Best BHP/£ spend on a normally aspirated 996

Following on from AlfG's 996 turbo thread, it would be interesting to find out what people have achieved in power gain and for what cost on their normally aspirated 996's, at the end I will compile a results table as AlfG has. I think it would be of some help to those of us who would like to increase power on our cars but haven't got £1000's to spend on it. Cheers Gary

Gary, I'll also be interested to see what replies come back as i'm toying with the idea of upgrades. Don't expect there'll be much of a gain to be had to be honest though. Mines due a service in a few weeks and i'm gonna have some stainless headers fitted at the same time. The main reason being to get rid of the originals before they, and the studs rot too much. But I will report back with any noticeable power gains.

I dont know if you have read all the posts on the thread you mentioned for the 996tt, but I hope you have a better response than I did. opcorn:

I only read the results to be honest, it's worth a try :thumb:

I am never certain about the quest to add more power to that already available on the production car. I guess it fulfils some deep-seated primeval 'hunter-gather' urge on behalf of the owner. My bog-standard 996 (3.6) is plenty quick enough, all be it not encumbered by the added weight of the foldy hood or the tiptronic box. I suppose if track days are your thing then there must be a certain satisfaction to be gained. I'll still watch the thread with interest. As an aside, the Jagdeo has a Roverron tuning box wired in. An alleged 25bhp for less than £150. Never had it dynoed, but the performance gain is tangible. Now that was a bargain.

From what I can gather I don't think there's much you can really do to a n/a 996 to improve power output, they're pretty good as standard with varioram / variocam etc... The Porsche power kit gives you about 20 bhp for about £7-8k outlay and that's quite a comprehensive piece of kit, definitely not just bolt on exhaust or air filter. Most of the mods you hear about make it sound better. Maybe you could make it faster round a track by fitting more fade-free and powerful brakes or more track-biased suspension settings, but neither of these actually give more power. Probably the cheapest and most reliable way of getting more power is to buy a more powerful car, for example a 3.6 996 will give you ~20 BHP more (but they also weigh a bit more), a 997 will give you a bit more, 996 turbo 120BHP more for another 10k (probably the best BHP per £ upgrade).

One other thing I forgot to say, make sure the car is currently running with it's full 300 BHP. I'm not sure how you can reliably do that mind! My MAF was knackered for ages and I didn't notice, replaced it ad the car goes like stink now.

So how did you find out the MAF was knackered?

£1000 might get you a set of Michelin Cup tyres. That's by far the best improvement you can make to your car for that money.

Car felt sluggish past 5K RPM, felt wheazy. It's easy to miss this if all you do is plod to work in your car! Replaced MAF and the car comes alive at that point and absolutely rips to the redline. If yours doesn't feel like that, suggest MAF might be goosed. Sorry, I know it's not very scientific.

+1 - just ordered mine...!! :thumbs: also looking for some much lighter wheels, I read that a change of wheels can offer the equivalent of 20 - 30 hp over factory rims..!