How does this engine, excluded the issues w/ the timing belt, stack up against the 2.3 turbo??

Since I have owned both, I believe my 940SE is slightly quicker than my 92 960. The torque on the two engine is almost identical with the torque from the 940 comes in at a lower rpm. Yes there is about 40 HP difference with the 960 at around 200 HP but HP doesn't move the car, torque does. I don't know about the later model 960 as the HP was reduced to 181 but the torque was reconfigured to come in at a lower rpm. I feel that the 940SE wagon is quicker than the sedan because it doesn' have the IRS which adds alot of weight. The IRS is great for better handling but not for weight. Anyhow that's my $.02.

I've owned a couple of 940 turbos, and have driven a few late model 960s (95-97) and I agree that the turbo feels quicker. Clearly the 960 has more HP and about the same torque, but I think the rearend gearing is the biggest factor in the quickness. The turbo has something like 4.11 gearing and the 960 is in the low 3s (like 3.31 or something). The trade-off of course is that the turbo revs way to high on the highway for my taste. I'd love to have a 3.31 rearend and a locking torque converter in my turbo -- it would make it a near perfect car (in my humble opinion).

Jeff
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'93 945 Turbo ( one kickass family car ! ), '92 Mercedes 190E (my daily driver), '53 Willys-Overland Pickup (my snow-plow truck/conversation piece -- sold to a loving home), '85 Jeep CJ-7 w/ Fisher plow

the 2.9 litre is much smoother, has more power in stock form, better fuel economy and runs on 87 octane gas.

I want to add , if you make the changes that tjts 1 and I have made to the air box and adavance tweaking of the cams, (look back in the 960 posts under cam changes revisited)this really turns these engines on. They can really run with slight mods and so far since making the change over, no problems have occured, except the smile on my face when wanting to get up and go when it's called for.
Hope that helps
Poolman

It is a very good engine. The only problem is you can't ignore the maintenance schedual with this engine. 200K miles is easy with proper maintenance.