Richard Schneider's 1989 Porsche 944
This '89 944 NA has been upgraded with the Turbo front end and rear valance, 930S steering wheel, 993 Twin Turbo wheels, all new body seals, paint, complete sound system with Dynamat, alarm with all the options, burlwood dash kit, Tri-Flo exhaust system, and too many other things to mention.
A great source of information is the Porsche Panorama but you have to sign up as a member of the Porsche Club of America to receive the magazine. I'm a member and have went to a few functions that my region has held, but I mostly just like to receive the magazine. Go to www.pca.org and look under the regions to find what region you fall under. I receive a regional pamphlet type deal that also is pretty cool--heck some enthusiast actually collect and will pay money for issues of old panoramas! You can check it out and see if it fits your needs, if not there are tons of parts dealers out there anyway! I currently receive a free catalogue from Performance parts and Tweeks--both catalogues have somewhat detailed diagrams that help you associate what part you have and are looking for, kind of cool. You can apply for a free catalogue at www.performanceproducts.com or www.tweeks.com.
Here are some other companies:
www.ajusa.com
www.ebsracing.com
www.paragon-products.com
www.smartracingproducts.com
www.pelicanparts.com
www.motormeister.com
www.huntleyracing.com
www.gt-racing.com
www.europroducts.net
www.stuttgarthaus.com
www.wheelenhancement.com
www.bkauto.com
These are just a few businesses that I pulled out of an old Panorama, I hope it serves you well. The only companies I have purchased from are (usually the fastest and cheapest that I could find at the time): Huntley racing, AJUSA, performance products, tweeks, europroducts and wheel enhancement. They all were reasonable and timely when ordering or dealing with them direct.
I bought my conversion through performance products http://www.performanceproducts.com. I know Tweeks http://www.tweeks.com also sells one for cheaper--as far as putting an OEM front end on the car that would be ideal because nothing on my kit just bolted on like they said at the company or advertised--it also required modifying the headlight harness and a few other headaches. I'm not really sure if it you would have to change out the front qtr pnls--I've never seen another 89 944 turbo close up but on an 86 that my friend has, the body style is different and would require a qtr pnl change or major body work to the non-OEM bumper to get it to line up right. I do know that the holes to mount the rear valance were already there so it was just a direct bolt on just like they advertised non-oem or oem valance, maybe the OEM front bumper is a direct because the rest of the body is the turbo without all the extras (A Porsche service dpt may be able to tell you 100% for sure). I know if you buy other than OEM it will require some serious body work to make it match and if I had to do it all over again I would have had it professionally done and I would have done carbon fiber qtr pnls and the bumper all with one company. After the fact (isn't that how it always works) I found this company out of Colorado that do the conversions http://www.americaninternationalracing.com or http://www.gt-racing.com or http://www.einmalig.com or http://www.huntleyracing.com. There are many other out there so if your really serious don't just jump into any one company see how they rate, what type of fiberglass they use, how many cars they've done, if they sell just the panels so you can do it yourself if your into that, etc... One last thing, they do as you'll see from the listed websites they make all sorts of different front end applications that are as cool or even cooler than the turbo so what the heck you may want to even go with something more unique to really make that 944 of yours a one of a kind!
The 930 turbo wheels I have really been happy with, I got a great deal--the entire set with Bridgestone Z rated tires was $1800. The only problem with the wheels is that they are not OEM, they do bolt right on but the center caps will have to be glued in because they are OEM and Porsche wouldn't let them cut the center cap holes exactly to spec so the hole is just a little too big--I just glued mine in with a little super glue and have never had any problems with loosing them. At $50 a piece you don't want them flying off!
Posted 3/26/2000