My 996.2 C2 OEM+ Project

Not to be left behind with the current trend of everyone buying 996's, I decided to buy a manual gen 1 C2 coupe last year. The plan was to improve it myself with some OEM+ additions. So the journey began, and I looked at 6 cars, which were just not good enough, or just not right. The search was for a gen 1 3.4 ideally with an aero kit. It proved difficult with the criteria I had (low miles, low owners, the right colour, the right history, Aero etc). A gen 2 3.6 came up for sale locally at a dealer (about 2 miles away), so I decided to go and have a look and take it for a drive. Expecting night and day difference (old school cable throttle and the rawness everyone speaks about found in the 3.4's). I found a barely perceptible difference with the throttle (maybe I was looking for something else). The difference in torque across the rev range was the most obvious thing, the 3.6 felt a smoother car but still very revvy (I drive a 997 turbo as a daily). This is the point I decided to buy a 3.6 to work on and improve, and give it a GT3-esque look. Fast forward a few months of searching, and a seemingly good candidate caught my eye on Pistonheads. 2002 C2 Manual coupe, 48K miles, Full Porsche History, Sensible colour, nice options; MO30 (which I didn't find out till I got it home) Sports Seats, 09991 Exclusive with side skirts, leather dash and body coloured dash parts, Bose, Litronics, 18" Carrera Lightweight wheels and a few other niceties. I didn't want NAV or heated seats, and luckily it didn't have them. This was the only car I didn't view myself because of the distance. I ended up getting Zentrum to PPi and Bore scope the car. The PPI arrives and boy, there is a big list of to-do's. So much so, that I almost decided the car wasn't for me, I slept on it. The next day, I went through the list - and most of the things, I didn't even check when I looked at the other cars. Most importantly, there was no sign of bore scoring, no sign of accident damage, and the guys at Zentrum said it was a good, honest car that they would have bought themselves. Some of the items on the list - Both front condensers knackered (air con inoperative), tyres very old (10+ years), due a major a service, Battery tray corroded, incorrect battery size, signs of paintwork, various rusted nuts and bolts. The paint work put me off, but speaking to both Zentrum and the owner, it was only remedial stuff rather than accident repair. I decided to go ahead with the purchase, and booked my train to Nottingham to collect the car. I got picked up from the station in the car, and couldn't believe how nice it was, super clean, and clearly cared for -the owner (in his 70's) had carpeted walls in his garage! I was pleased it was better than I anticipated. I've had 15 Porsches in the last 15 years; 987 Boxster, 987 Cayman S, 981 Boxster (wifes), 993 Turbo, C2, C2S, C4S, 968 CS, 991 C2S, 996 Turbo, 930 Turbo, 911 Supersport, a 911 3.0 RS replica based on a non sunroof 930 (The Porsche Leeds Dealer Competition car) and now a 997 Turbo this 996 C2. This is the first picture I took of it after the 2.5 hour drive. The really obvious thing on the drive home is the cars weight (just over 1300kgs) and lightness/sharpness of front end. My turbo is about 1650kg, a 997 GT3 is about 1400kgs. This thread is a journey of its development, my focus is OEM+ with subtle improvements to make the car more fun to own and drive. But also, if anyone needs any help or wants to do what I am doing - I would be pleased to help.

First thing on the agenda was to ditch the old tyres and replace with some Michelins. I wanted PS4s as they are a revelation on the Turbo. Unfortunately Michelin do not make them in the sizes required, I settled for PS2's which I have had in the past and been happy with. They are N rated to boot - not that I am bothered. At the same time, I ordered some service items, in preparation for a full service at Eporsch (who I thoroughly recommend for all things Porsche). These were a low temp thermostat and magnetic sump plug (both from Hartech) as well as Millers 10W50 Nano from Opie oils. Whilst changing the tyres, I gave the wheel arches a proper clean/degrease as well as a good dose of wax oil. The wheels also got cleaned to within an inch of their lives

Enjoy your new car! Did you fit the tyres yourself? The arches look clean as well.

love it, I think we are on a similar path. E40F6A78-CDD3-4AAD-A04B-64DE5BB0036B_1_201_a by Nick Goodess , on Flickr

No - A local tyre shop. I spent a while with various brushes and degreasers! As well as wax oil

That is lovely - lovely colour too - is that a C2 or C4? I see you went for the 997 GT3 wheels - They are a great shape too

Hi, Its a C2 in Seal grey. The wheels are an 18" version of the 997. Good spot Cheers

Very nice - love those wheels, just spent yesterday evening doing a similar cleaning job whilst I had my front wheels off to replace the aircon pipe 8) :thumb:

After I got the car back from ePorsch - they gave it a clean bill of health and a big thumbs up (and lightened my wallet too). I turned my attention to the head unit. I didn't want PCM - it's far too dated, and I don't like any aftermarket double din. There are some new radios available, but they are designed for 80s cars. Fortunately for me, I have a few aftermarket Becker Radios in my loft - they look totally OEM but offer more functionality and better sound quality. I was going to put in the Grand Prix (7992) which I have in Amber, but I don't want use the phone functionality - my primary objective was to get Memory card Playback, so I used a Brand new - old stock Traffic Pro - the non colour version of the Cascade, this takes a memory card so I can have 100s maybe 1000s of songs. It does have NAV, and being Becker, it uses the same GPS antenna as a factory Porsche one, so I put the antenna in the OEM location. Whilst at it, I also took out the battery tray and gave it a good rub down and spray of black Hammerite. I also added a Ctek connector to the battery. The sound quality is much better than the CDR22 it replaced. Luckily I have a 2002 car, so no Fibre/MOST issues - just a little jiggery pokery with the ISO connector to send a power signal to the Bose amp.

A picture of the new head unit in and running, it's not amber but it's the same family of colours (I keep telling myself!)