The 930 Porsche Turbo is an absolute motoring icon.
With its bulging rear flares and exaggerated tea tray spoiler, it's a beautiful design even 47 years later.
Looking for some good Porsche 930 Turbo suspension upgrades? Don't know how to start?
MGC Suspensions did some research and found a short list of top selling suspension products for the first generation Porsche 911 Turbo.
Take a look at our list and see if you agree. Leave a comment with your ideas, suggestions, or experiences.
Porsche 930 history snapshot
With production beginning in 1975 and running through and ending in 1989, the Porsche 911 Turbo (930) was Porsche's first turbo charged production car.
It was the top of the range vehicle by Porsche and was the fastest production car ever made in its day.
Porsche originally needed to produce the car in order to comply with homologation regulations and had intended on marketing it as a street legal race vehicle like the 1973 Carrera 2.7 RS.
Initially introduced with a 3.0 liter flat 6 engine with a non-intercooler turbo charger, the 930 produced 260 horsepower.
In 1978 the cars became air-to-air intercooled and were beefed up to 3.3 liters for more dependable power.
Intercooling increased the Porsche 930 Turbo horsepower to 296.
Porsche 930 Turbo suspension
The 930 shared the same type of suspension setup as the regular 911.
With the Porsche 930 Turbo front suspension using struts with spindles and torsion bars, the 930 Turbo rear suspension was a simple setup of stand alone shock absorbers and torsion bars.
Porsche 930 Turbo suspension diagrams:
Porsche 930 Turbo front suspension
Porsche 930 Turbo rear suspension
Over the years aftermarket upgrades have come along to help improve upon the original, basic design.
Fast forward to today where we have put together a list of products we feel offer great benefit to street driven 930s.
Some are direct replacement upgrade parts and some are complete conversion ideas.
Ride Height
The cars imported into the United States had a much higher ride height than the European spec units.
This difference was created by strict United States minimum bumper height requirements.
US regulations really took the cool out of some cars in the mid to late 70's.
The American versions look much nicer when they are lowered a bit.
With the factory setup, lowering is easily accomplished by adjusting the torsion bars.
Our friends at Pelican parts have a great write-up about lowering the 911.
Be sure to use a proper bump steer kit and get a professional alignment after lowering.
An image of 4 sweet 930s belonging to Magnus Walker during my visit to his place in Los Angeles.
The List
Our list of Porsche 930 Turbo suspension upgrades was compiled using sales data and customer feedback.
1. KW V3 Damper Kit
If you are happy with the stock Porsche 930 Turbo ride height, and aren't interested in lowering your 911 Turbo, then this kit is a great option.
Description
Also fits 911 Turbo (930) See fitment guide below.
KW V3: Race technology for the road, with adjustable compression and rebound dampening.
State of the art motorsport technology enables better performance on the streets. The independently adjustable compression and rebound dampening allows for custom driving setups.
The exclusive KW patented system has dual level valves that allow for adjustment of the rebound dampening for your road comfort and the compression dampening that controls the driving dynamics.
Fits 1974-89 Porsche 911 (G body) includes spindles; for use with torsion bars
Note: OE ride height (non-adjustable)
Separate, 12 way compression and 16 way rebound adjustability to fine tune the ride exactly to your preference, or to optimize modifications like weight, tires, or additional bracing.
Individual compression and rebound adjustment dials make setting the response quick and easy.
Right out of the box, the dampers are preset for you to baseline response settings determined by KW, as an optimal starting point for your vehicle.
Micro tuning from that point to meet any need makes this V3 kit extremely versatile.
All corrosion resistant parts are mounted to stainless steel struts for a lifetime of performance, even in harsh weather conditions.
2. Tarett Engineering Torsion Bars
An excellent upgrade over the soft, compliant factory bars.
Tighten up your suspension with these high precision, competition torsion bars.
Fabricated from aircraft grade chrome moly steel, and heat treated for high strength and reliability.
Precision machined splined ends for a perfect fit.
Center less ground and gun drilled for a consistent spring rate.
Powder coated finish.
Choose from hollow or solid. Available in different diameters.
These are the highest quality bars on the market.
3. Tarett Engineering Adjustable Spring Plate Kit
Make ride height adjustments quick and easy with these high quality spring plates by Tarett.
Looking for the best adjustable spring plates for your Porsche 911, 912, or 930 Turbo?
This spring plate set pairs a great factory design with ease of servicing.
Quick change spring plates make fast work of torsion bar re-indexing and replacement.
Screw type adjusters make corner balancing and ride height adjustment a breeze.
Features:
- 5 minute torsion bar changes
- Fast and easy ride height adjustment
- Accepts standard bushings
4. Tarett Rear Sway Bar/Drop Links Kit
These light weight hollow sway bars are half the weight of a solid bar with the same stiffness. They are fabricated from aircraft quality 4130 chrome moly alloy steel, and heat treated to maximize strength.
Bearing blocks, drop links, and swaybar arms are CNC machined from aircraft-quality 6061-T6 aluminum for its high strength to weight ratio.
This kit comes complete with fully adjustable drop links to eliminate suspension preload.
Correctly sized Teflon lined rod ends for smooth operation and long life. No wear or rattling problems. All necessary hardware is provided in zinc plated metric class 8.8
The adjustable drop link arm connection design provides an adjustable sway bar stiffness rate and makes it quick and easy to fine tune your car's handling for various track conditions or driving styles.
Thermoplastic bushings impregnated with Teflon and reinforced with Kevlar provide smooth operation, long life, and high resistance to deflecting under heavy loading.
Optimized geometry for bind free operation throughout the entire suspension range of travel.
Fitment:
1965-89 911, 1976-89 911 Turbo, 1965-69 912, and 1976 912
5. Tarett Front Sway Bar/Drop Links Kit
Description:
The light-weight hollow sway bars are half the weight of a solid bar with the same stiffness.
They are fabricated from aircraft-quality 4130 chrome moly alloy steel and heat treated to maximize strength and reliability.
Bearing blocks, drop links, and swaybar arms are CNC machined from aircraft-quality 6061-T6 aluminum for its high strength/weight ratio.
Complete with fully adjustable drop links to eliminate suspension preload.
Correctly sized, precision, Teflon-lined rod-ends for smooth and quiet operation, long life, and high reliability. No wear and rattling problems, like those seen with other designs, due to undersized or low quality rod ends.
All necessary hardware is provided in zinc plated metric class 8.8.
The adjustable drop-link arm connection design provides an infinitely adjustable swaybar stiffness rate and makes it quick and easy to fine-tune your car's handling for various track conditions and driving styles.
Thermoplastic bushings impregnated with Teflon and reinforced with Kevlar provide smooth operation, long life, and high resistance to deflecting under heavy loading.
Optimized geometry for bind free operation throughout the entire suspension range of travel.
All components are designed and manufactured to the highest quality standards, resulting in the finest and most reliable swaybar on the market.
Note:
6. Tarett Coilover Conversion-Bilstein Struts
Description:
Want to convert your front Bilstein struts into coilovers?
7. Tarett Rear Coilover Conversion Kit
8. Tarett 935 Front Coilover Conversion
Description
All the parts you need to convert your 911 front suspension to a modern coilover system for much improved handling and response over stock.
This competition proven kit is the ultimate 911 front suspension, and is a must for the serious track car.
This lightweight, bolt in kit replaces the factory front suspension arms, cross-member, and rubber bushings when converting to a coilover front suspension system.
The teflon lined precision rod ends at every pivot point, allow for friction free suspension travel and easy adjustment of camber, caster and wheel base.
The arms are fabricated from 4130 alloy steel and nickel plated for strength and corrosion resistance.
The lightweight cross-member is CNC machined from aluminum alloy and anodized.
Fitment Summary:
Fits all 911/930, 1966 to 89. Some chassis modification required to fit on 914.
Part #935FSUSP
9. Tarett De-Cambered Front Ball Joints
Fits: 1968-1971 911 or 912, 1972-1989 911, 912, or 930, and all 914.
Non-concentric stud effectively lengthens the front control arm to provide up to 3/4 degree of additional negative camber.
Consists of a fully weather sealed spherical bearing for no maintenance, low-friction, and zero deflection.
Front track is widened by up to 1/2".
This is a bolt in replacement for your factory ball joint, and uses the factory hardware.
Part #2081500
10. Bilstein RSR Coilover Front Struts
Description:
These are the threaded body coil-over struts that were used on the factory RSR race-cars.
The spindle is raised 19mm and reinforced to allow for lowering the car while still maintaining correct suspension geometry and fitting 15" wheels.
Shock dampening is 100 compression and 220 rebound.
Spring hats and a wide selection of coil springs are available separately. One pair includes both left and right sides and lower 2.25" spring seats.
11. Bilstein RSR Coilover Rear Shocks
Description:
These are the threaded body coil-over rear shocks that were used on the factory RSR race cars.
Shock dampening is 180 compression and 170 rebound.
Conclusion:
With great aftermarket companies like Tarett engineering, upgrading your Porsche 930 Turbo suspension can be a headache-free endeavor.
Mild suspension upgrades can greatly improve your driving experience.
Do you agree with the parts on our list? What other suspension brands or parts are you using on your Porsche?
If we missed something, please let us know. We try to create content that is a valuable source of information to our customers.
Be sure to use our free Suspension Builder. We use your information and budget to give product recommendations that work best.
Read all our blog articles for more information.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to call or text me directly at (714) 600-6015.
If you have a Porsche 930 Turbo for sale please contact us.
Get our weekly newsletter for subscriber only discount codes, featured products, and links to our latest blog posts.
1 Comment
Peter Anderes
I am backdating my 1986 911 to emulate an ST. Performance is very important as I am wanting to track the car (infrequently). I would like to maintain some comfort. Can you tell me what setup you would use if #1 money was no object; 2# you wanted to get the biggest bang for the and #3 it was your car