996 911 upgrade - Page 2 - 911/Carrera GT - PistonHeads UK

Good evening all Need some advice I have a wonderfull 996 911 Cab2 Have lots of miles on it, live in Belgium Like the car, dont wont to get rid of it Would like to upgrade the car, i.e. engine, suspension, brakes, gearbox, interior. Any suggestion whom I should speak to ? Ruf? Gemballa? or ??? Thanks for the advice Ronny

How deep are your pockets? RUF, for example, would be a good bet as they have done extensive development on the 996, but it will come at a cost. There was a chap on here, dom9 that spent a large wedge developing a 996 which you can read about here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=720... Also, search out sifly's posts on the Poverty Pork thread Sifly said: I've had several Porsches over the years, and although I love the 'event' of driving the older air cooled cars, the value for money that the 996 offers is hard to ignore! As I enjoy track driving on the odd occasion the opportunity to build a track ready 911 for reasonable money was too good to turn down! A few more pics Sifly said: DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted. Well, the car is almost finished, just waiting on a couple of bits of interior trim to finish off the drivers door card and a couple of other small bits. I have to say, she drives like a different car now, much lighter and stiffer. The mid range punch in 3rd and 4th gear really is impressive for a standard car. Any way, here's a few interior pics to give you an idea of the finished package!

See also the recent reviews of the 996 CSR for some pretty thorough mods: http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyI...

vandereydt said: Good evening all Need some advice I have a wonderfull 996 911 Cab2 Have lots of miles on it, live in Belgium Like the car, dont wont to get rid of it Would like to upgrade the car, i.e. engine, suspension, brakes, gearbox, interior. Any suggestion whom I should speak to ? Ruf? Gemballa? or ??? Thanks for the advice Ronny Depending on depth of pockets: - Give the car to Autofarm for a 3.9 conversion or Hartech for whatever they suggest - Center of Gravity for M030 + fast road setup - Ebay for some seats to your choice and I'm sure you have some local leather guys who can trim everything up nicely including the dash :-) - LSD and some BBS LM's to be awesome - Naughty exhaust

fastgerman said: Depending on depth of pockets: - Give the car to Autofarm for a 3.9 conversion or Hartech for whatever they suggest - Center of Gravity for M030 + fast road setup - Ebay for some seats to your choice and I'm sure you have some local leather guys who can trim everything up nicely including the dash :-) - LSD and some BBS LM's to be awesome - Naughty exhaust Sounds good.

Thank you all Have contacted them, lets now wait and see how far we get If you have any more ideas please let me know thx Ronny

vandereydt said: Thank you all Have contacted them, lets now wait and see how far we get Keep us updated. Could be a very interesting thread.

feedback so far Hartech does only standard enginework, and I want some extra horses, preferably 400+ Autofarm is looking into it MO30 yes will be included Gemballa just send me an old catalogue of their 996 products stay tuned Ronny

I wouldn't go larger than 19's on the BBS LM's Also, review KW suspension as you can adjust them to be quite soft with a lower setup. M030 will be hard This looks quite cool I think. RH wheels I think or the Split cup's/Speedlines from the 3.6 964 turbo a la Bad Boys

I bought (and sadly sold 3 yrs later) a project car that featured in Total 911 magazine before my custodianship. The car had an uprated LSD with GT3 internals, AP Car Design split rims with GT3 width rear tyres, KWV3 suspension with GT3 front top mounts & fast road/track geo. & uprated bushes, uprated brakes with Pagid yellow pads/uprated racing fluid, Superchips remap, a bespoke sports exhaust & a Cobra Seats lightweight interior running reclining bucket seats (see below) & a 997 GT3 quick-shift kit. PM me if you would like more info on the upgrades

Hi all; Does anybody have some experience with 9ff I would appreciate some feedback Thx Ronny

strange has nobody got any experience with 9FF Would love to hear about them thx Ronny

Like the old style boot lid. Didn't 9ff went bankrupt this year.

vandereydt said: Good evening all Need some advice I have a wonderfull 996 911 Cab2 Have lots of miles on it, live in Belgium Like the car, dont wont to get rid of it Would like to upgrade the car, i.e. engine, suspension, brakes, gearbox, interior. Any suggestion whom I should speak to ? Ruf? Gemballa? or ??? Thanks for the advice Ronny You're far better off part exchanging your car for something like this. You'll save a lot of money and hassle http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/p...

That one looks hot Is exactly the color of mine, also the same interior color ( I dont like it :-( ) Is also the kind of upgrade i am looking for :-) Cant find the Belgian Tuner that did it, any idea who this was? The only info I got so far is from autofarm in the uk Regards Ronny

vandereydt said: Cant find the Belgian Tuner that did it, any idea who this was? The only info I got so far is from autofarm in the uk Regards Ronny I think this is the tuner you were asking about, they used to do some Porsche racing and tuning a few years back. http://www.psi-motorsport.com The engine is likely from these people who would often collaborate with other shops. http://t-t-p.de/english/996_tech.php

Hi there thanks for the info I found PSI but did not find anything about their Porsche tuning The German engine tuners are very interesting, thank you so much, does anybody have experience with their work? Will certainly get in touch with them Thank you Ronny My ideas now are : 1. upgrading the engine, like the compressor or the turbo option (depending how reliable the turbo is) 2. going for a brakes upgrade. (Brembo as proposed by autofarm) 3. my suspension has already had the factory "sport" option, lower and harder. Might go for something harder, not necessarily lower because of the annoying ever present speedbumps on our roads 4. The gearbox, now a tip. Might keep it, if it can handle the extra power; otherwise I ll go for a manual shift This is all easy The change in interior, not that easy. I want a different color (early boxster red), different middle section, seats and dash upgrade. No idea about this yet, not yet seen the one I like Please if anybody can point me some experts here

There are lots of members on here who run tuned/bespoke cars. The key when setting off on this sort of journey is to make sure the basis of your project is suitable for tuning. I think the point you make about the engine being able to cope with a turbo conversion is an interesting one. I would say that the standard 996 engine may well struggle with a turbo conversion as lots of well documented issues re engine reliability which I shall not bore you with. Have you thought about simply buying a 996 turbo with colour interior you are looking for. The car comes with 420bhp out of the box but very easy to tune up to 650-700 bhp with ease. Do not want to discourage you but honestly there are other platforms far more suited to tuning/tailoring. This believe it or not started life as a 996! Personally i think it should have stayed a 996. You cannot turn a donkey into a stallion .

A couple of thoughts come to mind reading this: My first piece of advice would be to have a long think about what it is you want from the car and intend to do with it. Sorting this out will save your wallet from a pounding that leaves it lighter and you unsatisfied. Also keep in mind you are starting with a cab when you are having these thoughts. There will be no shortage of ideas on ways you can spend your money. It doesn't make all of them good ones. The second is that doing the engine MAY not be as rewarding as you are thinking it will be. Given the costs involved you want to think hard about this route. You can certainly make good power adopting one of several options but be aware that you may not leave with a particularly dynamic driving experience at the other end. As suggested, doing a hard bit of maths and weighing up the buy in cost for a turbo with your current car as a trade in is something you should do if its power you really want. With the exception of body styling stuff, you don't need to go too far beyond Porsche to get performance upgrades. If you want bigger brakes for example, fit 996 turbo stuff or fit 996 GT3 front wheel carriers and then use their brakes. It will be a better solution than putting on some brembo big brake kit type of deal. This approach holds for most anything you can think of on the car. There is a chain of models with slightly different purposes all with parts that are readily interchangeable. Take advantage of this and keep the quality of your product up at the same time. Its my view that the way forward with any 996 thats most satisfying is to add that bit of focus you think is missing to the car. Enhance whats already there to maximize the experience you want from it rather than trying to fundamentally change it all. Point it in a direction and away from its all rounder attitude slightly and it can be surprising i) just how far a little can go, and ii) how much it will reward you. If you love just driving the thing then address the details that will enhance this area. If you are looking at Ruf kits etc and this is what floats your boat, then by all means just go this route and have some fun making the car unique to you. Theres a world of stuff out there to cater to those needs too. Its easy to spend oodles of money and not feel at the end like you have landed somewhere positive. Its easy to end up realizing that the car had really been as its best a quarter of the way into the project. That all subsequent work was ultimately unnecessary. This is from experience. I once had a play with a 996 over several months as an exercise to find the high water mark of the C2 platform. It turned out it was not where one would think it would be, and it was not upon fitting a rather tricked out large bore engine either. Have fun. Edited by fioran0 on Tuesday 30th December 02:12

fioran0 said: A couple of thoughts come to mind reading this: My first piece of advice would be to have a long think about what it is you want from the car and intend to do with it. Sorting this out will save your wallet from a pounding that leaves it lighter and you unsatisfied. Also keep in mind you are starting with a cab when you are having these thoughts. There will be no shortage of ideas on ways you can spend your money. It doesn't make all of them good ones. The second is that doing the engine MAY not be as rewarding as you are thinking it will be. Given the costs involved you want to think hard about this route. You can certainly make good power adopting one of several options but be aware that you may not leave with a particularly dynamic driving experience at the other end. As suggested, doing a hard bit of maths and weighing up the buy in cost for a turbo with your current car as a trade in is something you should do if its power you really want. With the exception of body styling stuff, you don't need to go too far beyond Porsche to get performance upgrades. If you want bigger brakes for example, fit 996 turbo stuff or fit 996 GT3 front wheel carriers and then use their brakes. It will be a better solution than putting on some brembo big brake kit type of deal. This approach holds for most anything you can think of on the car. There is a chain of models with slightly different purposes all with parts that are readily interchangeable. Take advantage of this and keep the quality of your product up at the same time. Its my view that the way forward with any 996 thats most satisfying is to add that bit of focus you think is missing to the car. Enhance whats already there to maximize the experience you want from it rather than trying to fundamentally change it all. Point it in a direction and away from its all rounder attitude slightly and it can be surprising i) just how far a little can go, and ii) how much it will reward you. If you love just driving the thing then address the details that will enhance this area. If you are looking at Ruf kits etc and this is what floats your boat, then by all means just go this route and have some fun making the car unique to you. Theres a world of stuff out there to cater to those needs too. Its easy to spend oodles of money and not feel at the end like you have landed somewhere positive. Its easy to end up realizing that the car had really been as its best a quarter of the way into the project. That all subsequent work was ultimately unnecessary. This is from experience. I once had a play with a 996 over several months as an exercise to find the high water mark of the C2 platform. It turned out it was not where one would think it would be, and it was not upon fitting a rather tricked out large bore engine either. Have fun. Edited by fioran0 on Tuesday 30th December 02:12 When you say Fitting the Porsche brakes would be better than fitting a Brembo Big Brake conversion you do understand that Porsche Brakes are BREMBO's. I agree not to go the Turbo route mainly because if you want to do that it works out a very expensive way of doing it especially as you can buy a 911 turbo extra radiators etc. Whereas tuning & refreshing your original engine can reap great rewards without breaking the bank, suspension upgrades are fantastic. contact www.bespokehp.com they have done some great work for me in the past & will do so again on my 997 Turbo which arrives in two weeks. They tailored a package around my needs which didn't break the bank & enabled me to cherry pick the best bits

ZX10R NIN said: When you say Fitting the Porsche brakes would be better than fitting a Brembo Big Brake conversion you do understand that Porsche Brakes are BREMBO's. Yes I do, and did when I posted.

ZX10R NIN said: fioran0 said: A couple of thoughts come to mind reading this: My first piece of advice would be to have a long think about what it is you want from the car and intend to do with it. Sorting this out will save your wallet from a pounding that leaves it lighter and you unsatisfied. Also keep in mind you are starting with a cab when you are having these thoughts. There will be no shortage of ideas on ways you can spend your money. It doesn't make all of them good ones. The second is that doing the engine MAY not be as rewarding as you are thinking it will be. Given the costs involved you want to think hard about this route. You can certainly make good power adopting one of several options but be aware that you may not leave with a particularly dynamic driving experience at the other end. As suggested, doing a hard bit of maths and weighing up the buy in cost for a turbo with your current car as a trade in is something you should do if its power you really want. With the exception of body styling stuff, you don't need to go too far beyond Porsche to get performance upgrades. If you want bigger brakes for example, fit 996 turbo stuff or fit 996 GT3 front wheel carriers and then use their brakes. It will be a better solution than putting on some brembo big brake kit type of deal. This approach holds for most anything you can think of on the car. There is a chain of models with slightly different purposes all with parts that are readily interchangeable. Take advantage of this and keep the quality of your product up at the same time. Its my view that the way forward with any 996 thats most satisfying is to add that bit of focus you think is missing to the car. Enhance whats already there to maximize the experience you want from it rather than trying to fundamentally change it all. Point it in a direction and away from its all rounder attitude slightly and it can be surprising i) just how far a little can go, and ii) how much it will reward you. If you love just driving the thing then address the details that will enhance this area. If you are looking at Ruf kits etc and this is what floats your boat, then by all means just go this route and have some fun making the car unique to you. Theres a world of stuff out there to cater to those needs too. Its easy to spend oodles of money and not feel at the end like you have landed somewhere positive. Its easy to end up realizing that the car had really been as its best a quarter of the way into the project. That all subsequent work was ultimately unnecessary. This is from experience. I once had a play with a 996 over several months as an exercise to find the high water mark of the C2 platform. It turned out it was not where one would think it would be, and it was not upon fitting a rather tricked out large bore engine either. Have fun. Edited by fioran0 on Tuesday 30th December 02:12 When you say Fitting the Porsche brakes would be better than fitting a Brembo Big Brake conversion you do understand that Porsche Brakes are BREMBO's. I agree not to go the Turbo route mainly because if you want to do that it works out a very expensive way of doing it especially as you can buy a 911 turbo extra radiators etc. Whereas tuning & refreshing your original engine can reap great rewards without breaking the bank, suspension upgrades are fantastic. contact www.bespokehp.com they have done some great work for me in the past & will do so again on my 997 Turbo which arrives in two weeks. They tailored a package around my needs which didn't break the bank & enabled me to cherry pick the best bits I can't say I'm feeling what your guys have done to the styling of the AM DB9 or Merc SL. Hope they do a better job with your 997 turbo. Pls do post some pics when its finished.

ZX10R NIN said: Here's a photo of my 997 3.6 they done for me in the summer. Coilovers fitted K&N filter Airbox Mod Exhaust Mod Powder Coated the Wheels Geometry set up Re Map Short Shift A great car for not a huge outlay & I made £100 profit when I Sold it after all the mods & 6800 miles added so a nice win win. They also built my friends 600bhp RS4 The point is like any tuner you decide what you want & they'll get it done if you want subtle you make sure you tell them that. One of the best mods wasn't even performance related, they mopped clay barred & then detailed the car the paintwork just glistened water, dirt fell off it a quick jet & clean I can't thank them enough for that every car I own has had the service now plus they have a great Detailer who comes out to maintain the finish.

IMIA said: I can't say I'm feeling what your guys have done to the styling of the AM DB9 or Merc SL. Hope they do a better job with your 997 turbo. Pls do post some pics when its finished. Saw the SL in the flesh it just look like an SL63 with alloys on. Mine will be a simple Carbon splitter, GT2 Rear Spoiler,coilovers change the intercoolers a Rolling Road/live Map K&N Waterless Coolant change & Paint Refresh. It'll look the same but go like hell I will add some alloys after but finances mean they have to go on hold for a bit

ZX10R NIN said: IMIA said: I can't say I'm feeling what your guys have done to the styling of the AM DB9 or Merc SL. Hope they do a better job with your 997 turbo. Pls do post some pics when its finished. Saw the SL in the flesh it just look like an SL63 with alloys on. Mine will be a simple Carbon splitter, GT2 Rear Spoiler,coilovers change the intercoolers a Rolling Road/live Map K&N Waterless Coolant change & Paint Refresh. It'll look the same but go like hell I will add some alloys after but finances mean they have to go on hold for a bit Have a chat with 9e too. They're good with Porsche.

IMIA said: Have a chat with 9e too. They're good with Porsche. Will do it doesn't hurt to look elsewhere but I'm happy with the plan, price & they give great customer service, they've done a lot of my cars not just the Porsche's. So I guess it's worth taking a look at specialist.

ZX10R NIN said: IMIA said: Have a chat with 9e too. They're good with Porsche. Will do it doesn't hurt to look elsewhere but I'm happy with the plan, price & they give great customer service, they've done a lot of my cars not just the Porsche's. So I guess it's worth taking a look at specialist. Yes no harm having a chat and listening to their views. 997t.1 is not a simple car to get real extra horsepower from like the 996 turbo is.

My 996 Cab I got in touch with the German guys : TTP very quick in their response Nice options 3.6 engine with compressor or turbocharger Brakes are GT3 and 997 units Suspension upgrade, gearbox upgrade will go and visit them who are the 9e people ? Indeed it does not harm to have a look around before spending the cash Thanks Ronny

Do they grant any form of guarantee on this conversion? Best Christian

vandereydt said: My 996 Cab I got in touch with the German guys : TTP very quick in their response Nice options 3.6 engine with compressor or turbocharger Brakes are GT3 and 997 units Suspension upgrade, gearbox upgrade will go and visit them who are the 9e people ? Indeed it does not harm to have a look around before spending the cash Thanks Ronny http://www.nineexcellence.com

Sorry for being a damp squib but it seems to me you're going to be spending an awful lot of money turning your car into something that Porsche already offer in their model lineup. You'll be throwing away every single penny of the money you spend on conversion and at the same time creating a much smaller market for your car when it's time to sell. Unless your car holds some sentimental value you need to look at what's available at the spend you're considering (which sounds huge) before you leap.