Modifications

Although the Porsche is a damn nice car right out of the box, it is still built to appeal to a relatively large group of people.  Clearly not as large a group as an Accord, or even a Miata, but a lot larger than the group into which I fall -- the group that is constantly in search of the perfect four-wheel drift.  As such, certain compromises were made to broaden the car's appeal and consequently dilute its spirit.  Compromises geared towards improved ride comfort, lower noise levels, increased longevity, and of course decreased fire-breathing attitude.  Well, thank God for the aftermarket!

Suspension Modifications

• Eibach 250 lb. front springs
• Koni Sport shocks
• 968 front sway bar
• Weltmeister adjustable rear sway bar
• Performance alignment
• Corner balanced

There are three types of previous owners (PO): good, bad and indifferent.  I was fortunate that the Porsche's PO was one of the good ones.  He clearly loved the car, taking extraordinary car of it and performing several worthwhile modifications.  From the list above, all but the rear sway bar were done under his watch.  When I bought the car, it understeered a little too much for my taste, but the rest of the suspension was brilliant.  In fact, whenever I drive a stock turbo (including the S) they always feel too soft and turn in too slowly compared to my car.  The 250 lb. springs play a huge role here and in my opinion, should have come on the cars from the factory.

Engine Modifications

• Cyntex chips
• Cat-bypass pipe

Cyntex chips

The car came with Autothority stage II chips, which are widely regarded as de reguer on 951s.  I was happy with the chips, but I had heard a few good things about Cyntex, so I thought I would give them a shot.  Below are a couple of posts I made to the PorscheList regarding my findings from my Autothority/Cyntex comparison:

Sorry for the length of this post, but I thought I'd take this opportunity to share my experience in switching out Autothority v2.7 Stage II chips for a set of Cyntex chips on my '86 951. First, I'd like to state that Cyntex has been great throughout the ordering process. I pestered Larry & Paul with numerous e-mails and phone calls prior to the purchase and they were always helpful and responsive to my questions. They were also extremely accommodating after the purchase. While performing the installation, I discovered that when my car's PO had the DME replaced 4 years ago, the shop had used a new unit. Apparently in 1988, Bosch made a running switch to 28 pin chips -- previous DMEs used a 24 pin version -- so the 1986 951 chip Cyntex sent me wouldn't fit in my 1988+ DME. 

Cyntex quickly shipped out another DME chip at no charge, even though it was clearly not their fault. While the new chip was in transit, Larry e-mailed me to let me know that they were putting a 951 on the dyno the following week and that I should hold off installing the chips they had just sent me. They planned to test some updates to the algorithm and he wanted me to have their most recent version. As if this weren't enough, when he discovered that I didn't have the stock chips (the PO couldn't find them when I bought the car), he sent me a free set "for all the delays."  Talk about customer service!

I finally received the chips on Thursday and put them in that afternoon -- very straight forward. My initial impression of the Cyntex chips was that they had a more "normally aspirated" feel than the Autothority set. The boost didn't come on quite as suddenly, nor did it trail off as quickly as redline approached. In first gear the car now felt a little slower, but it was hard to say if that was merely an impression of reduced thrust caused by a more gradual onset of boost, or if it actually was a little slower. In contrast, the car now felt noticeably quicker at high speeds. The car pulls really hard in third right up to redline, without the drop off that I used to encounter with the Autothority chips.  

Both chip sets used the same size jet in the banjo bolt. The APE used a .145 jet that was drilled out to 0.185 and the Cyntex shipped with a 0.185 jet (I checked this with a small allen key that was an equally tight fit in both jets). In terms of boost, the Autothority setup seemed to make a little more in second gear (~0.05-0.1bar higher) and the same in third. Unfortunately, I never compared boost in first gear, so I don't know if the Cyntex limits it more than Autothority. (note: the boost comparisons were made using the stock gauge which, as we all know, really sucks)

To put some numbers behind these impressions, I found a road where I could safely perform a few timed runs without running afoul of the law. Choosing to save my clutch and not throw another variable into the mix in the way of wheel spin or gear changes, I elected to time the car from 1400rpm to 6400rpm in second gear, and also record a split time at 4000rpm. I included the split in an effort to see if there was a measurable difference between the two chip sets in both off/partial boost and full boost situations. After completing the second gear runs, I decided to also record first gear acceleration from 1200rpm-6400rpm (splits seemed pointless here considering how short the time intervals would be in that gear)

The following times are the averages of three runs made in the same direction and recorded with a handheld stopwatch. I performed the tests by puttering along at 1400rpm in second gear and then nailing the throttle as I passed my starting marker. After each run, I did a cool down lap around 2 blocks before returning to the staging area for the next run. The first gear runs followed the same methodology, but used 1200rpm as the starting point.

Okay, we're back.  The replacement windy-road-assault-vehicle was an '86 Porsche 944.  Now this was a car you could drift at will!  Since it wasn't a turbo or S2,  it was a little wanting in the power department (the Si, with all its mods would woop the 944 up to 60 mph, however, it would lose its advantage over that speed) but what a brilliant chassis.  I remember the night I decided to see what would happen if I intentionally did something stupid like lift the throttle while cornering hard.  I was approaching a favorite onramp, a 270º corner marked at 25 mph and came in pretty hot with the intention of abruptly lifting the throttle as I passed the apex.  Since I was performing this feat intentionally, I was ready for the rear end to come around, but I was surprised by the speed with which that event occurred. 

It turned into one of those slow motion, near death experiences that everyone has confronted after doing something amazingly and irreversibly stupid.  I have this type of experience quite frequently, but that's a topic for another Web site.  Anyway, thanks to the near suspension of time, I had a great deal of that commodity to think about my actions.  As I began to apply some opposite lock, I remember thinking to myself, "Gee John, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all."  Concurrent with that thought, I  added a little throttle in an attempt to set the chassis.  And then something magical happened: the car stopped rotating and I was in a perfectly controllable, yet very lurid slide.   Why yes Virginia, Ferry Porsche IS a god! 

At this point in time, I was completely sold on the whole 944 line.  Oh sure, the 911 may be better at helping you appreciate the sanctity of life (ass-engined cars that attempt to defy the laws of physics through aggressive alignment specs will do that for you) but the 944 was superior as a weapon of balance.   Unfortunately things changed in my life, and I was soon forced to sell the the Porsche to finance a move to a new city and a new career.  A few years later, I re-entered the fold and bought an arrest-me-red (don't ask me how I know) '86 944 turbo (a.k.a. 951).

The car is not stock.  The previous owner had installed Autothority Stage II V2.7 chips, Eibach 250 lb. front springs, front sway bar from a 968, Koni Sport shocks and had it corner balanced.  I have since replaced the Autothority chips with a pair from Cyntex, added a cat-bypass pipe and replaced the stock rear sway bar with an adjustable unit from Weltmeister.

The car is an absolute blast to drive.  It definitely pulls hard in first and second gear, but the real fun doesn't start until you are doing 60 mph in third.  Floor it at this speed and the car lunges forward hitting 100 mph extraordinarily quickly. 

Note: In the short period of time it took me to switch the chips during the first gear tests, the temperature shot up 5 degrees (the morning clouds broke), so the first gear numbers for the Cyntex may be at a slight disadvantage to those for the Autothority chips. Another interesting point here is that the runs for the Cyntex chips were more consistent than the Autothority units across the board (consistently smaller standard deviations). This is not a result of the testing order which alternated between the two chip sets (the exact testing order was Cyntex 2nd gear, Autothority 2nd gear, Autothority 1st gear, Cyntex 1st gear, lunch), so I can't blame the inconsistency on weather, or increased underhood temperatures. I wonder if this is indicative of more consistent performance from the Cyntex chips, or just a coincidence?

I admit that the above test isn't very scientific and that there is clearly a great deal of room for error when using a stopwatch, but the individual runs do appear to be fairly consistent. The Cyntex chips seem to have a slight advantage over the Autothority chips in second gear, but seem to lose out a bit in first. These numbers tend to back up my seat of the pants impressions, so I am willing to bet that the Cyntex chips would get the car to 100mph more quickly than the Autothority units, since my butt tells me the Cyntex's are faster over 60mph. Although I do miss the extra perceived thrust in first gear, the Cyntex chips have a more refined feel and more top end power, so I am going to keep them. I hope to make a dyno comparison later this summer and I will post those results if and when it happens.

This follow-up email was posted about a month after the above:

Now that this list seems to be up and running at full speed, I thought I'd update everyone on my recent switch to Cyntex chips. Many of you may recall my really loooong posts that compared the Cyntex units to Autothority stage II's in my '86 951. After living with the new chips for a few weeks, I can now definitively state that they are a noticeable improvement in day-to-day driving. Off-boost throttle response is markedly improved -- something these cars definitely need -- and the car pulls harder over 60mph. The only downside is that the car feels just a tad slower in first gear, but given the improvements elsewhere, this is a tradeoff I can live with.

A sudden, high-boost, high-rpm cut out began to plague many 951 owners running the Cyntex chips.  This existence of the problem first surfaced on the PorscheList a few months after I made the above posts and it finally afflicted my car on the return trip from the 1998 Monterey Historic Races last August.  The cut out was pretty nasty and it scared the crap out of me the first time it happened.   One second I was being pushed back in the seat at 90 mph as I passed a row of cars and the next I was being thrown towards the windshield as the boost disappeared.

Apparently, the algorithm would catch out the boost protection circuitry on some cars at odd times.  Cyntex modified the software and sent me a new set at the end of last year and the new versions perform even better than the old ones.  The drivability is just as good as before, but the car now feels even faster...not fast enough mind you, but faster.

Cat-bypass pipe

The cat-bypass pipe was one of the best modifications done to the car.  With the pipe in place, the turbo spools up faster -- full boost in third is achieved about 500 rpm earlier -- and the car flat sounds better!  My biggest complaint against the entire 944 range has always been the uninspiring sounds of the engine.  The bypass pipe produces a deeper, nastier sound that is in no way obnoxious.  It still doesn't sound like an Alfa, but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

What's next?

I would definitely like to get some more power out of the engine and break the 300 HP barrier, so that is likely the next step for the 951.  A few people are working on manifold-pressure based intake systems that sound very interesting, but if those don't pan out, I will probably opt for the Huntley Racing MAF kit.  On the suspension side, I may upgrade my shocks to 968 M030 units and gain the helper coil springs that car incorporated in the rear.  I am also contemplating the adjustable camber/caster plates available from Paragon Products.  From a cosmetics perspective, I would like to add the 968 mirrors and door handles and if I get really crazy, some Fikse Mach V's.