1303 Beetle / Porsche 944 trailing arms

[4agedub]

So I've finally found a 1303 and bought it as a race car project. Now, these cars are very scarce in South Africa, so this is the first time that I'm actually looking at one.

Does the 944 turbo rear trailing arms simply bolt onto the chassis or do you need to modify parts? Which torsion bars do you use?

[yodogg]

Hi 4age,

A 1303? That's awesome! You may already know that the BlitzWagen that FJCamper and I enduro is a 1973 Super Beetle (aka 1303).

We run a set of fully welded 944 trailing arms on our 1303 and they were a straight bolt on, the later 944 (S2) trailing arms on the otherhand do require some modifications but allow for a great deal more adjustability of rear set-up including rear camber.

If I recall, the only real difference with the turbo trailing arms is that they are aluminum instead of steel (no weight advantage btw as they have more material to maintain rigidity), otherwise the last time I looked into it, they should be a straight bolt on as well.

Any reason you are looking at the turbo trailing arms in particular?

Also, do you have the triangular 3-bolt front lower strut mount or the later 2-bolt (ours has the earlier 3-bolt)?

[4agedub]

Hi
I understood that by going to the s2 aluminium arms you do gain a little bit of rear track. The whole IRS thing is new to me... until now I have not actually seen an IRS car up close as they are so scarce here.

The top shock mount has 3 bolts, I have not looked at the bottom section yet.




Thanks
Louis

[buildabiggerboxer]

Hi 4agedub, yes, the IRS ultimately has more development potential than the swing offers, having raced both types I find the strut front end has limitations of its own, don't expect a free ride from the front end despite what all the super owners say,,it was a packaging exercise, not a performance upgrade, as you know us beam owners have no truck from double a arm sport cars, i find the b/j beam axle has a huge amount of versatility and its faults are easily sorted out, but to answer your question, either the steel or alloy Porsche a arms fit with just bushing changes, the torsion bars For either are the same LENGTH, but the later ally arm bars MAY have a desirable diameter increase, some late bars are big AND tubular, nice, they are also the same length as the 1302/3 ones, but the bug ones are too soft for track use at only 22mm, common Porsche 24mm bars work well, the Porsche ARB's can be used with new fabbed up mountings, commonest are 14 mm, I run a 20mm tubular bar from a late model but I find they are vulnerabley low and a high mount bar over the trans is preferable, or you can spring the rear suitably to run minus any rear ARB. That's a wee bit for you for now to digest, I prefer the steel arms as I mod and brace them, invert and swop them to loose camber, and moved my lower shock mounts to over slung to run a diffuser and to go coil over in the near future, your stuck as it all is with the alloy arms, wider track is a fact, but that's easily sorted anyway.

[4agedub]

Thanks BBB
You are quite right, that is a lot to take in . Thanks for all the info.

My plan is to eliminate the torsion bars entirely and go coil over on the rear as well. I have already got a set of adjustable GAZ shocks that can take springs. I have seen a couple of kits available to do this, but will try build it myself, the exchange rate just makes them un affordable.

[4agedub]

# Yodogg
I had a look at the struts last night, my car has the 2 bolt strut

[Bruce2]

...., some late bars are big AND tubular,.

are you talking torsion bars or anti-roll bars? Where are you getting these hollow bars?

[yodogg]

2-bolt struts, ok. That means you will have more flexibility to use 924/944 front suspension parts as well (including brakes). You may want to look at Lanner Kahn's website, www.vdubengineering.com, aside from his own products he has good tech pages describing the different swap options and what each one entails.

I'm looking forward to build updates!

[4agedub]

Thank you, I will have a look.
It will be some time until we actually start with the build, first need to get some of the other projects finished.

Here's one of our other projects...

[jbbugs]

Having the 2-bolt struts, you can bolt on a 944 strut assembly,But you will need a conversion ballpoint which has a wider shaft.

[Piledriver]

I'm still trying to figure out what shocks are needed for the aluminum trailing arm swap, 944 or modded T1?

If you ever mod a 71-72 super, you can ~bolt the later model setup on and use Mk1 Golf struts, and late spindles or 944 bits.
best off making lower control links...

I modded the super HD early forged steel lateral arms to take the Mk1 ball joints rather than the 15mm OD $$$ custom Kershers required to adapt late lateral arms to 944 spindles...
(and made them longer to set the camber in a happy place with 944 spindles )

You can also flip the modded arms, which allows severe lowering w/o the sway bar (or better, proper trailing links, ala 935) and tie rod from ever meeting.

You could also of course likely mount late model racing bll joint setup off something else and machine the (possibly extended) pin to suit. (many of those are fully rebuildable and have pin height options to change roll center)
Its not an eccentric ball joint so the options are ~endless.

Better setup in many ways.

super-to-944-front-arm-mod.JPG

[jbbugs]

www.vdubengineering.com makes a nice kit to adapt 944 brakes to a super beetle. I have been using it for 4 years in my chumpcar. Awesome stopping power with Hawk pads.