserve to be shared with the world...
http://www.gatebil.no/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9153&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=a0e35f88569709c87d9272713368f926

...mops up dribble, takes a deep sigh and switches the tv on in a desperate attempt to forget about it[]

 

[rav]

Is that a 5 cyl Audi lump in there?
The turbo looks massive too. Cant think that it would last long as the K&N is right on the front of the turbo.....?

Looks fantastic, shame i am too dumb to be able to read it though........

 

[sawood12]

Or hell!! Those 5 cylinder Audi engines are heavy as hell and without the gearbox in the rear balancing out the weight of the engine you've destroyed the best aspect of a 944 by far - it's balance. They've clearly had to retain the Audi gearbox due to the huge torque the engine produces, but didn't put it in the back to maintain the cars balance. I bet this car won't like corners very much!

 

[tref]

I agree. I love the 5 cylinder Audi engine... having racked up in excess of 300k miles with them... but as a transplant for a 924, maybe, but is it really worth it for a 944? I have sat a 944 and Audi 100 Turbo box side by side... the bellhousing bolts are identical. Splines are different, but given the 944 gearbox to torque tube coupling arrangement, nothing which couldn't be overcome, I would have thought it would be much easier to put the Audi box in the back anyway, maintaining the 944 balance

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: sawood12
I bet this car won't like corners very much!

It will go well in America then so......! []

 

[Hilux]

????????????????????????????????

ARB? Torsion bar replacement???????????????????

 

[zcacogp]

Without having read the whole thing (got to page 5, I think), my concern would be less about the balance (the engine is tolerably far back in the engine bay, and the gearbox weight is now central - it will behave much more as a mid-engined car, and have a lower polar moment of inertia) and more about the structural integrity. They have cut a LOT of the transmission tunnel out, and I'd have thought that that would be very bad news for the strength of the thing.

I guess they will build a huge cage tho'. Which may help.

Does beg the question, "when is a 944 no longer a 944?" There is so little of the original car there I suspect it doesn't qualify. And it must be pig-heavy. Bit like the spaceframe racers you sometimes see, with a fibreglass body on. They may look like a mini, uno, fiesta, whatever, but they are nothing like one underneath the fibreglass.


Oli.

 

[Big Dave]

Hilux.
The pic you posted is ,of there take on an anti roll bar....
If you look on around page 7 ish, youl see the SUBTANTIAL roll cage thats been made....
Now whilst i take my hat of to them for ALL the engineering that gone into it.. It begs the question,,,,,, WHY...?????
Idve thought its upset the nice balance of the car.???
Theres hardly anything left of the original car apart from the chassis + shell...
Although it has given me a few ideas....[][8|][][8|]
Pity its not in English.. Or am i missing something..?

 

[wibble]

[FONT=Arial"]My eyes glazed over by page 2. Why? Because you can is not a good enough answer.

 

[Flick]

ORIGINAL: sawood12

Or hell!! Those 5 cylinder Audi engines are heavy as hell and without the gearbox in the rear balancing out the weight of the engine you've destroyed the best aspect of a 944 by far - it's balance. They've clearly had to retain the Audi gearbox due to the huge torque the engine produces, but didn't put it in the back to maintain the cars balance. I bet this car won't like corners very much!

It's a gearbox from a Supra. I wonder why they chose not to use the transaxel from a Corvette?

 

[Hilux]

Hilux.
The pic you posted is ,of there take on an anti roll bar....

Thats what I thought but what bends/springs/moves/is in torsion? The main tube wont move differently along its length. If its the yellow things then why bother with a bar, simply bolt them to the body?

 

[sawood12]

The yellow arms will be attached to the swing arms and will twist the upper bar as the body rolls. Nice solution but looks heavy and all that weight is higher up in the chassis.

 

[tref]

Yep... the same solution could surely be applied underneath the car, keeping the weight lower... and lower...

I suspect it has been done as it is, because it looks good, rather than pure performance.

 

[Big Dave]

I think it might be to clear the propshaft.?????

 

[barks944]

ORIGINAL: Big Dave UK

I think it might be to clear the propshaft.?????

That's what I was thinking. I cant quite work out what the yellow things are. Perhaps the connecting tube is 100% rigid and the yellow bars allow are selected to give you precise control over how much the ARB flexes. Then if you want a stiffer/softer one you just change the yellow bar for a different one.

 

[Hilux]

That's what I was thinking. I cant quite work out what the yellow things are. Perhaps the connecting tube is 100% rigid and the yellow bars allow are selected to give you precise control over how much the ARB flexes. Then if you want a stiffer/softer one you just change the yellow bar for a different one.

Th main bar has to be 100% rigid loo at the size and gauge. It will not twist like an ordinary ARB will so the yellow thingys have to be AR(arms) the bar only rotates as the car sits down or raises up as far as I can see.................strange way of doing things.

I cant see why an ARB cant be fitted undeneath?

Ho hum, clever chap though, nice work, glad he lowered the intake filter and ditched the wedged bonnet. I reckon that car has cost £40,000 sterling.

 

[sawood12]

The bar is probably hollow so it's probably not as stiff as it looks. The yellow bars just look like painted steel bars to me.

Again - can't see why it is not fitted underneath the car. Yes there will be a prop shaft running back, but on our cars there is a torque tube and a transaxel. I wonder if there is something trick they've done to the rear suspension as well meaning you can't have the ARB there.

 

[John Sims]

I almost lost the will to live by page 15 but, in the interests of science, forged on.

Another demonstration of madness? So much work.......and why? So much time and money for what? He might just as well have built a space fame race car and put a GRP body on it in the shape of a 944.

I know I am being a bit of a grump here but, had he used that skill (and money) in working up a 944 by conventional means just think what a superb car it could have been.