Refreshing the 996.2 (991/Numeric/etc)

I had a chance to drive a friend of mines 981 GT4 with the notion that I could purchase it and replace my 996. Upon test-driving this sample, the price difference to my 996.2 C2 was so drastic that I decided to focus on improving my car in areas where I thought it had the main differences. My start situation was an approx. 130k km / 80k miles driven chassis and a fairly fresh M96 engine as the previous owner had replaced the short block due to bore scoring. For this combo I had already swapped 1-way adjustable YCW coilovers with Swift springs, Michelin PS4S, Numeric shifter assembly and Ferodo DS2500 pads. For me, the biggest and most impactful differences from the 981 GT4 that I could think of transferring over were: steering wheel, gear change, seat and sound. I do also drive on the track, and am a track driving instructor for the local Porsche Club of Finland, but that is such a limited amount of the total experience that I have with the vehicle that I decided to not to focus on areas that have less overall impact on my enjoyment. I am eyeing on oiling solutions for M96, but haven�t pullet a trigger on any of them as of today. As OEM carbon buckets were astonishingly expensive, I started by trying to find OEM 981/991 sports seats, which I scored from Germany from a 991 GTS that were barely used as they were removed from a vehicle destined for more track use. I had to make a wiring harness adapter for the seats, but the bolt locations to secure the seat to the chassis were same. For over 20 year newer seats I was happily surprised that my research had been correct. My previous seats were 2-way power adjustable and the new ones 4-way. This meant that I basically only needed to run power to the seats and there were no seat memory modules to take care of. So I fashioned a wiring adapter from a modified H7 lamp connector (991 seat harness) and some RC-car bullet connectors (996 car harness). After securing them with zipties and some hot glue, let�s see how they hold up. Next up was a 991 steering wheel that fit the car, this requires a milled and integrated adapter in order to get the 996 splines to work with the 991 wheel. I found, from instagram of all places, a person/entity who was able to do this. Unfortunately the transaction didn�t fully go as planned, but in the end I had 95% the product that I ordered and was able to DIY the rest of it and fit it to the car, including the airbag. As I�m not 100% happy with the product and service, I will not name them here. For gear change, I already had a Numeric shifter assembly, but I now added their shifter cables in order to make the shifts even crisper. I have a preference for a long gearstick, I like the interfaces (steering/gear lever) to be in close proximity and all my other toys already had this, so it definitely fit the 996 as well. I got a fitting adapter, extension and a **** from Raceseng which fit without any issues. I set the Numeric assembly to the lowest throw position which at the length of the lever turned out to be just perfect. I�m not 100% sold on the looks of the contraption, but at least it is modular so I can change things around. Perhaps adding a shift boot would help a bit here, but for now I like to keep the linkage naked. For sound, well, I dropped in some cheap straight pipes. Most likely I�ll just mod my existing Dansk back boxes with the permanent sport exhaust mod, ie. Gundo Hack. Let�s see how terribly loud the straight pipes are once spring arrives and I can actually drive the car. Additional �while I�m there� items going to be done at this point will be steel braided brake lines and Castro SRF, Rennline motor mounts (below), Powerflex transmission mount insert (below), new brake discs for every corner and updating the original 20+ year old paper speakers to composite 2-way Alpine S40�s (below). Let�s see if they make any difference while driving, but at least stationary the difference in sound quality is drastic. All in all I'm super happy how this has turned out so far and am eagerly waiting spring to arrive and melt the snow away. The final look:

Very cool upgrades. Car looks fantastic.

Cool. All looks good. Like the shifter.

Looks amazing. Very jealous of the seats.

WOW, absolutely amazing interior.

The newer steering wheel looks great in the black interior! Someone posted a similar one in a light interior (Savanna Beige) a few weeks ago, and it looked really out of place imo� It blends much better with the black�

Thanks for the positive vibes! I do think that the 991 seats with corresponding cloth/stitching color help the 991 wheel to sit in better. I had my doubts if I'd like the look or not, but it turned out better than expected even if I was primarily going for function first.

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Nice I've just upgraded the front dash and rear speakers using similar to the ones you installed I went to 2-way Alpine S2-S40C (with separate tweeters) This is my thread Amazing Alc�ntara seats!!!!

The interior upgrades are awesome. Was is a pain switching the radio and climate control positions? I have a PCCM in my 996 as well and find the screen to be pretty useless because it's mounted so low.

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I just noticed you have the PCCM (single DIN not +). How difficult wa sit to install? Did you have the infamous MOST system in your car?

Can't say that the screen would be much more usable in where it is now tbh, it is tiny. I use my phone for navigation anyways, there is a mag mount barely visible in front of the gearstick, which is one of the only places in the dash that has somewhat straight plastic. So 90s. But, the PCCM install was carried some years ago by the previous owner, I got the car with it and therefore can't comment on installing it.

I agree with the screen visibility. I can�t think of a better setup than the hazard button trim mount. Clear sight of phone gps with eyes still on the road.

This looks fantastic, would be icing on the cake if you got all the stitching colors to match. As far as the Numeric shifter goes, I wonder if the OEM rear center console could simply be chopped to achieve the right amount of "showing off" that Numeric shifter. I was asked to make a custom rear center console for someone that exposes most of the assembly and I do agree with him, letting all that anodized aluminum hang out is super cool.

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That would be indeed rather cool, but the effort and cost to do that, at least for me, is not worth the benefit. And I've been thinking of doing something a bit more extreme to the center console for exactly those reasons. One of my other toys has a completely exposed shifter linkage and that is indeed quite pretty to look at. But for now, I'm quite happy with the self-upholstered trim piece that gives just a peek at the inner workings

First day of the spring that snow had decided to melt around the garage enough that I could be sure to be able to get her out and back in after a test drive. All changes and upgrades done so far above are working flawlessly. The straight pipes somehow are not obnoxiously loud, have no drone to speak of at cruise and the speaker upgrade can be heard/appreciated while driving. Considering the exhaust and road noise I was surprised that the difference was this large. It's amazing what small things like good motor mounts and a lubed up gas pedal can do to driveline feel. Everything magically just got better. The new steering wheel and seats are a massive improvement in haptics. The long gearstick might get itself lowered to the middle setting for the next test drive, I got to experiment a bit. And the gear cables might need a small adjustment to aim to improve 2 -> 3 shift. But that has always been a challenge in all of the 996's that I've driven. It might also be just my expectations of the gear lever trajectories, perhaps it is not possible to get a 2-3 shift to move exactly where I'd like it to go. Other than that, I'm waiting for the weather to actually improve outside of these completely outlier warm and dry days and to be able to take this to the track.

Fantastic improvements. If you need someone to store the old wheel and shifter free of charge, let me know Jokes aside, those seats and the steering wheel transform the interior. How expensive was the whole ordeal?

works - The interior mods are fantastic! I really like the way you tied together the Numeric with the GTS ultrasuede trim. If, when you show the car the whip, you get hesitation above 6200 rpm, you’re probably experiencing knock sensor activation due to the engine mounts. I had the same yellows for a long time and couldn’t deduce why I’d get occasional rpm cuts at max rate acceleration. I also have Powerflex transmission mount inserts. J Raby solved it for me. The M96 knock sensors are pretty sensitive to driveline vibes.

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You know, I was quite pleasantly surprised on how dear those original 996 items actually were. But I'll hold off on selling or giving them away for now The seats as they were as new as an used item can be, were a smidge over 4k EUR, the wheel was ~1.2k if I recall right. Not the cheapest, but I am expecting to be able to recoup at least some costs if I ever bring this back to stock interior. Still a ton cheaper than buying that 981 GT4 which started this whole ordeal. And thanks for the note on the knock sensor, I have to keep that in mind if I run into those issues. One of my other toys is a stealth track prepped BMW 135i with a N54 and that started to diagnose itself to misfire. This later on turned out to be a worn out dual mass flywheel which caused vibration at the same frequency as a misfire on the cylinders closest to the transmission, so I'm not a stranger to somewhat perplexing issues.

Nice mods, I have almost the same setup - 964RS semi solid engine mounts, Numeric racing shifter + cables and Powerflex transmission inserts. Do you find the transmission to be very noisy? I'm yet to install the cable insulation so hoping that will help but I'm wondering if its the inserts that the main cause of creating so much transmission noise.

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It's the Numeric cables. They transmit a lot of gear whine into the cabin. Some mind it (like me), some don't.

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Thought so, I made the mistake of installing the cables and inserts together so I don't really know which is the main contributor to the noise. I'll be installing the cable insulation at some point.

I have to say that I haven't noticed any additional gearbox noise in the car. I did install the insulation on top of the Numeric cables, hard to say if that made any difference. The main noisemakers in the car definitely are the rear tires as well as the straight pipes

Where did you get the speaker upgrade kit? It looks like it's something 986/996 specific. ??

Regarding the speakers, I found a recommendation for the Alpine S2-S40's from YT and that video review also included information what adapters would work. I got mine from ebay in UK, if you search for " Porsche 996 Coupe dash AND rear/side speaker adaptors " you'll find the same. They are high quality 3D printed adapters and work without any modifications. Speaker wire adapters were from Amazon.de, you can find them with " tomzz Audio 7103-002 " and then figure out how to find a local version.

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Great, thank you!

Crutchfield will give you free speaker wire adapters when you purchase speakers from them.

The final, for now as we know, update for the season was new rotary forged wheels in 18x8 ET40 front and 18x10 ET50 in the rear. I took a massive gamble and ordered the wheels from here: https://gtrswheel.com/ - The seller is in Romania, the factory in China and you are basically paypaling few grand over in hopes that you will see a set of wheels in the future. Well, in my infinite wisdom I yolo'd the funds over and lo'n'behold some wheels materialized in a bit over the originally communicated schedule. I was expecting this to take a long time or me receiving something that I would not put under the car, but for now at least I have been positively surprised. Comms were good and messages answered very quickly, I got exactly what I specced in the exact color as I wanted (neodyme gold) in a reasonable amount of time and hassle and in seemingly high quality. The fronts were 9kg/20pounds and rears 9.4kg/21p. 4S's are 235/40 front, 295/30 rear. Tomorrow is the seasons first trackday and if these, and me, survive they will definitely be staying on. Below few quick shots of the look and fitment. Tyres could use some minor dressing as they are exceptionally gray. Side view with custom YCW coilovers. Fitment is excellent with these specs. Front is a little bit more in than the rear, but I like this better steering wise than pushing the wheel right to the limit.

Gives me some inspiration on the seats! I did the cheap exhaust mod similar to yours and it's actually not that loud! Some armchair exhaust experts said it would be WAY too loud and would sound horrible but I actually really like the exhaust note now! Much better than the vacuum it sounded like with the stockers still on. Only thing I dislike about it is when you let off throttle, it sounds like it's muffled for some reason....otherwise love it! The wheels look perfect!

Trackday over, wheels and driver survived. Seems like they are good for track use as well, at least once I agree that it sounds a bit weird off throttle / vacuum side, but other than that it's liveable for now. To keep the neighborhood peace I might still mod my existing mufflers and put those back in, let's see.

Did you convert to centre lock wheels or is that just a cover over the lug bolts?

I also tried to see if you mentioned this already but couldn�t see it anywhere, is the airbag from the 991 steering wheel functional or it�s just the cover?

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Those are just covers to look like knock offs.

Yea, they definitely are replicas. But, appear to be high quality ones, so that'll work for me. Yea, the 991 wheel has a functioning airbag. The newer bag is 2-stage, so the 996 harness will only operate one of them. I had to solder the wires after figuring out which one was which and then clear the airbag code with Durametric.

I love the look and color of the wheels! I must ask, where did you buy them?

As noted in the post above: "I took a massive gamble and ordered the wheels from here: https://gtrswheel.com/ " You can find them from Instagram with the same handle and chat Samuel up to get a feeling of the operation.

Beautiful car! Love the seats

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As a Romanian I'm very happy to hear these guys are legit and you're happy with the product so far. I added them to the short list for when I tackle a wheel upgrade. For now I have my eyes set on another Romanian brand, Kline Innovation, to replace my CATs and eventually the rest of the exhaust with their Inconel products. That should help with corrosion in the winter time on top of the standard benefits. Great job again on a fantastic looking car, inside and out, and keep sending more pics

New year, springtime and upgrades. Front got new 991 coffin arms and 997 tuning forks. Rear would have gotten the same, but I haven't found the parts available yet. But the other links in the rear got spherical bearings and adjustability from Hardrace as the stock adjusters were locked off with the SPL kit. I'm working to get the original cats off from the car as I want to give a cross-piped (and sport-catted) exhaust a go, but damn are the original nuts and bolts rusted up. I'm sure the o2 sensors will be an interesting project to pry off from the old pipe, I have high hopes for the induction heater.

Get a dremmel with a carbide bit and cut the nut off.

Multitool works as well, just got a carbide blade for it and am aiming to get that thing out and the new one in this weekend.

I ended up drilling those old bolts out, ultimately it took like an hour per bolt in total to get them off the car. What a absolute pita. Unfortunately I do not have a sound clip to offer, but installing the x-pipe and sport mufflers from Top Gear exhaust from UK really brought the car's sound alive. Previously with the straight pipes and original cats the car sounded more like a boat (2x 3cyl), but now with all pulses working with together it has that lovely 6-cyl boxter warble that I was after. So in the end it definitely was worth it. I'm still running with Ferodo DS2500's, but will be swapping them to DS1.11's instead to reduce the dust levels, let's see what that does to the noise levels as well as initial bite. I do have high hopes tho. The car also had AOS swap at the local shop as I didn't feel like dropping the engine with the tools and skills at my disposal. I'm entertaining the idea of getting a more comfortable set of coilovers, but the current ones are so good on track that I do not want to separate from those. Oh well, the car is a joy to drive now and has been extremely reliable.

This dude in UK is dropping an active Tractive suspension to his 996.1 Youtube link I'll be following with interest even though that system costs arm and a leg, but it could be the answer that I'm looking for.

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This is so awesome and can't wait to see how it performs.

Which product did you use for the muffler delete. I have been considering this but was cautious about making things obnoxiously loud. I was also thinking about suggesting the active suspension as I just watched the YouTube video pictured by someone else.

Headers are still stock and so rusty that I do not want to touch them. These are the TopGear UK exhaust parts that I used: X-Pipe Sport mufflers I used to have the OEM cats with just straight pipes out. I did give those straight pipes a go with the X-pipe and holy hell that was unworkable solution, ear piercing loud. Luckily with the sport mufflers the car is civilized, but has a magnificent Porsche signature sound, due to the x-pipe, at full tilt. A sound that the car never had with just the 3+3 stock exhaust configuration where both banks went through their own cats to one side's exit. Now with x-pipe they all mix and mingle together and make that ah so nice soundscape for the car. I can't wait for motorway onramps and go for the redline The car has already had it's yearly official inspection with exhaust gas measurements and it passed (after being properly warmed up) with flying colors.

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Have you had the noice level measured at some track that has low db limits - for exaple Ahvenisto that has a 95 db limit? I had to swap my modified muffelr (98 db stationary at 4000rpm) to original muffler earlier this year before going to Spa that has a limit for 103 db at wot under load.

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Not yet, but I'd be amazed if it wouldn't pass. Then again my hearing might be going, so there is that. Will post an update when I get subjected to that. In the mean time, I managed to get some sound from it, mostly wind mind you, but some of the exhaust note as well: You Tube This was a recent trackday (well, today) with Porsche Club Finland at Kymiring and my first time on it. Of course it rained, so the bonus dampness added to the experience. Had a blast regardless and tweaked the suspension settings a bit, got it into a much better compromise than before. Even drove home on the same settings. I guess the next maintenance and updates for the car are new brake pads (will give Ferodo DS1.11 a go), minor caliper service and new fluid.

A follow-up to the Tractive active suspension install is now available a month later after the original aired. You Tube Long story short, he loves it and to me this sounds like an amazing upgrade to get a bit more modern comforts to the car without sacrificing the on-track stability. I will need to seriously consider this, mainly due to the cost.

For $6000 I think I would spend it on maintenance before I’d buy that it might be great but too pricey compared to my Ohlins which I love modernizing the 996 too much seems to defeat the purpose

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Fantastic sound, it wails like a modern GT3 instead of the lower -but still great- pitch of a standard exhaust.

I got tired of the previous suspension's harshness. It was amazing on the track, but daily manners were completely missing. So I sought the middleground with the �hlins road and track kit for the 996. Upon initial testing it did just what I wanted, still tons of control but now with filtering of the high frequency road noise out of the experience. I swapped earlier to Ferodo DS 1.11 pads; them too were amazing on the track, but daily usage was tiresome due to noise and dust. In my attempt to shave some of the track worthiness from the car with the ease of use and comfort in mind, I put DS2500's on and again they provide a happy medium between the two. Remote has stopped working and looking at the possible options on what might be wrong with it are so numerous that I've let it be. It just stopped working one day and I don't have good enough diagnostics to see what the remote sends and if there is anything received on the cars end. So manual key it is for now. Other than that, the car feels complete.

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What suspension you had on your 996 before the Ohlins?

I had DS2500's on an STi. They were noisy and dirty even on the street. That was quite a few years ago, perhaps they've changed the formula since then.

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https://www.ycwsuspension.com/ <- These guys used to offer model specific coilovers and were building them up to the client specs. I got mine with camber/caster plates and 6k/10k springs, they were one-way adjustable like the �hlins are. The �hlins kit is sprung at 6k/12k and is definitely smoother, but there are factors at play here. The previous kit had spherical bearings up top on front and rear and even on the bottom on the rear. This made it incredibly accurate, but also noisy af. At this point I'm willing to trade the last 10% of track precision to the undeniable comfort that the �hlins provides, it's actually nuts how smooth the ride is with it. You do build the kit yourself with OE(M) top mounts and the rear lower mounts are rubber as well, so it is more isolated from what I used to have to begin with. I thought that I had a super creaky interior. Nope, just hard as nails suspension apparently. I think a 996/.2 GT3 would be amazing with my previous set since my merely c2 already was, but the long drives to the track were somewhat painful

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Forgot this one. I have DS2500's on three of my toys, Opel Speedster Turbo, BMW 135i and the 996.2. Only on the BMW they are noisy, on all of them they are dusty. But they all have the same characteristics at the limit, so I'm happy with that.

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Hello, I honestly love your car, you have basically the interior i am aiming for. I wish I woud have found your thread sooner, you have done the things I want to do to my car. I have installed the steering wheel from a 992 but the clockspring doesn�t fit so the car is just sitting in the garage without horn and airbag. This is why I wanted to ask you for a little more info on the airbag conondrum, it would be really appreciated. Did you plug it in the 30% or the 70% airbag? how do I know which one is which? Any help would be great. I managed also to get 2 gt2rs seats, sport plus, 18 way. I don�t have a clue how to manage to make the basics work. I need only to be able to make the seats move forward, back, the basics. Any input on this? Thanks mate, we may be driving to your country from Germany next month for the first time. Really excited to be there with the family.