Hey European guys... Porsche question

I ran across a 1987 944 in the junk yard today and noticed it had a 5-speed transaxle. I've been toying with the idea of eliminating the standard box in my c3 and hanging a transaxle in the back for better weight distribution. If it were stock I wouldn't be worried, but making about 400hp I'm concerned the Porsche box will just grenade the first time I jump on it. I'm having a bit of a difficult time finding what Porsche rates those transaxles for so thought I would turn to you guys and see if you might have any source for info.
Thanks.

I going to answer just so see if I"m right or not....

A ages old buddy' female friend had one decades ago, and so from their conversations, I would say NO....

curious what others have to say.....

:ill:

I'd say;
"Check out the Lambo and Fiero conversion sites--Maybe?"

Those (and the GT-40 guys) are the ones mostly into trans-axle mods. I've seen a lot of reference to the Suburaru transaxle lately.

But PorsChe's are up there too - but haven't paid enough attention to answer specifically.


Sorry - But what a Cool Idea! Do you plan on doing a re-body as a ASTRO VETTE too? That would be so KOOOOL.

Cheers - Jim

No rebody. Just hang more weight out the back end. It will also free up some room for my super secret internal backbone (shhh, don't tell anybody) mod.

why not a C6 transaxle?

something is bouncing around in the back of my head that the issue with the 944 was the transaxle - but who knows, probably misremembered

944 uses a ZF transaxle, if you get one from a turbo it might hold up.

SuperBuickGuy said:

why not a C6 transaxle?

something is bouncing around in the back of my head that the issue with the 944 was the transaxle - but who knows, probably misremembered

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Because on c5/c6 transaxles, the gearbox is forward of the diff. On a real transaxle, the gearbox is behind it. There's just no room to hang a gearbox between the rear crossmember and where the axles need to be located.

Twin_Turbo said:

944 uses a ZF transaxle, if you get one from a turbo it might hold up.

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I figured the turbo (968 would be better) would be my best option. But just finding a decent 944 in the junk yard is rare here anyway. Actually, it's kind of sad to see this car in the yard. Aside from some broken windows it's all there. Really rough of course, but could probably be turned into a decent track car if someone really had the desire. As for P cars, I always thought the 944/968 were some of the better looking ones. If I just had cubic dollars....

Hey, man, love the concept! Definitely post pictures if you go ahead with this.

I have two questions:

Are the 944 and 944T/968 boxes externally similar?

Can you get the 944 box for a good price?

Just thinking of the time you'd save by using the 944 piece (if inexpensive) to build the car, and allow some tweaking/debugging time while you're keeping an eye out for a 944T/968 box.

It does worry me that the 944 box is fairly small for a 5-speed, i.e. I'm a bit concerned about how rugged the gears would be. For a stocker, probably not an issue. Put some power behind it and I see a real potential for sweeping up bits and pieces.
I doubt I'll do it right now, at least not with this box. As TT said, maybe if I could find a turbo or even a 968. I have looked at various other boxes that I know will handle the power like a Quaiffe, Mendeola or the 911 boxes but they're astronomically expensive. I can snag this one for under $200. But I could spend a lot of time and money to put it in and make it work all just to turn it in to a mechanical grenade.