lightening a 996 for street driving

I know, I know plenty of threads of how to lighten up a car. Direct question for those WHO HAVE DONE IT. If you have shed wait on your street driven 996. was it worth it? I want to have some fun this winter and mod my 1999 Carrera and one of the things I was thinking is one of the body kits that makes it look like a track car and replaces some parts with fiberglass parts. keeping up with the theme I was thinking about taking out SOME of the creature comforts in the car as well. the car came with a monster... I mean monster stereo system which could come out and various other things I could find. is it worth it, did it make it feel faster etc. ? just a curious question.. please "search it" people.. be nice. its ok to ask non life changing questions when your bored at work lol

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Sheesh. There is no right answer to this question other than the more weight you pull off the better the car feels. It is much more noticeable on the track then on the street and you will feel 200-300 but not 50lbs. People talk alot about unsprung weight but don't get caught in that trap. It's very expensive and if you do the math it still takes 50lbs of unsprung weight change to have any impact. Also, a street car and a track car have exact opposite objectives and the better a care is at one, the worse it is at the other. I'm always in search of the perfect balance and can never find it. If you have more specific questions feel free to ask.

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that's actually a great reply thank you for that. as far as specifics... just kind of curious if it would be worth it to free up some weight. I understand a track car vs a street car are different but that balance you mentioned is kind of what I'm after. I love the stereo system that's in the car but if taking that out, the trunk/frunk carpets, a/c moon roof brackets and motors etc. all the small stuff I just don't use is worth a noticeable kick in the pants when I get on the throttle then why not. Again its just a curious for fun kind of question but I plan on stripping the car down here shortly and putting on a new paint job and while I have it apart, it would be the time to minus these parts if its worth it.

my car does have the fab speed mufflers, headers, air intake and a tune that I THINK is working and I have driven behind a stock 996 and I had to let off the gas quite a few times as to not hit them in the rear. I love my car and on a quest to get a little more out of it lol

Read the threads out there for losing weight off the 996 platform (turbo or Carrera, many items apply to both). There's also the thread about the 996 CLR.

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looking for the "996 CLR" thread now. thank you

Here was my "latest" weight loss plan... Rear interior - 86lbs Replace both seats with lightweight racing buckets (on sale today only at murray motorsports for $300! But you still need brackets). 60lbs 3.5lbs lithium iron phospate battery by Battery Tender ($200) - 47lbs GT3 Roof Skin ($400) - 40 lbs Victor Lightweight wheels - 20lbs Other things on the board: Stereo? Airbags? Electronic Power Steering (weight and HP gain)? AC Compressor (again)? Front Carpet? After that you start getting beyond an $/lb range that I'm not willing to go to on this one. Like $800 including shipping to save 20lbs on a fiberglass hood. Carbon fiber is even more and saves you another 1.5lbs.

Sunroof delete!

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that's all stuff I would consider as well. I've been reading for the last couple hours on this subject... wow some stuff gets pretty deep. I'm looking for that in the middle. but I think I will do a lot of the stuff I'm finding when I tear it down.

Not sure if a lightweight car matters for the street. I think wheels can make a difference if you go from big heavy to small and light. 1. What kind of wheels do you have now? I haven't looked into 17s but I guess you can find some lightweight options. OZ makes affordable wheels in 18inch as well. 2. I assume interior means the sound dampening material as well? This changes the car a lot, you will now hear a lot of metal noises and klungs and stuff. I did this on my race car (not 996). 3. Definitely remove the stereo, who needs a stereo in a 996? I never have my on, the engine is enough. 4. The battery seems like a great improvement! Didn't know the stock is that heavy. On the other hand it's located very centrally so maybe it doesn't affect to much. 5. I assume the spare tires is out? 6. The 996 stock seats are nice, racing seats usually offers less comfort and less configuration. I guess you can always put them back in if you don't like it.

If you want to feel the difference, get an estimate of the weight you are willing to pull out, then add that weight to the car in roughly the same areas, water jugs, sand bags, Mum's Christmas cake or what have you. Drive a couple of days with all that crap in the car then remove it, notice any difference? Probably not exactly the same but should give you some ballpark feel if it's worth the effort.

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well shoot if i use this logic ... i have a little more fun when the wife stays home... thats weight and sound... ya im ditching the radio and some weight lolololol just kidding shes a great passenger

Just be glad your wife will ride in it. My little country girl has no interest. So we usually take her 2500 mega cab diesel instead.

There are quite a few drivers out there that could remove 50lbs from the car just with diet and exercise!

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My wife is a die hard country girl. For 3 years she's said "its a cool car i guess" always saying how here gmc is the thing to drive.. went cruising with a couple other porsche owners from this forum and it was a spirited cruise above posted speed limits.... in mexico 😇 And now she wants one lol so we went to the dealer saturday. She ordered a cayman s and it should be ready around april life is good lol youv seen a picture of me?!?!? 😤 Lol

I searched earlier & there's a ton of content on the subject. It's something that has interested me from the perspective of subtly improving the driving dynamics of the car, less so about a need for stronger acceleration. That said, some of the things I have interest in are: - lightweight exahust system -25-50# - GT3 carbon wing -20# - lightweight battery ~30# - spare wheel removal -20# - FRP or CF GT-style seats --40# - sunroof delete + thin-skin roof -75# And all the sudden you have a 2750-2800lb Carrera. Take a few years to do it. Don't set some expectation that you'll be able to beat a new M3 in a stoplight race, just enjoy the car for what it is.

Anyone know where i can find this lightweight roof skin? Today is the first time ive heard of it.

I am all in favor of an engaging car. But going down this route often creates a car that can be far less enjoyable on longer trips, or in hot or cold weather. And the more pronounced the modifications, the less likely you will be to find a buyer who finds it an enjoyable car when the day comes to sell it, and it will sell for a lower price.

http://www.gt-racing.com/996-roof-part-667/

On sale today only for 538.00. This is what all of the spec996s use. http://www.autoatlanta.com/porsche-p...section=801-45

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great point and so true. that balance of performance and comfort is what I'm hoping to achieve. I'd like to take as little as possible out of the cab and gut as much as possible from under the skins. I live in Michigan and we used the a/c maybe three times this summer vs having the windows down and enjoying the breeze. that switching to manual steering vs power steering thing sounds interesting although I'm not having much luck finding anything on it but I'm probably using the wrong words to search or something. but things that can be taken out like trunk carpets, heat shields, changing exhausts, batteries, etc. if it can be done with out damaging the car... I'm for it. kind of making it a sleeper in a weight reduction sense. Thank you for the links guys. I think I might get this.. it seems like it would be an unseen upgrade and with it being fiberglass I could put a scoop in it lol

My experience is my 2002 C2 pulls hard and "feels" fast between 4,000 - 5,500 RPM. 0 - 60 mph in 5.0 seconds. To me that is a reasonably sporty car. If you really need significant extra speed you need a turbo.

Here's an example of the power steering mod. I haven't researched it much more than seeing them for sale occasionally. https://rennlist.com/forums/parts-ma...ing-pumps.html

There are few experiences worse than street-driving a stripped car. I almost wrote "street driving a stripper," but it is important to consider one's audience. Perverts abound. Anyway, ripping out all of the sound deadening, extra seats, plastic panels, headliner, and all the other non-essential rattle-absorbing materials - which seem to happen in conjunction with cat and muffler deletes - almost always results in a car that is dreadful to drive. I enjoy watching Cletus and Leroy on YouTube from time to time, but I don't want to daily drive Leroy. Cautionary tales aside: CF hood, lexan front and rear windows, spare tire delete, sunroof delete and replace with CF panel, door cards w/ speakers, most of the crap in the center stack. Smaller, lighter wheels, never more than a quarter tank of gas. Cat bypass, lightweight mufflers. The number of times I have seen a "lightened" vehicle that does not also receive a bunch of performance upgrades actually get "street driven" for longer than it takes the poor sucker who ruined his previously-functional vehicle to pawn it off on some other guy as "mostly track-prepped:" zero. And God help you if you share this car with your wife/GF/SO.

This is what everyone thinks they want until they actually have it...I would love to have a Leroy, but I would not want to commute to work in Leroy in the rain.

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This isn't the route I'm trying to take. for me it would be nice to take out the unnecessary stuff like mentioned in previous posts... find that balance of performance gains and comfort.

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This. Everything comes at a cost. I can think of very few parts that you can remove with zero effect on everyday driving comfort. Really the back seat is about the only thing, and if you have an amplifier/CD changer/other audio equipment, that could be reduced by using a good head unit with a built-in amp. Maybe headlight washers too Battery is a good idea, if it can support your cold-weather starting needs reliably. But just about anything else is going to come at a cost of comfort or functionality. Any sound-deadening will be missed, lighter seats will give up padding, adjustability, and heating, and even lightweight wheels can come at a cost to ride comfort since they will not soak up bumps as well. Even something as silly as the trunk carpeting has a benefit; without it items placed in the trunk will rattle around, not to mention scratch the paint. It becomes kind of a slippery slope of "how crappy of a car can I tolerate" vs. how much is the weight saving really going to help everyday performance. In a track car, it might be totally worth shaving a few pounds, but for the street it's pretty hard to justify.

But if you do it, be sure to weigh everything and keep a log so others can evaluate whether it's worth deleting X component to shave Y pounds!

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The 996 is a pretty light car, all things considered. After ripping out a few things - like the back seats - you start to realize that Porsche stuff isn't exactly pig-iron. Is yours a C4? If so, the FWD stuff is a big, fat target for weight reduction. My front diff and other components are still hanging from my garage rafters where they belong...

Someone, I swear, did a build thread including stripping the car and weighing the resulting crap, and not THAT long ago. B3Freak, maybe? OP, maybe dig around a little for that thread.

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That's what I'm after, only it needs a 1,000 hp truck motor to really be on the cutting edge. Y O L O

There are a bunch of weights in my track car build thread. You have to dig a little to get them though.

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mine is a 1999 i think lighter battery, exhaust tires, subwoofer box and stuff like that is going to be a given. probably going to get that fiberglass roof, figerglass front quarter panels(with a wider stance) and the A/C as well. those things listed i dont see taking away from the comfort of the car.

On the fiberglass, I recommend Getty. GT-racing was fine to work with pre sales but post crash, not so much. I ended up going with Getty for my replacement parts and they were awesome.

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Sorry, I was asking if yours is a Carrera (RWD) or a Carrera 4 (AWD). If your car has all-wheel drive, you can delete the front wheel drive components and drop a significant amount of weight without spending a dime.

If you are interested I have a GT3 foam spare tire well insert gathering dust in my garage with compressor, flat foam and a tool or two. Picked it up a couple of years ago to lose the 17" of spare tire but it doesn't fit with the Bose HiFi amp and I have not decided on an upgrade path for audio. I am not near as brave as others here in doding work myself. Maybe after I get these cataracts taken care of so I can see I will be braver.

Before you decide to delete the A/C, keep in mind that 3.4 996's (and Turbos) use the AC compressor to cool the fuel charge. I don't know if deleting the A/C has a deleterious effect to those cars on which it's installed... Jacked from another thread: "Fuel cooler was installed only on american cars on 3.4 liters 996 and turbo cars. Connected between fuel pressure regulator and fuel tank to reduce fuel vapor levels of the returning fuel. Coolant is simply freon from the air conditioning compressor. After 2002 the cooler is connected to the fuel pressure line to cool the fuel entering the manifold to avoid vapor lock caused by fuel entering the EV6 injectors...."

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wow... good catch, thank you

You bet. The fuel cooler is one of those 996 oddities...if I hadn't already read that part of the Streather book, I probably would have stared stupidly for a minute or two at the fuel cooler the first time it dawned on me that refrigerant and fuel lines were going to the same gadget...

The seat weigh quite a lot with the motors and stuff, easy and not too expensive way to shed weight !