Rally 996

Interested in getting back into rallying here in the Northeast, so I did a quick rally build out of an '99 996 C2. Cable throttle, minimal electronic intervention, and a rally handbrake! What else do you need for some cheap fun. Unlike the "for show" kits that give a few inches of lift and no revised suspension geometry I wanted to get a suspension that actually performed and was tuneable. Presently running an absurdly expensive set of Penske coilovers (I have a set of Fox Shocks on order to A/B compare against), along with modified LCA's, modified everything, etc etc. initial suspension testing is looking pretty promising. I'm taking the car to the chassis dyno next week to start working on valving. Engine out refresh (3.4->3.8), front, center and rear skid plates, a custom roofrack and a some lights and we are off to the races! Running my first event next weekend through the forest, which will be a good mix of gravel and dirt. Given it is almost November, 50/50 odds we see some mud as well. Due for some wheels and tires as these were a quick and readily available set to get things started. Thoughts? I'm having too much fun for the pricepoint.

Wow, looks like you are out to have some real fun with that setup. Love to see some pics/vids of your event! Great job!

Cool. Love to hear more about it.

Like GC said, would love to hear more. Lots of awesomeness in this car!!

This is so cool.

A quick rally build? That would've taken me many years! Looks really good. Great work. Looking forward to the continuing story.

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Wow, that is awesome! Love the car, that looks like a LOT of fun. I have a question and based on that comment, it sounds like you would know. I am looking to add a little ground clearance to my vehicle, but not for rallying, racing or anything extreme or high speed. Solely for protection when reaching some campsites and hunting spots that may be off the pavement. Im considering the Feals coilovers that add 1" of lift. Maybe gain another half inch of lift with a taller tire. My question is, what other parts of the factory suspension need to be modified in order to run the vehicle at 1" lift over stock? (2000 C4 coupe manual) Anything? Good luck in your next event! Thanks

Very nicely done!

I've gotten a surprising number of questions on what may be one of the least expensive cars on this site! I'm presently about 4 inches above stock running a set of (expensive!) Penske coilovers and progressive springs. Super tuneable, lots of adjustments, fully rebuildable. I had them from a prior project, so I'm happy to use them as they are free if you squint just right and apply the flawed car guy logic appropriately. I spend today in the woods running the local fireroads doing some suspension tuning. Good but not great. Next Wed I'll put the car on the 7 post shaker rig and really exercise the suspension (within moderation) which should generate tons of data, dial things in and shake loose 26 years of dirt and lost change from the carpets. Shocks will almost certainly get revalved. I've been doing this kind of work for a long time and have access to a huge shop and lots of equipment few can play with unrestricted. The end result is dumb stuff like this. I've changed most suspension components to stuff that is pretty custom and pretty trick to get things where they are and can't comment on off the shelf alternatives. I did investigate the Elephant setup and found it to really be a toy for show purposes. For road racing stuff they kinda know their stuff so I'm not trying to badmouth them as a company before anyone jumps down my throat. I'm not selling suspension kits, parts or advice either before someone asks. Can't speak to Feal but given their pricepoint they are likely little improvement from some struct spacers front and rear. (arguably good factory struts give better performance but having never shock dyno'ed anything from Feal I can't say for certain) If you want an inch of additional clearance a front and rear spacer and some bigger tires will get you there. That said, you are leaving so much fun on the table. Sideways drifts with a dirt roostertail is something everyone should experience once (and ideally often!) Presently running factory interior. Eventually I may morph this into a legit rally car which would require a cage built to class rules. Not there yet and honestly if I did get there I wind up gutting the car, seam welding everything, Motec, sequential shifter, and saying goodbye to 350K in cash just to be able to brag to friends. LIkely quicker and easier to just burn 100 dollar bills and develop a drinking habit. On a smiles per dollar accounting basis, which we all should utilize, I don't think the math is better than where I'm at presently. I've got a couple of former Suburu race STI's stashed in the barn should the need to get back to "real" rallying become a thing. Between work and family I doubt it (but not enough to actually sell them off!) For now I'm going to bomb around my local fireroads, do a hillclimb or two until they kick me out for being too fast and drive this all winter here in New England. Lots of thumbs up when driving past the local highschool which is seemingly where I'm stuck maturity-wise. Braid is my next call for wheels and I may investigate some tire alternatives but beyond that I'm seemingly done.

It definitely ain't "the least expensive" when you're about to put it on a 7-post lmao. BUT it's always awesome to see full-effort development like this, whether it's exhaustive testing via proxies (rigs, sims) or straight to racing. As far as wheels go I would love to ask why Braid is so popular in Porsche-land - I'm using Wedsport gravel wheels on another car and they've been light, stiff and completely unbreakable. Besides the custom 5x130 capability what does Braid bring to the table to make them worth (minimum) 2x the price?

The 7 post is in my raceshop. I do a bunch of development work for all the big guys and am between projects and have a couple days to put it to use. For some guy walking off the street it would be 23K a day! I'm lazy and saw braid has an offering in the right bolt pattern. Absolutely not saying they are the best, but they do seem to check the "most convenient" box. My inclination would be to load some billet on the Haas and hog out a set of my own, but I've sort of learned the lesson that billing clients for my time is more lucrative than using it on myself. Anyone else make 5x130 wheels worth mentioning?

I like it !

Putting this 996 to use as a daily driver. Machined some custom wheels and tuned the suspension. Still running Penske coilovers which have proven to be perfect, albeit stupid expensive! Snow has arrived here in New England which makes this doubly fun. My rally handbrake skills are getting better by the day and yesterday I proudly drifted sideways into my driveway under the skeptical eye of my beloved wife.

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****ing awesome!

I was just watching the Chris Harris video rallying the 997 CS. Great stuff!

Did you machine those wheels yourself? And are they 17s?

Yes, 17 inch wheels. 16's would have been even better as far as tire choices go but getting them over the calipers is a bit tricky. I still may make a set. I ordered unfinished barrels and machined the rear inners and required bolt pattern. This gave me lots of flexibility on backspacing etc. Worked fine for a one-off set but not the ideal way if making multiples (which I'm definitely not!)

The 986 Boxster base can fit 16� wheels, and the Boxster S calipers share the same fitment as 996 calipers. The base Boxster guys upgrade to the larger S calipers with a simple swap, so I would reason that you could swap down to the base Boxster calipers to fit the 16s - if you can�t get the wheels over your current calipers.

Thanks. I don't expect to be overworking the brakes at the speeds I'm looking at on-road and off. No open track time with this car. This may be a nice solution and I'll troll facebook for Boxster rims that may look the part. Thanks for the suggestion. Only hiccup is I may be back to machining rims anyway as backspacing was a challenge with stock 17 rims and these tires. This is squarely in the "someday" project list as I'm so absurdly upside down i should stop spending. .

Aw jeez, I hope you didn�t buy anything yet� I was only partially correct about the brakes. The front base Boxster calipers ought to fit the 996, but the rears aren�t a simple swap. The Boxster guys need to swap their rear wheel carriers in order to use the larger rear S brakes. https://www.renntech.org/topic/9523-...es-on-a-non-s/ I apologize for the misinformation.

Nice! 👍 Curious about your wing, is that a GT3 wing and how did you attach it to the rear decklid?

I�m not a c4s rally guy but I have to say that�s the best looking roof rack I�ve seen. Well done!

The rear wing is something I cobbled together out of foam and carbon fiber. I cnc'ed some foam to a GT3 "inspired" shape along with some heavy Techart influence. Pulled a plug and then layed up a carbon fiber version. Little bodywork and whallah! It bolts in place of the factory popup spoiler after all the actuator stuff is removed. Pretty light as well, coming in at 4.5 lbs. (like that matters on this car!) Got some more snow driving time in and even used the car to pick up a Christmas tree! I'm enjoying this immensely.

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Interesting and well done 👍 I have a few bits, 996.2 GT3 wing and a stock Carrera deck lid. Need to build a base for it. I�ll send you a PM

I hated snow until this car!

This is so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes

Its a shame Vic Elford in no longer alive, he would look damn good at the Monte Carlo rally in it.

Who says you can't "Hot Rod" a Porsche?

Awesome!

I'm getting good at this drone thing!

Uh, you're really, really good at the drone thing. Are you having it auto track you, or are you flying while driving?

Long lost brothers

much much more distant cousins

I've used the auto tracking feature when chasing my boat and it is amazing. I've tried it a few times when in the woods with the car and away from people. It works surprisingly well but I'm always fearful of crashing into something or hurting someone. I'm also slowly learning to fly this thing and chase the car. My buddies 18 year old kid does these drone racing events (at like 80-90mph!) wearing goggles and he has been slowly teaching me. It is infinitely harder than you would think. In exchange I let him drive the car and chase him. I think he may be enjoying it more than me. Truth is, I don't need another expensive hobby, so I may go back to him chasing the car and me driving pretty soon.

This looks like HUGE fun! Makes me think, for a second, about moving back to the land of ice and snow. Thanks for sharing.

Love the graphics... Where did you order the "51" number decal/magnet from? Thanks

the magnetic decal came from Vistaprint (who specialize in corporate SWAG like pens and shirts) of all places. I think it was 30 bucks or so and you can pick your font/size etc. I run the number on all of the racecars and never had an issue with it coming off.

Snow is gone after a day in the 50's and nice clean roads. Perfect excuse to take a few of the cars out for a winter drive. Took the 1973 RS to work this morning and parked it next to the 996 for scale when I got home. The 996/997 is the last of the "small" 911's before the cars started to grow in all directions. Still messing around with graphics on the hood. Don't think I like them but it was cheap enough to try so long (as we don't focus on how much I spent on a large format vinyl printer)

Sorry if this has lready been asked, but I can't find it on the thread. Who made the roof rack, and are they making any more? One of the issues I have with the Yakima and Thule setups is how high they sit off the roof. This thing looks like it was made at the factory.

I built the roof rack for this car. (Along with everything else!) I was not planning on making any more. Thanks for the compliments. vin

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If you've seen the factory Porsche RTS it's even more offensively high lol. Only custom racks can be that tight to the roof skin. I made Yakima and Thule racks sit much closer to the roof for the same reasons you point out, but with multi-purpose crossbars you need to leave a little bit of space since many attachments grab around the bar. The clamps of my roof box basically touch the sunroof.

Hi Brian, I actually left you a message on your site this morning regarding those risers. Let me know, Cheers, Phil

@ vlocci1 do your wheels and tires fit into the wheel well without rubbing? Do they rub at full lock? I know that you machined the wheels, but what tires are you running? Would love ot know fi I can get away without any modifications tot he front wheel well. Cheers, Phil

Hey Phil, This car started as someone elses attempt at a Rally 996. It was on generic wheels of some sort and did in fact rub at full lock, under compression and when turning in reverse. Kind of a mess on all fronts, from engine to suspension. I think I put 30 miles on it in this form before realizing I was fleeced and tore into things. I've changed a bunch from custom suspension to wheels (and a motor and gearbox build!) so I can now report no rubbing while running 225/55/17's. This tire spot is the sweet spot for me as a square setup that offers good sidewall, great tire availability and very predictable loss of traction. I want to get this car sideways often, so a square setup that gives up some rear grip is fine by me. In my opinion, 16's would be even better but I need to machine another set of wheels to clear the brakes and have been swamped with paying work, kids and the need for some amount of sleep on occasion. Short version is 225/55/17 on the right set of wheels could likely be made to work with some minimal rubbing here and there. If you are not thrashing the car offroad or running it like a real rally car you may be fine for the intended purpose. I can't comment on what backspacing would be needed as I changed too much before investigating that. Good luck and share some pictures as your project comes together.