944 turbo? wha'ts the potential?

Hey guys...Anybody know the potential of turbo 944 and 924 turbo? My dad has a base 1988 944, but that's not to my liking. I'm a Guru of turbocharged hondas/DSM's(eclispe, talon)and what they can do. My old CRX made very close to 400whp with a INTERNALLY STOCK 1.8L vtec motor on 15psi...ANd of course DSM's are very stout motors as well.

I was thinking about turbocharging my dad's 944, but I'd hate to do the work involved.

I'm more a quarter mile kind of guy, so any 1/4 mile info from a 944T and 928T would be greatly appreciated. Is teh aftermarket support pretty popular? How stout are the stock turbo engines? THe only thing I can relate to is Eddie Bello and eth World's fastest 911, but 911's are way too rich for my blood:frown:

I wouldn't look too hard at a 924 or 944 for a drag car, they're more of a handling car. The engine is a SOHC 4 cylinder, 2 liters for the 924, 2.5 for the 944. The 944 has EFI, the 924 has mechanical fuel injection.

I think the biggest issue you would have trying to make a powerful drag car out of a 924/944 is in the engine bay, which is very tightly packed. I was doing exhaust work on a 924 Turbo 2 weeks ago, and I can say that was the tightest engine bay I have ever worked in. Some of the bolts were nearly impossible to get a wrench on.

Also, the rear transaxle setup is expensive, strong enough parts are nearly impossible to find. A 924/944 is about the worst choice you could make for a serious drag car, it's just not designed for it.

I'd advise getting a first generation RX7 instead, they're a drag racers dream. Pull out the original rotary, and you have enough room to locate a big block V8, an inline 6 cylinder from a Supra or Skyline, or if you're short on cash, an SR20DET or CA18DET. Starting with a curb weight of 2300lbs, there is a lot to be shaved off still, so it'll be light, RWD, have a good rear suspension for dragging...

Since you wanted to know, a 924 Turbo should be fine until around 250hp, then you'll need to start swapping pistons, etc. I don't know as much about the strength of a 944 Turbo, but I'd swap out those pistons for forged slugs too.

One last thing, I'm curious to know exactly how the hell you made nearly 400 rear wheel horsepower on an internally stock B18 at 15psi.

thanks for the info bro.


as for the honda....big turbo, high RPM's.....no torque:tongue:

Did you actually dyno it or is that an estimation of the power it put out?

400hp sounds a bit high to me...CRX looks damn ugly to be that fast :P

The Porsche chassis has too much potential to be used for mere drag racing:rolleyes:

Well, the 79-85 RX7 solid axle with watts linkage is much better for dragging than the trailing arm and torsion bar design, and those cars just have so much room for bigger engines.

With a bit more work, panhard bars, a beefier differential with posi, you'd have a mean drag car. Too bad my RX7 project is designed to corner too, I bet I could get 10s out of it without breaking a sweat.

RX7s had live axles? Wouldn't it hadle better with IRS?

It would, and that's why they replaced the design for the second generation RX7s. The original had a Watts Linkage, which is a system using two bars for torsion to locate the rear axle. It's very simple, but not especially effective. However, it's very easy to convert the rear axle to panhard bars, or even leaf springs, and have a very good platform for drag racing.

With my first gen RX7, I am replacing the entire rear suspension setup with double wishbones from a Corvette, and using a transaxle from an '80 924 Turbo, since it's sturdy, compact, and only weighs about 90 lbs. The only issue I have so far is what I'm going to have do to mate a G31 and it's axles to a C4 Corvette splindle.

Either way, even with the mild build I'm planning, 300hp/375lbft from a 400ci V8, it should be quite fast. When I can afford to strengthen the transmission, and build new cylinder heads, I will have a roughly 500hp/520lbft smallblock Ford engine powering it.

Looks like you're building a 10 second car. Its baffling how a v8 can fit in such a small car.
Oh, by transaxle, you mean one of those differential/gearbox units, like the new Corvette?

I don't think it'll be as low as 10s, I'll have too many traction issues for that ;)

If you actually get under the hood of an RX7, there is an amazing amount of space that just isn't used by anything... Not like a 924/944, where every cubic inch of space is taken up by something...

http://www.motorsports-exchange.com/images/wheeler/rx7%20engine_sm.JPG

http://home.iprimus.com.au/bluey3/rx7Page/rx7enginebay3.jpg

A V8 isn't all that big anyways, it's just two 4 cylinders joined at the crank. As long as the engine bay is wide enough that you can sneak the exhuast out, it's not that tough.

The real work in this swap is getting the rear end of the car sorted out. I'm building a setup using parts from 3 manufacturers for the rear end alone, and they all have to work together! :icon16:

Here's a pic of a G31, still mated to the 924 rear suspension carrier.

http://www.924.org/techsection/techpics/snailshell.JPG

No internally stock B18 could ever put out 400 horses when turbo'd. I dont care what turbo you use, 15psi would NEVER ever net that much power especially considering that a bone stock B18C5 (Type-R) puts out 185 hp at the crank.

GET REAL!

:twak:

I found the claim a little dubious myself, those pistons can't actually take that sort of power without melting or blowing off their ring lands.

Hello all I am a new guy here in these forums and I also own a 1987 Porsche 944 Turbo. So you wanna know the 944 Turbo's potential. well, if you want to know is HP potential i can tell you that I have seen 600hp-700hp 944 Turbo's without nitrous. most have had engine displacement to 2.7-3.0L. But as you can figure out on your own, 600-700hp is not very reliable. As can be seen with Huntley Racing's Zebra car that hardly ever runs. But you can easily mod your engine to 400rwhp and be reliable. 400rwhp 951's are killer street machines.

Some one says that the 944 Turbo is probably one the the worst cars to use for drag racing. I would have to disagree, because if you compare these cars with all the Honda drag cars you will see that if a POS honda CRX can run the strip and porsche can do it too. If you guys ever researched the 944's you would know that in 1981, Porsche entered its 944 protoye in the 24hr of LeMans. The car was the 1981 Porsche 944 GTP. It too had a 8v SOHC 2.5L L4 w/ turbo but highly tuned to over 400hp and lightened. It finished 7th overall in the race and spent the least amount of time in the pits than any other car. Which would show how reliable a 400hp the cars can be if built right, and thats endurance racing. You might ask your self, "how does this have anything to do with drag racing" well, the car was also tested in the 1/4 mile which it ran 11's. as you know a 11 second car is pretty quick and for a Porsche thats engineered for top end and handeling thats damn quick. and the GTP top speed was over 180MPH. Now imagine a nitrous kit. The possibilitys are endless. IT would be easy to build a 1000hp 944 Turbo but it would most likely destroy the tranny and alot of componants after one run. I know of one guy who runs over 500hp on a street 944 Turbo, i hear its one of the fastest 944 Turbo's running on the street.

A stock 944 Turbo has a top speed of 153MPH but with minor mods you and tuning you can easily get to 170MPH. 175MPH is about the fastest the 944 Turbo is capable of with stock gear ratio and weight and such. If you increase the power after that you will just see gains in acceleration and get to top speed quicker. But if you reduce weight and change gearing than you can see more top end. 951's have tall gears. I dont know of anyone who sells aftermarket gears.

The 944 Turbo has a good and ever growing aftermarket, mainly because our cars are getting more exposure through media. They are unexpensive to buy and mod but alot of people abuse tham and cant afford the maintanaince to keep them running. These cars are very realible and most people who buy a 944 Turbo that has not been maintained. They buy the cars with the same clutch that had been in the car from the factory. belts have never been replaced and engine hasnet had a tune up since 1988 and as soon as they get the car they want to race the hell out of it and then end up breaking a built, burning the clutch and blame the car for the problem.

No one makes a turbo kit for n/a 944's. There are however supercharger kits for them. Its far cheaper to sell the 944 and buy a 944 Turbo. Porsche had added alot of parts to turbocharge its cars and make it work right. I have a photo that shows all the parts its takes to turbocharge the cars and make them able to handle it. heres the link to the photo: http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/252380/17358449.jpg

The Porsche didnt just slap a turbo and a emblem on the 944 Turbo and sell it. They upgraded the suspension, body, the whole motor was different, the intake, exhaust, ECU, chassis, rims, tires, breaks, etc. The 944 and 944 Turbo are alot different. If you ever want to turbo a n/a 944 I would only do so to a 944 S2 because of the increases displacment and the better suspension. the S2 engine is a 16V DOHC 3.0L L4 which would make a killer high RPM motor when turbocharged. slap a aftermarket K27/8 hybrid turbo on it and the car would have alot of top end, not much for low end but plenty of pull from the motor.

And just so you know a stock 944 Turbo would smoke the tires off a Eclipse even the Eclipse turbo. As many 944 Turbo owners know, 951's have been known to take cars with twice its power. Ever see the old 944 Turbo ad? It say's "9-44 Turbo prefers Ferrari's for dinner and snacks on corvettes". Which is true when the car was built now i you put a stock 951 up with a Z06 than there might bee some problems. But update the 951 with todays technology than it will take a Z06.





Hey guys...Anybody know the potential of turbo 944 and 924 turbo? My dad has a base 1988 944, but that's not to my liking. I'm a Guru of turbocharged hondas/DSM's(eclispe, talon)and what they can do. My old CRX made very close to 400whp with a INTERNALLY STOCK 1.8L vtec motor on 15psi...ANd of course DSM's are very stout motors as well.

I was thinking about turbocharging my dad's 944, but I'd hate to do the work involved.

I'm more a quarter mile kind of guy, so any 1/4 mile info from a 944T and 928T would be greatly appreciated. Is teh aftermarket support pretty popular? How stout are the stock turbo engines? THe only thing I can relate to is Eddie Bello and eth World's fastest 911, but 911's are way too rich for my blood:frown:

Hi all. First post here. I have the fastest street legal 951 in North America. I have 564 hp and 570lb tq. The car does high 10's-low 11's in the quarter and 194mph top speed. I found this forum by accident. Our cars are very reliable when done right. My race mechanic, David Raines, owner of Powerhaus Racing has the same motor in his car that he put in mine. He has over 90,000 miles on it and he only changed a water pump. Being in Arizona, that's typical. Anyway, I've decided to give my car away to charity. I'm going to post a new thread but you may view the whole story at Powerhaus.com Go the to bottom of the homepage and you'll see it.

Actually weight has no bearing on top speed, and you won't find an internally stock 944 turbo making over 600hp (or even close to it). The cars do have potential, but not for drag racing. Look elsewhere.
Ahmet

First off I wana state that I own and build performance cars as a living... and that it is simply not worth turbocharging a stock 944n/a, go out buy a 944 turbo (or just the motr and drop it in their)
2ndly a honda crx 1.8 in stock form will dyno in at an explosive 54 hp and 38 lbs ft of toque... runing 15 psi on stock internals (which would last under 10000 miles unless fuel system,cooling system, major engine management modifications were made) would yiel about 200 rwhp and 150-175 tq... Its simple math to make 400 hp on a 1.8l motor you would need around 30-35 psi and be reving to about 8000rpm... no stock honda motor would do this...yes no stock hona even the s2000 which could rev but would simply blow under 30+ psi....

sorry but im just not in the mood for teenagers making claims that they have no clue about...please look into engine dynamics and hp laws, review the ways of calcualting hp if you have no access to a dyno and please stop making bogus claims..

944's are NOT dragsters. The ring/pinions have a reputation for not tolerating riceboy driving. But the engine will easily (not too cheaply, though) tolerate 500hp. But if you drag race a 944, you are wasting the potential of one of the best balanced sports cars ever built - they are born to run on tracks with turns.

Well its his car so he can do what he wants:dunno: However even on the track more power is always a good thing.