New member: from BMW to Porsche? New to me 996 GT3 clone (PICS)

Hi all - long time BMW owner here (2 E36 M3, including one full race prep), M5, 330 convertible, and 540 sport wagon among them. Just picked up my first Porsche. It's a 2002 996 with almost no options. 79K on the odo, excellent condition on the body with lots of track goodies. Engine just refreshed by Jake Raby at Flat 6. Car runs strong and handles well. My wife (fellow track instructor) loves it as does my 4 year old daughter. After a 5 year track hiatus, we plan to get back to it soon. I'm sort of a DIYer and have my own shop here at home with a lift, so I plan to learn the car well and maintain her myself, but coming from BMW, everything is so different, so I'm just beginning to learn. Besides the fresh engine, it has H&R coilovers, cup car swaybars, RSS adjustable control arms, an OEM GT3 wing, an OEM GT2 front fascia and side skirts, new clutch, ECM tune, Magnaflow muffler, litronic, OEM GT3 wheels with PS2 tires (almost brand new), and a new battery. I plan to add a radar detector hardwire, phone charger and cradle, either bluetooth or aux in, fresh mats, and maybe window tint. Otherwise it should be ready to go. Below are some photos of my cars and motorcycles for you gearheads. Don't yell at me -I like BMW too These are from before it was finished...

hey can you tell me what color code you have on your hood sticker ? slate grey it seems but I wanted to compare to mine, very close in color, nice car...man I need to lower mine

Sure, I know it's Seal Gray but which number am I looking for? The hood sticker is all washed out and impossible to read but the one in the owners manual is still legible so I can look there if you tell me what to look for. Mine's quite low - I may raise it up a half inch or so for daily driving. But right now it's all track prepped so I will drive it for a few weeks as is and see how things go.

Welcome. Enjoy that car, looks great. Lots of good info here on this site, many helpful members if need be.

Thanks, I look forward to learning and meeting new car nuts.

forgot....that garage looks awesome!

Thanks. I love it. Great to work in and I can run power tools or air tools any time day or night without bugging either my sleeping family or neighbors. Lots of light, good sound system, plenty of space. Took a long time to finally get it built and I did a lot of work (incl electrical. air lines, some plumbing, and epoxy on the floors) myself.

no need to request pictures beautiful porsche and nice bmw's - enjoy

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OP, looks like you enjoy ironing your clothing near the back window of that awesome garage. Nothing wrong with that!

the color for me is the L23F thingy, it might be inside your owner's manual. phil

I love the front end on yours, philoo! I think maybe even better than the turbo front end on mine! Here's the sticker you wanted:

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Actually, the "L" shaped area of the long counter was set up for my wife's sewing station. That's her hobby and I promised her some counter and storage space.

Congrats and welcome! What kind of lift is that in the garage and do you recommend?

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Challenger VS-10. It's got multiple industry certifications and a 10k pound capacity. It works great and I love it. I'm sure there are others that might cost a bit less (this wasn't actually that much) but knowing my daughter plays out there with 4000lb of mass above her head, I feel better knowing it's been tested and certified.

Nice setup and nice car. Finally the DIY-ers are starting to pick up these cars. If you can, document and please post as much of your work as possible.

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I'll do my best. I have a Bentley manual at the ready and can snap pics with my phone camera. I'll do the oil change and sump pretty soon.

is that the same car that JR posted on youtube? BTW, congrats and welcome: from a fellow bimmer owner (nothing special though: 01 740iL with lots of factory goodies) and also fellow biker (02 Road King and 09 Hayabusa). You Tube

Rotary Lift? Very nice.

Welcome. Nice set up you have there and nice cars as well. That s1000rr is a awesome bike too

Yes, same car as on Youtube. The lift is actually a Challenger VS-10. The S1000RR wasn't mine, just did a track day and that's the bike they let us use. It's a crazy machine. Almost 200 horsepower on a 400lb bike...and you thought a highly modified 997TT was fast!

Welcome to Rennlist! Great looking car.

Thanks! Friendly bunch so far here Looking forward to lots of learning and fun.

Gorgeous vehicles! I assume you're in the RDU area? I'm just "down the road" in Charlotte.

Yup, Raleigh! Big Porsche crowd here. Hope to see everyone at the track later this year.

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Might be a bit of a drive for you but our region is holding this year's first DE event at CMP in South Carolina starting on 3/9. I know a few guys from your area will be there. I will be too if you happen to head down.

Thanks - it's quite a drive and I have to get the engine broken in before hitting the track (according to Jake) so I'm looking at fall. We'll probably stick to VIR - my wife and I have experience at 13 tracks incl. Nurburgring so I'm not as eager to hit faraway tracks as much as we used to be. VIR is nice and close.

If its a JR engine, you got a good one. Great garage too.

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We made an extensive repair to the engine (MOF#15-valve seat failure) and while we were inside it we replaced the IMS Bearing, main and rod bearings, chains, chain rails and etc. Its not a full reconstruction, if it were it would be my 3.8 or 4.0 :-) The engine is very strong in this car :-)

Great looking cars,great looking garage! Welcome! Haven't seen such a low optioned Mk2 996 but it has certainly been dressed up with some great upgrades!

Enjoy the car! Love your garage!

Some great looking cars you have and the garage looks amazing Congrats on the newly acquired 996 it looks like you got a stunner. I can hear the track calling your name already. Can't wait to hear your impressions of it after the first track day. I would also consider a LED Interior Lighting Kit

I love LED but am not keen on putting much into this car. The driver's side seat leather has a small hole I didn't see before - does anyone sell covers that match well or OEM seat leather? Tried looking on Ebay but didn't find much.

http://www.classic9leathershop.com/u...r-automobiles/ But im sure a local upholstery shop could repair.

Great pics of current and past rides. What a garage set up you have, sweet. Welcome.

Great car! Enjoy the ride.

Welcome to the party. Nice looking car (s).

The M5 and the superbike are sweet! Welcome to p-cars. It's a whole 'nother level...

Welcome & enjoy!

Welcome to RLot. Great looking GT3 Clone you got there.

Great car. I was looking at that one also with similar plans to you I believe. I live in the RDU area and want to spend more time at VIR, so looking for a street/track car. With the grey one gone (congrats by the way) I am focused on a speed yellow 996 GT3 clone. Did you make it out to Cars and Coffee today? If so I didn't see you. Chip

Welcome, beautiful garage and a sweet new ride, lucky guy ! Rennlist guys are the best, very open to discussing other vehicles and an all around fun bunch. Probably because most RL people own a few different rides, not all Pcars. Try posting a pic of your 911 on Bimmerfest and you'll get a lot of chit and a few worthwhile comments

Welcome to the group and nice cars! I've got a couple of BMWs also, an E38 and E34. Those E34s are built like a tank!

Thanks, everyone. We both really love the car so far. I can't wait to get past the engine break in and head back to VIR for the first time in years. I miss it tons. A few questions if anyone has any quick input: 1. Is there a relatively easy way to add either aux in or bluetooth? I want to stream pandora while driving. I hate FM radio 2. Do all 996 take a while to fire up? The other cars I have seem to start instantly but it seems like the 996 has a bit of delay. 3. What's the deal with the clicking noise each time I press or let the clutch out? 4. My drivers door has something rattling. Before I pull the door trim panel off, any ideas? 5. I plan to hardware my radar soon. I assume I can tap into the sunroof switch. Anyone know offhand which wire is the right color? 6. What sites do y'all use for OEM parts? 7. Has anyone added heated seats? Mine could use them but I wonder how tricky the seat leather is to remove and replace. 8. Does anyone make a decent seat cover or leather replacement?

1. Is there a relatively easy way to add either aux in or bluetooth? I want to stream pandora while driving. I hate FM radio - I think Becker makes a plug in cable kit to connect iPod/iPhone for the OEM radio, but you may be better off doing a double-DIN conversion and put in a modern doubl-DIN radio that has all the bells and whistles, and better audio quality. 2. Do all 996 take a while to fire up? The other cars I have seem to start instantly but it seems like the 996 has a bit of delay. - If it's about 1/2 a second then sounds about right, you could always check with Jake at Flast Six for his thoughts. 3. What's the deal with the clicking noise each time I press or let the clutch out? - Could be either one of the two switches for the clutch interlock for starting or cruise control release, or the assist spring in the clutch pedal hinge area wich some people remove to gain better clutch feel at the expense of requiring higher effort, you can try some lithium grease to see if it quiets the clicking. 4. My drivers door has something rattling. Before I pull the door trim panel off, any ideas? 5. I plan to hardware my radar soon. I assume I can tap into the sunroof switch. Anyone know offhand which wire is the right color? 6. What sites do y'all use for OEM parts? - http://www.suncoastporsche.com/parts/ - https://rennlist.com/forums/944-turb...arts-page.html - http://www.pelicanparts.com/ It pays to compare price as not one place will consistently have the best price, also factor in shipping costs too. 7. Has anyone added heated seats? Mine could use them but I wonder how tricky the seat leather is to remove and replace. - I love my heated seats in thos early spring and late fall days when I try to stretch the driving season longer. 8. Does anyone make a decent seat cover or leather replacement? http://www.classic9leathershop.com/ is well known outfit, not inexpensive but seem to be good quality, I am considering getting them to replace the worn driver side seat leather but I hope someone may provide other alternative shops in this thread.

I'll answer #2 & 3 - I note that cars prior to 2004 do take a couple of extra revolutions to start over the later cars, but thats not a bad thing since the engine is able to build oil pressure before the engine fires up, which I prefer. Your car started as it should the last time I drove it. - The noise the clutch makes is the springs in the pressure plate and or the clutch operation lever. If I listen hard enough I can hear the clutches operate in about 90% of the cars I test. Neer forget that the car is over a decade old and is pushing 80K miles, having seen a lot of track time in the past while being well taken care of. Some rattles and imperfections are going to exist, no matter what. That car is super clean and with some TLC it'll live forever.

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Welcome! from a fellow motorcycle rider. 1. don't know, I generally listen to the flat 6 2. My previous '99 996, my Boxster and my Turbo generally fire instantly. If the battery was a bit low it may take a second or two. This hasn't happened for years as I now use a battery tender overnight even if drive every day. These cars will eat batteries if you don't. 3. CC and interlock switches 4. Speaker, window, or track 5. Don't know, mine have all been Cabs 6. Try FCP, I recently bought Mann German oil filters for $6.11, (Mann) Air filter for Boxster $13.11 and for the Turbo (Mahle) $24.15. Jeep Cherokee parts prices for my Porsches! 7. Do a search, there have been threads on this. 8. Don't know who, but yes Good luck, you'll love these cars

1. If non MOST yes

Hi Brian! For parts you can also call Travis at Rennbay. No, he doesn't have an online ordering system for OEM parts but he does have the best prices if you take the time to call him. He knows me as "william." I just ordered a waterpump from him a few weeks ago. Enjoy the 996.

Welcome. Nice looking car. Although the front is actually a C4S front. It differs very slightly from the Turbo front. The only difference is that the plastic piece on the bottom of the turbo runs straight across on the bottom and the one on the C4S goes up a little bit in the middle like yours.

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Good to know, "William" - thanks Good to know...thanks for the clarification as I did not know that either. Regardless of what car it came from though, I do like it 1000x better than the stock front end on the 996 C2 so I'm happy no matter what it's called.

Hello from over in Greensboro! Great looking M5 too. I'm hoping to go to my first track days this year Hoping to be down at AMP in May and up at VIR later in the year. Cheers!

Great! New track drivers are the most fun. I plan to be at VIR instructing again soon. It's been about 5 years since I was on track Really miss it.

Very nice gt3 clone op, i am a previews 600 turbo e36 owner, sold it 3 months ago to purchse my 2000 996 c2, im a diyer aswell man and right now im thinking of building a custom exhaust system, I see that u have a magnaflow system, i imagine is custom, i hope you dont mind posting pics of it or emailing a few to me, [email removed] Thanks and again great car!!!

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The information about it being Magnaflow is all second hand. I haven't inspected it myself so I really don't know. I plan to get this thing up on my lift soon enough to change oil and pull the pan and do a few other things so I'll snap lots of photos and report back.

Looks like I'll be putting the car up for sale. Watch for an ad soon.

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Sorry to hear that. Issue(s) with the car? Ever get it to the track? Getting another, or something else? I made it to AMP earlier in the year and had a blast. Going back this weekend, and still going to make it to VIR later this year. Cheers from GSO.

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No, the car is awesome. My wife and daughter both love it and drive it daily. She prefers that over the other cars. We just have too many cars. It's not seen the track. The engine was just refreshed by Raby a few months ago and I did the oil change to street oil (after break-in oil was removed) and have not put many miles on it since. Not replacing with anything - trying to downsize. Two drivers don't need four cars

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I hear you. I am getting a company car soon and the wife refuses to have 4 cars when we are the only 2 driving. In my case it's her car or the truck that will be going away.

BMW's and Porsche's go hand in hand. I've been back and fourth since I was 16 with my 944's, E30's. Up to my E36 M3's, E46 M3, the wifes E70 X5. I'm also a motorcycle rider as well, but never found myself on a Beamer unfortunately (CBR's etc) although that S1000RR is tempting, just not while I live in Hawaii with no track or windy roads to use my knee sliders. Like you I am much more familiar with working on BMW's, this rear engine flat 6 thing is a little scary to dive into at first. But after tinkering around a little, I'm starting to learn it. Welcome to the club, gorgeous 996!

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That is a terrible excuse! My wife tells me to downsize, so sell one then eventually 2 seem to replace it lol. Between work vehicles and personal vehicles we have 6 vehicles and a 2 car garage and only 2 of us driving ha ha. Well at least one is in off site storage.