Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

a friend of mine has recently bought a '83 lux and is campaigning it in classic rallies and the occaisional sprint, the question is can he swap the ecu for an oval dash so he can chip it for extra power as he is getting beaten by more powerful cars in his class, if so whats involved ?

Yes he can, he will need to air flow meter from the 86/87 car too. Im not a massive fan of theirs, but if you look on the Promax site, they have a list of the Bosch & Porsche part numbers for the DME and the airflow meter for all models.


Simon

is any rewiring required or is it just a straight ecu and afm swop ?

None at all, theyre a straight swap. The only difference is that an unused pin on the early part hosts a tacho signal in the later part.

Seems a lot of effort for a small increase in power (5 bhp or so ). Has he had the ca tested o see if it's well down on power due to a problem somewhere

How old is the actual suspension on the car? Worn shocks and brakes will lose him more time

not sure but car was a showroom queen for about 10 years and only has about 60k on it, he did change from 15's with 205/60 to 17's with 245/45 on rear which helped his times, but he's in the same class as M3s when sprinting, also in the same class are saxos which also give him a run for his money

Wide class range.

He isn't going to compete with an M3 would be my guess after driving my mate's 305bhp Turbo up Ex-Muhle on my own and only just gaining on another mate's e36 non-Evo M3 which was two up in front.

Your friend ether needs to swap it for somthing faster of fit one of these.http://www.speedforceracing.com/productsporsche_superchargers_944v8.php
A Lux isn't going to take on an M3 any other way.

That would bump him into a completely different class.Once modded you end up running against even hairier cars. In the days when I mechaniced, the Lotus 7 I worked on was fastest in class & the others trailed behind. But the 7 had no heater, no hood so MGB, Morgan & even Lotus Elans. But the 7 was standard (ish).

there is also a 968 club sport which competes in the same class, and he's about 3 secs a lap behind the M3, my mate is about 3 secs behind the 968, he's not allowed to remove seats, trim etc as this moves him to modified class !!

There are a number of ways to lighten a car, without moving into a modified class.....

Sunroof motors and mechanism can be removed.
Tailgate release motor and mechanism (if fitted) can be removed.
Window regulators and motors can be removed: they can be replaced with manual regulators if you wish...
Sounded deadening pads can be removed and very light carpets can be made quite easily.
The seat back is seldom missed but it weighs a lot.
Light wheels in an OEM size will save a lot of weight; Fuchs are ideal but theyre minty now.
Four speakers and the radio can be removed.
The rear wiper motor can be removed (I fitted a non-Lux 924 tailgate w/o a hole, but these are rare now).
The original compressed fibre F&R bumpers are heavy: if you fit the OEM rubber you can replace both with lightweight parts and no one will be any wiser.
If you treat the tyres you can run without a spare wheel and tools all of the time.
A Dansk exhaust is cheap and it weighs a lot less than an OEM part, or most pattern parts.
You might even get away with a GRP bonnet if you fit new sound deadening foam on the inside and paint it well.
A 35ah battery will save a few kilogrammes too.

The original seats arent actually that heavy, but you can usually replace the drivers seat with a more suitable part, which could save you 10 kilogrammes.

When youve shed as much weight as you can (which is usually the cheapest gain that youll find), its time to look at your suspensions bushes and mounts and your geometry.

I only cheated because everyone else was cheating too.....