Admittedly when I bought this Porsche 944, I didn’t do any serious research…
I bought this Porsche 944 because an opportunity came my way & I went with it. It’s an earlier 1984 model. Hell I love the early 80’s Porsche stuff. I have a ’79 SC. My first Porsche parade was Ozarks ’83… I was 3 years old. That’s my vibe. But knowing what I know now, I would definitely recommend a later-model 944 (1985.5+)… at least if you plan to put coilovers on it.
These are the KW Variant 3 coilovers for a Porsche 944.
Top notch stuff! KW Automotive advertises in our magazine & we’ve got a few friends over there… so I called one of my KW buddies & ordered these directly through him, rather than the website or a retailer. He shipped them out, I was excited, & all was good in he world. They came in, and I couldn’t wait to throw them on the car.
Why spend money on nice coilovers when the rest of the car looks like a potato?
Because for me, making big-stride initial progress on a project car is key to keeping the momentum going. Push forward; don’t let yourself get pulled backwards. I was lucky to get this 944 running in a day (big progress), then I brought the clutch back to life again shortly after that (more big progress). I had momentum & was feeling confident, so I wanted the KW coilovers on there asap 1) Because the stock suspension is crusty & needed to be replaced anyway. But also 2) To keep the energy going. Cars look better when they’re low, even if they’re rough cars. And propelling that excitement & momentum is key for me.
So no problem, I’d slap these KW V3 coilovers on in a day, and I’d be eating nachos by sunset. I thought…
Pulling the front suspension out of the Porsche 944 is simple. 7 bolt/nuts plus a pickle fork & a hammer, and you’ll have it out in 15 minutes. Check out the vid below for clarity. And notice how confident I sound at this point lolol.
And here’s an uncut video of the whole removal process if you want to see it…
The KW coilovers for the Porsche 944 don’t come with a new top hat…
That means you have to actually pull apart the OEM spring/strut assembly and swap the top hat over. But whatevers, I just whipped out the spring compressor.
With the top hat swapped over to the new KW coilovers, it was time to reinstall. Simple right??
This is where 944-ownership slapped me across the face with its cold wet hand… and I learned about the fun subtle German differences between early & late-model 944s. See when I ordered these Porsche 944 coilovers, I did it over the phone. We didn’t get caught up in a whole lot of details lol. My buddy at KW said, “Oh it’s a 944, cool!” And I said, “Yeah man, a 944.” That was the extent of it lol. Well it turns out KW (and I think literally everyone else on the market) only makes coilovers for the late-model 944 applications. That’s just the way it is in 944 Land. Why? I have no clue. The differences between the early & late model 944s is not significant enough to make you give up and send it all back, especially since there’s really no other option. But it’s juuuuuust different enough to really irritate you lol.
There seems to be 2 fitment issues on the front coilovers when adapting them to early model 944s…
The 1st – is the distance between the mounting holes on the coilover (see video above). I remedied that issue by slotting the bottom mounting hole on the coilovers. I honestly don’t think there will be any real-world issues here. If there are, I’ll certainly be upfront about them.
The 2nd – is that the spacing on the later-model Porsche 944 coilovers is about 1mm too narrow to slide over the early-model 944 hub. Don’t watch below if you’re easily upset.
Bottom line: I chose to keep moving forward, keep the momentum, and not get paralyzed with minor setbacks…
They say “No plan survives the battlefield.” And I’m not building a concourse restoration here, rather I’m giving a 2nd chance to an old 944. It’s gonna be great.
And to reiterate, if I had a late-model 944 (1985.5 on), this would have been a breeze. Please stay tuned for the rear coilover install in a 2nd post… because this ‘early-model 944’ stuff is turning out to be just delightful lol.
