I was sorting out some stuff and picked up the dash that I had taken out of the 944. I was looking at the underside (see pics) and saw the plastic tubing for the defroster. with the slots cut on the top of the dash for the air to come out on the windshield. So I took the dash and pulled the padding off on the top part and then cut the bottom part off. I cut it down in length as it would no longer fit cause of the roll cage. I can trim it down more and lose some weight. We can hook up a blower motor and tubing to the underside and use it like a stock defroster.

Here's the dilemma...how often will it be needed and is it worth the extra weight? Nick of Bennington's and Eric both tell me that the car is going to be light. The dash is up kinda high and most of the weight of any kind of dash is on the drivers side and I'm kinda big 230 LBS

A lot of the guys just run a tube to the outside by the mirror and have it blowing across the windshield. I don't know how well this works, sounds kind of MacGyver-ish to me.
What do you think??????? Thoughts, opinions.

RacerX wrote:
Ok..I couldn't see the mounting tabs to the body and was thinking it was seam welded to it instead. I've been thinking of getting this done too and adding a cross bar over the top of the car for just in case. Then lexan windshield with easy off access...list goes on and on.

Try to get your safety stuff first the rest is icing on the cake. Too many goodies, too little $$$$$$.

One of the neater installations I've seen used a late dash just as you intend. If my car was late then I would do exactly what you describe.

The utility of defog depends on your climate and driving style. On the east coast if you intend to compete seriously then you intend driving when a defog is very useful. If you eschew a wet track then not so much.

BTW, for the same reason most of us on the east coast have gone BACK to glass. Wipers work a lot better on glass. You can clean it with anything. And replacement windshields are cheap. My day job involves breaking lots of auto glass. Don't see any safety improvement going from glass to lexan. But lexan was a royal pain to keep clean. Understand many out west tracks the off road is pure gravel and rocks so maybe lexan for that?

I've seen functional defog units made from a boat blower motor set up, and some tubing - cheap, light, simple, and intended for 12V. The stock blower unit is pretty heavy. With the windows open, the need for outside air is less critical, and I like to keep the underhood area sealed from the cockpit for smoke/fire issues. Some does get in there when the motor get smokey - I had lots of experience with making smoke by dumping oil on the motor/headers back in '08 (long story).

It does not rain much in Az races, but I have driven in some nasty conditions. I have my stock early blow motor and box. Sadly the blower motor failed at some point. The stock box however is rather light and still in the car. I fixed all the levers to move air to "defrost" mode all the time.

So I get the effet of defrost at speed, but with no blower aid.

If I put shaving cream on the inside of glass before a wet session combined with this road speed blower I get zero internal fogging.