BJ,

Everyone brings their own perspective, and it's all valuable. You make some god points, and in some ways, it a shame there is so much inertia to change.

I agree that GTS/Cup comparisons aren't very rigorous. But if the change requires dedicated test and stopwatch to be clear, than its probably too small to be worth the pain of the change of this magnitude.

As far as corner balancing, my take on the key issue is to be fussy about getting the car level to start, with the rear adjuster near the midpoint. I have chased my tail for hours when I was trying to compensate for a leaning car and corner weights. As far as the front height, rake has no effect on corner balance. If you lower the fronts equally, the car will stay in balance, while changing the rake.

Some day, I suspect something like the BRZ/FRS will ned to be developed into a new Spec class. It would be really interesting to be on the ground floor of that with all we've learned!

Thanks again for all the support for 944 Spec!

joeblow wrote:


When this class stared 10 years ago Torsion bars were the most cost effective solution. They are still pretty effective right now. I set my t-bars in 2003 and have never needed to change them since. They are set and forget and not a big job. Just remember to remove them is still 6 of that 8 hours as you can't leave the stock ones in and add coild overs. The rear will be way too high. As for corner balance that done with spring plate adjustment and is not hard.

There is no reason to change the rules now for stuff like this. Ok and why Koni's? Again cheap shocks that work. They work withour spring rates and are cost effective. They were 10 years ago and still are now.

And do you know what the biggest reason we keep t-bars? Effective spring rates. On t-bars they are limited by the size and that keeps us inthe 400/30 range. That low spring rate ALLOWS us to use the cheaper Koni shocks. So it all works together to create a suspension package that provided 90% of the race car feel at 50% of the cost some fancy 1000lbs-in spring rate car with fanct racing shocks. These softer spring rates also put less stress in the chassis which reduces wear and tear.


The rules were created to take a stock 944 and make it faster by stripping out all the things you don't need in race car. Then add in stuff make the cars fun to drive and race, but not overly expensive. The intent was never to make the fastest 944 we could. The inent was to make fun, reliable race car as cheaply as possible.

bj wrote:


Using the TB set up saves everyone money. Nobody changes them out like was said because they are a PIA to do. Being a PIA to change, 99.9% leave them alone once they are done.
If we were to switch to a coilover system someone would start changeing coil springs out at every track, then everybody would have to. I don't have the time or money to buy 4 or 5 sets of springs to change out at different tracks and this saves time and money in the long run.