LS1 1/2 mile drag?

Yeah boys. HALF mile drag. Held in Chicago this last weekend. I went with the V8 944 blower car.

Let me tell you, and I mean this - I really want you all to understand. There is SO much respect for the 944 V8 conversions. I had dozens of people gushing about the swap. It really gained some fans. People were one after another telling me how much they admired the set up. It was fantastic.

Here is a quick vid of the event done by my Son.

Results don't appear to be online yet, what was your best speed?

This second vid from my Son lists speeds of quite a few.

That's pretty awesome, nice vid!

Very nice. Good song choice too.

That is one fast 944

Awesome! I'm thinking of doing a swap with similar power figures. Are you still running 550 hp? Is that rwhp or at the crank? Looks like you are using the stock turbo trans with a NA 5th gear swap. Any issues with it handling the power? Are you easy on the skinny pedal during normal driving?

Great questions.

Lets see... I ran 400 HP at the crank for a few years, then put the blower on it with 6 PSI boost for a lot of years (550) now am tossing 10 PSI boost at it (600 crank) and still on that factory 951 box with N/A 5th (come to find out that was not a great 5th gear for the half mile). I did REM polish the internals.. And basically blueprinted the assembly. Plus of course I run Sherman tank axles...

Lastly I am not soft on it out on the street. I certainly dont dump the clutch (it spins them at will as we all know so no need) & I dont speed shift... But I romp on it every stop light (that is what its made for). I never miss an opportunity to spin the 295/30 soft R compound tires.

So I think its been eight years. And MANY on the forums said I would not get any life out of the gearbox. But I have yet to even think twice about its reliability.

Very impressive. Looks like you had fun.

can you shed some more light and detail on the "sherman tank axles"?

just curious what your approach on that upgrade was.

Sure... Back in the day when I was building this there was an axle available that was much too expensive for the masses. But I ordered up two. Well, long story short there were NONE to go around as the company found that it was not a hot seller (most 944 guys were not stepping up to the plate). So I actually ended up flying to the SEMA show in Vegas and buying the unit they had on display. That and the one that was still inventoried made mine a set.

Its a full GKN Motorsports axle. I think retail was like $800... Each. That was more than most had in their donor cars.
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After that the bolts were the weak link...
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Fixed with Stage 8 locking fasteners.

i am very jealous of what you have that makes you able to do what you can do in your car.

but that aside i think if i can successfully come out the other side of all the learn as you go pitfalls of my ls1 conversion which i am starting soon; i should be quite happy with being able to romp on the pedal once i am fully in the gear. i'm hoping my like new turbo transaxle will handle that conservative amount of abuse in my 88 944S.

Gonna be quite awhile before i get to subject it to that mild street use though. Nice pics on the axles and thanks for the detail.

Pretty sure TonyG has a set of those axles too...

docwyte wrote:Pretty sure "TG" has a set of those axles too...

Why wouldn't he? They were (and still are) the axles to have. At one point one of the on-line 944 parts vendors had them in their catalog (they may have sold a few), and of course GKN sold them to me as a distributor.

I tried to get several peeps to buy them... But then poof. No one did.

The issue I think was the suggested retail of the axles were so damn high, that is what guys were charging.  The prices through SSF to resalers was not outrageous by any means when they were available.  With that being said, I have never had any axle issues in any of the race cars or personal cars both big and little hp, which is why we never bothered with them.  If everything else is in good shape, they hold up just fine.  I'd rather have the axle come apart first versus the transmission taking that beating.

what i find amazing is how it reeled that vette in from so far behind and lft him behind. that vette probably thought he had u no sweat.  and im surprised at how well it did on a dragstrip. 


and those axles u have.. what are they made out of? what makes them so damn tough

shokwave30 wrote:
and those axles u have.. what are they made out of? what makes them so damn tough

As far as general inspection the joint itself is brutal, really beefy, and the boot is 10 times the boot of a normal axle. Not to mention the finish & presentation of the axle & splines & even higher performing grease. I guess that covers the whole unit.