996.2 C2 Cab - Styling update winter project

OK so now we have our Covid project car pretty much sorted electrically, mechanically and interior and we decided to keep it rather than sell it. Didn't see the point in changing to a 997 even though that's what we had before. Fallen back in love with the simplicity of the rear wheel drive. It had a new SS exhaust system not long before we acquired it and it sounds great. Not too loud you can't hear yourself think and not too droney for low speed round town. But when the revs come up it sounds great. Anyway, it's time to update the styling. Right now it is a vanilla Arctic Silver C2 Cab with Silver 5 spoke factory 18's. With the Big Brake Kit and new boots and spacers now fitted. The car seems to stand better and look more purposeful than the standard kind of tucked in look. But a bit boring for me. We are looking to have a winter project to transform its looks without breaking the bank and spending crazy money on the project and wondered what others had done to theirs. Looking online on ebay and styling suppliers there doesn't seem to be a lot of choices out there. The idea is to replace the front bumper, rear bumper and add side skirts, essentially bolt on goodness. We are thinking of wrapping it and learning how to do that and adding a scheme to it. Lots of ideas about, Porsche Design, Martini, Gulf etc. This is a fun car for us to play around with and in and chances are it will stay with us until we hand it over to one of the grandkids we don't have yet! We quite liked the look of this full kit but it looks like it's only available for the 996.1 The company making them is called Aerokit in Essex. After thinking hard about it we didn't really want to do the 996 to 997 kits that seem to be all the rage at present. It's a 996 and should stay that way. even though there are some cool looking kits. Does anyone have any experience of using these type of body kit? The one in the picture are allegedly made in the UK although there seems to be many very similar looking kits in Latvia and Eastern Europe. The material is FRP. Which again allegedly is more durable and flexible than fibreglass. There is a company in Sheffield XCLUSIVE CUSTOMZ but they seem to be all about taking a 996 and making it look like a GT3RS externally. We wanted a more modern looking and aggressive bumper than stock or GT3/Turbo/GT2 etc. It's not a GT3 and we are not trying to make it look like one. Suggestions and recommendations welcome. On the kit and colour scheme. Cheers Spart

We found this one but it looks very Audi ish we think. Has anyone else found a better looking front end than the Prior Design one below? It looks super modern and really updates and complements the car. [/img]

Looks like you have some fun plans for your 996. I have a 996.2 Cab, so will be really interested to see how it all turns out. The Prior Design front bumper looks great (with the optional front-splitter). Not so sure about the rear - but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.....its only my personal opinion. Having fitted some body kits in the past, the quality of the fabrication is very important to the overall result. A lot of aftermarket stuff I have seen in the past was produced very cheaply and fits poorly. I would want to see any parts I was going to buy, before I parted with any serious cash. Looks like they are in Romford (and offer fitting).

Thanks for the note Ben, Yes doing the research on these its clear that there really isn't that much good stuff around. The Prior-Design PD1 kit on the red cab looks great. The Aerokit P1 is essentially the same shape but made as 1 piece. Quality is always a big thing. I had a chat with Tim from Aerokit in Essex about them and the lack of 996.2 kits. They said they could do a custom mod to the front bumper to fit the 996.2 headlight shape. Sending the car to them for a full kit fitted by them would be c.2.5K so as you say a lot of money. I am waiting for Prior-Design in Germany to respond. I know aesthetics are a personal thing but I think this type of kit really updates the look of what is still a supercar! Not sure about the three vents in the rear bumper, that may just be inviting in lots of water Anyway no doubt lots more research to do! If there are any 996.1 owners that have fitted or had fitted the prior-design pd1 or the Aerokit I would be very interested in your experience. Cheers Spart

Just an update on this. We can source the rear and side skirts but not the front bumper as they all appear to be 996.1 and no 996.2 kits that appeal appear to be available. Seems weird but there it is... Re-thinking the 996 to 997 thing again to get more interesting front bumper. I really wish the prior design one was available for the 996.2 as I think it's the best looking front end out there. Cheers Spart.

Thats a shame Spart, the front bumper on the red 996.2 above looks great....are there any other manufacturers of decent kits you can look at instead?

Yeah, that's the problem. The red car is a 996.1 and the front bumper is only available for the pre-facelift cars. The kit manufactures all seem to think that we all want our 996.2's to look like 997's or GT2/Turbo etc. Will keep searching. Cheers Spart