Hi Charley,

I am in Dubai brushing up on driving skills for NASA nationals 2010. The old shocks did well in lap 2 but then weren't enough for you and the big dog for the other 14 laps, well that's my story and I'm stick'n to it. Actually that race could have been anybody's, I started in 2nd, went to 1st worked my way back to 5th up to 2nd back to 4th and about 4 turns from the end came back up to 3rd (speed cast missed that pass coming into the attitudes)

11 cars in the 2.21's and on lap #14 of the 16 laps, we are 3 wide going down the 3500ft straight battling for 2nd, NOW THAT'S RACING. Then of course there is all of the great footage coming from all parts of the field. Has to be one of the best races on any level regardless of hp or dollars spent!!!!

I do hope to be at nationals, but who knows for sure till that time comes.

Have fun racing, can't wait to see your new ride,

Just wait till I get me new shocks.. Kick all you guys!!!


HA...


Seriously I have a spare set of shocks. These were the ones I put on in 2003 and changed out in 2006 or something. Since I have two maybe I rebuild these and then swap them.

It think rebuild are cheaper than new, but just take time.

Anybody had Koni's rebuilt before?

Joe I had a set rebuilt for one of my early 911s. I boxed them up and sent them to koni in ca. Took about three weeks they came back in I thought that they just replaced them, but since that was such a hard set to get I knew they were my old ones. They will even set them up with modified valving if you tell them what you are running for spring rates. Don't know if that's spec legal tho...at that time it was half the cost of new. Worth it if you have the time.

Norm, good to hear from you. Hope your having fun out there. That circut must be amazing, we need pics!!!!

Pretty sure having the shocks re-valved to our current spring rate is not legal. It is a great idea though.

This is one of the required mods for Spec Miata. Even though not legal it is very common. The only way to test that is with a shock dyno.

My guess is that most of our shocks would fail the dyno test anyway because they are too worn out

Great to hear from you Norm. I hadn't thought of testing on F1 tracks to practice for Nats.

My new car is really good. Not sure yet what makes it so good. This car has a mix of stock and eurothane bushings.
The front forward mount has black eurothane, the front/rear mount has stock rubber. In the rear suspension the torsion tube has black eurothane (as far as I can tell) the control arms have stock bushings. Weltmeister sway bars front and rear. New Konis on the car right now set to full firm and I have a set of new Bilsteins to test out.

I suspect that replacing all the bushings with Delrin creates too much bind. I did this to my last car and it never was as good as when I first bought it. I just never clued into that.

The new car is really good from mid corner to exit. Exactly where you want it to be great. Maybe it is the narrower track of the 924s.

I thought that maybe the new Toyo RA-1 tires were the secret but I ran my fastest laps last weekend on a 3 year old set in the first session of the weekend. The HP on this car is equal to Steve Agostons #512. We were door to door on the starts all the way down the straight.

What ever it is this car is great. I am glad I bought it.

yes revalving is not legal in 944 spec.

Charlie,
Give me a side by side comparison of the set up on the two cars and I can tell you why the newer one is better.

Alignments are nearly identical. 1/8" to 1/4" toe out in front depending on track. Zero toe in rear.
New car has Guards LSD old car has Phantom grip LSD (not really an LSD) but they call it one.
New car does not have rear sway bar connected, front set at mid point (Weltmeister bars).
Old car has same bars and both set at mid point.
New car is lower by at least 1" (most likely factor for better handling)
New car is lighter (60+ lbs) so has better weight displacement (lower).
New car has narrower track???
New car has some stock bushings. May not be producing bind in suspension???