Here is a picture of my chassis while I was setting it up for the 944 trailing arms. The bar sticking out of the chassis is the torsion bar. It is basicly a rod of spring steel with serations on either end. The large splines are on the inside and are held in place by the center of the torsion tube. The smaller splines are on the outside of the torsion bar and are held in place by the spring plates. Their resistance to twisting is what VW and porsche used for rear suspension springs. :)

That's uhh....different. I'm going to have to buy the SB just to take it apart now :p What's the deal with rear suspension then? How can I beef that up? Whats the deal with these 935 spring plates I read about? Is that prety much top of the line mod I can do? (with 944 trailing arms) What are the 944 spring plates? or 911 (never heard it meantioned thought of it for curiosity)?

I'm also looking for info if these can be converted to standard setup (coilover or coil/strut) Seems it can be done but is there any benifit..

The 944 rear suspension fits no nice because porsche used the beetle rear suspension in the 924 with little modification. It was then upgraded in the later 944s and 968s but it will all fit with a little work. The 911 set-up is too different to make it work and the 944 parts are so much cheaper. I'm not too knowledgable about the 935 set-up but I think it is a heim joint design so the suspension has more adjustability.

I beefed mine up with a käfer cup brace and some plate steel on the inside of my shock towers to make up for the metal removed to clear the 944 spring plates. Hope this is helping... :)

Have a look in the suspension galleries. On the first page, 8 pictures in, is picture of a device that can eliminate the torsion bars and enable you to use a coil over shock as the only rear suspension. It basically fits on where the springplate fits on to the tiorsion bar tube, l and allow the trailing arm to pivot like normal. To get spring rates you would ideally need to get the car weighed on all four corners and then have someone knowegable work it all out for you..

There is another picture on page 3..

So... Why would I want to swap out rear trailng arms for a porshe and all that jazz? Their stiffer, ie less body roll? Wider track? How is it rated? Like 200lbs?

I'm reading the perfect suspensuion article..

"I am going under the philosophy that the early 911 will be a close match to the Beetle in terms of weight bias and handling characteristics. Of course given that the front suspension is different we have to allow for some creativity in this area and infer things that are similar." IS that true?

IS the 911 a good handling car? What is a good handeling porsche? (Well I mean better then the average after all....it's a Porsche!)


In the article it is said that the torsion bars need proper adjustment. Who can do this adjustment? What needs to be done? Is this an extra complex system? What is considerd to be the best handling rear setup to begin with? What do you sugest for the front (ie 150 lb springs..?)

I went with them because I wanted the wide body look and I wanted the biggest tires I could fit on a beetle. :D Another plus is the fact that you get the ride height adjustability/ camber adjusability and toe adjusability of the 944.

Just look at the race record of the 911...... I think it has been the dominate force in GT racing as long as it hase been alive.
The short responce would be "Does a hobby horse have a wooden #!@$".

Well, Theres an interesting responce to " I wanted the biggest tires I could fit under a beetle" The beetle I'm looking at has 3 inches wider fedners on all 4 corners. That's ALOT of wheel well. If the 944 stuff alows me to put in a big tire. Where is the point of dimishing returns with this car? Can I get a tire that is too big? When does the suspension ability to keep such a large tire on the ground become a problem? What about unsprung weight from a heavy tire and wheel vs the light beetle?

Which seems to be the more common/best setup for a nice firm ride. And very controled body lean for the rear?

ok, so I've done some reading..

How do I make the 944/968 rear suspension work? Which would be the best to choose from early, late 944, 951, 968?

How do I install it? Do I just use the torson bar and put it in with the vw "chamber" if you will and put the control arms on with springplates? How do I make the springplates work?

Is it better to use 935 spring plates or any others? Or different control arms

So they say Topline is junk...hmmm. :sleep: :(

Sounds like you want a Porche. :rolleyes:

Where/Why was this said? I'm looking to do a Topline conversion on my 1302.

There it is.