Need Help!! Stage 1 turbo vs 450HP 996 C2

whats up fellas. I'm finally able to afford a porsche! I was dead set on an 01 turbo. I even started picking out my mods! I was dead set on getting a 9ff exhaust and a chip flash. However, the tuner (okay, ricer) in me did some more research and found out severakl 99 996 C2s in the 30k range. I called the 9ff guys and was offered a 420HP 4.1L 9ff engine engine for roughly $32k. Now, I'm into unique, personalized cars. I've driven a stock and stage I turbo before. Fast cars for sure, but having come up driving heavily modified imports, i'm kinda still stuck on the "all motor" thing. It sure is tempting being able to mod a turbo to 900hp like EVO does, but honestly I prefer a lighter, NA car. AM I alone here?? So heres. My choices, I saved up $80k for a turbo. Should I get. a) The Stage I turbo. b) 99 996C2 w/ 420HP NA engine, suspension, wheels and exterior mods. I'm kinda leaning with b. Am I Crazy? What do you guys think? btw, the 9ff guys told me that they just dyno'd a 454HP 4.1L engine that they put into a Cayman!! oo: Discuss away, so I can put my S2000 to rest!

get the new gt3

B2C, What are you using the car for, all street? Street and track? Where does this 4.1L 9ff engine come from? Is is a heavily modded 3.6L? Does it come from a Chevy? How long are you going to keep the car? If you are looking at re-sale values you lose a lot on mods. If you are going to track the car, for $80K you can get real close or into a GT3. Also I know you said you like n/a cars but you can get a 99 996 for pretty cheap and then the EVO Supercharger installed should be around $13-$15K. Keep us posted! k

my experience from the honda world makes me leery of boosting a non-pos manifold engine. Hell yes I'l be tracking it. I've seen so many blown B18,H22s (4cyl honda motors) blow up when they are boosted AND driven hard. A new H22 motor is roughly $9k, i can only imagine how much porsche wants for a new engine. I think that S/Cs are great for the stoplight racers, but I dunno, i spend a lot of time driving at 8krpm. I must admit that my fear of heavily tracking my heavily modded S2000 pretty much prevents me from strapping a blower onto a oporsche. I'm pretty surprised taht ppl actually do this!! (to a porsche). I've spent an easy $15k on the "all motor" route for my S2k. NA is for sure more $$$, but IMO its the RIGHT way to do it...unless all you want is just some extra squirt in between the stoplight. IMO thatss what NO is for. Here another one from this (soon to be) ex-ricer, anybody have NO on a porsche? I just got a visual of a 928S4 with a 150 shot...wow!!

haha nice try! Too rich for my blood. anyhow, a) It'll be way out of my price range. b) I never buy new...especially since i started shop[pping porsches - wow these things depreciate like bricks with buick GNX tied to it!! Why is that? I know the 997 cam eout and all, but I have to admit, i always thought porsches were for "rich" guys....now I feel bad for all the "rich bastards" I've been blowing away in my rice-cookers in various states of tune. One of my favs was the 97' prelude that i bought for $6k. It was my first and last foray into the world of bolt-on superchargers...bOOM! That car was fun while it lasted.

Dude, I have beaten supercharged stripped hondas at thunderhill, I hate to beak it to you. In an otherwise stock 996 with R compounds. I could barely pull on him at all down the straight though. His brakes were terrible. If you're talking about running 1/4 miles, true you can easily get in the 996 territory for much cheaper, but on a road course it's much tougher.

GT2 or the TT with the X50 package for me.

Engines that are boosted blow up not from boost but from the way the tuning is dealt with. More properly-tuned combustion pressure does not make for a blown engine. Detonation, preignition, and improper fueling and ignition make the engines go boom....

thats true for sure...however, for some reason, the only S/C'd cars i see fail have been at the track. Never on a street driven car... Bowmann98...I am sure that you wipe the track w/ S/C'd S2ks...i anm sure that it wasnt me (i'm all motor). However, you missed my point - my surprise was not about beating a 296Hp 3400lb car (C4) on the street...my surprise is at how inexpensive Porsche's have become. Even more amazing is how you can literally have your pick (if you are resourceful and patient) - finding almost exactly what you want. Why buy new? (unless you have the cash to burn)

otherwise stock...R compounds... two totally different cars for sure, but I'll miss the S2K, great handling car fo sho!

The TT by far....

Well then I will have to be carefull about how I build my SC 928 then, since I am planning on some track time.

I didn't realize you were talking the S2K 240hp 2.0Lstock motor, those are great track cars I'm sure. I've been to comptech, those guys are right around the street from me. In fact their SC'd NSX was even nicer than the S2K. There is no way I could beat a blown s2000 unless I was on hoosiers, then maybe. The s2k would have to have more than just a supercharger. How much horsepower for the vortech'd s2k? To answer your question though, I'd probably go turbo if I had the money. The motor and tranny are built to withstand more hps. That extra weight is a liability at the track though cornering and braking suffers. The big displacement na C2 would be faster than a stock turbo, basically your building a GT3. It just depends what you want and you have to be the one to decide. I'd ultimately rather have a huge horsepower awd though and try to make it lighter.

Supercharger on a C2? For the track? On a tight budget? Big NO NO. Actually a used 996 GT3 will be the perfect car for you, not the turbo...

For $80K you should be able to get a 02-03' Turbo. Keep in mind that you can go further. Stage 1 is just a chip. Stage 2 is a chip + exhaust. Stage 3 is upgrading from K16 to K24 or hybrid turbos. K24's run about $4k a pair new. Stage 4 is the above plus headers. At stage 4 you will get around 600 hp on a stock TT engine. This is far more potential than the big NA will do. For $80K you could easily get a nice 01' Turbo and go Stage 4. As other options, used 04' GT3 are in the low $80's now. You could get a 02'+ Carrera and spend about $12K for the EVOMS supercharger or even step up to the Ruf Compressor (lower compression, higher boost and a warranty) for $23K. It all depends on what you really want to spend and what you want to do with it.

what are you talking about. i take my supercharged SC to the track all the time (and know of a few other local sc'ed track cars too) and it has been flawless. do you know something i don't know. do you have any experience with a c2 SC? hmmmm.... sounds like speculation to me.

It is and by many people, especially as it goes for you 996 guys. Whenever the big SC word comes up people start running to the "must stay oem or it will blow up" hills.

Turbo.

not all 996 guys are "oem only" although there are a lot of 996 curmudgeons . there's a running list on another board that is tracking the number of evo SC kits out there. one guys has #108. not too shabby. you are exactly right about boosting does not equal blown up engines. it's all about the tuning.

You might be interested, Carlos, in a dyno day comming up for 928s in Green Bay. Stay tuned for some interesting HP readings when that gets published.