The Porsche Guys Blog

It has been a little while since I’ve written anything about Project 944 (you can read more about Project 944 here). Since I last wrote, the car has gotten a lot lighter with the removal of all sound deadening, the back seats, lighter weight carpet, 911 RS style door cards and removal of the entire stereo system. All of this weight reduction plus the addition of a short shifter had made the car feel much quicker, but getting off the line was still a bit slow as the 1983 Porsche 944 does not have very good throttle response.

In order to give the car better throttle response I purchased a throttle response cam. The way that the throttle response cam works is that it makes the throttle cam have a one to one ratio and shortens pedal travel.

The above image shows a picture of the difference in the arc of the throttle travel. Basically, the stock throttle cam follows the outer arc through the first portion of the pedal travel and the inner arc during the last portion of the pedal travel. What causes this is the long arm at the end of the throttle cam. You may ask, “Why would Porsche decide to use this design”. The reason for this design is to get better gas mileage and to make it a bit easier to drive in stop and go traffic. Again referring to the image above the difference between the throttle response cam and the stock throttle cam is that it has no arm, so it only follows the inner arc. This makes it take much less travel to get to full throttle.

I have heard some 944 owner’s say that they wouldn’t change this because Porsche designed the car the way they did to make it better to drive in traffic and that they already have a heavy right foot. I personally am OK with changing something like this as long as it can be changed back to the original configuration easily and doesn’t hurt the car (as is the case with the throttle response cam). As for making it better to drive in traffic, my car seems to do fine in traffic with the new throttle response cam (you just have to remember to use a light foot in traffic). For those who say they don’t want it because they already have a heavy right foot, I would say that even with a heavy right foot you would still get some performance benefits from the throttle response cam. The reason for these benefits would be less pedal travel which would cut down how long it takes your heavy right foot to get to full throttle. Plus you are able to get to full throttle in a smooth manner which is important for the needed smoothness of driving the car at high speeds.

One thing to note is that the throttle response cam does not increase HP or torque. All it does is make it easier to get more gas to your engine sooner. In the case of Project 944, this change as well as the short shifter and weight reduction have really made the car feel much faster. When driving the car it is able to keep up with most sports cars that I’ve driven next to.

I would definitely recommend the throttle response cam to any NA (non S or S2) Porsche 944 owner (this is NOT a compensated endorsement). I bought the throttle response cam from Automotion.com and you can go directly to the part here. At only $25, it is one of the least expensive performance upgrades that you can buy (and it is one that you can actually feel).

Next for Project 944, removal of the heavy A/C system, new wiring (since it is over 25 years old), some better suspension components for autocrossing and new paint.

Project 944 is coming along slowly but surely. This last weekend I was able to add a go fast goody, a short shifter. Once the short shifter is installed it is amazing the difference that you feel when shifting. The shifts are now very crisp and a lot quicker.

The short shifter that I chose is from Schnell and was purchased from Vertex Auto (Before I go any further I want to say that this part was not sent to me to review and neither Vertex Auto nor Schnell is not supporting this site). The short shifter reduces throw by 30%.

It was pretty easy to install the short shifter and it only took about a hour an half. The instructions are very clear and it only takes a few simple steps to install. The hardest part of the installation is getting to the bolts and lining up some of the bolt holes.

The part is very well made and I would recommend it to any Porsche 944 owner that wants to have quicker shifts.

Not that long ago I was talking to a friend of mine that drives a Lotus Elise (he hasn’t seen the light yet) and we where talking about our cars. He started telling me how little his car weighs (about 1,800 lbs) and how much horse power (156 bhp) and torque (129 ft-lb.) the car has. What stood out to me is how close the engine power output is (of course his car weighs 800 lbs less than mine, but the 944 has 143 bhp and 137 ft-lb of torque) to my 1983 Porsche 944.

This gave me the idea of making the Porsche lighter to make it quicker. The plan is to reduce the weight of the car by removing some sound absorbing material, using carpet and vinyl that weigh less, removing un-needed items (such as the spare tire and jack), changing the seats to lighter racing seats and replacing the hood and front bumper with carbon fiber pieces (I decided not to remove the A/C or radio as I still want to enjoy the car). My goal is to get the car to have a 0-60 time of under 7 seconds by just reducing weight and no engine modifications. With the weight reduction I want to make sure that I can go back to stock if I want (just in-case the 944 ever becomes a valuable collectible).

So, that is a run down of the idea behind the project. In the next post about the project I will be posting images of some of the first  items to get weight reduction.