New build 996 RS recreation Project

I'm not sure if this is the right section for a project thread and it won't be a fast moving thread as it's not me doing the work and I'm away with work a lot. I currently have a 1989 930, but I wanted a custom build and almost bought a 964 to go down that well trodden pathway, but I talked to my old school mate at MLR Porsche (Marc Clowes) and he's going to build me one of their bespoke RS cars on a 996 platform. The ones he's built so far are incredible, they're individually numbered and look stunning, so I signed up. It's going to take around a year to complete, the shell is stripped and dipped, there will be a new lightweight 3.9 engine, top end suspension, LSD, full cage, carbon roof, etc. All the stuff that you'd expect on an RS type build, it will be effectively a brand new car on zero miles. Anyway, the starting pistol has been fired, let's see how long before I get to drive it in the manner in which it was intended. I hope to update as I get pictures, but as I said it won't be fast, those guys are good but perfection cannot be rushed.

Sounds awesome, will be watching closely. Is in safe hands with Marc

Sounds brilliant ...2WD I take it?

Nice...I shall follow this with interest...MLR are my local Porsche specialist too

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Yes, manual, 2wd, LSD. As I said, I've known Marc since primary school and during a visit to talk through some work on the 930 we were discussing custom builds, I showed him a picture of a blue custom build that I liked and soon afterwards he called to say a great donor car had turned up and in no time at all I became the owner of the C4S in the same PTS colour of the one in the picture I'd shown him. It all happened a bit quicker than I'd anticipated, I'd planned on having the 930 finished before I embarked on a custom build but it seemed to be fate and an opportunity not to be missed, so here I am. The rough estimate is a spring delivery date, so I thought I'd start a thread to keep me occupied.

This thread is useless without pics. Just saying.

hi ,sounds awesome do you have any pics or vids and info on the 996 cars he's already done.

This blue?

Or this blue?

Or is it this blue?

He was a founder of Ninemeister and Marc was the guy that built their Speedsters and masterminded their special builds for many years, so there are plenty of his cars knocking about. He sent me some pics of a narrow body green 996 they did earlier this year, not sure of spec, but upgraded engine, full cage, lightened and full bare metal respray/rebuild. The only picture I have of my car is from a previous sale photo, it's a one of one PTS.

Had the pleasure of bumping into one of the MLR guys one night around 10pm a few years ago at a petrol station.... him in the orange speedster and me in my black corvette.... needless to say we talked cars for a good half an hour !!!! May be looking to use them for servicing my 996 soon.

I think i recognise the blue 944 on the hoist too..

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That would be Marc, he's had the orange speedster for about 15yrs IIRC, it's stunning in the flesh, I wouldn't have chosen that colour but it works and it's unique. I've got loads of pictures of it but I feel awkward posting pictures of other peoples cars online without asking. They're a good Indy with loyal customers, I think they have the potential to be much bigger, but I think they're happy doing what they do. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing the build take off, that's another of their builds on the ramp behind the green one. I think the 996 C4S is a cracking car so I don't want to drag it too far away from what it is, but a total rebuild, every nut and bolt, new lightweight engine, high end suspension, full bare metal paint, carbon 996RS seats, etc, should be sweet. It will effectively be a new car with the speedo reset to zero.

I like this one: It's green.

Green is my favourite colour but it will be a 997.1 GT3RS if I get one.

You may laugh, my favourite colour is blue . Looks like your car is in very good hands. I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

I'm looking forward to seeing the end result too! Good luck with the build

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My wife’s favourite colour is blue, so there was a bit of man logic going on there - “Hey honey, look at what I got, in your favourite colour…”.

Just thought I'd keep the thread going because I'll hopefully end up looking back on it in years to come and be able to reminisce on the process. I spoke to Reece at MLR the other night and we were discussing the spec, I want a double bubble carbon roof and a carbon bonnet, the roof will just be lacquered but I'd like the bonnet painting and then a single or double stripe leaving to show the carbon, then I'll put the Turbonite badge on it that I managed to get through a contact. The car will be stripped soon, paint removed and seam welded, then dipped in a black stuff that I can't remember the name of, but it's the anti-corrosion stuff that should hopefully mean it will outlive me. Then sprayed back in the PTS blue that it left the factory with. I could have any colour I want but it's very handy that this car turned up in exactly the same blue of a 964 custom build that I'd sent them a picture of, I remember Marc saying they could do it but they'd never find a 996 in that colour as standard, then he excitedly phoned me one evening a couple of weeks later saying he'd got one at the workshop in that exact colour, it was a one-of-one PTS and was I interested in making the guy an offer, crazy coincidence, maybe fate, but either way I was happy. I think I probably paid a bit too much but it's the only one in the world and I either paid it or didn't. It doesn't make a massive difference but having it in the colour it left the factory is a nice bonus. The upgraded GT3 brakes/disks kit and accoutrements are paid for and on the shelf, as well as some of the engine upgrade components, Mahle lightweight pistons designed to match the steel liners that we decided on, plus lightweight rods, all ordered from the US. I'm sure there is a sharp uptake of breath from some quarters because I'm not going with the Hartech solution, but it's the same set-up that Autofarm, RPM, 9m, etc, use and it gives me flexibility to tune it to the moon if I decide to go daft with it. Seats will be proper GT3RS carbon jobs upholstered to my design, with cloth centres, I'm not a fan of all leather. The interior will be black, with blue highlight and blue cage, I'm trying to use just a splash of blue here and there, too much and it will look like a tarts handbag. I'll be there in December when I pick my 930 up and I'll be able to discuss more personalised stuff in person, being able to spec it like I'm on the Porsche configurator is really nice, it's probably something I'll only ever do once with a custom car like this, so I'm going to enjoy it. It's the little bits like seam welding that get me excited, not necessarily the stuff you can see, but the stuff behind the exterior that I know about but won't be immediately apparent. I'm going to do some proper research and spec top notch suspension and components, I think that's one of the places where I'll be happy to put more money in. I've had quite a lot of interest from some of the local clubs/shops and an offer to display it at shows, people are starting to get really interested in 996 custom builds.

Do you have an exterior image of what you want to achieve ?

I've been back and forth on this, I don't want it to pretend to be something it's not, but then there is only so much variation available with off the shelf parts, so it will be a bitsa, inside should look pretty close to a factory 996 GT3RS, but outside I'm proposing to leave the turbo side skirts and front bumper on it because I like them and probably a GT2 spoiler because I like that. MLR did another one that I liked the look of, so it should look something like this, but obviously in blue.

Which blue?

It's a paint to sample called Intense Blue Pearl Metallic. The original paint sticker is still in the car and the under bonnet sticker and according to Porsche when I asked them they don't have any details of another one in that particular blue, so it looks like it's a one of one. There is a bigger picture of it on page one.

Here is another picture taken a few years ago by a previous owner.

Okay, so I'm quite envious of the double bubble roof! It's going to look epic. I found that off the shelf parts were the limiting factor; in my experience it proved to be a good thing as it lead in a particular direction, which resulted in something homogenous, and recognisable. If I were left purely to my own devices I'd have design cues from the GT1. Looking forward to the updates!

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That sounds really tasty! Please keep us all up to date on the fancy carbon bits, especially the roof. From doing my own 993 build, it appeared there are very limited number of suppliers of quality carbon parts, so it would be great if you can share your experiences.

I’ve had a brief discussion about the carbon bits and MLR have their own manufacturer that they deal with. Marc has been in the business for decades and all the people doing this stuff (that aren’t new to it) know each other so he somehow magics things up that I wouldn’t know where to start with. Factory parts are easy, I know someone. My overall vision with this car is probably a big contradiction in itself, I want a 996 GT3RS that has a different engine with loads of mid-range and easy to live with. It’s also going to involve suspension and set-up that is aimed at British roads with the odd track day. I could achieve that with the car as it stood, but I wanted a new car that will hopefully outlive me, but Porsche don't make new 996s, so that means a teardown and bare metal shell, then build back up, rebuilt engine and set back to zero miles. Visually from the exterior it will hopefully look like a tastefully modified car, a bit of Turbo, a bit of GT3, GT2, etc.

I hope this fella doesn’t mind me posting pictures of his car but I think it looks good, understated and just nice. The light/red bar across the back gets a bit lost with this colour scheme, but in the blue car it will stand out and an idea was to try and get it all to light up like a 992.

Is the car a tiptronic?

there's a black 996 c4s with GT2 bodykit here in Dubai. Looks so cool.

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The donor car was, but it currently doesn’t have an engine or gearbox in it and when it’s rebuilt it will be a manual with altered ratios and LSD. Ideally it would have been a manual from the factory but I was very picky on everything else, especially the PTS colour and as I said in an earlier post the likelihood of finding it was almost nonexistent, so when it dropped into my lap I snapped it up, changing the gearbox is easy. However, even though I’m not keeping it I think the Tiptronic is a genuinely wonderful thing, but this will be a manual because I like having more control, heel and toe, being able to use the clutch as another device to get the best out of things, etc.

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Not seen it. An acquaintance has a 997 GT2 but I don’t often see 996s about. I see more air-cooled cars in fact, but Icons of Porsche is coming up so I’ll probably see a lot of cool stuff out and about around then.

I feel like a bit of a fraud with this, I’m not doing any of the work myself. If I was in the UK I’d be down there with overalls on and helping to tear down and then rebuild, I’ve rebuilt all my own classic motorcycles, but working offshore means I’m only getting progress updates from afar. It’s infuriating and exciting, hopefully over the Christmas break there will be some stuff I can help with and do a day in the workshop with them. I’d love to help rebuild the new engine, maybe have a day with my dremel polishing and flowing the head. I think it’ll go together as it is for now, then once we’ve got it set up and working I’ll see what options are there to increase the curve with upgrades. I’ve got a lot on though, picking up the 930, meeting an architect for another garage/workshop build, research and arranging a lift for the new garage so I can work on my own vehicles, etc.

Choosing the right colour is so important for something like this, it's not something you can change very easily compared with say suspension and will really set the car off which I'd imagine is what you want. It sounds really exciting and so pleased someone has the funds and the ambition to go ahead with something like this. Very much looking forward to seeing how this goes. Personally I'd choose a white car with some funky decals especially a widebody 996 but the narrow body GT3 RS looks fantastic too especially the blue decal ones.

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Give me a call when you've got the plans passed as I can supply you decent building materials as I run a directs office for an independent builders merchant. Obviously I'll sort out a decent rate for a fellow Pcar owner and fellow member.

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Cheeky but Is this open to other members on here my parents have a huge project on my dads just in the middle of finishing a huge garage/workshop and then house build on their forever home My dad in the building trade and has a few Porsches

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Absolutely if you're local to Telford or Stoke on Trent..!!

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Ahh unfortunately we are up north . . . It was worth an ask in guessing it will be too far to work anything out

We have a few branches, where are you?

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Just pinged you a messages so dosnt clog this thread up

My new garage might be a slow burn, I’ve got a double garage but the correct amount of garages is the same as cars, which is N+1 I’ve just had an area cleared that used to be an overgrown rockery type thing, I had a containing wall built and concrete poured this weekend. That gives me a good sized area behind large gates and the plan is that eventually this space will become another double garage but I live in a village and probably need planning permission and certainly need the all important permission from my only neighbour who is quite particular, I pruned one of my own trees once, in my own garden and he came round to complain because he could see it from his top window and he preferred it the way it was A previous owner of my house was refused permission for a garage extension because it "wasn’t in keeping with the area", but I think things have relaxed since then and I might call it a horse stable to get the rural decision makers on my side. For now i think I’ll put an outdoor carcoon there and see how I manage over winter with that.

The conversation about the build has started to warm up a bit, they do the payment for it in stages and we're well on the way now, so we're swapping ideas back and forward. I'm see-sawing between keeping it relatively sensible and wanting a 996 RSR - the only thing is a lot of the 996 RSR stuff I've seen is very Japanese orientated and they look like Nissan Zeds. The kid in me wants an RSR as wide as it is long and a lairy paint scheme, but I'd look a berk as a fifty year old bloke riding around in it I think eventually we'll probably stick with as much carbon as we can reasonably justify price-wise and subtle classy modifications.

Sounds like it's going to be an epic build, please keep us all updated

It’s kind of epic but for me at the moment it’s like I’m watching someone else do it on TV, I’m about 5,000 miles away in Dubai and the lads are tearing the donor car down in Stoke. We’ve just decided on GT3 wheels for now, so they’re in the bag, I was going to go with something exotic but GT3 wheels are easy, perfect fit and very easy to sell in the future if I change them once I’ve actually got the car in my hands, so they’ll do for now to get a working car up on its feet. I kind of wish I’d gone with carbon brakes, I’m a massive fan of reducing unsprung weight, all my motorcycles get carbon wheels as a first modification, but I’ve already bought a brand new big brake GT3 kit that is sitting there on the shelf and i suppose they could easily be sold on but steel brakes are easy to live with and a bit of inertia on a road car isn’t always a bad thing. My experience with lightweight wheels, brakes, flywheels, etc, is that it’s different but not necessarily always better, it’s just different. My concern with lightweight engine and flywheel but not lightening the car and particularly unsprung mass is that it will feel awkward, I’ve felt it before, it’s like the engine wants to go but it’s dragging too much weight and you can feel it, so lightening the car is important and we’ll do what we can there, and then see how the brakes/wheels turn out. I’ll see how it goes, you get to a point of diminishing returns so I might not go daft with it, a well sorted 996 is enough without throwing unnecessary money at it. Plus I still have plans to twin turbo the 930 and do something a bit special with that. When it goes back next year for the full bodywork refresh I might have the engine out again and build something like the US guys at Turbocraft do, they have a well developed 500bhp solution that is reliable and proven. It has EFI, twin turbos so no lag and they make amazing road cars.

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Are you looking for an oem spoiler? I have a genuine carrera spoiler option code XAG I’m looking to part with

Harry, everytime I see a new post from you I notice the time and think to myself " does he ever sleep..?" ... then it occurs to me that you're on the other side of the world... Or you're just so damn excited about this 996 that you don't actually sleep can't wait to see the " finished" 996. I have to say I'm surprised that you've just settled for a wheel though after all the thought that's gone into everything else.

GT3 wheels are gorgeous , they just look right. Any decisions on colour yet?

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I think we've got one sorted thanks but drop me a message and I'll talk to the lads. It's not really like I "settled" for them, we had a conversation and they seem the best things for the job at the moment, or perhaps even permanently, they're very good wheels, not terribly expensive and always easy to sell on, so it's a good option to get the car up and away, then I can always get something if I decide to splash out. To get something significantly better than the GT3 wheels you'd have to spend at least 3x the amount and I can't make up my mind on anything else. The good thing about keeping things fairly factory standard is that there are loads of easy ways to change stuff and just bolt it on, wheels are probably the easiest thing to change at any point in the future.

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The colour of the wheels? Not decided. Probably black or a dark grey, maybe gold, but with the blue PTS I wonder if it's maybe a bit too much Subaru Impreza. Although in fairness I still have a massive soft spot for a nice blue Impreza with gold wheels, I had one back in the day. Or did you mean the car? The car will most definitely be repainted in the factory PTS blue, that was the whole reason for buying that particular car in the one-of-one PTS blue, it's pretty close to Minerva blue, which is my favourite Porsche colour of all time.

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I think the GT3 wheels will look best in silver, for gold wheels you would need BBS LM/E88

Rotiform do some nice wheel options and have a cool looking deep-dish Fuchs style wheel Rotiform FUC Custom Blue on gold will look quite Impreza, but gold wheels do look good....what about a bronze/copper finish to the GT3 wheels? (different wheels and car, but you get the idea )

Bbs e88 all the way

Those Rotiform wheels in matt black do look nice. Polished rims can be nice and it's a classic Porsche look, the Fuchs look awesome on my 930, but I'm not sure on this car, I'd like it to look more businesslike than flashy, plus if there is too much going on then it can look too busy, it's going to be modified up top with an aero kit and plenty going on with a visible cage, etc, so having flashy wheels would be like having flashy shoes and a bright tie - i.e. too many points of focus. To be honest I liked the anthracite turbo twists that it came with, but GT3 wheels will look better.

Finding the right fitment in some of the wheels can be a challenge, there were some BBS magnesium wheels that I liked but they wouldn't fit. Nice satin grey/platinum magnesium wheels with carbon brakes would look the business, but I'd be looking at over twenty grands worth though and I'm not sure they'd actually bring more to the table than a five grand GT3 brake kit and two grand GT3 wheels.

Teardown has begun, I’ve got some video that I’ll upload to YouTube or TikTok, I’ve only just started using TikTok so I might stick with YouTube. I’m sitting at about 38,000ft at the moment traveling so I’ll have to wait until I’ve got a faster internet connection, but watch this space….

The blue colour in the right light looks gorgeous. I’m going to try and get this car in some magazine features to showcase what these boys can do.

And look at that 993 Speedster behind. Built by Marc, it’s one of a collection of properly authorised 993 Speedsters built by them.

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Fantastic motors, all of them. Been lucky enough to have seen the orange speedster in the flesh and it's stunning...what's the arctic silver 996 behind yours..... C4S I'm guessing at the price..?

I don't know actually, as far as I know they don't usually sell cars, I'll ask, I'll be down there Friday morning. If it's a C4S for sale from them at that price then it's going to be good.

He did mention that he was considering selling the Speedster because he doesn't get chance to use it much, whoever buys that (if he ever does sell it) is going to get a very sorted car. I'd have ripped his arm off if I hadn't already dumped a load of cash into the 930 and this build.

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A bit more video from the start of the teardown. I'm heading down there tomorrow and looking forward to seeing it in person.

Mat at Ecosse Automotive has a gorgeous GT2 that he painted Oslo Blue

that is a good looking car wonder if that is the Oslo Blue GT2 that was at the Fairmile a few years ago that caused such a stir

Yeah it will be, it's a superb machine and he was making a mockery of the GT3 brigade at Anglesey track day last year. And like me he's put amber side side indicators on it which look perfect against the blue. It's a solid colour , not metallic and the interior done to match , it's a very special car.

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I checked and yes, it's a silver 996 manual Targa, it's got 50k miles on it and it's in exceptional condition, I had a quick look around it and it's a really nice car, to be honest it might not be something I'd usually get excited about, but in the flesh it's absolutely lovely and it's like new inside. Reece said it's been well looked after and I think they've just finished some recent preventive maintenance, so it should be good for a while. I don't think it's advertised anywhere, but the bloke wants to sell it and they'd stuck a price sign in the window whilst it's there.

I got to have a proper look at the project today, it's exceptionally good condition for a twenty year old car, the paint is stunning in the light, that blue really pops out at you. I feel like I'm throwing superlatives around like they're going out of fashion, but it's hard not to get carried away. The GT3 RS wheels are being refinished in black with polished rims. It has some super lightweight wheels on for now

Whilst I was there I had a few decisions to make, like do I put the extra radiator in? It seems a no brainer to do it, especially since it's very likely to find itself out in the UAE on the track at 40c. The fuel tank, the donor car is a C4S, so the fuel tank is different and I've opted to have a bigger one now it's being converted and I have the extra space to fill. And another thing was the suspension, the wheel carriers were a surprise, Marc had laid out the choices I had on the bench so I could pick them up and actually feel the differences, the RS ones were ridiculously light compared to the C2 or GT3 ones, they're expensive and arguably not necessary but from what I've read they're a very good upgrade if you have the budget. Once I'd actually held them in my hands and felt the differences it again felt like a no brainer, so I'm going with those. From what I read it changes the steering feel from 'great' to 'telepathic', so it's a more expensive option but hopefully I'll feel the benefit. It seems like regardless of car colour, everyone goes with red seatbelts, the guys in the shop said the same, even with their green car they went with red seatbelts, apparently to match the calipers. But my wife put her foot down and wants blue seatbelts and I'm not bothered enough to argue against it, in fact it will probably look less busy inside, the red might be too much with the blue cage and blue accents on the dash.

We haven't had much discussion about the engine, other than we're using a well tried and tested formula of upgrade to 3.9L with lightweight rods and pistons. I might do a bit of research into cam profiles, new heads, etc, but it's not being built for power, it's being built for torque, low inertia, drivability, etc. I'm not really sure it needs a lot of thought at this stage, it's more about the package than the engine, the standard engine would probably be fine, and the upgrades will just add to what should be a great overall package.

Will MLR be doing the engine work in-house H...?

Another fabulous post of what will be a brilliant build

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Yes mate, they do send some specialist engineering stuff out to a local engineering shop but most of the work is done by them, e.g. the 964 cam work that needs to be done to fit them to the 930 was sent out to a specialist place because the equipment needed is expensive and they probably get asked once or twice a year to do it, so it makes more sense to send out specialist work, everything else was done in house on the 930, it's great to see cars moving from their engineering side of the building around the corner to the bodyshop.

A short clip and interior picture.

So are the GT3 RS wheels the red or blue ones from a real GT3 RS? and you're going to re paint them like Fuchs? (polished rims) Sounds fantastic, the whole thing , keep the photos coming. I think your wife is right about the red seat belts. That GT2 above has a gorgeous interior with blue highlights, I'll try and get a pic of it. Good luck.

This is all I could find

Yes they’re genuine RS wheels finished in black and the rims will be polished and lacquered, so sort of Fuchs style. I’ve just got back from Icons of Porsche with lots of ideas about colours and interior stuff. Tartan seat inserts are looking good, they’re popular at the moment with the 50th anniversary of the Turbo and the tartan theme they’ve gone with. Some blue tartan should look good.

I saw an interior at icons that I wouldn’t normally have considered and I don’t know how the pictures will come out but it really worked in real life.

I read earlier, that the engine would be lightened, but was unsure if you are fitting a lightweight clutch. If so have you decided what type to go for ? An ali flywheel, or steel ? And who's ? The reason I ask is many engine builders are against them, saying the engine does not improve by fitting one. But I chose one and find that heal and toe is a pleasure to use when driving the car, this was backed up by the rolling road guy's that set up my 4ltr engine, when he took it out for a test drive, and came back impressed with how it felt.

We haven’t had the discussion about it properly yet. My interpretation of resistance from a lot of engine people is that they’ve been down that path so many times and ended up with complaints, when it’s harder to drive. Pulling away smoothly can be awkward and it doesn’t make for a decent distance car, or even often just a decent road car. A lot of people think they want a race car on the road, only to find that it’s really not that nice to drive. Having a bit of inertia in the engine makes it smoother and less demanding. I purposely chose a non-GT car and engine to start with because I didn’t want an actual GT RS, I just wanted to cherry pick the best bits - which to be fair many would say is the engine but not in my opinion in a road car. For what I’m spending I’m not far off an actual 996 RS at todays prices but building my own means I won't have to compromise and I can create my interpretation of what a Carrera RS should be. So I’ll talk to the guys and see, it’s going to rev a bit quicker with the lightweight internals and I think a lighter clutch/flywheel will be good as well, but they do know their onions so I’ll take their advice too.

I’m still committed (no choice really as we’re already into it) but if I wasn’t doing this I’d love to have bought this https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/17330742 Although just for the point of discussion what has always put me off the actual RS was I remember reading comments from people that had tested them and (unless they were being paid to give gushing positive reviews) then they didn’t seem overly impressed. Obviously looking back it was the start of something epic but back then we didn’t know where it was going and a lot of us thought they were possibly more hype than substance rather than a genuine stand out car. This might still be a valid opinion, is a £150k RS 6x better than a well sorted £25k 996 C2S. And people say the RS is undervalued. Anyway, I always wanted the good bits of one, along with a big torque engine and a set-up geared to UK roads. Which is hopefully what this build will deliver. But over the last couple of decades I’ve looked at those blue accented 996 RSs many times and I’d still really like to own one.

Back to the bare shell and ready for dipping.

They're cracking on! Shell looks really clean. On the 996 gt3rs uprights, it's interesting to hear of someone actually using the RS parts, I've never quite got my head around the details - I'd always thought the control arm pick up (and the tie rod) on the RS is a fair bit lower than the gt3 (distance to wheel bearing is larger) for lower ride height, but then the RS has similar ride height to 'normal' gt3. I wondered whether it was to homologate race parts or something. Are you planning to run a low ride height? I take it you're doing the same at the rear? I'd not realised there was a significant weight difference with the hollow RS parts as they're beefier - on rosepassion it suggests a matter of grams not kilos, they all basically come up at ~3kg give or take.

I have to be honest here and declare that I know very little about the intricacies of the suspension elements, which Marc clearly realised because as I said he had them all laid out on a table for me to handle. It was clever of him to do so because there is no way to adequately explain it unless you've held them all in your hands, it's a genuine surprise and I'd struggle to believe that the weight difference is slight, they felt like literally half the weight, perhaps it's exaggerated because they're much beefier, but they're definitely considerably lighter, it's not just a few grammes. Getting into too much detail would be wasted on me, he basically said they're lots more expensive but what I was feeling by holding them in my hands also translates to how much better the car would feel with them installed. There are people who claim it's unnecessary but MLR have done cars with and without them and they said it's noticeable, he said something like the proper RS set-up is the difference between good handling and telepathic handling. We're not going for a low ride height, it has to be a usable road car.

Reece dropped me a few photos last night as she was being taken off to the dippers. He'd previously said that once they come apart they move at a fair pace to get them finished, but this is actually quicker than expected. I think the next stage is back to the workshop for seam welding and any work that is needed, although it looks in exceptional condition so I doubt that will be long, then back to the dippers again and then ecoated. After that it's paint and the rebuild, but again I don't anticipate that taking forever, most of the conversations about spec have been had now and there has been a fair bit going on behind the scenes to get everything ready, so it's looking promising for early summer. I said it on another thread but in my opinion there is nothing in the water-cooled 911 range that feels as nimble and sharp as a very well set up 996. I've had quite a lot of interest in this build and without doubt if someone big like Singer started using the 996 then it would bomb burst onto the scene in a big way, at the moment it is quietly sizzling away and getting interest from people that want a special car building and recognise that the 996 is a superb platform to start with, maybe in a few years the market will be ready for them.

I expect it'll go quiet now over Christmas, hopefully the boys are slaving away this week to get the 930 to me by the weekend, then they're off skiing, then everyone will close down for Christmas, so I don't think I'll see this shell again until the new year, at which point it should be back with an ecoat. Apparently there was an annoying rattle on this car...lol.

Project costs on this so far are £38,500. That includes the donor car, the teardown, a full GT3 big brake kit, the Mahle pistons, liners, conrods, etc. Budget is about £100k-ish but that might move if I decide on something fancy, I quite like the idea of reducing unsprung weight with PCCBs but I've already got a full steel GT3 kit, then maybe magnesium wheels and keep the GT3 RS ones for spares. I was reading about some fancy cylinder heads from an American firm that have partnered with Hartech, they reckon on 400bhp from a 3.9L upgrade and just their heads and a decent exhaust. The list could be endless, I might get carbon wings, they not crazy money but the doors are expensive. I think this will be a hell of a car for the money.

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I found those in higher resolution, plus a few more ( source ) :

It's quiet on the build front, Christmas and getting my 930 out for Christmas Eve took up my allotted time when they were short staffed over Christmas, but hopefully now the new year has begun I'll start to see some more progress on this build. Reece mentioned about me going to Le Mans with them in the MLR built cars now they've got a few complete, so I'm hoping that's an ETA of late April as a complete car. They're more plug & play than the 930 so hopefully less complicated to tune and set up - plus they've done a few now so they have it down to a fine art. I've got some seriously high hopes with this build, it should handle better than a factory RS and as it's a custom built one aimed specifically to cope with UK A&B roads it should be a little more pleasurable to hustle around the lanes. When I was down there at Christmas the guys said there were a few cheers in the workshop when they found out I was having it re-done in the PTS blue that it came in, it should look stunning and they haven't done a blue one yet, so it will be a bit different. A magazine article featuring the first few builds might be interesting because all have been specced slightly differently so they're all mainly off-the-shelf equipped 996s but there is some subtle differences in there. The news is spreading, he said they've had one order from California and interested parties in Hong Kong, plus a couple when I was telling people about mine at Icons last year. As soon as people heard there were 996's being rebuilt as Carrera RS cars there was quite a buzz about it. I've already said, the 996 is an awesome platform to work from, it would be great to see a trend take off with the 996 as a base car for some interesting projects.

I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again - thanks for sharing the details of this build, it's really fascinating to follow and I can't wait to see the final result One question, what shock absorbers are you having fitted to the car?

I have previously been an Ohlins fan and that would have been my preference, but following my experience with the KWs on my 930 it will be a set of those, they're impressive for the money and they seem to be really good quality kit that will give plenty of performance for my requirements.

This is a cool project and its nice to see someone putting the time and money into their 996 to realise their dream. Im excited for the outcome! On the suspension side of things, i've fitted Nitron to my last 2 cars and couldnt recommend them enough. The spring rates are maybe a tad high as they come but each kit is made to suit individual requirements (i got slightly softer springs on my 996 set).

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Funnily enough pretty much exactly as you were posting that I got the latest bill from MLR which included the KWs and all the upgraded RS suspension parts. I’m not far off the point now where I could have bought a genuine GT3 and we’re not finished yet, although once the car is finished I’ll effectively have an RS without the engine, which is exactly what I asked for, it’s the RS Carrera Porsche should have built but didn’t, literally the same car as the actual RS including seam welded shell but a more road oriented engine built for torque and not high revs (although this one will have a ported/tuned 3.9L). I have Nitron on some of my bikes and they’re good bits of kit. It’s subtle but good suspension makes a massive difference to the quality of the ride, I know that’s an obvious thing to say but I don’t think a lot of people appreciate it.

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Absolutely. People get scared of high spring rates, especially, but completely overlook the quality of the damper and its ability to control that spring. It’s difficult because there is no accepted common measure of ‘damper quality’, and a lot of what influences ride quality is too fast to be measured on a standard shock dyno, as I understand it. The other factor which doesn’t help here, I suspect, is when people take a punt on a set of dampers and have their indy install them and the car only gets driven slowly (before the dampers are bedded in) to test before handover. Thus is propagated the notion that ‘expensive coilovers are rock hard’. Cool project. I’m watching with interest.

I could feel the KWs on the 930 soften up and I’ve probably only done a couple of hundred miles or so but I could feel the ride quality improve over that short time and I anticipate will only get better. Initially they did feel a tad harsh, or maybe not harsh but just perhaps a tad firm, but you could feel the plushness (if that’s a word) and then after a few hours running you could feel them bed in and feel nicer - it actually has the effect of making the car feel a bit faster because I can hold higher speeds compared to standard - which is something else that us converted people understand about decent suspension.

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KW are great, you'll definitely not go far wrong! Do you know which KW's they are? I get that completely, if my engine ever went and i went 3.9/4.0, id be in at higher mileage GT3 money but arguably have a better car with the mods i've done (at least for me!) As i say, i'm really looking forward to your end result! It is funny you put it like this, my last car was a 50 year old BMW and all the old boys spring rate recommendations were half that of Nitrons but i went with it and the car was incredible and also comfortable, I took it over to the Nurburgring and hammered thousands of miles out on lumpy, bumpy british B roads and never had a complaint about it being too stiff, only how well it went down a road.

I read a thread on Rennsport years ago about modified cars and their respective values. I've always taken the view that the modifications were for you and they rarely add value to a car, but in some cases they probably should if they're genuine factory parts and move the car up into a higher performance envelope with factory reliability. E.g. This build, I'm turning the car into an RS in the same way Porsche would have done in the factory, it's a wide body shell, seam welded and put together with genuine off the shelf Porsche RS running gear and interior - even down to a genuine brand new GT3RS rear carpet set at silly money. It's not even a copy or replica, it's mechanically identical other than the engine and gearbox - unless I can get an RS gearbox with lowered ratios and then I'll put that in. So if it's mechanically identical apart from the engine, how much of the £100k+ build costs do you reckon I'd get back in a sale? I'm saying half, if someone really wanted a very well sorted 996 with brand new engine and brand new RS running gear, bare metal respray and new everything else with mileage set back to zero, then I reckon they'd pay £50k, possibly a tad more if they knew the builders or genuinely knew what went into it. There is a Rennsport custom build that cost the owner £280k, he didn't gel with it and put it up for sale, but over a year no one was interested and the last I saw he was hawking it for £175k. I was tempted to throw a cheeky offer of £150k but it wasn't really my spec and I'm already several hundred grand deep in 911s as it is. What say you? How much (and I suspect it'll end up somewhere between £110-115k build cost) would you buy it off me for? I'm a big boy, I can take it

Exactly that! I love talking dampers unfortunately, I’ve started now. Sorry. The spring rate only really sets the wheel deflection under a consistent load, and the undamped natural frequency response to an impulse. So: how much pitch and roll you get for a given rate of acceleration and how fast the body would bounce if it had no dampers. The damper handles dynamics (wheel disturbance and transition between static load cases) by essentially filtering wheel forces between the spring and the body. Slow movements (steering and brake inputs) should go into the body so that the tyre is loaded quickly, whilst fast movements (bumps, etc) should go into the spring so that the tyre load and body movement is not disturbed. A good damper is able to really effectively filter these movements. I’m generalising here, but a ‘firmer’ damper is one which has a lower transition speed between ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ movements. So as you wind the clicks up, more bumps become body movements, or the more closely the body follows the profile of the road. The same happens when the damper is new (the seals offer a load of resistance, meaning it’s stiff) or when you slow the car down: the same bump in the road becomes a slower damper movement, so the damper puts it into the body instead of into the spring. This is also why well damped fast cars ‘settle down’ as the road speed increases: bumps in the road become ‘fast’ and the damper filters them out. For what it’s worth (and my budget was way smaller than yours!) I have the Ohlins Road & Track dampers on my 996.1 Carrera, with standard spring rates and anti-roll bars, and they work beautifully on the road. Potholes etc are not a problem, even whilst loaded up mid-corner, and you don’t have to back off for big undulations or camber changes for fear of unsettling it. I love them. I’m sure your KWs will do the same or better!

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KW V3 specific to the GT3RS. I think they retail about £3,700 but I'm getting a discount. There are more expensive versions but they're not necessary for what I'll be putting them through and I don't need the level of adjustment of the more expensive ones.

As you say, the advantage of quality suspension is how it reacts and spreads the load, on my motocross race bikes it was a revelation when they introduced high and slow speed compression control, coupled with more advanced rebound damping, you could actually tune bumps out so they almost weren't there and it made ruts and whoops so much easier to manage, the suspension was coping with multiple issues at the same time and effectively neutralising them. What I notice most in a car is that undulations on fast B roads are bought under control. Up near me there are some really fast crests and undulations and on crude standard suspension it often hadn't recovered quickly enough to cope with the next thing coming up, so you ended up with 'packing' where it was still trying to cope with the last compression as it started to deal with the new challenge. This seems to be a thing of the past now and you don't get than kangaroo effect where you feel out of control.

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Is that a certain green Rennsport? If so, i went to see it with my friend a few weeks ago and hes bought it haha! Its probably not worth thinking about resale on yours but i think you'd easily get your half back, especially as the 996 seems to grow ever popular in recent years!

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It might be, there were a couple over the year that were similar, this one in the North West started off being advertised with a big screen price and a stated build cost of £280k and ended up a long time afterwards being reduced massively. It looked nice and I was tempted to go and have a look once he started dropping the price like a stone. It's a clear indication that right now you're definitely not getting your build costs back, even Singers seem to be sitting there not selling and my guess is they're trying to get about 60% of the build cost back but still not selling. It would be interested to see what your mate reckons of it and whether he thinks he got a bargain?

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I think Singers are almost a thing of their own, a classic build was originally 5-600k and they are changing hand for up to £1m these days. If i had anywhere near that money for a classic 911 then id be wanting a Tuthill 911k, thats for sure! He thinks hes got a relative bargain, saving some £110k and getting 75% of the Singer experience for 1/6th of the cost. It's his first proper classic car so im keen to see how he gets on, im hoping he gets the bug!

I don’t know, I think there is a lot of smoke and mirrors, a lot of marketing and not always a lot of substance or truth behind the numbers.

Couple on Autotrader and both well over £1M..........................are they really worth it when you consider they're spec'd for someone else...... more of a fashion accessory in my eyes and could get a few choice cars of note for the same money and still have leftover cash for a villa in Mallorca.

I really fancied an ST, I’ve long been a fan of the originals from the early 70s and so when the new ones were announced I thought it was right up my street but they all went to speculators. I’d happily take one if they were even just list plus 10% and I’d use it as intended including the track. There is one in Glasgow, black with tan interior and it would look cracking in my garage but I’d feel robbed at £420k. I tried to get a 50th Anniversary Turbo and pulled all the strings I had available but no chance. In my opinion the first thing they should have done is offer them to existing owners of classic registered 930s as it’s a celebration of those and we’re clearly enthusiasts, but instead they went to speculators who bought them as investments. All those cars will go into storage and not get used, along with everything else that seems to get built but never sees the light of day.

Anyway, instead I decided to get a Carerra RS built instead which is the car I’d actually ask for if Porsche came to me and asked me what they could make for me. I almost went for a 964 RS, I know where there is a genuine one for sale, but it was too close in looks to the 930 so I went to MLR to build me a 996 RS.

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...purple one by any chance..?

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Oh forgot about that one, so that's two I know for sale, the purple one has a brilliant history, I don't think he's in any rush to sell it though.

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There have been a few sold on collecting cars for 700+ but the big seven figure sum seems inflated! I've got a friend with a turbo on order, its in the Singer turbo/ Chris Harris video at the beginning in blue, i hope i get to see it! I think the typical owner has those other things if they want them regardless im afraid, how the other half live hey haha

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I met a bloke who said he had a Singer on order but he seemed to be trying too hard to convince me. I've been to some really high end events and I see some of these cars on display but I very rarely ever see anyone actually pull up in one. I suppose they must exist but they must live in storage, whereas if you go to a McLaren (or even better still a Gordon Murry) event there are a few million quids worth of cars pull up, people actually drive them. I've never seen a row of Singers or other million quid Porsches though.

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Yes, i think they started out as wealthy enthusiast cars but with their popularity have turned into something else entirely now! Gladly there are also plenty of enthusiast collectors that use their high end cars as well (im clearly the peasant of the group!): 20240623_183118 by Scott Osborne , on Flickr

I see a lot of supercars out and about (I live in Dubai), the villa opposite has a Sterrato, next door has a GT3RS, etc. But I rarely see any of these high end custom jobs like Singers or the like, and certainly not when I'm back in the UK at my house in Lancs, I don't know where they go but it's not to people who use them much.

Sheiks and Sultans of...............................

Anyway, back onto the build progress for anyone intested or thinking of doing the same and looking for details. The front suspension is getting GT3 RS wheel carriers ( https://www.rosepassion.com/en/diag...118147-wheel-carrier-front-right-right-118147 ) - which are the best part of two grand each. The standard ones are about half the price and as I said before they're arguably overkill but people I've spoken to have said I'll definitely feel the difference. Then there are good quality top mounts somewhere around a grand, obviously depending on which ones you go for. The KWs are again obviously dependant on spec and then a set of fancy coffin arms. All this stuff is on the shelf now. Then we've gone for stuff that is nice to have, some X51 kit stuff like the baffled sump, an extended fuel tank that can be fitted because the 4WD is being removed so there is space for it and an extra centre radiator so I can use it in hot climates and/or track use. The engine is all there, there are refurbed and tuned cylinder heads, sleeves, pistons, rods, guides, etc. Basically it's a new engine apart from the cases. Hopefully it'll be back from the dippers soon and I can update with a few pictures of the seam welding and then back for ecoating.

Harry, given you comments on seeing the likes of a Singer out and about, I thought to post this pic I took in 2024, all be it not out and about per say, but at an annual event set up by a PCGB and TIPEC member, held in a public countryside park on the outskirts of a large Glasgow suburban housing complex, and that is free to enter, and while there are many Porsche and other car enthusiasts bound to attend, the locals just taking their kids to the park as normal were in evidence too, and to the extent that no one was noticeably being precious about the Porsches in my pic, I guess that could qualify for just as "out and about" as any special Porsche might ever be found...? As best I can remember, I think the Singer is Green the Guntherwerks (?) pink (ish) and the Dakar is all to obvious....? (-:

My Facebook has also been listening and has started showing me pictures of Singers in streets, so they must be out there. I see Dakars and various other production cars reasonably frequently, it’s just the custom ones I don’t see so much of.

Any recommendations to get specialist insurance to cover a £100k+ custom build with a guaranteed value? Marc at MLR said he's managed to get a policy, fully comp, agreed value on one of his builds at (I think he said) £87,500. I'd be looking for slightly more maybe £110k and I'd like to recover it all if it goes up in smoke, the 930 owes me £170K+, so I'd like that back as well if it met an unfortunate end, so do any of you know specialist companies that would work with me on this, I'll try Marcs advice as well but it doesn't hurt to have choices. I'm starting to put proper money into these cars now and I'd like to feel that I can recover my pension money if some reprobate steals it or crashes into it. Any recommendations?

Howdens, Thatcham branch

No news. It doesn’t sound like that was worth posting does it, but when you’re having a car built and you’re throwing serious money at it, then it’s fairly hard to put it out of your mind. Most days I sit and look at adverts for something similar because there is a big hole in my garage where this car should be I know the boys are on with it but if I were a rich man I’d pay a team to do nothing else except build this car and then I’d have a lot less time to wait. I’ll check in today and see what’s happening. It’s probably still at the dippers because of the Christmas break and catching up on the backlog.

Looking forward to the next update - hopefully with photos

The shell is being collected today, hopefully pictures later, so I'll post them in the morning. Seam welding, then back for another dip and ecoat. Latest instalments also paid and a couple of big bills needed paying, including some big ticket items like the RS wheel carriers, the KW suspension for the RS components, the labour for the shell work, the acid dip, the ecoat and the new paint job, plus completely refurbished and ported cylinder heads, so project costs so far are £68k. I'm only posting the costs so anyone thinking about it has an idea, the guys are very transparent and will tell you themselves if you ask for one to be built, remember this will effectively be a brand new car built with a wide body shell, actual RS chassis and running gear spec, not just a lookalike, it's actual RS parts, with completely rebuilt 3.9L engine, new custom interior and mileage at zero. Ballpark is £100k, but it can be whatever you want it to be within reason depending what you spec.

When i spoke to Reece about them in Dec he said around £100k for a zero miles example... looking forward to seeing yours H.... have you decided on wheels yet..?

For now it's got the genuine RS wheels going on it, I got them for a couple of grand and they'll fit perfect with no hassle. They're dead easy to sell on, I'll get my £2k back easily, so I can take my time and then decide when I'm ready.

When you say RS , I take it you mean 996 GT3RS? Can you explain the seam welding , where is it being done? is it to beef up spot welding? The 996 GT3RS was a narrowbody C4 shell , I take it all the RS you're using will bolt straight in to the widebody ? It sounds fantastic and a once in a lifetime opportunity to build something completely unique and bespoke to you. Wonderful. Are you still going for a blue car?

Yes GT3RS, built on a wide body which the later 997 ones were. Seam welding is a bit of an art, best explained by someone else, but it’s around certain points to reduce movement/flex and coupled with the full cage will stiffen it right up. Im keeping it the PTS blue that it left the factory with, as far as I know the only one in the world in that colour. I’m having my 997 wrapped currently in a very close colour, bright metallic blue. I should have pictures soon of the shell, then the ecoat which hopefully makes it corrosion proof for my lifetime. But the pics I’m really waiting for is the shell finished in that Intense Blue Metallic PTS. After that he said they go together quite quickly. Then a dyno set up and we’re away.

Did you consider trying to find a Mezger engine for it? I think the Hartech engine will be just as good, they must know these engines inside out and any potential issues with the less well known problems will be sorted I would imagine. Converting a Turbo engine into a GT3 would be the only way as GT3 engines for a 996 are hens teeth.

I’d have just bought a genuine 996 RS if I wanted the metzger high revving engine but the one I tried didn’t impress me, the ride was great but the engine didn’t lend itself well to road use, hence asking for an RS but with a road oriented 3.9L engine with low down torque as a feature.

This sounds like a stupendous project. I hope you will take it on tour so we can all come a have a look once she is done.

I think the boys have a very good and currently niche product and I’d quite like to get it on some YouTube stuff and maybe a magazine to showcase what’s possible with the 996. The 996 is an insanely capable platform and there are cars out there for peanuts. The opportunity for custom builds is massive and I’ve said it before, if someone like Singer switched to the 996 as its platform of choice then they’d skyrocket in price and you’d really see what it’s capable of. When I was at Icons of Porsche there were all kinds of special cars but only one custom 996 and it was getting all the attention. I think it’s ready to blossom and start getting the recognition as the fantastic platform that it really is. Personally I think the air-cooled restomod has been done to death now, they’re so cliche, it going to end up like having a mullet, cool once but not anymore, it’s time for these influential custom shops to start throwing the 996 into the mix.

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A hundred grand sounds like a lot of money, and obviously it is, but it's relative obviously. Imagine going to Porsche and asking for a brand new 996 to be built, to RS spec, but with a complete free choice of colour, parts, spec, etc. I bet people would be very happy at £100k for that. I genuinely think the 996 is a chapter in the 911 lifecycle that is special, it's the first proper production water-cooled 911 and it's still got a lot of what the aficionados really value about the 911, like that nimble sports car feel of our yesterdays. Let's not forget it was voted car of the year by people that really knew what a 911 should be. Its proportions are about spot on and I think if they hadn't put the Boxster front end on and the divisive lights then it would be more desirable. You'd pay much closer to £200k or even more for the same thing if you started with a 964 or 993 as the base car. I'm obviously biased because the 996 was my choice of platform, but I think everything I'm saying is fair, it's not bias without any substance behind it, the 996 is a genuinely great platform and with the right parts and set-up its a great car. I doubt anyone would argue that a 996 GT3 is not a great moment in Porsche 911 history.

I found a 2003 Top Gear episode with the 996 GT3… starts at 48.35 minutes. Not sure if this link will work but it’s series 3, episode 1. Top Gear - Series 3: Episode 1 Jeremy reviews the Ford GT and VW Lupo, Richard tries the Porsche GT3, and James tests out the new-look BMW 5 series. With Martin Kemp in a Reasonably Priced Car. www.bbc.co.uk

I will have watched that, but I've forgotten what they had to say and I need a VPN to watch it here. However, I remember those days and I've either listened to podcasts or read articles since from other people who remember them, the GT3 RS was seen as a bit of a gimmick amongst those that weren't being paid to give gushing reviews or needed to stay on the right side of the press people. No one had any idea that it would lead to decades of GT cars that would almost redefine the 911. This is what I meant about the engine characteristics, I thought the 996 RS was a fantastic feeling car, but like a Civic Type R you had to wring it's neck for it to make any sense and these days sooner or later that's going to get you in trouble on the UK roads. I remember getting into my dads mates Impreza that was tuned for torque and it was a revelation, short shifting all through the gears and making serious progress. Hence why I wanted a different RS, I wanted the car but with a 4.0L engine aimed at road driving, with the odd track day. I could have achieved it easily by buying a Turbo, but where would the fun be in buying an off-the-shelf solution, I wanted something built just for me.

...I love that you have chosen the 996 for your project and agree that £100k for what you are getting in today's retro mod world is genuinely a bargain and you can choose the spec... ...also really love your appreciation for the unnecessarily devicive 911 that managed to get everyone's panties in a twist over the lights even though it was in just about every metric ' better ' than the 993... ...and they really are under valued which is the reason you can do what you are doing for the cost ... ...enjoying this thread alot . Thanks for taking the time to share openly ...

Good sales pitch for the 996 GT3RS Harry..... There would seem to be no point in denying Porsche has created some very special 911 based derivatives, I suspect you may be correct re the once less appreciated 996 headlights perhaps due to the obvious Boxter linkage, and that the passage of time may have dulled that line of thought and now may make the 996 look different enough from all the other 911 derivatives to be accepted as cool, by some of a different generation...? The thing about the air cooled is that I suspect it may not be linked to just the baby boomer generation and their and my priorities are, as so many classic car values seem to be...? I suspect even young folk today will ever see the 356 speedster as I conic, just as it seems some do the long hood 911`s ..? Perhaps much of the marketing may be down to the use of selected models in films, I do wonder at the Top Gun effect and other such films. That the yoof of today seem to be more influenced by that which they can share quickly on their phones, then I guess that is where the marketing men at Porsche Ruf, Singer and others will be concentrating their efforts at the moment given the baby boomers influence is time limited.. ? As you may know I run an old V8 crate, and I just kinda smile at way that folk have their old rudimentary designed cars modified to better fit something akin to match the expectations of a Mercedes SL, in terms of looking for more bling and comfort and convenience .... It`s just what we do, is it not... Apple play in your 996 GT3RS....? (-:

I will 100% be having the Porsche Appleplay double din system in my 996, it's in my 997 and I couldn't do without it. I've asked them to put the single din version in the 930. I like being able to stream Spotify podcasts, or use the phone at the flick of a button, or Google Maps, or whatever else catches my fancy. To be fair I don't use, or even know HOW to use half the stuff on it, but I can't see any reason not to have modern communications and entertainment in your car.

...okay I'm very much invested in the project so I reckon I now have a say (fairs,fair) so please confirm that this will be the singularly unique (tautological ?) 996 MLR RS Touring? ...to these small c conservative eyes a Spoiler does precisely what it states and ruins the iconic and unique ( that adjective again) 911 shape... ...oh and I'm happy about all of 'our ' build plans thus far

I’ve considered it but we kind of settled on a GT2 spoiler. I’m not welded to it, I might make it the Touring version. It was originally going to have a ducktail but I felt it was copying RPMs CSR cars so we dropped that. The touring would be the stealth version. But I feel like it needs something to differentiate a £110k RS build from a standard C4S, I don’t know if it’s an ego thing but I feel like the car deserves the recognition.

If it was green I’d try and replicate an original 1972 ST type car, but the blue won’t work for it. This is actually my wife’s RS build, she calls the shots.

Great project! I would go for the ducktail =) it looks lovely on the C4S without being to aggressive.

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Nah we ditched that idea months ago because RPM had done it with their cars.

...what about start as stealth Touring and then add a wing unless the gaffer has other plans? Anyway it's a really interesting project that we can enjoy vicariously

Phase one teardown complete and it's literally down to component parts, so now the fun stuff can begin as we begin the build. The shell looks to be in very good condition. Most of the big ticket items are on the shelf now, so it needs seam welding, then treating and spraying and then it's all systems go on the reconstruction. There isn't much that isn't either on the shelf or already done, the seats are going to be RS carbon seats but upholstered in silver/blue Turbonite tartan centres with black leather outers. The dash and everything else will be black with blue bits here and there. The extra cup petrol tank is there, the wheels, the big GT3RS brake kit, the wheel carriers, the suspension, etc, etc. ETA on the finished product is still end of April, but I'm fairly flexible about it, the 930 is my main priority, I want that back asap.

Oh I need to check if he managed to get a double bubble carbon roof, the 997 one is available because Porsche made one for the special they did, but not sure if it's suitable for the 996, I might end up with a standard carbon roof.. And a carbon bonnet, but that should be easy to obtain - although I'm not massively bothered about the bonnet, it's a cool thing to have but apparently it's the same weight as the factory one and potentially less durable long term.

Looking good and a Sports Classic-style carbon roof would be epic! RE: Carbon bonnet, if its anything like the 993 (which I'm sure it isn't), then you you do loose a decent chunk of weight compared to the steel one. I have a long spreadsheet for my 993 which has all the weights and price/gram lost and I'm sure the bonnet was a reasonable VFM. Lithium battery was quite high up on the list as well... PS. I did go down a brief rabbit-hole of looking to do a 997 Sports Classic replica as I think they look mega, but decided I didn't have enough love for the 997 platform to take it any further. Enthusiasm was killed after a brief drive of a 997 GTS. I know a lot of people like these and I'm sure they are great cars, but it just didn't do it for me...

This is an interview with Williams Crawford, a dealership I really like actually because they’re not shy in having really interesting stuff in, but I’m posting it because one of the questions (at around 4 minutes in) is what would you buy if you were getting a brand new 911 today and he says that he wouldn’t go near an OPC, he’d go to somewhere that knows what they’re doing and he’d have one built to his exact spec and standards. I’m sure I’m doing the right thing but as I’ve said a couple of times I think it’s only natural to wonder if I made the right call or should I have just gone and bought a new GT3, but answers like this from people that really know what they’re talking about certainly helps reassure me that I’ve not gone mad Hopefully it won’t be long now until we see some paint on that shell and then things start to get really exciting as all the special parts start to get put on.

I bought my Turbo from WC , top outfit and always keen to help if you've got an issue. I think you've made the right choice using a 996 C4S , a 997 would be just as good but the 996 C4S is just that bit more special I think. Colour is the big thing to me, it's the one thing you can"t change easily, everything else , brakes , suspension , seats , engines and gearboxes are all easily swapped out but colour is something you're stuck with from the 2000's and it's usually quite dull. Seeing your car stripped to bare metal is just brilliant , a totally new car that Porsche never made , you're definitely doing the right thing , you only get one life, I guarantee when you're old and worn out lying in a bed in that retirement home, you won't be saying "I wish I never built that fantastic Porsche all those years ago" You'll get it right , you're not going cliche "ducktail" which tells me you're one step ahead. Good luck

I've already said this but I only really had two criteria for the donor car, it had to be a 996 wide body and it had to be a certain type of blue. The obvious point was made that it's going right back to the metal so I can have any colour I wanted, but I wanted that colour from the factory, I didn't want a colour change in it's history. We didn't think we'd find one, but then it popped up, incredibly a PTS so close to the original colour I sent him that it makes no difference, and the future was sealed and done. I don't know if you've seen my 997 wrap thread, but that's a slightly different blue but again it's so close it makes no difference, it's being delivered back to me in the morning.

The GT2 spoiler just looks right on a widebody 996 Fact!... It was styled on the Mig-31 Firefox's wings , apparentyl !

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Yeah we eventually agreed on the GT2 spoiler, it suits the front end of the C4S and it doesn't interfere with the C4S light bar at the back which is going to say Porsche in it like the air-cooled RS cars did. I'm really tempted to keep it clean like someone else has suggested, it would be like a sleeper car, but it's had enough work done to it that I think it needs a change at the back to recognise that it's a modified car, obviously not something insane like a Gemballa Avalanche but the GT2 spoiler is special and tasteful in my humble opinion. I did have a look at all sorts of stuff, especially Gemballa because of the one on my 930, and there is a French company called Jacquemond that make some really cool stuff, but it's a bit of an unknown (even though they look good) so we decided at this point it's a GT2 one.

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How will you get Porsche in the rear light bar? That will look so cool! Like Uncle Monty said, this is going to be an incredible car!

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You'd have to check with him exactly how he does it, but here is build number 3 (I think) and he did it with this one...

How is the rear seat area going to look? RS style? (seatless) Have you got a target weight in mind?

It will look exactly like the 996 RS, I even bought the OEM carpet @ £866.70 + vat. Except instead of RS it will say something else, we haven’t decided yet. I don’t know if we’re calling it an MLR car or a Harry car. One of my motorcycles is so heavily modified, including bits I’ve actually made that it’s a mix of my name and the OEM. I’m not sure yet but it won’t say RS because it isn’t one and I’m definitely not into pretending stuff is something else.

Target weight is light, with some added lightness Except it’s having AC, I have to have it for Dubai and it will spend some time there. MLR aren’t keen on me using carbon brakes, not least because I’ve already bought the RS steel big brake kit and that wasn’t cheap anyway, but 10kg a corner is compelling, plus light wheels once I’ve found some I like enough to buy. My bikes taught me that unsprung weight is where you want to save as much as you can.

It's a bit off topic but... how easy is it to move cars between the UK and Dubai?

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Very easy but bureaucratic depending on what you want to do. Shipping just on it's own is easy, find a provider, pay your money and it turns up in about 6 weeks by boat and within 24 hours by plane. From the UK to Dubai on a boat is usually around £5k, by plane around £12-15k. If you want a turnkey solution where they take it literally door to door, do the registration and insurance then it's another couple of grand. Shipping back to the UK seems more complicated and more expensive for some reason, I've shipped a few motorcycles from Japan to the UK via Dubai and it was expensive, £2,500 per motorcycle and then you have to take it to the shippers in Dubai and collect it from the port in the UK. I did once get a turnkey solution by the people that move Jay Leno's cars but it was expensive.

Just found this thread. Given a new 911 T comes out at around £130k with some extras, this build sounds good value to me. The new T is going to be wider, heavier, elec steering, the donging warnings you have to switch off and painful purchase and road tax for 5 years. While they are very nice, this build will be a magnet for those in the know.

Here is one that shows a Singer not getting used. 1991 Porsche 911 Reimagined by Singer - DLS | Sealed – Singer DLS 2025 | RM Sotheby's 1991 Porsche 911 Reimagined by Singer - DLS for sale at RM Sotheby's Sealed – Singer DLS rmsothebys.com

For anyone still interested in the build I put a new video up on Youtube, the guys have been busy stitch/seam welding the chassis. I know it's overkill for what I'll be doing in it but I don't really need to justify it and I get a kick out of the attention to detail, I'll know I'm driving a car that's been remanufactured to that level of detail and it gives me that little bit more enjoyment of the thing as a whole. It's a shame I can't be more physically involved in the build but I'm on another continent and it's best left to the experts anyway. I think the video I'm waiting for most of all is the respray but patience Grasshopper, that is a little while off yet.

Thank you for sharing, however it tells me the video isn't available, maybe something to do with the privacy settings?

Ah, they had the radio on in the background and Youtube flagged it up as copyrighted, so it blocked it. I've had to remove the sound and so there is no commentary just video - but he's walking me through every bit and showing where it's been stitch/seam welded on every joint and how the cage is installed and forms part of the structure. It's a lot of work and labour intensive but hopefully all worth it.

Not much progress to show really at the moment, it's off back to be coated soon, which should give a decent visual change and then after that the biggest change before the running gear goes on will be paint, which I'm really looking forward to seeing. I was talking to someone who has one of their engine builds a few days ago and he said he loved it and was really surprised at the difference from standard with the lightweight internals. And there was also one of their builds at the RS day at Oulton, I didn't have a really close look but even from a distance you could see the quality. I'm in no mad rush for it, I'm more excited about the 930 for now, but it will be good to get this 996 handed over so I can start having some fun.

Got some pictures and video last night, it's completely finished now inside and out with the seam welding, which looks incredibly time consuming but worth it, as long as your suspension is top notch to take advantage of the stiffness of the car. You can see the cage mounts if you look carefully. Yesterday it was sitting by the front door waiting to go back to the dippers and then an ecoat. Hopefully soon after we'll see some blue paint on that shell and the build can begin.

When I've got time I'll put the story of this car and the pictures together and get our publishing people to create a hardback book for me to go with the car.

H, she looks like an extra from Terminator 2........... excellent.

She should look a lot prettier when she's got a nice blue coat on and the carbon bits.

Looks proper!

Not a lot to update, lots of discussion in the background, for example last night was a conversation about the seat inners and what sort of blue tartan I want. I think I'm going to have two sets made, one blue tartan and one blue alcantara, so I can swap them out when I want to change it up a bit. They're carbon seats, but the inners swap out easily, the outer bolsters will be black. We're waiting on the shell back from the dippers and the crank cases back, so we can't start the engine build or the paint yet. Bits and pieces still need to be bought, I fancied an Akrapovic exhaust but I looked on their site and it doesn't look like my model is listed, so I may have to rethink that, I've got time to choose. Pretty much everything else is on the shelf waiting to go.

We also had a discussion about my car versus an actual genuine 996 RS. My memory of the RS is that it's too harsh for the roads, which we agreed on. He was talking about one of the previous builds that the owner loves and never wants to get out of, but his wife thinks its still a bit harsh, although she commented that it's scary how fast it will go around bends when she drives it. It sounds perfect.

My Bro and I took an RS to LeMans in 96 , I don't remember it being harsh but I was 25 and used to driving a Defender 110 HC and a Beetle before that. All I remember is how fast it was and how good the brakes were , and how bare it was inside. Being LHD was easier in France I think it was this colour

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I have feal441+ coilovers at min with 3.5k and 8k springs and its half decent but very harsh on pot holes etc so have a set of custom valved nitron roadsports via prepworks on order and going back to stock top mounts as its no longer going to be used on track. off to leman again this year in june so that will be the real test for the new setup.

Haven't been in one (to drive) for a long time, I remember it as being insanely capable but harsh and bizarrely reminded me very much of a Civic Type R - impossible to not drive it at high revs like an absolute tool everywhere. I reckoned I'd get nicked in either within the first ten miles.

I want a Hurracan Sterrato, but my wife said no until next year, I promised to fulfil some financial commitments in other places first, so I wonder if Marc would jack this build up like a Dakar and turn it into an off-roader that will cope with Lancashires potholed roads? A 996 Dakar RS. It's got appeal!

The shell is back and looks amazing. Look at the detail and the sharp eyed might see the attachments for the flat bottom for better aero. It's a shame we can't somehow leave the ecoat and detail showing, because there is a tremendous amount of work that goes on underneath that no one will see and it's not a vanity thing but I think it would be a good thing for people to see the details and appreciate the thought and prep work.

Looks great. Excited to see how this turns out. It’s exactly the way I’d go with a build.

Great job, as for the detail, I suspect that vid I posted re the magazine capturing quality images of the detail relative to components built into a Singer, might have sparked a light... (-: Though I noted from the same vit that someone was spreading something over a panel, thought it did not show what he was spreading or where...? I guess given the mix of materials something somewhere will perhaps require to be filled to some degree.... ? The idea of trying to preserve perfection can make many a slave to their cars condition, whereas I suspect a fortunate few can drive and take a scratch or worse, and repair it without issue....? Variety is the spice of life for sure....(-: Thanks for sharing your Porsches as you do Harry, much appreciated.

I was chatting to the boys yesterday and I said that part of this appeal is that when it's finished it's probably worth half what I've paid if I stuck it on CC* so I'm not precious over it, if it gets bumped I'll have it fixed, it's not original paintwork or anything that the rivet counters would argue wipes the value off. * since I specced mine they've had two flown in from America to do copies, they go over to the USA frequently to do builds/work there and they told people about my car and they've got orders and a couple of well-heeled chaps have flown donor cars over. So if it's the start of a run on their 996 special builds then as one of the first mine might end up worth a few bob, you never know, Rob started with one car over at Singer. The detail of my car is spectacular, every corner and nook of the shell has been finessed, you can see where the hours go and the dip & finish of the shell/ecoat has been managed very well, it's not got a single flaw on it anywhere, this car should outlive me.

It’s looking fabulous. I can’t wait to see the end result

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Me too, this will be proper. The lads said it will be their flagship car, they're doing it their way, no limits on the budget and I can tell they're really enjoying doing it and I get the feeling they'll be sad handing it over when it's finished. I commissioned a bike build about ten years ago and the guy tried to buy it off me when he'd finished it, but the donor bike had sentimental value and I couldn't part with it, it's still in my garage. I'm really starting to get excited about this 996 now, seeing it sitting there in the ecoat has made it real now, it's not just an idea, it's actually sitting there waiting to be painted and built.

Something I didn't realise but I suppose is obvious for production/economic reasons, the shell is the same both sides regardless of market, LHD or RHD and it's reasonably easy to do a conversion, although maybe expensive because you'd need a dash and everything that goes with it to swap it over. This means my 997 could come over from Dubai and be my next project car and be converted to RHD, it's such a fundamentally good car, not a spec of rust, damage or anything nasty, it's like a new car underneath. It would be getting stripped, dipped and ecoated like this one, so the labour cost to strip and rebuild it would be the same, it's just the price of the parts for conversion.

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Looks amazing in the metal. I wonder if it could be kept like this with just a clear lacquer instead of a full on paint job

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I 100% agree, that would look awesome!!!

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It does look great but it's basically just matt black, I think we're all excited about it because of the detail you can see, the seam welding and thread inserts and stuff is as cool as the other side of the pillow, but as soon as you put all the stuff back into it then I think it would just look like a matt back car with stripped out interior, which is cool I suppose but I bet it would be noisy and probably wear you down after a while. Plus I've paid the best part of a bag of sand for the rear RS carpet and the blue inserts and dash/seat bits are really good. The blue is gorgeous as well, it's like Minerva Blue but a touch lighter and more vibrant, Intense Blue Pearl Metallic, it really gleams in the light.

at centre gravity recently, they mentioned the shells were the same… which is why only LH drive cars corner balance 100% perfectly, and RH drive ones can only get very close… brake servo location etc… nerd alert

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Is that because of weight distribution?

Quite a few pages of 996 love in the May edition of Porsche Post Harry..

great progress, can't wait to see some color =)

Progress has halted at the moment, they're waiting for some machining to come back and won't start the rebuild until everything is there, so it's just a waiting game, although I'm in no rush at the moment, even if they finished it today I don't have time to go and collect it or use it. At the moment it's looking likely that it will be an autumn finish, if it all works out, then I'll ask them to set it up, run it in and then I have to decide what to do with it, maybe bring it to Dubai for the winter and Icons of Porsche in November. The 996 is a rare platform for these builds and it would be nice to showcase the possibilities at a big event. I can keep it in Dubai on British plates for a year, so that will give me time to play about with it and shake it down. The truth is (I think I said this before), I didn't intend to take this project on just yet, I was going to wait a couple of years, but the donor car presented itself and I knew I'd never get another PTS in that colour, so I started it early, but I'm actually not ready for the car yet, I've got another couple of years of work/family commitments to deal with before I can start spending much time using something like this and doing the trips I'd planned, so it may end up in storage tucked up nicely until I'm properly ready for it.

Life is short, you should drive it daily when you collect it.

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There is loads of stuff I'd like to do daily, but I spend most of my year abroad, so the car and me will be separated by a few thousand miles unless I ship it over to me and I've already got a 997 to use here for track and fun use. We were going to retire early and this build (plus my 930) was part of that package, but we've postponed it for 2-3yrs, so it turns out that we jumped the gun on everything really, I sold my boat, bought our dream cottage in the countryside, bought a bunch of toys and got everything ready to step into early retirement in the UK but the closer we got the more it become obvious that it just doesn't make sense yet, I've still got loads to do, so the toys and the countryside will have to wait. We've only just turned fifty, so hopefully we'll still have plenty of time to enjoy things. The good thing about cars and motorbikes is that you can mothball them, they're not like horses, you can mothball a car and then drag it out in 2-3yrs, do a bit of work and it's as good as when you put it away, I've got vehicles that I've rarely even started in the last few years, let alone used much. Unless you're born rich then the curse seems to be time vs money. You've either got time and no money, or money and no time.

My apologies, I had no idea about your situation. Lots of toys, it’s not a bad problem to have. You’re completely right about the conundrum between time and money!

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No worries, I think earlier on in the thread I explained how I came to own more 911s than I intended to, but a quick recap is that I've been looking for a 930 casually for years and one popped up that felt I'd regret not buying, so I bought it and then put it immediately into my mates shop to get it how I wanted it - and during one conversation we got talking about a 996 project in the future, but I wanted a certain factory colour and we said we'd keep our eye out for one, but a lot sooner than expect one turned up and again I felt like I'd regret not grabbing it whilst I could. There are worse problems I suppose, but it's probably not how I would have done it if I'd known what I know now.

Don't know if I've posted this but it's the sort of style the inside will be, except obviously mine will be blue and I'll have RS seats with blue tartan panels. I'm not sure if I want all the blue accents, but it's easy to swap out if it's too much.

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Someone asked me this weekend what would I have done? And I don't know, I was up and down on all sorts of ideas, and I'm going to start a thread asking what other people would do as I think it's got the potential for some really interesting answers.

I’m liking the look of what the inside will look a bit like . My only problem would be access in and out as I always manage to scrape my feet against the door or kick plate. But I’d happily put up with trying to negotiate around that cage as it does give it that sportier look

The front bit of the cage will probably be coming out, I've never liked riding in a car with a cage if I don't have a helmet on, my head isn't designed to be bounced off that cage at speed. It's perhaps a mute point because my head doesn't like being bounced off an A pillar either, but that cage looks closer and nastier. If you're strapped in very tightly then you might miss it, but with normal seatbelts, which I'd be using if I'm not on the track, you could easily bounce your head off that. It will come with the full cage and I'll see how I get on.

I don't think they'll mind me showing you some of these pictures, it's all good advertising, but the detail they go to is extraordinary and the sort of detail that I usually only see on much more expensive builds. Things behind the scenes that no one is likely to see get the same treatment as the stuff you will see and even the detail and perfection of things like captive fasteners that have been welded in is exquisite. Those are custom made carbon seats that are made from a genuine RS seat pattern but to a much higher quality, the originals aren't actually that great to be honest, but I suppose carbon tech has moved on since the originals were made. I knew they'd do a good job for me, we've been mates since we were about six years old, but the level of detail that they've gone to is over and above to be fair, you could put their build up against any build I've seen anywhere and it'll hold it's own, perhaps Singer use the leather from a cow that's been massaged by virgins in strawberry yoghurt all it's life and stitched by a Vietnamese ninja who can fly between treetops or something, but the craftsmanship and pride is no less in these builds.

I'm glad I did this thread to be able to look back, it's nice to look back over the last year and see it develop and I'll probably use extracts for the hardback book I'm hoping to produce to go with the car. Our company did a hardback coffee table book to cover an event and it looked really professional, not sure what it costs but if it's not outrageously expensive then I'll get it done.

that hardback book idea sounds like a great inclusion to the build!

Should have a look at how RUF incorporated the cage in their full VIN 996 RGTs... ~2:20 point of the following video (please forgive my lack of embedding ability ) <iframe width="560" height="315" src=" " title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I'm quite big on the tartan thing, I think it looks good, or at least the way I want it to anyway, different people will have different opinions. I scour the internet looking for ideas and then send them over, but I'd quite like something like this... But in this sort of blue...

My shell on display at Simply Porsche... (to the left of MLR Build number 1)

I thought this video might be of some interest, basically Lee is driving the RPM CSR car, it's fairly heavily modified but not quite to the extent mine will be and he asked the question whether he'd rather have one of those or a GT3, the answer is around 7.20 in and it's a resounding YES. He basically says that unless you're hell bent on having a GT3 and that badge on the back, then this is the direction to go in if you want the ultimate drivers 996. Edited - I put the wrong video - this is the right one.

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Looks awesome. I have a crap sense of fashion, but I do try and tie in the colours of my car - those red belts need a 12 o'clock steering wheel marker in red and a red tacho or something, or maybe some yellow or blue will tie in better. I put a yellow tacho in mine to start with then sold it because it didn't go with anything! They'll do it with a script of your choice too. I sat in a Gunther works car with acres of beautiful carbon and leather and the steering column was black plastic - its all i could see, which is disappointing when you can get a stitched CCX leather item from ebay for 100 quid, which looks lovely. Roll bar padding is a must though.

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Is that the correct video? That’s about a 930 turbo…

I think it should be this one.. Is the CSR seam welded too ? I think that's a must as it's something Porsche couldn't do with GT3's due to the time and cost involved , it makes the body / chassis very special indeed and a big plus point over a GT3.

Seems like a worthy target alternative to the GT3 for the 996 fans. I disagree on the colour as I rather like it.. (-:

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I didn't know these things existed...time for another "upgrade"

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It's a big yes from me for the tartan seats, but a big no for the tartan door cards.

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Sorry I put the wrong video, corrected now, thanks Monty. And I agree about the red seat belts not being right, they were very keen on the red seat belts but it doesn't make sense to me, they reckon it matches the brake calipers but it doesn't work for me, so I said I wanted blue ones, or even black ones, but not red. No, they don't take the shell right back, I think they did on that purple one and it had a respray but they didn't seam weld it as far as I know. The only people I know that do it for road cars are MLR and that's based on their race prep and chassis knowledge and Marc being a details guy to a point that's sometimes painful, I spoke to a guy who had a car built by Marc and he described it as telepathic, it's a cliche but he said if you think about turning then you're already there. The downside is you feel absolutely every tiny ripple and stone on the road, brilliant for racing but maybe not ideal for a road car, but Marc reckons he'll dial all that down and you'll still get the feeling but without the harshness - I know what he means because when Nitron set my bikes up that's exactly how it feels, you still feel everything but it's somehow more plush and not as harsh. I think the telepathic things is an overall combination, the shocks, the set-up, the bushes, the RS bits, etc. It was like how my 930 handled amazingly but only after he'd completely taken it apart and then put it back together, something I didn't really think he was going to do until he sent pictures of it in bits There is a story about Marc from when we were about seventeen years old, one of my mates bought a new motorbike and was showing it off in his garage and then we all went inside when his parents were away on holiday. After a couple of hours someone said "Where's Marc?" and we found him in the garage with my mates bike in bits, my mate went bananas, but Marc was convinced he could do a better job than the factory and make it faster - and he did, but from memory it involved drilling holes in piston skirts and things

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I just checked and I couldn't see any but they do come up. I think it's cxx, not ccx. I also had the base skinned in carbon. Hardly any plastic left in my interior. Even my climate control is leather covered and I've since fitted a leather cup holder.

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I would have said that, but I saw one in the flesh and it worked really well, although with all the other accents in it, it might be a bit too much. I told him to dial it right back with the blue bits but he said he'll put them in and then take out what I don't want if it's too much. I plan to go with two sets of seat panels for the carbon seats, one in blue alcantara and one with tartan, so I can change them out.

For the 997 boys who might be reading this, no need to feel left out....? Yeah I know this is a 996 thread.... BUT.... I read and am enjoying it.... (-:

I’m growing to like my 997 more than I thought I would. If I were starting this again I’d be open to a 997 base car but I do genuinely think the 996 is more fun to drive and the boys are taking any good ideas off the 997 (like the under side) and incorporating it.

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Do you think your 996 "RSR" will end up lighter than a 997 with the same works?

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Will they be able to add a diffuser like johns car in the states. I've added the 997 gearbox triangle but would love to get hold of a diffuser, if someone this side could do something similar and make it commercially available - if nothing else will make a good engine cover. Flat panel underbody? - Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums 996 GT2/GT3 Forum - Flat panel underbody? - Hi all, what do people usually do for the underside of the chassis? I think I saw somewhere someone made panels (or was it installing 997 underside trays?) to clean up all the airflow at the underside of the body? Thanks! rennlist.com

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I honestly haven't looked at weights, but they're taking a lot out of the 996 so it will be considerably lighter.

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Yes, this is what they've done. When I went to look at the shell they pointed out the welded in threaded inserts and studs for the undertrays/diffusers, if you go back and look at the bare shell pictures you should be able to see them. I hadn't asked for this, but as I've said before, I'd told them to build it like they were building the ultimate 996 for themselves and let me know when they needed money. This is their car, I'm just paying for it and they keep telling me it's going to be the business. I don't know how much of a hassle it is to do it if you just drive in, mine was obviously done when it was on the rotisserie as a bare shell.

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Loving all the carbon and I wish mine had it all. I looked at this and even though mines a road car I've setup some e-bay searches so if any come up will buy if cheap enough

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I've also got a carbon gearstick with alcantara, but GT boxes have shorter linkages on the box. So when I fitted a short shifter, the throw was comically short, so I got the long stick, which now works great. But because mine is a road car, I want the shorter stick back! Long stick with a short throw is a worthy track car addition though.

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Loads will do an agreed value. My escort is 90k agreed and was £499 with A-Plan. Mind you, mileage was very low. Then again, so is security on that!

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Who makes that long stick? That’s something that I really want to pair with my short shifter!

IXI. The reach plus knob and stick of choice. IXI Gears IXI is now offering competitively priced anodized aluminum and resin shift knobs for Porsche 997.1/997.2 ...and aircooled 911 ixigears.com

Thank you so very much!!!

Great thread and great project! Thanks for posting.

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Spoke to the lads and obviously anything is possible, mine was measured up on a jig and will have full 997 flat bottom and they'll play about with diffuser etc as they build it. Mine is a bit of an experiment to see how far they can go with it and they'll adjust as they go, they made bespoke studs and whatever was needed, so once done it's something they can replicate, although obviously carpets have to come up, etc. I really should start to make a proper record of it all because they're throwing the kitchen sink at it and it's got all sorts of neat ideas that are going into it, there is so much detail that I end up forgetting 50% of what we talk about. The brief was basically build the ultimate 996, their enthusiasm for how good it's going to be is clear, so I have high hopes.

The shell is being primed along with a couple of others, ready for spraying soon. We’re still a good way off yet but I'm in no rush and it’ll take what it takes. Buying the 997 GT3RS made me realise I’ve gone in the right direction with the engine, I definitely don’t want another mezger race engine in a road car, they do feel special but they’re not road oriented.

Awesome. It’s great to see a 996 getting this much attention. Just curious why the roof skins missing ? Be great to hear about the engine plans? Assume the same guys are doing that bit?

The roof and bonnet will be carbon. I had a look at some samples the other day and it’s as light as an empty crisp packet and unbelievably strong. It’ll also have a blue metallic fleck in it that is only visible when the sun shines on it. It looks super trick.

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Full carbon roof i think.

H, talking to Reece the other day and he mentioned they'd started offering their own carbon roofs.

The engine will be a lightweight 3.9L with their liners, they’re doing everything except the fitting of the liners because it requires some specialist machining. Lightweight rods, FW, etc, but tuned for torque rather than chasing high revs and bhp.

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Did he show you the metallic fleck in them? It’s pretty trick looking.

No mate, it was a conversation in passing as we were discussing carbon mirrors.

Now that is looking great

Is it wrong to want to have a bare 911 shell in my living room to just look at?

Nope

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I could spend all day just looking over that shell, every time I look at it I see something else that they've added in, a lug or thread to add a flat bottom plate, or a bit of stitch weld I hadn't noticed, etc. It's a work of art and hours of effort have gone into it, that's why I stopped the clock and just decided to wait, it'll take however long it take, I don't want to rush them. Something that also keeps me looking is the way they made the shell symmetrical, so its the same shell for RHD and LHD cars, the 996 was the first time they did that I think. I've said it before but those guys are all super enthusiastic about what they're doing, so best to just leave them to go berserk and build something amazing.

One thing I mentioned somewhere else but not here yet, is I'm so glad I had the confidence to go with an M96 build and not a GT3RS, my 997 GT3RS has reminded me that they're not the perfect road car and I'm trying to build the perfect road car. The original design brief was to build the perfect road car that Porsche should have built, with the best parts for the job, and the future value wasn't a concern, just build the best thing possible. But I still kept flip-flopping wondering whether to buy a 996 GT3RS then tweak the suspension for a 90% road car, but still hopefully retain that RS feel, so the RS/C4S shell and all the RS parts are there but the engine is very much capacity hiked M96 road orientated and I think it's going to be so much better for it. If I hadn't have bought the 997RS I'd probably always have wondered, but the RS confirmed it for me, a Porsche GTRS is a grumpy thing for the road, special and exhilarating but still grumpy as a road car because it's not really happy on the road, and I didn't want that in the 996 as well. Hopefully the 996 will feel special but be a pleasure to drive and you'd have to be a bit of a masochist to claim a 996/7 GT3RS is a pleasure to drive on the road, it's exciting and thrilling and you definitely get your kicks, but it's nowhere near, for example, as pleasurable as my 930 as a road car, but you can't hold that against them, they were never designed to be comfortable road cars, you'll never get Turbo S levels of comfort and refinement in a GTRS car. I've been back in my 997 C2S for the last few days and it obviously feels like a duller version of the 997RS, no surprises there, my first thought was that I was pulling away with the hand brake on, that lightweight free revving engine in the RS is a peach and it's obviously going to make the normal M97 engine feel flat, but I don't think it would take much to sharpen the car up and make it a better overall road car than the RS - with the caveat that you'll never match the engine/drive train thrill of the GT3.

Harry, I`m with you when it comes to creating one`s ideal machine for use on the road.. As a yoof, I was ever into trying to achieve MAX performance out of old machines, even fitting polydyne cams, polishing ports gutting out silencers and creating engines that were not keen to deliver any useful power much under 4k rpm, but over that they came alive..... Far less than ideal in stop go traffic, but fun when young and did not know any better ...(-: I`m no longer young, though perhaps not fully grown up... yet, in that my old V8 Crate has minimal silencing but the engine is in standard tune thus can be happy bumbling along hour after hour at circa 70mph and 2.5 k revs on a motorway, yet roars like a bull when the loud pedal might be stamped upon and engaging in a bit of heel and toe, if enjoying a twisting ribbon of Tarmac..(-: My good lady and I have in the past covered a few thousand miles cruising along gently in the old thing on European adventures, and that it being open topped, much of the mechanical noise seems to dissipate considerably, whereas with the hood up the mix of mechanical cacophony produced by the combination of engine, box, suspension and chassis flex can increase considerably... Which one can get used to, but for how many miles...Hmm..? I suspect it may matter not how much others value one`s automotive ideals in terms of specification or even current market evaluation, my guess is that if it does not fit with one`s ideals of intended usage, it may end up being seldom used...? What`s it like to drive a multi million pound car down the road.... I ain`t ever tried it but I suspect the drama of it all might be off-set to some degree by potential hearing damage in the vid below...? Feel free to ask the mods to delete this post if you think it is mucking up your wonderful 996 thread Harry, and if so I apologise in advance..

I've never driven anything of that worth, not even close, but it's good that he does, those cars need to be owned by people where money doesn't mean anything so they get used, although having said that, I'm not sure there is a car on the planet that I would consider to be worth £40m, at the end of the day it's just a car and I'd struggle to put that much value on it.

...it wasn't worth anywhere near that when Nick Mason bought it though.

I did try to tell you about what a 997 RS was like one the road! (Great to see some updates on this project though)

Just read through this thread over a week or two. Fab build I think MLR are going to get a tonne of work thrown at them they seem very reasonable /cost effective and very professional. Those two things don't normally go hand in hand especially in the Porsche world. There's a lot of people out there doing similar work charging extortionate amounts. Hats off to Harry and MLR.

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It's not terrible or anything, it's a very special car and it's a lot easier to use than something like one of my pre-WW2 classics, but it's not the perfect road car and as I said that's what I'm trying to build here. I did wonder if I was remembering right and it turns out I was, I've always said if I could get an RS that had an engine geared for torque and lower revs then it would be a much better road car, if it were possible then the new 3.6 hybrid engine in a very well sorted 996 would be a peach of a thing, that might be the perfect combination, or that engine in anything really, a 3.2 would be awesome as well. The new 3.6 is a stunning power plant, but the rest of the car is big, heavy and wieldy - which in it's own right isn't bad, but compared to something like a 996 it feels too big. If I were <40yrs old then a 996/997 RS would probably be the perfect car for me, but I'm fifty now and I want that special feeling but nice road car manners. The MLR cars get about quite a bit and they've got all the special elements that make any bespoke or RS car special, but they're roads cars and set up to behave themselves sublimely on the road, so I think it will fit the bill.

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I keep telling them that if they got some decent marketing and let me put some of the cars they've done up at some shows worldwide then they'd take off. I've got billionaires/millionaires at our coffee mornings who constantly ask me about my 996 build, they'll come looking for me to get an update on the progress and I think once they see one in the flesh they'll drop orders in. They seem happy just plodding along. I do sort of get it, big roles/goals come with big responsibilities and sometimes when you get there you wonder if you really wanted it. Not everyone wants to be a Singer, I think they're happy in their underground network producing cars for real driving enthusiasts.

Harry, I seem to forever be going on about the need to take relativity into account. It seems from that which you typed in your last two contributions on this thread kinda underline that the age of the individual relative to the evolution in aspirational targets may in time set a personal datum....? Looks like your current datum and for some in your age group may well be the 996, and if that might be the case then perhaps the 996 will be Singers next product line... ? (-: I am half your lifetime ahead of you Harry, thus my imagined Porsche datum is perhaps an SC, and if I had plenty of cash, I might be in the process of of creating my Idea of G body perfection, but whether that might work out to be the perfect car for me... Hmm..???? The Tesla I occasionally drive would seem to be the ideal transportation device for the old man I have become, the 991.1 C4S is greatly admired by me as the wonderfully curvaceous bit of technological Porsche advanced engineering it surely is, but.... driving it at road legal speeds in the UK is a bit of a non-event, unless the feel good factor of posing provides some sense of returns...? On the basis of cost per mile of multi horse power Porsches, the occasional squirt up the rev range definitely shows it`s well hidden potential to come alive..BUT.. with licence shredding risks...? Whereas my pseudo vintage crate not only sounds alive from the first turn of the key, as does my 991 before it settles down to being ..err..comfortable and feeling safe and secure, like any modern high quality saloon...sigh..! Whereas my old crate feels very alive even at 30 mph on an interesting bit of road, to the extent that if I ran over a coin, I suspect it could be possible to tell if either heads or tails is facing upward.... Yeah way,way to much contact with the miserable road surfaces we endure on occasion for any sensible folk who`s ideals have moved on with the times. Kinda hard to believe I can still find the greatest of pleasure in such childish pastimes, but I do and to the extent that in these times of possible Global warming, and increasing threats to those aged 70 and over the 70`s and over, it so happens that have covered far more miles in my old crate this year than I am likely to do so in my C4S, to the extent that I have only recently had to ask mu insurance company to increase my usual mileage limitation cover..... As our US cousins might say... Go figure..? (-: Harry, seems to me that with your available collection that you have most if not all bases covered, though at a slightly higher price point than mine...(-: I would reckon with your 930, 996, and newest 911 derivative your thinking may evolve as you age, to the extent that you might replace your newest choice of Porsche for the stable may well be one with all the convenience of whatever the latest and greatest EV Porsche has to offer, to complete your tri-Porsche stable to fit the more more mature you.... (-: Seems Jonttt rather enjoyed his Taycan, wonder how long before he begins to think to return to EV Porsche might suit ...? (-: Whadayafink..? (-:

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Luddite, what a great post....!!! Have to ask if you'd mind posting some pics of your' crate motored car please..?

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I think you're rather bang on with your analysis, I've tried to cover the bases, I did this with motorcycles and had over a dozen at one point, one for every type of riding/racing but it ended up feeling like hard work and having satisfied some sort of need I then reduced to two bikes, and I'm sure I'll end up at some point with just one sports car and one regular car. In truth I'd be happy to do that now, I'd get rid of everything except the Range Rover and the 930, but the way I look at it is whilst I can, then I might as well, so I've got a little fleet going. I suspect I'll end up with the RR and the 996, both the perfect tool of choice and the others will get moved on at some point. However, having ticked some boxes and had our fun we may end up with just a little EV and different hobbies, I've never been so attached to any material item that I wouldn't sell it, so nothing is forever. We might just settle down in the village with a Renault EV and a game of crown green bowls every week, the club is right behind the house.

Just brilliant. Just found this thread and looking forwards to seeing how it develops.

Harry, which 2 bikes did you keep? I’m currently KTM with an EXC & RC8, I’m not after anything too modern with traction control. A much lower budget helps!

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I kept a couple of classics, a British bike from preWW2 and an RD350LC from the 1980's. It broke my heart but I even sold the bikes that had been around the world with me, I had to put all our stuff in storage a few years ago and it meant consolidation. I don't really have any plans to build a bike collection back up but I might get something a bit more useful now some of my long term riding friends have all bought bikes again. The RC8 must be a bt of a classic now? Haven't ridden one for years and I had a 300EXC for green lanes and stuff but I gradually drifted away from that.

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Luddite, feel free to post some pictures of your other cars and a bit of history, I'm not one of those people who gets upset if you take the thread slightly off on a tangent for a few posts, all discussion is good for me

Skoosh and Harry, I suspect I have perhaps pushed my luck with the mods in posting pics of my mid 80`s Morgan +8, very affectionately known by me as the old V8 crate. Also pretty sure I would risk being excommunicated by any found to be fundamentally inclined amongst the faithful in the Morgan community, for using that which they may no doubt think (mistakenly) is an entirely derogative term..! Harry no chance of me enjoying playing bowls or joining up to a men`s shed group, I fired up ye old crate yesterday and enjoyed a 145 mile run, rumbling around the mostly single track roads in the Cowal Peninsula... (-: I suspect in my ramble relative to my belief that anyone`s datum seems likely to evolve with the passage of time, and much to my disappointment I forgot to include the time in life when a stable would be thought to be incomplete without a Stallion in residence..? (-: It was remiss of me to have forgotten my enjoyment of many a track day over the decades in both my Carrera 3, and SC. Jeez even pushed the old crate into performing a few laps around Knockhill, nuts or what..? Thus dependant on a Porsche enthusiasts current age set datum, track days may be the most enjoyed aspect of ownership, and as such perhaps being the only way one can legally really enjoy huge horse power available in modern Porsches by pushing both one`s own and one`s Porsche`s performance capabilities in relative safety on a well organised track day...? My current stallion pic might be the GT2 RS and in the colours that mr JWW drove in the vid below, though in truth, I would treat it as pure garage art, and do no more than run a rag over it on occasion, for as I have already admitted, for road use, the performance my 991 tempts me with is already considered for my current use, to be way way OTT ...!

He makes a good point at around 10.30 about the window of performance in these modern cars and how easy it is to get in trouble but more to the point how HARD it is to have fun in something that doesn't even come alive until you're at license busting speeds. My 930 is so special and fun that I can have an absolute blast and rarely need to exceed about 80mph to have amazing fun, dropping into boost in 2nd gear never gets boring and it doesn't have to be licence busting, although once you're well into 3rd and doing the same thing then you have to keep an eye in the rear view mirror. Anything newer than that makes 100mph feel slow, the new 997 RS I bought still feels special at any speed just because of what it is, but that won't last for long and I'll want to push it. Which brings us neatly back to the purpose of this thread for those people that like to stay on track, my bespoke build will be an RS built specifically for the road and to excite and thrill at sub 100mph speeds. It should have all the excitement of a new RS, it's a 996 so it's my favourite water-cooled car and it's full bespoke and exactly how I designed it in my head, plus some stuff from inside their heads - and on top of all that it's got an engine that should hopefully give it's thrills from low down torque driving out of bends at speeds that won't put me in prison, and a redline that doesn't need chasing with one eye looking out for the fuzz or speed cameras. It should be the ultimate road car, set-up to give pure joy and thrills at speeds under an instant ban. And however it ends up, it's been a bucket list event just being able to go to my friends that build amazing cars and ask them to build me the best 996 road car possible. Unfortunately it'll be next year now when it's finished though.

This topic of epic performance v usability on public roads crops often and is similarly debated as it is here. Mrs pzero owned an MX5 several moons ago. A bullet proof engine that revved to 9k, an incredible gearbox with short throw and all the rear wheel drive tail happiness you could want. A lot to be said for it. I loved it.

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My regular run (before I got ill and had to stop running) used to take me past a gorgeous MX5 at about the 5km point, so it was always a good excuse to take it a bit slower past that car. I think they're potentially one of the most underrated cars of all time.

More parts just bought in ready for the rebuild, this time it included GT2 rad pipes for the extra third radiator we decided to go for, the reasons for going for the extra radiator are fairly obvious I suppose, but I was surprised at the cost of those rad pipes now, I got a good discount too but they're still a bit eye watering! I think we're about 13-14 months into this build, so the initial estimate was a bit optimistic, but to be fair I'm in no rush, so I told the lads to take their time, I'm more interested in quality and it being the best it can be rather than rushing anything, so I'm not moaning at all, but no one seems to rush with these types of builds though, whether it's Singer or something like mine they seem to take up quite a bit of time, I haven't met anyone who commissioned a build and got it quickly, whereas my manufacturing and engineering background would want them built and out of the door, it's profit sitting on shelves in stock and cars that could be bringing in revenue, but they all seem to take their time turning them out.

Glad to hear it’s progressing, watching with interest. I don’t know anything about their set up as a company but from experience most firms need the cash flow of the everyday service work to pay the bills, mundane & boring as it is, you can’t loose members of staff for 6 months or longer to a full build/restoration, and unfortunately because no one’s screaming for the build to be finished it’s always the job that’s the easiest to put off till tomorrow, you have to be really strict with yourself to keep pushing these things forward. Not saying for a moment they’re dragging their feet ive never met the guys, it’s a huge job. In my experience these jobs aren’t hugely profitable either, it’s difficult to imagine when you’re parting with 6 figures! But these things eat time like nothing you’ve ever seen, when you sit down and add it up, they don’t make much financial sense, hence why you see these restomod builds with a £350k sale price. Not taking anything away from your project but I would have thought most of what you’re doing by now is a fairly well trodden path ? You’re not doing anything massively ground breaking are you ? Correct me if I’m wrong! What I mean is these guys are experienced with Porsche and they’ll be using bits off the shelf, it won’t be the first 3rd radiator they’ve ever fitted for example? All that will cut down massively on time working through all the possible unknowns.

I assume that you are drip feeding payments and agreeing work as you go? That seems to be the way with these projects.

My last (and only!) restoration saw me recieving monthly bills for the project. At least I got a regular feed of pictures for progress but I didn't see the car for going on for a year.

A central radiator is by no means cosmic at all, not sure why the bits cost so much tbh, my 986 Boxster S has the same central radiator as the 996 GT3 so would have thought parts are easy to come by and cheap. Excited to see the car, sounds like some choice parts on it and I bet it will go rather well with a torquey 3.9!

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I'm a very lucky lad, i dont have the means for cars like the GT2rs but a friend does and i drive them all fairly regularly on some proper roads, in fact the road Henry Catchpole used for the GT2rs video is only about 20 minutes away. The GT2rs i get to drive has the Manthey Racing conversion, cat bypasses and a little map tweak, so high 700's, it hooks in 1st with warm tyres and you can genuinely drive it fairly well flat out on a good A/B road, its mind boggling really and you dont feel like you're being too silly until you look at the speedo (if you dare take your eyes off the road!). I've said it to many people, jumping out of cars like that and straight back into my 996, i never feel short changed one bit, in fact, for 1/12th of the price it feels like i've won the lottery. I've met many people now who have done the GT/ RS thing and got it out of their system, only to end up back in a base spec 911/ cayman/ boxster. Dont get me wrong, if i had the money for loads of cars, i'd have GT/ RS's all over but for most people that can only have one or two cars a GT/RS car doesnt make too much sense on the road. A good C2 is a nice thing out of the box but if you fettle the suspension with proper stuff and geo it up properly, sort the braking out a tad, you're onto a very good thing. So for me only being able to have one or two cars, a full build to spec on a 996/997 would be the way to go as well, even if i had the money to splurge on a GT/ RS car. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this 996 pans out.

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No, nothing ground breaking, but you could argue that none of these companies that build cars do much that's very groundbreaking I suppose. Some build to a higher quality than others, some exploit a name that is fashionable to people that want a big brand name, but none are doing anything that is genuinely ground breaking. With mine they're taking a car completely apart stripping it back to bare metal, dipping it, seam/stitch welding it like a race car would be and then building it back up with all new or refurbished parts, mainly RS parts, then upgrading the engine to a 3.9 lightweight version, and the whole car should be better than when it left the factory. And no it's not the first third radiator they've fitted, it's a very common upgrade, like the 3.9L engine, again there are hundreds, possibly thousands of them out there worldwide. What I'm getting out of it is that the car will be a brand new 996, hand built and exactly as I want it, not how Porsche want it or how anyone else wants it. No compromises to satisfy an accountant in the factory or EU legislation or anything and because it's been stripped, dipped, ecoated and build up with no budget restrictions by people that build cars for a living it should be very nicely done and should outlast me in terms of corrosion and mechanical reliability. What I'm getting is a car that is 75% a 996 GT3RS in terms of the shell, running gear, interior, etc, but with a different engine specifically tuned to what I wanted, not what Porsche fitted to, for example, my 997 GT3RS, which for me is compromised as a road car. Basically, I wanted my 996, built my way.

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I grew up with Marc in a small close knit group of mates that have stayed good friends for about fifty years now, the money isn't an issue, he occasionally sends me a bill, but the money side of it isn't an issue we've really talked about too much, we could both afford to finance a few of these cars each so neither of us are doing this on a budget and the trust come from being friends for many decades, but usually I think they would bill you in three stages, one for the strip down, one for the refurb and new parts and one for the rebuild - indicative costs are about £100k plus whatever fancy bits you want to add to it. I think c£100k for a brand spanking new 996 is value for money, as I said above its been treated so rust or corrosion is unlikely to appear in your lifetime and mechanically once they've had their hands on them they've never had an engine failure attributable to anything they've done, their engines are well known as being very reliable, so you've genuinely got a brand new car that Porsche don't make any more and you need to employ a specialist to properly reproduce a better than factory finish new 996. Some people won't see the value in that, they'd rather pay about the same for a 992 T, but personally I'm a classics kind of guy, so a brand new 996 in 2025 is pretty special for me as I couldn't really afford one back in the late 90's, so I'm doing it now instead.

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I agree with you, I could buy any car Porsche currently make, even if I have to pay overs for one - but I chose a 996 for my build because to me it's the best car Porsche ever made, so I wanted that as the platform and then build it up how I wanted it. I totally agree with you, for example my 997 C2S in almost all practical ways is a better road car than my 997 GT3RS, I have both and the C2S is a better everyday car - but I have plans to turn the RS into something like a 997 Dakar RS, so watch this space, I'm determined not to let the issues like ground clearance and impracticality stop me enjoying it on the road. The 996 (I'm hoping) should be the ultimate iteration of the lovechild of an RS and base Carrera, fettled into something that excels on the road. The base Carrera is usually the best road car of any model, but it lacks a bit of that special feeling of the GT or RS cars, so a mix of the two should come together nicely. Plus it's the ethos of how the company was started, I couldn't find the right car that I wanted, so I decided to make my own - or at least commission experts who know what they're doing to make me one.

Hopefully you can give us some updates on progress over the coming winter with pictures ! What was the thought process behind using the wide body ?

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Pure vanity, I prefer the look and I wanted a C4S as a donor so that didn't give me much choice and as the thread explains we didn't ever expect to find one in that particular PTS blue but fate dropped it in my lap. Obviously with what we're doing I could have any colour I want, but I wanted a C4S that was as close to Minerva Blue as we could get and I wanted it to stay recognisable as a C4S and stay in the original colour it left the factory so that I have the option of returning it visually to how it left the factory, although a brand new build, you never know, there may come a time when I want a standard C4S, at least visually. The upgrades will make it a better car to drive, but visually a C4S is still a lovely car to look at.

It should be a thing of beauty once completed

what is the ultimate "purpose" Harry - will you track it or is it just for weekend jollies and the occasional blast through the countryside?

Maybe worth considering both the OEM GT2 front bumper with the GT2 rear decklid. The C4S front bumper looks lovely too but that front GT2 bumper is designed to work with the GT2 decklid.

19 twists ? 19 Modelled after the 996 Turbo Twist, the AWC Narrowbody version is augmented in every way creating an homage wheel with attitude. Front: 19x8.5 +51 Rear: 19x11 +50 Made from 1pc, forged 6061-T6 Aluminum, these are a bolt-on application for 996/997 narrowbody. Order now and enjoy FREE North... www.augmentwheels.com

Cool, I’m fine with vanity! when I look at a C4S I can’t think of anything I’d change visually.. GT3 seats is all I ever come up with ..

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I can't remember if I've written this already, but I was in the shop one day and I announced that I was buying an actual 996 GT3RS and Marc asked me what I actually wanted out of the car, after a long discussion it was obvious that if I bought a GT3RS I'd use it very occasionally but it wouldn't be the dream 996 that I'd use every day and I'd be better off with a C4S but I wanted something a bit more special, so I decided on one of their builds, they've already done half a dozen of them so it's a tried and tested formula - and the ones they've already built get driven all over, there is a well known car with a roof tent on it and they get all over Europe in it, it's won loads of prizes at shows. For me, it's a road car but they build you something that you can drive to the ring in perfect comfort and then put in a few very fast laps in a car that is well capable and then you drive home. So that's why it has all the potential hidden stuff in there like the stitch welding, the stiffened shell, the cage, the aero, etc. I'd still love a 996 GT3RS and obviously now I have the 997 GT3RS but I'll never get past the value and not wanting to put loads of miles on it, so this build removes all that anxiousness totally, it's a pure drivers car, it's very unlikely to ever become an appreciating asset, it won't matter how many miles I put on it, it's not original so if it gets any damage I just have it repaired and don't have to worry about someone with a paint meter telling me it's not original paint, etc. So that's the brief, it will be my road car but I wanted all the capability in reserve. I could go on and on about it, but the basic truth is they build some really nice 996's, that's their thing and I could afford one and when I saw one I wanted one as well, so I put the order in.

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Here's one; PORSCHE 996 GT2RS GT3 RS EXTENDED LEATHER CXX STEERING COLUMN HOUSING SHROUD 911 | eBay HERE FOR SALE IS: PORSCHE [phone removed]-2004 EXCLUSIVE MANUFAKTUR LEATHER STEERING COLUMN SHROUD ebay.us

If you're on Instagram MLR have almost finished the car before mine, it's a less complicated build so they could whizz through it a bit quicker, it's in Audi RS blue and you can see how fast they go together once the main work is done. Mine is next to spray to a slightly more sparkly Minerva Blue type colour and then on with all the RS bits and custom interior. I think it might be a little while still yet, but I'm getting a bit excited now I can see they're starting to get built cars up and out the door.

I saw that and mistakingly thought it was yours H!

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No it’s a more straightforward build than mine so they’re cracking on with it and mine should be next. That blue is a lot darker than mine.

I have some progress to report, the car is in the booth getting prepped for paint. There are a few stages to take it through yet but soon it will have beautiful intense blue metallic paint and the build stage isn’t far from there.

We ran through some specs and the LWFW is on the shelf now. We discussed a carbon bonnet or not and that’s still up in the air, I’ll decide once I know what the final costs are. He did say the cars are really taking off now in the far east and they’re asking if any are complete ones ready to sell, so I could possibly sell my car before I even get it but I think this car will be epic, so I don’t plan to sell it, they’re taking bets that I end up selling the 997 RS because this one will be better. They’ve also had agreed insurance policies of £120k now, guaranteed value, so that’s good. These may take off yet and become well known builds that end up being considered amongst the hierarchy of custom builds. They’re not Singers but they’re not trying to be.

H, I don't see them as a bad thing not to be compared to a singer.....keeps the values down to a " respectable" level. There are only a select few that can afford a singer hence they're not jewellery that's ever driven. Look forward to more updates mate...!!!!

My basic 3.4 should be at around +155,000m in 3.5 years when I plan to retire and will be nearing rebuild territory. This could be a fun project when I have funds available. I’d like to see demand for high end 996 develop as we all know what great cars they are to drive.

He said they have three more speedsters to build but after that they probably won’t build anymore because parts are so hard to get. After mine and the next one they’re already on with they got four more orders for 996 specials, two of which are turbos. So just on their own they’re flying the 996 flag and if other customers and other build shops start ramping up then it’s not unrealistic to see 996 rise in value. Singer must be running out of 964s as donor cars, so they must be sitting there wondering what to use next and the 996 is perfect. If they’re smart they won’t announce it until they’ve got a few hundred to put in stock to begin the ‘Le Mans Study’ with fried eggs out front loud and proud. They’d sell like hot cakes, it’s the only 911 with anything unique. And if they’re really clever they’ll do a poor man’s version with the Boxster at just £750k each. They need new revenue streams.

This is the blue, but it's hard to get a good full picture on those little sample things with the angles, but in the flesh it looks stunning. GT2 rear spoiler and other than that it will be mostly C4S skirts and front, with the light bar remaining at the back, but lit up and with Porsche in black. This car will be all about the driving, the engine, the RS suspension and components but set up to be a road car, so not crashing over every bump. I'd put it out of my mind but now I'm getting excited again, when it's unveiled in that blue it will look very nice. Still not sure what to call it, they've done cars that are CS and ST and I was keen on ST, but that moniker doesn't really fit, other than the engine it is actually mostly RS parts, seats, shell, suspension, wheel carriers, even the carpet, and with a wide body shell, then we can't really call it much else other than a Carrera RS.

That is a lovely choice of blue!

RST ? Touring RS

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You don't strike me as an egocentric individual, but as it's your personal unique project why not use your initials if that works rather than trying to follow Porsche's own naming conventions. Unless your real name is actually Harry Blue which would make it a Carrera HB, which sounds like a pencil

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I have used my initials on race machinery but only when I've made so many of my own changes that I could actually justify calling it a joint venture between me and the original builder. If I've machined a lot of parts on my lathe and mill, including pistons and then added different brakes or significant changes then I might call it a HB-XXXX. But I haven't done anything on this apart from state the spec and come up with some ideas, it's all off the shaft stuff apart from maybe one or two pieces that we had made. The most honest thing we could come up with is Carrera RS, because it's a C4S with lots of RS parts. I'm most pleased with the stuff you can't see, like the stitch welding and the underbody flat panels held on by welded studs, the lightweight rods and pistons, etc. I agree with the builders, I think this could realistically end up being a much better car to drive than my 997 GT3RS, he reckons the 997 will go up for sale soon after I've driven this. If it ticks all boxes then I could end up being a one 911 guy, although I don't know if I can do without my 930 Turbo, so I wonder if that engine will fit in the 996..... I forgot to mention, one of their custom build requests is for a 996 Dakar, I'm so envious and can't wait to see it.

The Turbc needs finishing off and never to be sold

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We were talking about that earlier, there is no way I could tell my grandson I'd sold it, he'd go nuts, he's obsessed by it. He had a birthday party the other day and he spent most of it sitting in my 930. I remember when I sold my E36 M3, my son cried, kids get so attached to cars and we had such good memories of that car, trips to Cornwall, taking him to his first day at school, etc. But I've never seen a kid as attached to a car as my grandson is with the 930, he immediately runs out and we have to go through everything on it, he checks the engine, asks the words for things, then we have to go through a routine of checking everything is working like lights and stuff.

You have to keep it, he sounds like the perfect next custodian

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In a world of mostly black silver and grey, that is..err...colourFULL Harry. looks very adjacent to my C4S in Aquablau metallic. (-:

That’s a lovely colour! Does it really need a name…?

C4RS We need lots more pictures Harry !

Which 996 RS parts are going on it?

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Where we could use RS stuff we have. Wheels, wheel carriers, suspension, etc. seats, OEM carpets. Some is GT3 stuff and a lot is standard Porsche Carrera, because it’s all generic anyway, like the body shell, it’s C4S but same as an 997 RS which is the look I want - well it’s now seam welded but same shell. Except the engine, that’s C4S upgraded to 3.9L but with a LWFW/clutch that will hopefully be a Sharkwerks 4.0L RS kit if we can get one. They apparently fit.

The RS was a regular C4 narrow body , not a C4S.

997 RS is a wide body, same shell as C4S. I think the standard GT3 is a narrow body. It’s a point Lee makes on his RS videos that on paper the GT3 and GT3RS don’t look massively different but if you’ve driven both at pace then you’ll think you’re in two very different cars. It’s like the 997.2, minimal changes but again it feels very different. I think it’s one of the best rear ends on any 911. Understated spoiler and wide body booty.

Yes but 996RS is a narrowbody.

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Oh I see yes, sorry, I see your point now, I explained it terribly. I wanted a wide body RS like the 997 RS so we used a 996 C4S so it’s the same as a 997 C4S and 997 RS, if that makes sense. I edited above to try to make it make sense. We also muddied the waters by changing bits of the shell e.g. to replicate the 997 RS flat bottom

There is a huge amount I’ve forgotten because of the changes from the standard car. Every time I go down there or we talk on the phone there are things to agree on, big things and then just minor details like what stitching on the seats, I’ve gone with extra cooling, bigger fuel tank, carbon bonnet, but still discussing which exhaust and I want it switchable via the dash not a key fob. I don’t want a bunch of keys and a fob, so keyless access and push button start with no key, basically like a race car, but that’s a thing to think about a bit more really, I could put a Ghost immobiliser into it so you do a serious of switches and button pressing that only you know, so no need for keys, I could even wire in a keypad like a safe code, but it’s a lot of work just to do away with a key. I don’t like keys, we leave them in the ignition here so we don’t need to carry them about - so I’m currently researching total keyless entry and a keypad or sequencing to do away with keys altogether. The alternative is no electronics or central locking and just a key to lock and start it. I hate bunches of keys and fobs. Electronics to a minimum on the actual car, no ABS, no traction, etc. We’ve gone for black seats, silver stitch. Both of us felt that blue stitching was too much blue. There is a lot to remember.

So, you mean it would be possible to have it with really no electronics? What about ECU?

One of the things I miss on the 997 is the traditional key start of the 996. I'm terrible for leaving keys in cars now we're all used to keyless moderns but I love the proper mechanical key of the 996. Waking a Mezger should be a special occasion to savour, not the crappy switch thing my 997 has!

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Both my 997s have keys? My 991 had a little car shaped fob and keyless entry but I thought the 997s were all still keys?

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No it still needs some electronics as I don’t know how to convince the electrons to make their way to the spark plugs without it. What I mean is no electronic driver aids like ABS or PASM or anything.

No ABS? Crikey. What's the reason for removing that? I'm fitting an MK60 to my old classic. Must be pairing that loom right down too then? Must be a fair bit of stuff you can take out - if you're going that far then a new harness with a PDM will simplify things massively. This will also get you your keyless start.

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The basis of the car is it's a lightweight RS recreation designed as a track car and they didn't come with ABS or PSM. Anything that doesn't really need to be in there won't be. I don't like ABS or PSM, if I have the option I turn it off on everything, my bikes and definitely my race bikes never have it. I'm old school, I like to be in charge, I drove my 997 for months with disabled PSM and ABS and I much prefer it, I only had it fixed because I sold it and it wouldn't pass the MOT required to be allowed to change ownership. My old mum used to drive a tuned MGBGT amateur rally car without any electronics and she's still alive. My 930 is the same. This build will be over engineered, it didn't need stitch welding, or RS uprights, or a full bespoke cage, etc, but if I'm having a lightweight RS recreation built as a near full on race car then I want the whole hog with a cherry on top. I will be doing a few amateur desert rallies, not Dakar stuff, but dirt road races, but it's mainly a road car. It's over the top, but they're my mates I've known all my life and I've given them an open cheque book and permission to go berserk, so they're building the car they'd build with no limitations, they're trying a few experimental things out, it will be their first 996 build with a full flat bottom for example. It's not a sensible use of money, total overkill, but all the best builds are.

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Thanks for sharing the details, I can't wait to see it come together. Regarding the flat bottom, is that using 997 panels or something else?

Thank you for the feedback Harry. Very interesting. I like old school! What do you expect the weight to be?

Its funny isn't it, we get new cars and make them basic and get old cars and fill them with tech. my 74 escort has a sequential box with paddleshift, digital dash, PDM, ABS, TC, LC, PS, TPMS, DBW, wireless intercom. I've even read brake pressure to get bias readouts on the dash, map switching, keyless start, datalogging, bluetooth connectivity. Just need to get a shoeshine module and its sorted.

I'm not into tech, I just want an old school experience, I used to be, I had it on everything, my guitar pedalboard was out of control, but after bamboozling myself with so much tech I found that I spent more time faffing about with it than enjoying the actual thing I was supposed to be doing, so now I have singe-coil guitars and a valve amp, nothing more, I want my cars and motorcycles as tech-free as possible and I just enjoy the activity without having to twirl buttons or forever adjusting stuff and never being happy. I couldn't live with the new GT3RS for example, I'd be forever messing with those knobs on the steering wheel and would get bogged down in trying different set-ups. My 930 is perfect, no choices, turn the key and drive it, I don't even put the radio on. The flat bottom is 997 based, not sure about end weight.

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Yes, not sure what's going on there, mine has a regular key too

Sorry I should have been clearer, yes my 997 has a key but the ignition barrel is a simple switch. So the key start isn’t like a traditional key, it’s like a fake micro switch

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Wow. This is a different level of "911 purist" to anything I've ever encountered before, bravo

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Excited H......????

Love the colour of that one

Yeah I watched it yesterday. There is also a mini documentary type film interviewing the owner, a good friend of MLR and Marc’s. I’m looking forward to getting mine, the plan is to send the 930 home and bring the new build here for a year. I’d have loved to be more involved but I’m 24/7 at work, it’s more like a lifestyle choice than a job so it’s probably been easier for me to put it out of my mind and just wait than if I was there more often. So yeah, I’m starting to build up a buzz now and they seem as excited as me, every time Logan talks about the car he’s got a massive smile on his face, you can tell he loves building them.

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It's called a vocation. Trout Farming was very much like that for me, it consumed 30yrs of my life and I loved it until I didn't , then I got out. Now I've no money but happier than I was laterally Can't wait to see the car after paint.

Finally got some paint going onto the shell. It's a very long process, not being a painter I had no idea there was so much involved, there seems to be about a dozen different things going on from bare metal to paint, but here are a few showing sealer, various undercoats, stone chip and finally a video showing the interior and undersides painted. He explained why they do it like this and I'm sure all painters have their own way of doing it, but this is the way they do it for reasons I won't try to explain because I'm sure to get it wrong. These are the bits no one will see and it still looks gorgeous, the outside should be stunning.

Looks great Harry Nice colour

The plan is to ship it directly to Dubai, I don't want that perfect finish touched by rain or dirt. It will have a full flat bottom installed and I shudder to think of UK road grime and water getting under it. It raises a point I'd thought about, the arch liners are stupidly expensive and surely there must be a better way because it must invite dirt and moisture to get between them and the body. My son-in-law has a souped up Humvee that he uses as advertising for one of his businesses and the customising shop covered the underneath and under arches in a very thick hard stone-chip type paint, much thicker than usual, it doesn't have plastic arch liners. This has had so much paint and protection that it should take decades to corrode, if ever, but there is still that gap between liner and body to collect muck. Another concern is the new paint and how badly UV affects it and whether I can get a coating (ceramic or something) put onto new paint to protect it. The sun is relentless and I've seen new black plastics turn grey within a year or two, so it needs protecting, the 930 has ceramic protection and a cover if I know it will sit outside for any time, it usually sits either in the garage or under a sun shade, I hate not having it covered, but when you're driving it the sun will still do it's thing.

I think I'd stick with the factory arch liners , there's no going back if you cover the underside in stone chip type product , it looks like they've done a top job underneath anyway. The price of new plastics is crazy though. When you say "flat bottom" Is someone going to build a carbon floor pan for it then? I guess this is the trouble in creating such a perfect machine, you don't want to damage it in the slightest (by driving it ) You can't win really, UK will throw potholes , rain and salt at it, Dubai that relentless intense sun. Anyway it's coming on and looking brilliant.

The flat bottom panels will be Porsche OEM from newer cars, they put studs and threaded inserts in to take the new panels. I'll try and get a bit of the video to upload that shows them. They're non-ferrous so will never corrode and I'm not sure how they're fixed, bonded or welded in, but as I say some are studs and some are inserts.

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The underside is stone chip anyway if you look closely, this car will probably outlive my grandkids. Again I think its OEM, my 930 has it in places. Thinking about it I'm not worried about the painted bits really, its got the blue paint, stone chip, then several types of undercoat, then sealant, unless it's damaged then it's unlikely any kind of external influence will affect it. It was also washed very thoroughly and baked after the acid dip, because they learned that unless you really go to town then the acid can hide in the seams and then even a couple of years later can weep out and corrode from the inside. I think everyone knows this by now because (I think) it was back in the '90s when this first came to light after acid dipped cars seemed to start corroding on seams and they realised what was happening. So it gets numerous types of chemical washes, then water, then they bake it to a high temp to finally kill anything off, then ecoat which AFAIK is electroplating the metal, it's really thin but very durable. I'm still going to get them to treat the underside with whatever anti-corrosion stuff is recommend to face a British winter, it will eventually be coming back and hopefully any metal parts will last until it wears out, rather than rusting out. I'm hoping to keep all three 911s but this 996 is intended to be the car that sees us through for the rest of our driving days even if the others go.

I'd only texture finish the wheel wells and few select places, you can use a smooth hard coat like 3M body gard 08158 for the other sections which will look much better and won't hold dirt.

You should only dip and e coat a car that is designed for it, otherwise it will stay in the seams, drying it out isn't the answer because if its bare metal it will rust, the e coat needs to get to it. Another problem, more with older cars is cavities with debris. The debris doesn't allow the e coat to reach then moves later creating rust areas. See these Mercedes crash bars, the seams are designed for dipping, nothing is closed.

I don't think this is their first rodeo, they've all been dipping shells for decades. They go to a tremendous amount of trouble to prep it and then an equal amount of time making sure all the acid is out of the seams afterwards, that was the point I was making above, I don't know what stage comes in what order, but there is a lot of washing, cleaning and then some sort of heat treatment to ensure the seams are purged somehow, I don't know the process but I've watched videos on it and it's down to a fine art now, not just them but the industry in general, if it wasn't then cars would be going rusty all over the place. Once stripped/dipped it needs treating before the seam welding is done, because otherwise it's bare metal and it'll corrode in a workshop during that process, so it's even treated in between dips. Then after the seam welding it gets treated again because it might sit in the dippers yard for a weekend and again get something in its seams. Then before, during and after the dip and ecoat it gets more treatment. I thought it was simple but it's a whole lot more work than just popping it down to the dippers and back, it takes days and days of before and after work just to get it through that process.

I think there's only 3 in the UK who can handle cars, enviro strip, surface processing and Caledonia coachworks. Not sure what treatment can be applied between dipping because the ecoating needs bare metal. So treating it will be pointless because it's re-dipped before e coating to remove any rust. Adding paint or residue into seams or cavities will just disrupt the e coating process or create debris. I'm sure the 996 shell will be a better platform for dipping though, it's galvanised at the factory isn't it.

You're gonna have that big empty tunnel underneath Just wondering what you could stow away in there , access might be an issue Talking about acid dip , those steel diagonal braces that are at the rear on a 996 , the ones that always rust , well I took mine off and made a sort of trough so I could soak them in white vinegar for a few days. They came out spotless so I rinsed them off and got some primer on then black paint and finally some stone chip. A few days later all this rusty liquid started dribbling out the holes , I hadn't rinsed all the vinegar from inside with them being hollow. Had to do it all again as the acid removes rust fully submerged bit corrodes very quickly in the air.

Retropower don't dip cars anymore, for the exact same reason, you don't find out until later; the damage it's done.

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It's a long process, from a layman's perspective, it seemed like a lot of steps for what I thought was a very simple process. You dip it and remove the paint, then you need to treat it so it doesn't corrode whilst it's bare metal, then you do your welding/whatever, then you need to clean it again and prep it for the dippers again, then when it's dipped it goes immediately to the ecoat, if it doesn't then you need to protect it again, then clean it again, etc, etc. The whole industry has known about the acid getting trapped in places and leaking out for decades now, and the good ones have finessed it to eradicate the problem. I don't know who they used but there was a very long waiting list. The last thing he wants is me standing on the doorstep in 3yrs wanting a respray, they build Speedsters and other expensive stuff and send them off all around the world, so they can't afford recalls. I remember him telling me that back in the day they had issues as they were learning, but we're talking 30yrs ago, they've learned a lot since then. Same with the carbon roof, that's been a learning experience for the industry as well, they had issues with those and I've seen pictures from all sorts of issues, bubbles, delaminating, UV damage, but again it's been perfected now so they don't get issues. Same with the steel liners in the engine, again a very long waiting list to have them fitted, they only use one place and they never have failures, but you'll be waiting a long time to get the cases back. Actually same with the heads, they had them completely refurbished and that took forever. Nothing is guaranteed but they've built a fair few cars between them over the last few decades and they know how to side-step most issues. You can tell how good they are when the build phase starts, if they know what they're doing it goes together quickly and smoothly, they know exactly what they need and when they need it, so it's all laid out ready, no waiting for parts or having to nip out for stuff they hadn't anticipated. They make it look very easy and it goes together like magic, but that's years of experience.

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Sorry to hijack the thread but I will be doing this soon. Did you use pure white vinegar or diluted down? Thanks

I'm currently soaking parts in evapo-rust and seems to be working well so interested to see how vinegar would compare cause it'll be a fraction of the price

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10% I think it was but straight out the container. Make sure you flush out the inside and then get the Mapgas gun on it to dry it out instantly , then primer. When you've finished painting ( I still use Hammerite , it's the best IMO) you could then get some liquid wax treatment like Lanogaurd and swill it around inside.

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Must be White vinegar, not Malt. It's very gentle and environmentally sound.

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Ordered uncle

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He’d be driving round smelling of chips

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Must be hundreds of Porsche's with steel liners, LA, Darton, it's nothing unusual. Got some in my engine. I think anyone with a 3.8 will most likely have steel liners. They got fitted like any normal sleeve. There's a CSR build with a carbon roof in this forum, he held it down with a few random items iirc. Got one to fit on my car, will be sikaflexed on like any other car. It's a great build, but no need to ham it up! Crikey! Lol

Im not hamming it up, you seemed to be under the impression that they might not know what they’re doing and we needed your advice, so I was making the point that they choose their engineering partners very carefully after many years of experience and will wait for months for the right people to do a top job rather than employ any old place and have rust dripping out of it in 6 months. Earlier you suggested it's terribly complicated, but now it’s all child’s play and it doesn’t need hamming up. How about you do you and I'll do me. My car is being done properly, appreciate the concern, lol.

This is going to be incredible to see it progress!

I really hope it doesn't go straight to Dubai Harry.... we're all invested in it now so we need to see her before she leaves our shores

It depends on when the 930 is shipped back, the idea is to swap them over in the air, as the 930 flies home the 996 flies to Dubai. That way I don't need to be there, the plan is April, but that's if it's finished and snagged. But if we put it off until summer, the magazine said they'll do a feature and the boys might want to do some shows with it, plus they can run it in for me, snag it and attend to anything, then I can just jump in and go. If we do that it might appear at Franks meeting before it jets off.

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I haven't said anything is complicated. Dipping certainly isn't, you've described complicated processes constantly, I've not seen any. Fitting liners certainly isn't.

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Well we're doing fine and the boys have managed for 30yrs and built dozens of cars without your advice, so I think we'll do ok. I don't know why your liners sitting on a worktop explains how they're easy to fit, or have a story to tell in my build thread, but if you start your own thread about it then you can show everyone and I'll get on with doing my build in my thread. Best of luck.

They're just steel liners Harry.

Porsche recommended I ppfd mine after glass out respray. Very happy that I did. Modern ppf adds a further sheen to the paint.

Have you decided on the interior finish?

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Black interior with two sets of seat inserts, one alcantara and one set blue tartan. They’re also going to do blue full cage, blue centre section and blue inserts around the clocks and radio, etc. I wasn’t so keen on all the blue and said to do it all black because I think it might be too much, but they’ve done all their other cars with the coloured inserts and said they’ll do it and if I don’t like it then they’ll put some or all of it back to black depending on my preference. I want to have the front section of the cage wrapped in black foam protection but I’ll probably end up removing it anyway if it gets in the way. It’s not a standard car so it’s infinitely adaptable and I don’t have to be faithful to any particular interior look but I do like the plain colour and simple look of my 997RS, so let’s see.

I do like Black interiors, but I think they can have a black hole effect, regardless of the colour of the car, though I suspect having colourful seat inserts could make a world of difference. I would like to do that to the all black interior of my aqua blau metallic 991, and the idea of having removable seat inserts for both cleaning purposes, and following a change ove,r would seem to have the potential to make you feel you had a new car on occasion..?

The colourful inserts can really "lift" the interior, and make it look a more special place - and being swappable it's easy to reverse. Body coloured interior parts can look good, however IMHO it can be a fine line between "lifting" the interior and overwhelming it. Personally, seat backs and center console is enough.

I don't really like the seat backs being done and they're proper carbon RS seats so I'd prefer the carbon to show through. The centre console should look ok because it's a nice blue, but I don't know about all the inserts, I'll have to see, this is the green one.

H, i'm with you on the colour thing although the blue won't be as bright as the green on 001. Centre console yes, cage yes but like you i'd go carbon everywhere else. There's a 986S Boxster on AT at the moment that must've been mega spec'd when new that has all black carbon interior that looks absolutely mint.

I wouldn't get in a car with a front cage and no protection and I always ran my 996 GT3 with the front cage in. It's just asking for trouble. In fact, when I bought it it didn't even have three point belts installed in case it was a case of "I'm only popping out I'll just use the 3 points". I know someone who collided helmets with their passenger in an accident which resulted in brain damage. It's just not a risk I'd take having something so solid next to your head. (ETA) the places where foam protection is needed really don't get in your way however so I can't see why you'd need to remove it. It does squeak like a ***** though! The most annoying thing about the front cage is the loss of the sun visors so you need a slightly illegal front sun strip. On a happier note I like a bit of colour in the interior, my 997 has a colour coded centre console (and I'd like to do the cage) as did my 996. I think all the dash bits are a step to far but the beauty of this build is Harry gets what Harry wants!

I plan to remove the front cage but not because of safety concerns, as my usual borings self I've read as much as I can about it and the general consensus (from the USA) is that car accidents are responsible for about 14% of serious head injuries and if there was enough energy in the collision between your head and the cage then you'd be in trouble anyway without the cage. Same with the story about two helmets colliding, it would have been bad without the helmets. If the cage stays then it will be covered in foam type protection but that is limited in what it can do, in any high energy crash it wouldn't do much good. So I'll remove the cage and use a standard seatbelt. It might go back in for trackdays but certainly for desert rallies where I could roll, and then it will have a proper harness and helmet, neck brace, etc. People said it would add to the stiffness of the car and it probably will but I think the seam welding and internal bracing will do most of that, plus the rear cage is staying in.

I'm not convinced the front section of a 996 cage did anything to aid the stiffness of the car but it is however, fairly simple to bolt in and out and is quick once you've done it once. It did look proper cool however which was the main reason I had it in! You do get cut outs in the clubsport carpets for it (you even so in the 997 GT3s as you'll see under your mats in the RS) but you need to butcher some floor mats if you want to run them. I did consider a front section for my 997 GT3 but it's a bit bigger and slightly obscures your passenger door mirror so I haven't bothered so far. Plus once it's in you can always tell as the carpet cut outs will look rough.

The shell is now going through the final stages of paint. They sent me this to show the colour match from original, the bumper hasn't been painted yet, that's still the original paint, they kept it to show the match and then it will get painted this week with some other parts, they got it bang on, any difference is the camera and screen. The quality is rubbish because it was sent via WhatsApp, so I'm waiting for better resolution pictures, but it's enough on my big Apple screen to be able to get a feel of it, the metallic doesn't come across so well in such poor quality pictures, they put some metallic stuff in the paint that apparently makes the metallic pop a bit more and something to do with the finish being done so it looks like it has depth and not just a surface. I have a couple of videos and you can hear the lads in the background having a conversation and saying how stunning it looks. For now that's all I have, they'll do whatever finishes it needs, let it cure for whatever time it needs, and then the build starts. The build comes together quickly but I don't think they start until the paint has had a while to settle first. The carbon roof has to go on at some point and I think for now I'm staying with the standard bonnet, a carbon one offers no advantage and there is always the possibility of it not fitting as well as the original one, so it doesn't make sense. I was really keen on carbon brakes but the lads reckon it's money I don't need to spend and I've already got a brand new big brake kit on the shelf that I bought last year, it's an upgrade from the GT3 brakes so it will be fine, I just like carbon brakes. Other than that I think I've already gone with every upgrade that was reasonably possible to do, I can't think of anything else I could do to make it better, maybe a Manthey kit but it's not a track car and I've already gone way overboard for what will be mostly a road car.

Love that blue the green interior is nice apart from the green facia.. that looks a bit cheap and tacky imho.

It's a stunning colour (I saw it on Youtube) and it's good that a unique car will get a unique look-it would have been easy to simply make a wide body 996 GT3 RS in white blue/red. I get the instinct with the carbon brakes however, mine is now running standard PCCBs but refinished in the modern materials. As for carbon bonnets-there appear to be two different types and some (such as the Manthey ones) are taken from original 996 RS moulds-those are the ones that fit correctly. Genuine RS ones are an absolute fortune these days.

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I definitely don't want to try and pass it off as an actual RS - I suppose apart from the engine it isn't far off being one in terms of parts, even down to OEM RS carpets - but I think lookalikes are cheesy unless it's made very clear that they're lookalikes. I'd like the car and MLR to get the recognition it deserves because the lads have worked hard on it and they're super stoked about it, I could hear them all buzzing about it in the background on the video and Reece sent me a text saying "all the lads are in love with it". They've taken a real pride in it because I let them make most of the decisions, so it's their car really and it will be nice to see it get some attention and the boys get the credit. It would be nice for people to know how much work has gone into it, I'm hoping it gives other people a bit of confidence to invest in their 996 platforms. Cosmetically I think it will be a stunner, but the engine is also going to be a feature, all the internals were bought in from the states, I considered a Sharkwerks style 4.1L but we settled on a 3.9L with all the same parts they use, lightweight pistons , rods and LWFW. Switchable Sharkwerks exhaust is still up in the air until we get decibel info, but either way it will be a quality exhaust with switchable valves from a button on the dash, not a bluetooth fob. As I said somewhere else this should make the 997RS superfluous, so that may end up for sale, it's going up in price but I need the garage space more than I need the money.

What are your actual plans aesthetically Harry? Obviously we know the colour but there's so much else to a 911's look than just that. Wheel style and colour, rear wing options, front bumper options...

Just need to decide what to call it - the graphics down the side. Carrera 3.9CS MLR 3.9CS Porsche 3.9CS The green one is called Carrera CS and suits it I think.

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Have to go out in a moment, but briefly. I got hold of some genuine RS wheels, took ages for those to come up for sale, same rear but wider front I think than the GT3, so they're going on, probably finished in black like the ones above. The front bumper will be standard C4S because I like it and don't like the GT3 one as much. Standard C4S side skirts because I don't like the twist on the GT3 or RS ones. It will have a GT2 spoiler with ducts, with the C4S light bar underneath and we'll try to get that to light up.

Nice choices. My own personal opinion is that very unique blue may look better without stripes and a simple silver finish to the allow wheels but as with any bespoke build-as I've said-the only choices that matter are those of whom is paying the bills! (I can't deny I was hoping to see GT3 bumpers and wings on it as it would give us all a glimpse of what a genuine 996 wide body GT3 would have looked like)

That would be too much like the RS and I wanted to steer away from that. The wheel colour isn’t set, I know they aren’t keen on black wheels so I was surprised to hear him say black finish on the wheels. I can’t remember if I posted elsewhere but JZM had a gorgeous blue 997.2 RS in and it’s the only one I’ve ever liked cosmetically and did consider it, but I couldn’t live with the Meccano spoiler. I did think about taking design ideas from that.

The one that sold before it hit the market this week? Very nice indeed. I think it would have looked better on silver wheels with no decals or even better, red wheels and red decals. I should probably never give people advice on colour schemes given some of my car history mind you...

Whilst I was at Ninemeister during the week, Colin showed me around a GT2 evo that they're almost finished. I can now aee where the money goes. If you didn't know any better, youd think the car was from the factory on zero miles..immaculate stuff. I got to look at some other cool cars they're working on and it made me think that a glass out respray was cutting corners. This, and other builders like them just go to infinity and im doing normal people stuff

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Red wheels and red decals on a blue car would look like the hideous Spider-Man RS. I don’t know how anyone can live with that. That was my point on the other thread, the 997.2RS was made to stand out on purpose and there is no way Andreas Preuninger had anything to do with that look, I’ll guarantee he wasn’t a fan. As I said the 997.1RS was his last exterior sign off. Removing the graphics on that blue one makes it look a lot better but on all the 997.2s I’ve seen where they do that, it seems to affect the price significantly. People want original. And they can be picky, for every one 997.1 that comes up for sale there are always half a dozen 997.2s. I’m inclined to copy that car though, just a black graphic down the side at the bottom and black wheels. On the back maybe just something simple. The RS wheels I have had just come back from a refurb and they’re light gold, they’re like new, someone was going to use them for a project and then got gold BBSs. But I think it might look a bit too Subaru Impreza with gold wheels.

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Marc and Colin were Ninemeister for years, so the way they build their cars now is going to be very similar. What happened was a shame but we’ve now got two places instead of one. Back in the early 90s Marc had a little unit and was rebuilding cars, so to us he was always the go-to guy for a rebuild as well as being a bodywork and paint genius. I’ve got fond memories of that time. His niche here with these 996s is a package where for around a hundred grand you get a brand new car, fully stripped to bare shell and rebuilt. It’s a relative bargain, the ‘refreshed’ 996 at Bramley will set you back £70k and that’s not a full rebuild. It just needs some PR and for people to understand the depths they go to, a base 911 will set you back considerably more but here you get a totally bespoke very cool brand new car that should last you a lifetime.

Got to put ceramics on! The weight saving is huge but not just that it's virtually dust free. That alone is reason enough.

Very exciting and the colour is beautiful. Looking forward to seeing it go together.

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I feel the same way, but the lads are adamant that it’s better all round with the GT3 big brake upgrade steels. I’ll wait and see, I’ll drive back to back with the 997RS and if I can really feel the difference then I’ll put ceramics on. The only downside is I’ll get less of my money back selling a used steel kit than selling it as it is now brand new on the shelf.

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What is the name of this blue? It looks great.

Personally I think the blue with pale gold wheels will look mega H.

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Not Pale gold, but I think the a blue 996 can pull off the gold wheel look ok. Might be a bit biased though.

Is that a wrx? Just kidding looks ace

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There is a really long story about the circumstances of it that I love to tell, but I think it's boring for anyone else. For years we talked about a build and we wanted a particular blue (my wife's favourite colour) and didn't want to get another colour and paint it blue, so it had to be factory PTS on a wide body C4S and we thought it would never happen. But as I explained on another thread, I can wait years if I need to, I turned down a few 997RSs before buying mine and I must have turned down thirty 930s before I bought mine. Anyway, one evening we got a call saying MLR had a C4S wide body in Intense Blue Pearl Metallic, it had all the options that I wanted and it was in the workshop, did I want him to try and buy it, I said yes, the rest is history. I don't think it's a Porsche colour, but the Porsche factory paperwork shows it's PTS and seems legit. I'd have been happy with any lighter blue, like Minerva Blue or Mexico Blue, but those lighter blues are rare on the 996. This has given some inspiration for the interior - https://www.paragongb.com/581/porsche-for-sale/porsche-911-turbo-coupe-for-sale-x15hso

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Yes, I have no idea which idiot would spec his car as such

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You could do white decals and white wheels? I like the Carrera CS name and decal btw. I like gold wheels too but I see what you’re saying about the Scooby effect.

“The RS wheels I have had just come back from a refurb and they’re light gold, they’re like new, someone was going to use them for a project and then got gold BBSs. But I think it might look a bit too Subaru Impreza with gold wheels.” Light Gold, I think that would perfectly with the amazing Blue of your car (not Scooby at all), quite refined. Please try it first before having them refurbished. Decals, I’m in the Less is More camp, but the simpler (none?) the better. Your car (and it is yours so go your own way) is going to be magnificent. GT3 bumpers/Skirts & OTT wings not required. You’ve got me thinking.

I don't like the GT3 skirts because of the twist in them, along with the front bumper it makes it look front end heavy, whereas the C4S and the RS have straight skirts and large aperture front bumpers. The below pictures are of a 997RS and a 996 C4S but I like those wide open apertures and not the thinner strakes or cheese grater apertures of the GT3. I think we'll do the side decal with Carrera CS because I want a bit of a nod to the modifications, maybe 3.9 on the back.

Although I had the full side script and graphics on it as well, a lot of folk preferred my more modest side inscription which I copied from the more modern cars (hope this pick shows it up)

You can maybe see better here.

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Jealous of whoever bought that JZM car. People will say ‘you don’t know that!’ but it looks to me like JZM are selling 997s like hot cakes at the moment. I wonder why RPM rarely stock them.

The blue one with gold wheels looks great

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I tested a 997.2 GT3RS back to back with my 997.1 GT3RS, we spent a morning in them swapping back and forth and in the end ultimately I preferred my 997.1, but that blue 997.2 definitely looked amazing and I was hovering over the phone but it sold so quickly I didn't get chance.

More progress on my car, more been done but I'm waiting for photos, they sent me a couple of pictures last night just to show me it's underway and it's nice to see the build really starting to get going. It should be a rolling chassis soon and I'm looking forward to seeing the engine going in. Collection day should be pretty special, a brand spanking new 996 in RS spec, there is nothing like that new car feel but it will be like going back in time 25yrs to collect a brand new car that combines all the best parts of that era and a few modern parts thrown in too.

You must be getting quite excited. I am!

Yeah I am but it's also a bit strange watching it from so far away. I think if I was there and popping down every weekend I'd probably be chomping at the bit, but because it's been a couple of years now and I'm so far away it's made it feel less real. Plus without giving everyone a full sob story a lot has gone on since we first sat down and drew out a rough plan for the build, it's been a really rough couple of years that had my full attention, I'm actually very happy just to be here, so it's probably something that I won't get properly excited about until I'm actually stood looking at it.

More progress.

Out of curiosity, is every part brand new on the suspension or are certain parts refurbished and refinished

On the suspension (in fact anywhere that it made sense) everything is new, I want this car to be literally like a brand new car off the factory floor, but some unseen bits will be refurbed or replated or whatever. It's only being done once, so no expense is spared but no point throwing money away for unseen parts that will be just as good refurbed and never seen.

Looking ace so far

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Nice to see rubber bushes going back in. Much better for a road car.

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Agreed, the car will be extremely stiff with the seam welds and full cage, but it needs some compliance otherwise it will just become a bone shaker on the road. They set up my 930 perfectly, I’ve had people say it’s too high but that’s a cosmetic thing, it’s set up to cope with driving on the road and lowering would compromise that. This 996 definitely won’t be slammed and running on track settings, I want to enjoy it on the road.

One of the things that I've kept harping on about to them is the light weight clutch and flywheel, I find my 997RS such a delight to drive with this set up and if the 996 isn't the same I know I'll end up neglecting it and using the 997 instead, so I want it to be as zingy as possible, it's got lightweight internals anyway, nothing super fancy and it's not tuned, but hopefully it revs quickly. I've had a bunch of people try to convince me that this won't make a good road car, but the 997RS is hugely better than any non-lightweight set-up I've ever driven, in fact if I get into a 911 with a standard set-up it feels like I've left the handbrake on or something. I'd also preferably drop the R&P ratio but I don't think this is essential, the 996 wasn't terribly over geared anyway, so it should be fine as long as it zips up the rev range quickly. I'm not chasing bhp, but I am chasing lightness, handling and a zippy very rev free engine. Throughout this build I've been back and forth wondering if I should have just bought a 996RS, but I think now I see it coming together I made the right choice, this will be a brand new bespoke car, so better (to me) than a 20yr+ 996RS that probably needs refreshing.

Those RS wheel carriers look sexy, we've just done a zoom video walk around, the GT2 radiators and hoses are substantial things, and the things like the RS plastic scratch proof rear window is a cool touch. There are lots of really cool little parts that I really should make a list of, just in case I ever did sell it and so I can demonstrate the amount of detail. The best bit is the exhaust, I can't say because it's an MLR secret but the exhaust being build is unreal, it sounds like an F1 car at full chat and then when you close the value it's got a gorgeous burble to it that sounds nice. They've got a test car where they're trialing it at the moment.

After all the talk and planning it's really good to see this coming together.

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Kriessieg? Had one on my GTR, the howl it made was the reason I bought the car, the previous owner paid the $12k asking price though. They market themselves as F1 sounding exhaust manufacturers and they really are. With the valve closed it was quiet, zero noise, zero drone, absolutely brilliant.

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No, it's a mix of various different exhausts with some of their own fabrication. It's hardly a state secret but at this stage it's their IP and a lot of thought and work has gone into it, so I'll leave the exact details for another day, but it's minimalist, fat equal length headers and something very sexy on the end, with massive weight saving.

I've never got the exhaust right on my 996 so looking forward to see what they've come up with - I attempted to do the same as Dundon had done on a 996 and use a 997.2TT box as a centre box, but I couldn't live with it (drone) even though I had lovely manifolds with a cat (the Dundon car didn't have cats). I even introduced a valved "quiet" path with smaller dia pipe and still wasn't happy. I was going to try a different approach with a x pipe centre silencer and two small aftermarket side silencers but lost interest.

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They are poly bushes in the upper rear arms. Not something I would choose to use personally, but each to there own.

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Yes those are Powerflex. They know how I drive, so it's being set up for me specifically following me telling them what I wanted. If it turns out to be a bit harsh or vague then I might do something about them, but the other guys with them in their builds are all happy. From what I gather most complaints come from people putting these bushes in but doing nothing else, then they complain about NVH and possible vagueness or less compliance. This will be set up considering the whole package, so hopefully it all works together. In general I run everything on the harsh side including tyre pressures, same on my bikes, I like to feel everything and I prefer to slide early rather than lots of grip and then a sudden loss of grip. But I'll see, they know it's primarily a road car and I'm not welded to anything, so it can all be changed if I don't like the feel of it. Marc did say he was setting it up to perform well in the wet, that's his benchmark, if it does the business in the wet then hopefully the dry is easier to manage, so I think he'll have considered it all, but as I said everything can be changed if needed.

Build looks great. Good on you for building the car you want. Beauty of the 996 platform is that you can change bushes relatively easy if necessary to find the right balance. There really is no right or wrong.

I’m not sure but I deferred to them as it’s their day job and they’ve built loads, so we’ll see. I’ve said this before but I told them to go mad, build the car you’d build if it was yours and money was no object, so they’ve done everything reasonable without wasting money. The seam welding and various other things were total overkill really but I had the chance to do it, I’ve worked hard for it, so I’m going to town with it. I think there is an event this weekend (or soon anyway, they mentioned it on the call) and my (part)build will be on display.

Just to do a bit more research, I was reading that the RPM Techniq CSR has the same poly bush set-up, so I don't know who came up with it first but I know Marc has been putting these cars together in this sort of spec since they came out really, so I think it's a well tried and tested set-up. I was going to have another word and make sure, but I don't need to, I told him what I wanted and it's his bread and butter, so he'll know what he's doing.

It's on show today...

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Didnt know copart had a stand there

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As I mentioned, Poly bushes is not something I would do, I thought it best to add some context. Ive been building/rebuilding cars for 25 years. The last 15 years has been Porsche 996's. I have only ever removed Poly bushes, either by customer request, or due to damage caused. The Polyurethane is often a harder material than some Alloy components, and can wear the alloy before it wears the Poly (996 front arm inner poly bushes have too thick of a flange and it rubs away on the subframes). They also go dry and start to make noise, requiring maintenance that you dont have to do with rubber. I also dont like the way they feel, they are not progressive like rubber, this is a personal choice though. I would never fit them on one of my own builds/rebuilds, and I would not fit them for a customer. Im also aware of several of the RPM CSR cars having the bushes replaced and new arms fitting to remove the poly bushes. There is a multitude of OE and rose jointed options available, including a harder OE bush that can be used. I would always use rubber on the road, rose-joints on track/race cars, or on the road for somebody happy with the compromise and limitations. This is all my experience and preference, if MLR have good experience and the bushes they are using don't have the fitment issues ive experienced, then im not about to sit here and state knowbody should use them, I just never would.

That colour looking beautiful under the lights. Really pops.

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Fair enough, I can’t argue with that, you’ve got a lot more experience than me. I’ve heard of the downsides especially the need for them to remain greased and I’ll have another chat with them about it. They have a lot of experience but it’s always worth asking, if the CSR cars needed changing then it might be a blind spot. If this current situation in the Middle East sorts itself out then it will come to Dubai for very regular use on the road and probably a monthly trackday so I’d rather get it sorted.

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I was more taken by the Reliant Club. I’ve always fancied a Robin just to mess around in, I reckon it would be every bit as fun as a Caterham.

Harry, back in time I played a little part in motoring events, one was the usual classic car event in a grass field with all sorts of clubs involved and paying spectators, to help pay for the hire of the land. We used to set out a gymkhana with a slalom course and garages to be reversed into etc.etc. all laid out using traffic cones...A whole lot of fun for a host of folk who did not take it all to seriously, points off for knocking cones etc..... The prizes were presented for the best club performance, and a special prize was created for the Reliant Robin club, given the obvious effort they put in to try to beat the Porsches and regularly rolling their cars in the process, being against the clock, they became very proficient at rolling them back onto their three wheels and continuing on regardless. Just great to see folk enjoying their cars, and providing a lot of laughs for everyone else in the process... (-: In a similar vein, I also played a very small part in occasional track day events, and although not the fastest but certainly the most entertaining were the folks taking part in 2CV`s given the angle of lean and wheel lifting involved, again just great to watch folk deriving both fun and enjoyment from their cars...(-:

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I saw this car yesterday. Being done by MLR. Reece spent time talking about the build. I didn't click it was yours. I wish i had taken photos of her. With the engine out you could see the fantastic paint job to the shell plus the sub frames. Very impressive. I can honestly say i didn't touch her ! Bet you can't wait to get her back

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Thanks. The boys are definitely a chip off the old block and I’ve seen how fastidious Marc is with everything he does, so I’m confident it will be spectacular.

A bit more progress. I feel like it's going to be almost a crime to get it dirty underneath. The dash is going in and the other internal stuff has been fitted and then removed for final prep, like the cage.

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Thanks. I haven't really mentioned the paint much because I have zero knowledge but I'm not so keen on dark or really flat colours, so asked them to try and bring the metallic out and there is something in it that is (as I understand it) like tiny little gold bits that really make it shine in the sun. The carbon roof is also going to have blue and metallic flecks in it, so that should look different and hopefully subtle with a bit of a glint to make it sparkle but not too blingy. I'm hoping it ticks a lot of boxes for me, there is engineering in there that goes the extra mile and hopefully there is an edge on the visuals that makes it stand out without being too unclassy.

Still wondering if I should have gone for carbon brakes, I really like the ones on the 997RS and one of things that I wasn't keen on with previous cars is the amount of brake dust these things produce. I'm sure these will perform and I'll see in the future.

H, i'm surprised you didn't opt for a flocked dash.....black or dark grey anthracite would've looked mint. Coming together nicely sir.

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PCCB will add another 10% to your bill but very much worth it for the next to no brake dust. Fitted them to my C2

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There was a lot on the table really that I could have gone for and I'm a nit picker and never happy, so it's a real brain cruncher for me trying to figure out what to do. I originally thought of Alcantara but then I decided to go standard and all black and then the boys talked me round into black with blue accents of various bits, which I can switch out if it's too 1980's shell suit. The original brief was to build a tastefully done Carrera RS inspired Lightweight, but all business, limited to a fixed price (ish) and not something I'd stress over getting it dirty or putting too many miles on it. So I need to try and not go too far with it. Although an Alcantara dash might be on the cards at some point.

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Yeah I'm a fan of PCCBs. Nice to see sensible tyres as well that you can use instead of track cut-slicks that have you sliding out of every junction and nursing it around bends in anything but perfect conditions. But as above, I've already gone over budget and before I know it I'll be into proper 996RS money and at that point I'll have ultimately failed in my effort to make something special that I'm not precious over.

It looks fantastic. I wonder if Harry Metcalfe would do a feature on it when it's done...I bet Jethro Bov would like a shot in it to compare with his machine. I'd say it deserves PCCB's

It has got quite a bit of interest, the lads have got a couple of things lined up where it will be featured and there is a magazine article being discussed where it will be compared to a 996RS and the 997RS. I'm not sure Harry Metcalfe would be interested, never seen him review any older modified cars. I think it would be good to showcase what MLR can produce, but I'm not personally bothered about shows, I'd like to see it in a magazine that I can keep with the car but I've never really been one for putting my cars/bikes into shows unless it's to help out a club or team.

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Just caught up on your build Harry - it's pure 996 *****! I would be really interested in that magazine test (happy to lend out my gt3rs if they need one). You must be itching to drive your creation? I don't think I could have been as patient as you...

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That might be a plan, MLR have a 996 GT3RS (a couple I think) but it wouldn't hurt to have a few RS's to do a group test, I'll bring my 997RS as well because this build also has some 997 parts and it's a 3.9L, so it will be really good to see how they compare. The lads reckon I'll want to sell my 997RS once I start using the 996 because it will be better and I think they're probably right. The RS day at Oulton would have been a great day to test them all together and see if their build can put in faster lap times and then be a decent road car on the way home. Although to be fair even though it's a rally/track inspired build it is actually being set up as a road car with track capability, so it will have a deep baffled sump and a few track orientated bits of kit, but it will roll on road tyres. Even though it's a 3.9L I don't think it will match a 996RS or 997RS in terms of top end power, it's not been built for that, but torque might be good and the way its been built might give it an edge, new KW suspension, super stiff chassis with the seam welding and cage, etc. I'm very into my 997RS, it was on my list of dream cars, so it's going to take a lot to knock it off it's spot.

Looks a lovely job they’re doing. For me It’s just great seeing the 996 getting so much love and attention, quite sad how they’ve been shunned for so long. I think you should plan the mother of all road trips to christen it once you get it Mr Blue!

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...via all of our houses so we can all see it... starting with mine as i'm closest to MLR

I think the 996 will definitely appreciate, although like the old Escorts it might take a while. There appears to be a big run on the more expensive sports cars by people looking to invest money now the markets are looking shakey, so the 996/7 GT cars are rising, the same era Ferraris are rising and hopefully at some point this drags up the base cars, although as I said it’s going to take a while, at the moment the buyers of a 996 C2 are very different people than the 996RS buyers. As they get more scarce though through attrition I think people will start to pay more for good ones.

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Harry, After seeing your car last Sat in the show, that paintwork pops under the internal lights so when you get it out in sunlight it will be very special and a class act. It is stunning and i was very envious.

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Wish i'd lived near MLR after seeing the quality of their work together with their knowledge and passion for 996's

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I'm sure you'll end up keeping the 7RS as your UK run-around car

For those enquiring I said I'd post up costs so far, the spend at the moment is £98k and that includes the £14k I paid for the donor car, which I arguably paid too much for but it was a C4S one-of-one PTS in the exact colour I wanted with some nice options, so it was a case of "find me another". Not sure how much left to spend but the above includes a few things that might not be in every build like the GT2 radiators and sundries, RS wheel carriers, RS carpet set, large fuel tank, LWFW, X51 sump, RS wheels, KW Suspension, GT2 spoiler, 997 GT underbody panels, cylinder head refurb and porting, plus everything that could reasonably be replaced has been, so new hoses, suspension parts, alternator, starter, new 3.8 oil pump, etc, so again I've overspent through choice. For those not interested in the cost side of things just scroll on, but I feel like in general there is a lack of info about costs because people are reluctant to tell anyone, but I'm fine with transparency and hopefully it helps give people a steer if they're thinking of something similar. The Americans are quite forthcoming like this, the Brits less so.

I did wonder why you were particularly keen on the PTS colour considering the shell was stripped bare and could have been painted to any colour you desired. I assume that it is of benefit to the provenance on what will be a very special car when finished?

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Yeah I've always been a fan of keeping the original colour on a car and I wanted a car with Minerva Blue paint, then this came along and it was perfect. We'd actually planned to do it a year later, but when the right donor car came along I pulled the trigger. If at some point in the future I want a more standard looking car then I can switch it out fairly easily and put it somewhere back to standard and then it's a very nice C4S with a load of upgraded running gear but the exterior hasn't been changed so much. It's an RS inspired car because I wanted some of the benefits of that running gear but I also want it to be clearly identifiable as a modified C4S, which is why I kept the front grill, side skirts, back end and light bar. As I've said before it's the Carrera Lightweight CS that Porsche should have made on the 996 platform but didn't.

Ah so what are you going to badge it? Carrera CS? Also what colour the decals? Think Porsche did really well on a similar colour aqua blue 997.2 RS with red decals or weiss gold decals with matching wheels.

Its great that you are disclosing actual costs. I don't know why people are so reluctant, it's an informative part of the build. I've always been transparent in this respect and keep highly detailed records. Going forward I won't have as much disposable, but I've exchanged that for time.

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I like to go with hours as it tells the story, rates vary and there are people that don't have the first idea about what goes into rebuilding a car which, in the forum world can then prompt a debate between experts on why something is, or is not worth the money, so the number of hours serves as a good illustration. It excludes parts but it's relatively easy to work out what a parts list ends up looking like in currency.

We haven’t decided what to call it yet, I’d love to call it a 996 ST because it’s my version of one, if Porsche made a 996 ST it would surely be my car, Sport and Touring, it’s had the shell strengthened and built to race spec, it’s had anything not essential thrown out and it’s even having a plastic RS rear window, it will weigh less than a standard RS. But the sticking point is it doesn’t have a Mezger and a 996 ST would surely have had an RS engine. I’m not sure I could be so bold suggesting it’s a genuine rival or even better than an RS - although I think it will give one a run for its money. Or I go all in and look for a GT3 engine and tune it. If the magazine test it alongside a 996 RS and my 997 RS and declares it a contender then maybe. Some of their other builds are called Carrera CS but my car has gone a lot further than those, I don’t think there is anything aside from the engine that could be tweaked more. RE hours versus cost, that’s a good measure if you’re doing the work yourself but I’m having it all done for me, so I have no idea how many hours are going into it. I’m paying a set price for the build plus parts costs. And even then some people work faster than others, if you’re very used to working on the 996 then you’ll be a lot quicker than someone finding their way through it. They’ve built quite a few now so I’ll ask what sort of hours go into a full build. I think Rennsport claim 1,400hrs and that’s probably why they charge £300k+ for a car. MLR have a service dept, spray dept and a build dept, as well as one-off fabrication stuff I’ve seen them doing, so I would imagine that they deploy their labour accordingly and drop on the builds when they have time, that’s what I’d do as the builds aren’t as time sensitive as someone that has bought a car in for a service or a repair.

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It’s actually only the British and French who are like this. It’s seen as vulgar and bad form to talk about what you’re spending or what you earn. When I was young and lived in France it was explained to me that I shouldn’t openly show happiness either, that’s seen as vulgar and it’s why at events all the older French people look a bit sour faced, they were raised not to show open displays of happiness or glee, again its seen as vulgar to openly display your emotions. Back to costs, I think it’s helpful because there is a lot of cost that people don’t consider. I’ve just settled a £30k bill and the vast majority of it is items under £50 or less, it’s several pages long and covers things like bolts, fasteners, clips - all essential stuff but the little things that you don’t think about, but someone has to pay for them. On a full build there is thousands of pounds worth of small parts to be paid for if you want all new. It would look a mess if you put all new parts on with old rusty bolts and fasteners.

I'm posting on the fly and just throwing my ideas out there at the moment. I spoke to them about what we should call it and as I posted before I was quite keen on calling it an ST, but they said their builds are normally named CS if they're track focussed with a cage and upgrades, an ST if they're mainly road/touring orientated like the blue one that was finished before mine, and an RS if it's had the whole nine yards with all RS components and every possible upgrade to the shell, engine and running gear - so they have mine down as an RS. He said I can call it anything I want, but if I called it an ST it wouldn't really fit with their naming policy so far, mine is the most technically advanced car they've made so far so he suggested I stick with "Carrera RS". They said they don't like using GT unless it started off as a GT, which mine didn't. I'm wondering what would really make it stand out, make it really special and set a benchmark?

How about 996RS1..... makes sense if it's the 1st of it's kind Harry...? Or RST.

I suppose Carrera RS does fit quite well, if Porsche had made a Carrera RS then it would probably be just like this build, weight taken out, engine lightened, perhaps a capacity upgrade like the difference between the Carrera and Carrara S, and RS running gear. I've never really had a thing about naming cars or the lettering, but it seems important to get this one right, I don't want it to come across as cheesy.

CRST!

I think the 991 generation PORSCHE lettering works well on the back end of a 996. Personally I'd leave it at that. Alternatively, some people like the simple '911'. If you just fitted that others could decide for themselves what model/spec they think it actually is. My fear would be that any other badging would have people coming up for reasons why it shouldn't be called what it is.

Perhaps revival of the air cooled SC nomenclature..as in Super Carrera...? (-:

SL .. Superleggera or Superleicht SS... Super Sports or Super Special

T8s point is the thing that concerns me, I don’t like people who just stick badges on calling a car something when it has no right to it and I don’t like replicas. I can see why MLR call it an RS because apart from the engine it basically is one, but the engine is a very big part of an RS. And if I put a tuned GT3 engine in then people would call it a replica which I’d dislike even more. The distinction they make though is it’s a Carrera RS not a GT3RS and I think that does make sense.

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As an aside...I find it just a tad interesting to think of the marketing value attributable to a few letters when attached to identify a machine as just a bit special.... GT first applied in 1930 to an Alfa Romeo 6C Grand Turismo, and as for RS, apparently Ford can lay claim to making use of those two letters first, in 1970 when they applied it to the 1600RS Escort as in Rally Sport...? With that in mind perhaps Porsche can lay claim to SC, first used in 1978 3 litre 911`s..?

Carrera RS makes sense to me! My friend has a car named 'RST' albeit its made by some crazy Swedes, not Porsche

MLR are moving to new premises where they will have a nice showroom and some stuff on display, we've agreed that my car will be in there as a showcase car for at least part of the year and available to people to demonstrate what can be achieved. It won't be a demo car for any Tom, Dick or Harry to turn up and have a go in, but it will be there for serious clients to have a good look at. There are podcasts and videos planned and I'm also hoping that 911 & Porsche will run a feature comparing my build, with a genuine 996RS and my 997RS, to see which one comes out on top. The GT3RS always feels like a very special thing and so it's hard to get past the emotion of that, but take the emotion out and as a road car the MLR Carrera 3.9 RS should be a match for either car. I'm really interested to see what the verdict is.

That's a storage problem for one of your fleet solved.

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Yeah, I was going to bring it straight to Dubai but I don't fancy it with what's going on, so having it in their showroom and driving it when I'm back suits me for now. My 997RS needs servicing this summer, so I'll drive down and leave that with them while I'm home for a few weeks, then swap back over and they can have the 996 as a show car and I'll put the 997 back in my garage.

Just dropped off my car today at MLR, had a poke around the workshop and saw your car, that's going to be epic

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Did you see their first 996 turbo RS build? I saw this posted today.

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Yep, saw it - it was apparently a very low milage car. There's an impressive selection of 996's waiting to be built to varying specs.

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I think word is getting out now. I like how they’ve done it, no hype or big PR stunts, just really solid builds and reputation carrying on the wind and people are starting to notice. The builds aren’t a UK only thing either, last time I was there they had two USA builds as well. I’d be making big news of it but it’s not their style, they just let the cars do the talking and news spreads.

If it was my car they were making I would insist it wasn't dipped. Should be an interesting build though. Carbon roof to remove sunroof?

Sunroof delete, rear wiper delete, all the usual stuff, if it wasn't needed and adds weight then it doesn't make the final cut, if it was going to be a UK only car I might have junked AC too, but let's be honest it's largely for show, a carbon roof adds an aesthetic and does the job, I think all their builds come with a carbon roof so it wasn't discussed much, but I like the look, who wouldn't add a carbon roof to a blue car.

That's not my roof by the way, it's just a googled picture, my carbon roof will be layered with tiny blue flecks which won't be obvious until you're up close in the sunshine. I did want a double bubble one but the more you try and do something different the less choices you have about known quality and durability and I didn't fancy dealing with bubbles in a couple of years. Same with the carbon bonnet, added risk of something not being right for low gains.

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Hi Andy @andyp This might be a decent shout actually, the idea with 911 & Porsche is to compare this build alongside a proper 996RS and my 997RS and see how they compare. MLR have got a 996RS but it's the controversial red one and I'm sure that will make an appearance but it would be great to get yours along as well. If nothing else it would give me a chance to drool over your RS and you can try my 997 and this build to see what you think. No dates planned yet but the most likely time will be August when I'm hoping to come back to the UK for a full month and the weather might give us a break. Watch this space I guess.

I was just putting all my build photos in the right files and this picture is pure 996 pron. I think I've posted it already but surely it deserves a second viewing, it's going to feel like a crime to get it dirty, like splashing custard over the Mona Lisa

GT ally cross brace. That an oem GT sway bar, tarrat have collars. I take it GT solid mounts too and obviously low arms. Hard to believe it will be any different to a GT?

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I'm not sure what you mean, as far as I know it's the same sway bar on the GT2, GT3, GT3RS. It's got a mix of GT and RS bits, so it'll be like a GT because those are the parts used.

This is going to be incredible. I'd much rather go through a process like this than go and buy a new 911 from the dealer. Can't wait to see the results.

Aye, what I'm saying is that with all those GT parts and without the hoops and regulations OEM's have to abide by, it should be more than a match for one.

Lovely build, please keep posting pics. Some GT ARB are hollow and adjustable so a decent weight saving over solid H&R / Eibach versions.

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I doubt I could push it to the limits to find out, but we've picked all the best parts and hopefully it will deliver something to rival the GT or RS but be a pussycat on the road. With a very good geo set-up it should feel nice. The 3.9L lightweight engine with RS flywheel and RS running gear, on a wide body, should make it feel like a 996 RS with an unnatural dose of torque. If it feels like a better car than my 997.1 RS, which the boys really think it will, then I'll be *****-a-hoop, because the 997RS is a beautiful thing.

Harry - this is looking amazing, just the underside is fabulous so top side will be outstanding. Any decals in the offing for it at all????

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Again this has been discussed, originally we were looking at a carbon bonnet, with a centre stripe left with the carbon exposed and the Turbonite silver badge, but the carbon bonnet didn't seem worth the money for what might give us trouble, so I the OEM bonnet is staying, with the Turbonite badge. The graphics will be subtle and probably like MLR001 (the other Marks car) except mine will say Carrera RS.

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On another car review thread for a new 911 variant I started talking about things that I thought would make it a better car and listed some things that I wish Porsche would do - then I realised that it's all the stuff that I was doing in my build, so I deleted the post. If you can't find your perfect car then build one. Initially I thought about doing it on a 997 but I fairly quickly ended back at the 996 as the purist and most alive 911 that is available on a water-cooled platform. The only downer is at the moment you can't even hope to get your money back, so if you go down that route you have to be fair committed to keeping it forever or taking a massive hit if ever you need to move it on.

I don't think you'd take such a huge hit as you think. With all the photos , MLRs reputation and all the likely press coverage will make it a very special car indeed and the fact you've kept it mostly Porsche parts from the GT3 /RS , that makes it even more unique but also more OEM , not a load of aftermarket parts thrown together wit some hope for good results. It'll be known as the blue Carrera RS It looks fabulous and like Simundo said, isn't it so more exciting and rewarding spending £100k on your own personal creation than going into an OPC and driving away in a 992 (if you can get one for £100k...i've no idea what new cars cost).

I am a bit behind - but looks fantastic. If you did spill custard on it, I think it acceptable to just lick it off...

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After a lifetime of running businesses or businesses units I’m hardwired to think of everything in terms of a P&L, balance sheet and asset values. I try to not do it so much now I know people don’t like talking about that side of things so much here, but I do genuinely need to get an agreed value because I want proper fully comp cover to the cost of a new one. I wonder how insurance companies cater for things like a Singer, which has significant mods but I assume on the log book it still says 964 C2 or something.

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No such thing as a GT car specific alloy rear cross brace, it's a generic item used on all the 996 models. Eibach rear coffin arms by the looks of it.

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Only going by the car i own. On the turbo its steel, on the GT2 it's alloy, same as pictured. Maybe all the carreras used alloy ones too then, just not the case for the turbo. Not sure if there are part number differences between other models though, haven't checked. Good bit of weight saving for turbo owners though. Not that you'd notice, but at least it doesn't rust.

That last video was excellent and really shows the commitment from MLR towards their cars.

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They’re absolutely top people and I’m glad it’s being noticed. My build will be on display so go and have a look. I’d put it up against literally anything else out there and a big USP is that it’s all standard car, not a Cosworth engine or anything, just Porsche parts but the pick of all the best bits and put together with quality that exceeds factory quality.

Weiss Gold for the decals and wheels or Red aka Spiderman?!

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No the Spiderman 997.2 does nothing at all for me, I know some people love it but it's a clash that doesn't work for me. White body colour with Weiss gold wheels/decals is nice, but with that blue popping the way it does I think we're going for black wheels and decals. I obviously want it to look nice but I'd quite like to try and find that very narrow line where it looks classy but not shouty - I've been out in the pumpkin 997RS today and you can't slide around unnoticed in that, I love the look of it but I do feel self conscious as a 50-something bloke in a bright orange 911. I drove like an angel at the instance of my wife (and the wet roads) but I'm sure I got plenty of negative comments anyway just from the look.

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I stand corrected The steel item appears to be a Turbo only part. All other 996 cars however (including the C4S strangely) use the lighter alloy item. The alloy part is just over 2kg lighter

Which part are we referring to ? The subframe centre section?

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Aye, it's a black steel item on the turbo, but ally looks to be fairly standard for the carrera and GT. Easy to swap out though. If you've got a turbo it will probably be rusty!

More progress, it's getting close now.

Wow, that's going to be some car!

I hope so. The chassis/suspension is basically all RS and and should be fairly predictable in terms of how it should feel. I'm really keen to feel the 3.9L lightweight powerplant with LWFW, I wanted a road orientated engine but I always feel the standard Carreras feel slow to rev up, so this should be addressed in this car, it'll be a bit more zippy because of the lightened internals. If (as the boys predict) it outshines my 997 RS as an overall package then I'll be very happy.

Spent a few hours down at the workshop with the wife today as it's her first time seeing it properly and choosing some of the cosmetics/aesthetics - in fact it's actually the first time I've seen it fully painted and at this stage and obviously I found it stunning. The carbon roof with blue flecks has to be seen in person, a camera just doesn't do it justice, not just on mine, I think on any carbon with paint flecks or tints doesn't come out well on camera. I got taken out in one of their other cars to demo some of the lightweight engine internals that have been used on mine and therefore the sort of performance I can expect, a demonstration like this should actually be a compulsory experience for any Porsche enthusiast, as long as you don't have a weak heart. It's very fast, very light and properly astounding, what makes it really stand out and the reason I mention it here is how fast it picks up, you can floor it at 2,500 revs and it spins up like it's on fire and then doesn't stop until you're risking your licence very quickly, obviously it does the business at high revs but it's the lower rev performance in a lightweight engine like this that really surprises you. Whilst I'm waffling, if any of you fancy a fast Cayman then talk to those guys, I thought their other one was quick but going out in Logan's 3.7L car today was mind bending. It's so light and fast to pick up that it could genuinely be considered dangerous in the wrong hands, it's nut's that they limit young people on motorcycles but you can get into one of these and away you go, there is no way I'd let my lad out in that without instruction/lessons first and he can drive well. Anyway, back to the 996 cosmetics. We've decided to go with blue Alcantara centres on the seats, they're proper 996 GT3RS seats but reupholstered by a bloke that I should remember because apparently he's the main man, but not being in that game, I can't recall the name now. If you look at the armrest in this picture then it's the same as the seat centres will be, also a couple of small additions here and there, on the doors. We were going to go with blue tartan or blue pepita style but they just didn't look right. TBC...

It'a now officially being called a Carrera RS, the graphics look really good in the flesh, it doesn't jump out at you and it's subtle but it does make it stand out as different. The rear light bar isn't finished but that will be really nice with the GT2 style spoiler with air scoops. It will be like the 996/997 RS in the sense that the spoiler body will be the body colour and then the blade will be carbon, in my case with the blue flecks again. Shame I don't have pictures of it together but you can see it will look amazing. But the side graphics will have to do for now. (The wheels are just so it can be moved around, mine will be black instead of red and it's so light that when I leaned on the rear it rolled off!)

My plans with the roll bar was to leave it in for some pictures just for a while and then remove the front section, but if you go back and look at the picture then it's so far out of the way at head height that it's got to be equal to how RUF do theirs as part of the actual car frame, so I think it will stay. There are people that don't like front cages without a helmet but I'm not convinced that the way this one fits so far back that it's dangerous enough to remove it, I think if you bang your head hard enough on the roll bar to cause damage then you'd bang it hard enough on the car frame anyway. It really is so unobtrusive that you'd have to be working hard to bang your head on it anyway and if there is a possibility of that much head movement then I'd be wearing a helmet anyway. I'll see how it feels once everything is inside.

I've got loads of pictures and videos, I'll put more later, it's nice having a record of it all online.

A guy has a Veyron locally and its naked carbon. It wasnt until I saw it in the flesh, that is realised it was a blue weave carbon fibre. Its stunning in real life to the point of making hard to comprehend how they achieve it. So I can imagine how good it looks on yours. Can't wait to see it with my own peepers......so long as youre no carrying Sandpit germs again

You must be seriously happy H, privately I wasn't keen on the colour but seeing it now you've made an inspired choice-it looks amazing. The body coloured roll cage always is a favourite-is it a genuine 996 clubsport cage (looks like a 996RS/997 GT3 cage)with the X brace)? I only ask as I ran a 996 front cage in my GT3 and even with extra foam padding it really is a bit of a health hazard without harnesses being worn all the time-in fact mine had the seatbelts stripped out to reduce the chances of just using a three point for short journeys in case the worst happened. I think folk naturally don't really understand the forces involved in a serious road accident-without harnesses your head will connect with it easily in a fairly sedate b road speed accident. Not that I disagree with your choice but please be aware of the risks. YOU don't need to be speeding or driving spirited to be involved in someone else's accident. On a lighter note-I adore the blue alcantara, very historic Ferrari! It will look amazing.

I agree about the cage. Having headbutted a steering wheel in an accident when I was a in my mid 20's, whilst wearing a seat belt, its something that has remained with me when I see a caged car. This crash with James May captures it perfectly. He was hardly travelling a great speed at the point of impact, but he'd have been in all sorts if he was in a caged car.

I like the red wheels

The front cage debate has been argued for many years by all kinds of people and all kinds of angles, companies like RUF and Singer have front cages as an integral part of the cars across top of the A, B and C pillars and their drivers cage, they say it'a a distinct design and there is padding there but other people point out that it's still a roll cage behind some padding. I know enough to offer an opinion, nothing more. Having thought about it, give the gains versus the risks I'll probably remove it ultimately unless it becomes a 99% track car.

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I few people have said that and it looks a bit like the 'Spiderman' 997.2 RS colour scheme, but I'm not keen on it.

Some unique views here that I'll never get again.

RUF integrated roll cage can be seen here by the way.

Silver wheels would look fantastic on that imho. Black will just disappear and these are one of Porsche’s best ever designs.

Totally agree

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My GT3 wheels are in gloss black and I agree-in every photo they just disappear. However, in real life they look just fine and your eyes can see the design. I keep meaning to change them-on the original build sheet they were actually painted in exterior body colour-white. I think H's will look just fine with the matching black graphics, silver always looks great but not with the graphics/stripes in black I feel. The great thing about stripes and wheel colours on a project like this is they're simple to change after the fact.

My old 991.2 Turbo S had black wheels -they do show off brakes -the yellow callipers and ceramic discs really stood out But as a wheel design they are lost in black

looking good H - bet its been a lot of pondering and mind changing with all those tiny decisions that make huge differences. Great work!!!

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Kind of yes and no, the guys have done this a lot and for them it's easy to visualise the finished result, so I might suggest something and they'll be able to quickly fill in the blanks or add to it so it's a full picture that all knits together nicely. For example, yesterday we were talking about the blue Alcantrara on the arm rest and they came up with a full interior design that would have taken me a lot of faffing about. These days it's easy for them to use online tools to create images and show stuff on the screen but the experience of seeing it for real lots of times is much better and they'd done similar interiors so it was easy for them to describe the whole thing quickly and that was that. That blue Alcantara is amazing by the way and I think will really set the seats off nicely, they're RS carbon seats so it'll basically look like these but with blue instead of red and with the blue inserts. There will be black inserts on stand-by in case it's all a bit too much, in fact there will be black of everything on stand-by in case it's too much but again that's where their experience comes in, because there have been some things I suggested that they said would be too much or wouldn't suit (they vetoed the solid gold steering wheel with ruby inserts) - I want it to stand out a bit but as I keep saying (hopefully) somewhere on the right side of that tarts handbag dividing line. I've found this when restoring motorcycles, doing "in-period" visual stuff is a difficult balance, it might of looked good back in the day and my head and fashion tastes are still in that era, but maybe today for some people it just looks horrible.

Sadly for now I don't want to (or can't) say too much about the engine work but once it's revealed it will be stunning. As I've said we're not chasing big power, so it's not going to be massive dyno figures but it'll be a nice step up from the standard car, so I'll let the dyno readings and pictures tell the story and then I'll follow up with wherever IP I can or they want to share. The way it's been done also makes it look stunning as well as perform, so there are some nice cosmetic surprises but again I don't want to give any of that away just yet because I think when I post the pictures of the rear end with the engine lid lifted it's going to look stunning and I'l leave that for another day. The exhaust that I mentioned last time is taking shape now, it's a weight saving of just under 40kg altogether from standard and it's all from the best side of the axle to be removing weight from, so that should make a nice difference. Fixed length headers sound amazing too, the one they demonstrated sounded so nice, it's got that F1 type of howl but also that extra little buzz to it, those that have heard one will know what I mean. It will be switchable from the dash, I don't want a key fob type thing. The prototypes of prototypes are coming together now, so it's all starting to take shape fairly quickly They did mention it's been fed back to them that I've talked about this car quite a bit, which I obviously have over the 34 pages here and on other threads and other forums, I'm really excited about it so that's what you get I suppose when someone is passionate about their hobby. I've mentioned all my cars a lot because I really like them. Forums are strange sometimes, people read stuff of their own free will and then decide that they'd prefer they hadn't and blame you for it

Thats going to be flipping amazing.

I’m looking forward to seeing the car finished What’s the ETA?

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There isn't a date, we'd kind of set a preliminary date at the start but then it got pushed back and now it's just a case of it'll be finished when it's finished. I'm abroad most of the time, so they said this car will have pride of place in their new showroom as an example of what they can do and I'll nip down and "borrow" it now and then when I'm home. I'm obviously keen to get behind the wheel but I'm busy and for now anyway I don't need another car gathering dust in my garage so it makes sense for them to have it in their new showroom and I know it's well looked after and in the best place for it.

One thing I forgot to mention and just noticed again on the pictures is how tiny the 996 looks in the flesh. I don't know how the actual dimensions compare, plus optical illusions or even just colours and shadows can fool the eye, but even next to my 997RS the 996 looked tiny yesterday - and (in my personal opinion) massively nicer. The 996 really is a gorgeous car in a nice colour but it's also one of those cars that unfortunately seems to be easy to make it look less than brilliant in a bad picture or with a bad colour scheme. But yeah it looked tiny and the 996 is a stunning car from all angles, especially the rear, they've got some gorgeous ones in there that in my opinion really outshone anything else in there. I've made peace with the headlights but I know a lot don't and that's it's only flaw I reckon, without that one issue I think it would be the new 964, it's better in every way than anything that came before it.

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I saw Skoosh has liked this post (you got mentioned yesterday) - and no that doesn't mean you can nip down and borrow it

Lol H, tell me more....thought i felt my ears burning a little

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It was just a quick mention about local people that take their cars there and also use this forum and you got mentioned as one of the 996 guys, that was all. I went from not using car forums at all really to using them a lot to keep myself busy now I've being laid up with illness, so I was saying I sort of popped up on the scene overnight with a few cars and quickly posted quite a lot just to fill the time mainly, but it is a good way to connect and a few people got mentioned. They were complimentary about you and your car, it sounds like a good one and it's a shame you're thinking of moving it one.

That's good to hear..... if i do indeed move it on it doesn't mean i'll be leaving the brand altogether

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Fair play, go for one of the MLR tweaked Caymans, they go like poo through a goose.

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A 996C4S is fractionally wider and fractionally shorter than a 997.1 GT3RS. 996C4S 4435mm x 1830 mm 997.1 GT3RS 4460mm x 1808 mm Colour and angles of light can make them appear different. From every angle your C4S will look gawjus.

not correct a 997.1 GT3 RS 1852mm wide. 96 C4S does have more coke bottle effect

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Yeah I was just typing this as you posted, the dimensions above are for the standard GT3. I remember a quote from Chris Harris on the release of the 997.1 GT3RS when someone had parked a standard 997.1 GT3 amongst the car park full of 997.1 GT3RS's and he said the standard GT3 looked so skinny it was like a schoolboy amongst rugby players. I saw both cars parked together at Icons (both in orange) and I swore I took a photo because the GT3 and RS looks a lot different from some angles, the width seems exaggerated, but I can't find the photo.

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That'll teach me to trust what it says in the 'Total 911' Data File section.

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If it makes you feel any better I just liked your post and assumed you were right, because it's normally me that's wrong

Ha T8 should know better his own lovely red turbo the same width as your 7 RS. 7 turbo, RS, C4S, GTS are all 44mm wider than their narrow body 997 sibling

Its amazing rhe visual impact the extra 22mm each side has. If you had to give an eyeball guesstimate not knowing the facts, youd swear it was more like 50-70mm

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Those small differences made such a huge change in the cars between the start of the 996 and end of the run 997 cars.

More progress, jarring drilling noises and music courtesy of the shop. Considering the amount of value you're getting from a build like this compared to a new build on something like a new base 992, then I think something like this offers tremendous value, it's basically a new car, no annoying electrical interference, an engine that will not fail and it cannot corrode. But I suppose I'd better not get on my soapbox. Anyway, here are a few videos.

H, were you not tempted to get the Porsche logo stamped into the armrest....?

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I've had some ideas for some personal stuff, the small team that built it all have their personal names or marks on it somewhere and I think that's very cool. We may have a little plaque in ours, the size of a small match box, it's very personal, I had it made when we lost my wife's mum about 20yrs ago, it can be bonded in and no one else will see it.

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Looking good! Surprised to see that they're keeping the secondary air pump. 40kg sounds ambitious- standard factory exhaust weights are roughly: side boxes 9kg cat section 5kg manifold 3kg brackets for silencers to engine ~2kg so about 19kg per side for everything to the engine inc bracketry. I think the original 4s silencers actually might be a smidge more, and the heat insulation does have a little bit of weight too but still.

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Air pump is a miscommunication, it’s coming out while the engine is still out of the car and it can all be blanked off. To be fair the exhaust might be me listening wrong and the standard kit is 40kg, I did think last time he said it was a saving of 18kg but thought he might have bought in some metallurgical fairies to knit something special together. It removes the side boxes entirely, so there is 18kg. I spent 3hrs there with the wife and I’m remembering what I can.

As promised I said I'd be transparent with build costs as I think it's one of the main things missing from build threads and a lot of people start blind because of it, but it's basically done now from a financial point of view unless I decide to add something over and above like carbon brakes or something exotic. I've gone to a fair degree with some stuff, and spent way more than I needed to on some things, if there were three options I'd normally go with the top choice which invariably usually comes out as the most expensive, I chose many things which arguably were not needed but I wanted them. I"ll put the top line amount from the build sheet and if someone is genuinely going to go ahead with this then I'm happy to break it down in a discussion but not on here, it rubs some people up the wrong way and I don't want my thread ruined because I think it's a nice record of the progress as it's happening. I expect there has been a lot of repetition in here because I'm just talking as I go, I haven't gone back to check if I mentioned something a few pages ago, I just mention it as I think of it and as I've said before I'm grateful of having a space to document all this. It's been interesting for me because they're friends as well so I've got to see every cost, every single thing on the BOM is there, down to every washer and nut, sometimes I've thought "blimey" because they've listed a £0.35 washer, but it's good that it's all there, they forward the original invoice for the cost of parts on many things before they add their mark-up, I never expected anything for free and I run a business so I understand the mark-up for parts. A lot of people don't figure this in but the parts don't sit there late at night after a working day ordering themselves and then arriving and labelling themselves and jumping up onto the shelf themselves and then mark themselves off as used when they've been unpacked and put onto the build. Someone has to walk around with a notepad and make parts lists and they need to be paid for that. There is a cost to all that, so £0.35 washer is really a 60p washer, hence the mark-up, which is again an entirely different thing to margin and then gross profit, but that's another subject. You've also got to bear in mind that labour isn't cheap and it's all relative, I suppose Rennsport would charge you around £250k for the same thing, Singer about £2m although they'd argue that the 0.35mm shut gap difference is worth the extra. My costs are about done now at just under £120k, OTR costs to come of course.

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thats not a silly amount when you consider what you have had done/doing like the bespoke CF parts, all that interior fettling - does that include the actual base car, painting, dipping, wheels etc????? cause I am seeing that and thinking you have been looked after by them in some way - are you on mates rates?

I think I said before they charge set amounts for each stage and they reduced it a bit for me but then again a lot of it has been experimental like the flat bottom and exhaust designs, so I don’t know how to measure it really. The parts cost what they cost I suppose. They’re running a business so they have to make money on it. It’s on budget and I’ve got stuff that has gone above and beyond so I’m happy with it. It’s hard not to be blown away when you’re standing there in front of it and you can tell by their faces that they’re very happy with it as well and they’ve got some very special cars in there so it’s doing well to stand out. I’m a nitpicker so I’m always looking for the bit that isn’t right but I think you’d be hard pressed to criticise it, I don’t see anything that isn’t high quality and well made, and I know how much work, hours and effort has gone into it. When it’s done it will be on show in their new place so people can go along and see what they think.

It's been a really great thread to follow Harry! Really looking forward to seeing the end result and hearing about your 1st drive impressions. Compared to what a lot of people are prepared to pay for air-cooled restorations / recreations it seems very reasonable, and may only be under question because it is on the most unloved 911. I'm sure that will soon change as more companies like Werk96 start to get exposure on the cars they are producing on this platform.

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Yeah I'm not just saying it but I really think it's the best 911 ever made for all the reasons that I'm less keen on the newer ones. It's taken me a while to get there, fifteen years ago I might have chosen the 997 first, but now the 996 just pops right out at me. I'm sure it'll get a 964 type glow-up at some point.

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Yeah that sounds about right, was a similar weight saving when I used a 997.2 TT centre box and did away with the side boxes, unfortunately I couldn't deal with the drone with that setup.

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They've got one on test at the moment and we went out in it, but I was too busy fearing for my life at warp speed to really remember the exhaust, I do remember its an amazing sound as it was building and they put that down to equal length headers, it's proper F1 sounding stuff. I don't really do much driving that will create any drone, it's quite unlikely to find me sitting at a constant speed anywhere, if I need to travel any distance then I'll use something designed for it. But exhausts are easy to change anyway.

If you want the work quality assured just get @Interference Fit to give it a look over. I’ve decided his eye is better than my Colini Stick

I was looking over the car last week wondering what more I’d be getting if Singer were doing it. I suppose it’s like eating fish and chips on your favourite bench overlooking the river on a perfect day versus a Michelin Three Star restaurant. I wouldn’t see the extra in the posh place to be honest.

Singer would make it look nothing like a 996 Harry... that's what they'd do.

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Yeah that’s true, in fact their 996 study probably wouldn’t even start with a 996. They could base it on a Morris Marina and I don’t think it would matter to their customers.

993's are similar if not the same as 964s in terms of price and availability so stock is going to be hard for them to get so 996/7 platform is really all they could use unless they skip to a 991. If they did work their magic on a 996 I wonder whether they'd prefer a Gen1 or Gen2 ? It's all the little intricate , bespoke , handmade things that cost the money as well as the big stuff like the shell , wheels and engine /gearbox , I can see why they're so expensive, everything like that is but there never seems to be an end of clients willing to part with serious amounts of cash to own one. Unless you live somewhere with perfect roads and a dry climate It's not really worth considering driving it.

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aside the little handmade trinketry - you are buying exclusivity, a club where there are only a few members................for some people the numbers are irrelevant, they are simply numbers.............no correlation to how they live in any way shape or form................ah yes a new singer, oh call the contractors we will need another storage workshop then - may as well make it another 5 car garage with lifts, tell him to do as he wants. I wont be there to oversee it anyway as I'll be at the summer house for the summer..................these people dont care, its just to have something others dont

i really hope you are going to finish it off with some lovely colour coded headlight covers Harry - just for that extra "garnish"! Awesome project and the quality of the work looks amazing in the videos you shared. How much longer do they think before you can get it on the road?

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My guess is a month or two until it's really for shake down, then we'll see. Colour coded headlight covers? You don't mean those things that make them try and hide the shape of the headlights do you so it looks like a 997? Never, the Le Mans style race lights are what makes the 996 stand out and in the future it will be in demand because of it.

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the sarcasm was strong in my suggestion of headlight covers

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I was almost rude in my reply

I'm REALLY hoping you'll be able to bring this to the Cheshire meet once ready. Can't wait to see it. MLR seem like such a great company.

Fantastic work. I. Following this with massive interest . Private projects like this and companies like werk96 are going to be influential in the way prices of good 996 cars go. My car is a keeper and if and when I have the cash, I would.love to do.something like this.

Thanks guys I'll do my best to get around in it once it's finished but don't forget it will also be in MLR's new showroom in Stoke on Trent when I'm not driving it, so if you can get along to there you can see the workmanship for yourselves. If I had a decent 996 I'd be holding onto it now, it's taking a while but they'll have their day.

Things have been a bit quiet but I have to get back at some point over the next few weeks and I'll have time to go and put a couple of days work into helping them rebuild it, so that should be fun and also give me some more feeling of ownership as I'll have at least built a little bit of it myself, probably putting the rest of the engine together and bits/bobs. I've taken a few screenshots (terrible quality), the more interesting stuff is probably the engine with the 997 gear mated to it now, with a 997 special cam set and basically a hybrid between the 996 and the 997. Their last build produced an impressive dyno result, so mine with a vast amount more done and everything uprated should be quite a nice result with cams, 997 uprated intake, ported and fettled heads, etc. From what I've seen I don't expect this engine to be far off an actual RS in terms of what it produces, but with more low down torque. Plus the LWFW to make it spin up that much faster. The other nice touch is the rear end with the central exhaust outlet, it's just a mock up on it at the moment but the finished job should look great. Sadly it's going to be another couple of months until it's done and then I probably won't be around to actually test it unless we get a decent day towards the end of the year, but I want to keep it looking very nice so no nasty weather driving unless it's essential, this will be driven hard but it will be a pampered car.

I was down there for the day last Friday, got my 997RS serviced and did a little bit on the 996, the engine is starting to come together now, pistons are in and it just needs building up now, the lads reckon it will be in a position to start it up in 3-4 weeks and then the process of getting everything set up starts. They said they'll put some basic seats and stuff in it to do the shakedown stuff and then once it's all set up, been road tested and it's been tuned on the dyno then they'll finish off all the interior, so it's fully sorted and has some miles on it to make sure it's all good. This way they can run it in and get the final tune set up on the dyno, but the car will feel and look brand new for when I take delivery with the new seats and interior in it. I explained before about the engine being a mix of 996 and 997 with various custom made parts to enable it all to be combined, this means they can use stuff from the 3.8L 997. I did a walk around video and it looks gorgeous, everything on it is obviously new and it looks so nice and shiny underneath with the new disks, KWs and suspension parts. If I had the space and money I'd have one done to this level and then hang it from my roof as an ornament, it looks so good. I'm trying to upload the video but YT seems to be broken for me at the moment.

The painted 997 inlet is a lovely touch! Seems a spacer plate with the 997 inlet, not sure on that approach - any reason they didn't use 997 heads with the better tandem pumps? Did you consider 997.1 x51 inlet? Spendy but lovely and would give good power I'd imagine. I like my 996 x51 inlets, much nicer than the normal parts, runners are significantly shorter too. They're a bit silly price-wise with porsche now though. Do you know what cams they're using?

Long rambling post... There is a lot of detail on the engine and I can’t remember most of it because he was explaining it quickly as we were going through it. The spacer is because the 997 inlet simply won’t fit, the holes don’t line up. There is a surprising amount of machining really ands work to make them fit perfectly. I should record our conversations so I can play them back later to absorb them properly but he’d be off on one explaining that when they were testing a track engine back in 2007 or something they found X,Y and Z was an issue so that’s why he’d changed a certain part, then he’d usually drag out a used original part to show me what he meant, but I just can’t remember it all to regurgitate it here without getting something wrong and ending up in a discussion that I can’t back up. The main parts are what you would expect, off the top of my head - uprated injectors, heads flowed, ported, knife-edged, etc, lightweight rods, Mahle pistons to suit the new 3.9L bores, cams to suit (but I forget the spec), uprated rod bolts, baffled sump, 3.8 oil cooler (fitted as we stood talking), LWFW (that's very light and gorgeous and should be mounted on a plinth on a mantlepiece somewhere, lol), and a lot more that I forget. It's a shame I don't have the knowledge to get into it because I think there is a lot of opportunity to collaborate but whilst I obviously understand the engineering when it's presented to me, I don't know enough detail to discuss it and defend any decisions to do it a certain way and I don't want to misrepresent them and say something that doesn't make sense, then people will attribute my lack of knowledge to them, which isn't fair. They do have a test car(s) on the go all the time and they're getting into double figures now on full builds, so they've had a lot of time to experiment. I know they've spent a lot of time on the dyno with their engines and the figures they showed me were impressive, some of the stuff I saw was from Chipwizards, so I know it's genuine. The heads were really a decision on cost versus benefits and not spending money for small gains that seemed expensive for the results. We did go through what was possible but it usually came down to me asking what he’d do if it was his car and then going with that. This might sound contradictory considering that I’ve spent a lot of money in some places that might seem over the top and perhaps even unnecessary but as for decisions about the engine, it’s not being built as an exercise to produce the maximum power possible so when it came down to spending fairly large amounts on stuff for relatively small benefits then I decided against it. If it was labour based and didn't involve parts (e.g. porting) then they did it, but my view was that if I'm going to throw parts like X51 heads at it then I'd go the whole hog and spend proper money for a proper result, even perhaps sourcing a GT engine or building something like the Werks96 engines that produce 450bhp, but that's a whole new avenue to explore that is basically the opposite of what this build is about. Their first build (the green MLR001) is regularly getting work done to upgrade it as it's another close friend of Marcs, so as they experiment and get decent results it usually goes on my car and/or the green one. For example we were talking about gear ratios and Marc was saying we'll try it as it is for now, but he's up for changing some of the middle ratios to make it a bit more exciting, which should make it sparkle with the LWFW and lightweight internals. With the ratios optimised and set up for mid-range performance it should light right up when you hit the throttle. The exhaust on the test car sounds amazing, it's equal length headers and then a 997 centre muffler like my 997RS, with the side parts eliminated completely and switchable valves to divert it in the muffler. I saw a 997 a few years ago with a similar set up, I don't know if it was all Dundon Motorsports or a home made hybrid, but when I asked him the guy said it was Dundon and I noticed the side mufflers completely missing. It sounded very nice. Their test one seems to be working very well and doesn't drone, but screams like an F1 car on full send, so that's probably going to end up the way we go on my car.

Yup I hear you on not spending crazy money on x51 parts etc and is broadly inline with my thinking on spending big on the m96 - porsche have a solid collection of more powerful engines off the shelf. I guess just if going to the trouble of the spacer plates to fit the 997 inlets and painting them etc. but as you say that's mainly labour. Your engine sounds fairly similar to mine sans a few x51 bits and schrick cams, hopefully should yield you a good result. Interested to see what you make of it when done. 997 spacer unfortunately the bolt holes are nowhere near so the heads can't even just be drilled, when I bought the 996 x51 inlet I'd have instead bought a 997 x51 inlet if it did (I'd already flowed my heads and bolted them on etc) . On the spacer I just meant I'm not sure I'd have gone that path, all relatively marginal but the spacer will move the injectors further back so they're not quite squirting at the back of the valves etc and the spacer increases the runner length (the x51s or example are a lot shorter than the non-x51s). Just dimishes the returns on something that's pretty marginal to begin with, still they look ace painted!

Seeing as I just found this photo for my for sale thread. Runner length difference between 996 and x51 inlets: Eyeballing I think the runner length on the standard 997 3.8 inlet is closer to the 996 ones but I've never done a side by side. The x51 is a nice piece, inside the 996 x51 trumpet to plenum chamber area is miles nicer than the original.

The longer intake is deliberate to deliver peak torque lower down the rev range. That’s how I’ve always understood ITBs, the longer they are the more the tuning resonance moves lower down the rev range and it becomes more responsive at lower revs. For peak bhp you’d go the other way and put short stacks in, so the spacer kills two birds with one stone.

Surely a longer runner is better on a road car, you want a wide spread of torque not peak HP. I doubt the plate will make a huge difference, millington place injectors near the start of the runner, likely better for fuel atomisation. Appreciate Porsche engines have a fairly short stroke, so aren't particularly long in the runner length by design.

Took me 4 minutes to write that on my phone! Lol

In terms of port tuning, depends on what you're looking for obviously. Be no fun if everyone wanted the same thing! I think x51/gts is designed to be peakier and livelier, a step closer to the gt cars which all have short runners and massive plenums and rev like crazy. For torque spread, x51 designs with a shorter runner seem better optimised than the non-x51 parts - ultimately any x51 or gts through to the 991 with shorter intakes appear to make broadly the same power/torque as their non-x51 counterparts until stirred (and then make a bunch more). Sticking with the 997.1, the x51 with short runners and a massive plenum chamber, doing away with the resonance flap and the dual plenum intake pipe things and all that gubbins, makes more power/torque throughout the entire rev range than the standard 3.8s and is actually quite a bit stronger at low revs. It does have the lovely airbox and bigger tb. 48mm runners on the exh manifold too. Same cams but Ive never seen the cyl head. For me in the 996 I wagered that the 3.9l engine in a sub 1400kg car would have plenty of shove lower down and with the increased capacity it could carry off and be a load more fun with some head porting, a higher lift cam (made even more of a no brainer due to variocam) and the nicer, shorter x51 runners. Really if you want buckets of torque and response lower down you want a modern variable vane turbo engine like a 991.2 or something. Is interesting the design decisions we all make though, in mine I didn't want a lightweight flywheel despite making it a peakier engine as wanted the smoothness of the heavier flywheel for running around in, didn't want NVH etc., I have full interior, rear seats, no cage etc! Be interesting to see how you get on with the 3.8 intake. Do you know how the intake runner length/dia compare to the 996 one? I'd assumed from slakker it was actually shorter. The spacer looks pretty small, injectors won't be moved that far off optimal placement, theoretically ironically it means more time for atomisation at high rpm but worse lower down, less cooling of the intake valves/more carbon build-up and mucking up the wall wetting calcs that the DME uses for accel enrich -but in reality with a small spacer expect it will make naff all difference. I suppose I was just surprised at the effort to take this approach with diminishing returns with the spacer etc! I would say also if this is what you're gunning for, I'd not flow the heads.

Interesting chat. The aircooled 993 varioram system tried to play both sides of the intake runner length game - explained below with copy > paste from https://www.instant-g.com/products/36-conversions/36-engine-information/varioram-explained/ Varioram Explained How and why a VarioRAM works 1995 993 and VarioRAM Intakes The 1995 manifold is essentially the same as the 92-94 964 manifold with two major differences: The intake runners are 1mm larger and It has a mass flow air meter rather than a barn door. The VarioRAM, however, is completely different. Note that both have a primary plenum above the primary runners (or stacks). From that point down they are essentially the same. Above that, however, they are completely different. As you may know, all 964/993 motors 2.7 Boxsters and 996 motors have a resonance chamber. This allows the pulses to flow from the left (1-3) bank plenum to the right (4-6) plenum. It is opened and closed by the computer depending on the throttle position and RPM to maximize volumetric efficiency (how much air gets into the combustion chamber). The VarioRAM goes one step further. Whereas the 1995 993 has an upper and lower crossover tube (upper with the throttle body and lower for resonance), the VarioRAM has a total of eight connections, a second throttle body (opened only above 1/2 throttle), and a secondary plenum. Here’s how it works: At high RPMs and above half throttle it essentially works just like a 1995 993. The lower throttle body and crossover look like the upper one on a 95 993. Now for the upper – the upper throttle body flows to a central plenum which branches out into six runners. These runners then dump into the primary plenum to join the air coming in through the lower crossover. In effect, it acts just like the lower throttle body so you get lots of air and the effective runner length is just the lower (primary) runners or the distance from the primary plenum to the intake valve. T make a long story short the VarioRAM is no better than the 993/964 intake, in fact perhaps a little worse in theory because the air coming through the top runners has further to travel and the whole assembly is pretty heavy (10 lb.?). Now for the tricky part and why they bothered. At low RPMs (below 5200) the top runners are connected and sealed to the lower runners. This has several effects: 1) The intake runner length is MUCH longer, about 9″ longer in fact, which means that the optimal charging RPM for tuned resonance induction is much lower. That means that more air will get into the cylinder at lower RPM. This effectively boosts low-end torque, below 4000 RPM there is a notable difference. This is also because the air velocity through the single throttle body is increased, which aids in cylinder charging (same old how much air). 2) The lower throttle body is completely closed off from the intake system, as are the primary plenum and resonance chamber. This is, again, a good thing at lower RPMs. It is particularly bad, however, at high RPMs (above 5200 and more than 1/2 throttle) since only the upper throttle body is operational, so no matter how hard you mash the pedal you only get about 1/2 throttle! We recently had a customer who refused to follow directions and hooked up the VarioRAM vacuum canister incorrectly. He found that the car was absolutely dead above 5200 RPMs, like 180 rear-wheel horsepower. When the problem was corrected his dyno showed 265 at the rear wheels (I think that’s a bit optimistic but you get the point!) Here’s how it physically works: This is a picture of the VarioRAM opened up with the trumpets retracted. In the lower portion is the primary stack. In the upper is the primary plenum with trumpets. This is the VarioRAM in it’s normal position, trumpets extended. The rubber seals seal against the individual intake runner completely blocking off the primary plenum, secondary throttle body and resonance chamber. Now here are pictures of the trumpets closed then open. A pair of vacuum actuators (one per side) retract the trumpets so the primary runners breath from both upper and lower intake tract and throttle bodies. Note: The DME operated the VarioRAM only at above 1/2 throttle and above 5200 RPM so it is difficult to bench test. What is the result – the VarioRAM is rated at 10 more HP than the stock 993. This is because of the valve size alone. VarioRAM engine intake/exhaust valve size is 50mm/43.5mm vs 49mm/41.5mm. This has nothing to do with the VarioRAM. Look at the torque figures though: The following are stylized but based on actual data of the same engine with and without a VarioRAM intake.

That's awesome, thanks for sharing!

This is where I don’t have the years of experience to argue any of the points made. In the end I’ve had to trust that they put the work in and they have good reasons for what they’re doing because it’s a lot of work and I doubt they’d do it if they didn’t think the results were there. It will go on the dyno at Waynes and we’ll see what it makes.

Quick video showing some of the progress but still waiting for parts to finish off really, although they did say they should be ready to fire her up in about 3-4 weeks, although originally this was a sub-12 month build that has run away with itself and we're 2.5yrs in and over budget, so I'm just going with the flow now.

You have the patience of a saint H.....!!!!

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This is looking incredible and going to be well worth the money and effort you’ve put into it.

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Not really mate, I've been so preoccupied for the last 2yrs that it hasn't really mattered that it's taken so long. Even if they'd have finished it 12 months ago I'd probably have only put a few hundred miles at the most in it.

Broke mine in 2014, still not finished so you're doing alright.

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Time to crack on. We arent getting out of here alive

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Looks super clean - have you decided on what you are going to protect the underside with?

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Not driving it and having it as a display car In all seriousness for a while it probably will be on show in their new showroom as a demonstration car. I’ll probably move back to the UK in about 18 months and then I’ll put some proper miles on it.

But I am going to be requesting some serious underbody protection to keep it nice. The 997 flat panels should help a lot as well.

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Stay away from raptor, it's a bed lining and chips off. Also the textured stuff looks gash outside of the wheel wells. 3M do a smooth non textured underbody spray that is good, you can tint it the same colour as your body. Wheel wells i'll do textured, wears better for the road rash.

I’m beginning to get a burning urge for this to be finished soon. I’ve held the flywheel in my hand and this should rev like an animal. It’s got everything available to make it a dream car. It’s genuinely mostly RS but with a C4S road lump tuned for mid range to be a fast road car, but baffled and fettled to make track work very possible.

Looking good - I love the Porsche factory lightweight bonnet prop

Looking good, what are you doing for wheels? cant remember if you have stated.

Wheels are genuine RS with PS2s

I love those wheels, I've got the GT2 versions on my car, however I've read they are very heavy, then Jay-emm said they were the lightest versions in his GT2 review, so not sure what to think. Seeing as jay-emm didn't actually weigh them, I'm going with heavy. Sometimes you've just got to live with the pain of looking good though i suppose.

Hmmm they didn’t feel heavy when I bought them. I personally collected them but to be fair I didn’t weigh them either nor compare them, so perhaps they are heavy. Now I’m even more concerned about unsprung weight. I’m genuinely considering switching to carbon disks because l learned long ago that weight and especially unsprung weight > bhp. It’s another area where I’ll wait and see I think. I’m happy with the wheels and carbon brakes on my 997RS, so if the 996 gives me concern in that area once it’s done a few miles then I’ll talk to them about changing.

I think you'll be fine H....just make sure they don't stays red....!!!!!

No they’re just spares so they can wheel it around. Mine are black, with the black decals and handles. The blue/red scheme is popular with some 997.2RS people, they nicknamed it The Spiderman. But it doesn’t work for me.

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Shame the 12 inch weight is missing

Mine have the 8.5” fronts and the bloke I bought them off said they were genuine RS wheels so I took that in good faith.

RS wheels are the same as regular GT wheels (other than the colour) so hope you didn't pay extra. Pattern wheels are easy to spot anyway as they don't have part numbers, so you shouldn't be concerned about authenticity. I sold 2 GT3 sets, one with pattern fronts; it's a buyers market for them. I couldn't find GT2 wheels at the time, so opted for GT3 until i eventually found some. I think they're great looking wheels and the right "period" look for the car. I fitted PCCB's, but got told my wheels were boat anchors! i went through similar frustrations and have considered alternatives, but i really like the look of them, so I'm over it.

Hard to beat the look of factory Gt3 wheels pity they are heavy I have a set of the oz alleggrita which are near 2kg per corner lighter on mine

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Though this webpage is held up as the bible when it comes to Porsche wheel weights, the 2004 996 GT3/GT2 weights are inaccurate. The front ET40 8.5J (same wheel 996.2 GT3 and 2004 996 Mk2 GT2) wheels weigh 11.3kg. The rear ET63 11J 996.2 GT3 rear wheels weigh 12.4kg. The rear ET45 12J 2004 996 Mk2 GT2 rear wheels weigh 13kg. Not exactly light, but tough as old boots, and lighter than the Turbo II rear wheels ...

I’m really not a fan of aftermarket wheels. I see people with fancy wheels and whilst most seem to praise them I honestly think they rarely look right, it’s like having a beautifully cut Saville Row suit and lairy shoes, it just draws the eye too much and looks wrong. Like a 930 on BBS split rims, it looks so wrong and should have Fuchs on. So I’ll probably struggle to find anything that I’m happy with unless I can paint them black and they disappear. I’d prefer my 996 wheels to be all black like the 997RS ones but if I remember when i saw them they’ve left the rims silver, which I suppose is period correct so I can live with it. I also dislike red seat belts but that seems to be period correct, it seems literally everyone does it, so I can live with that as well. I suppose the weight will come down to how the car is balanced. If I can feel them then they’ll have to go and I’ll put carbon brakes on and find the right wheels.

Glad the red wheels are temporary, I’ve kept my mouth shut because I appreciate everyones tastes are different, I really don’t think those colours work together.. If I can be so blunt It’s your car H ! building from scratch how you want it, how many people get a chance to do that ? if you don’t like red belts change em !! Big scheme of things it’s pence ..

I’m also with you on wheels design, it’s very hard to beat OEM I think the 996 is actually a really wheel sensitive car, some cars you can put lots of wheels on and they create a differnt look but you can’t do that with 996, I see very very few aftermarket options I like.

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I know but the lads building it are genuinely like 996 gods to me, it always staggers me how much they know about them and the detail they go into, I always end up lost and struggle to regurgitate it on here, so I’ve trusted them with certain things and they said “Trust us….they need to be red”. So the belts are red to match the calipers, apparently that’s essential I was talking to my wife about this this morning. When I go in and they’re working on it, it’s like a labour of love for them, I watched Logan shaping the experimental rear bumper section and I can’t describe it, he wasn’t just shaping and sanding, he was painting his Sistine Chapel. I gave them the open cheques to build the car they’d build if they had an open cheque book. It’s my car and hopefully it will and look and handle how I want it to but their builds seem like they don’t want you to actually take them away, this will sound cheesy but I think they put a lot of their own soul into them.

harry - I must confess that when you started this in 2024 I though you were a bit nuts, but seeing it come together, I am starting to get it now. 996 is not my bag generally, but I can see that the world is starting to appreciate them more these days. Looking forward to seeing it finished. Will you be revealing the final price tag when complete so I can reevaluate my position on wether or not you are indeed nuts?

Yeah it’s going to be around £120k. I’ve got a spreadsheet detailing everything and I don’t mind sharing. Their aim is £100k but I’ve kept agreeing to additional stuff as they’re developing and testing it on their test cars. I understand people thinking I’m mad, but then you get people spending £180k on a genuine 996RS that won’t actually be as good as my car. It’s like Sharkwerks doing their well known upgrades on the 997RS. They make amazing cars, much better than my standard one.

Oh, that's not as bad as I thought TBH. I thought it might be on its way to 200k Love the colour btw.

No their thing is a totally rebuild car like brand new for £100k. They’ve sold a couple in the far east and some in America, I think they have about a dozen now, some in the pipeline and I think five already out there. Mine went over because I specified all RS running gear, GT2 rad set up, fancy LWFW and clutch, etc. It's at £117,758 to be precise, and almost fully paid for unless I start doing more stuff.

Seems like a relative 'bargain' all things considered!

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Absolutely....!!!!!

I'm really looking forward to seeing this beast in the flesh................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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did you get an email from MLR offering it for a track day rental too????? Only joshing Harry - dont panic

It’s lovely they approach it with such passion. I acknowledge Cosmetics are always going to divide opinion. I’ve always been a less is more person, I feel often top quality workmanship / craft / style goes almost unnoticed by those who don’t know what they’re looking at. Example give me a Matt finish AP or Alcon caliper over a brightly painted brembo, I know it gets expensive and potentially snobby and elitist maybe that’s the point ? Car looks lovely work quality looks great gonna be quite a thing.

The end result will be worth every bit of the £120k in my eyes. Looking forward to seeing the finished article.

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It's there to be used. When it's running they said they'll put temporary seats in it and shake it down, it'll have dyno runs and daily use to weed out any issues, one of them will commute in it to run the new engine in and shake it down. Then it comes back into the workshop, gets a final fettle, the proper new seats put in, mileage reset to zero and I take possession of a brand new, but run in and proven, car. They suggested leaving it in their new premises as a show car for a while and I can go down and use it whenever - I don't think they actually want to part with it

Just a reminder of how far we've come, this was just after seam/stitch welding.

And here is the virgin donor car as it came in, she was a good looking thing before they even touched her.

It was a lovely C4S, I could have kept it as one and enjoyed it just as much, the 996 wide body C4S is a lovely looking thing.

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Where would be the fun in that! Superb project Harry... looking forward to seeing and hearing about the final finish product.

I think it's wonderful that you can afford to do it and trust some old mates to build it for you in the UK. It'll be a very special car..no doubt. Red seat belts are a must with that colour combo. It's just the wheel colour you've to get right, how about some generated images of different colours? I like the silver rim idea, my Turbo got that from factory , they look sweet.

Basically the wheels are like the ones on except they’re black with silver rims. They’re freshly painted and tucked away safe so it all looks brand new upon collection. Realistically it’s going to be spring when I get it now. I did push for this summer but they’ve got so much on and I want them to take their time and put all the experimental stuff on it and R&D takes time, so patience is necessary.

I really like the black door handles, it's quite a small thing but it just looks right. Will the mirrors be black too?

that looks awesome

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I actually don’t know, too many details.

Harry - for your wheels are you planning to run 8.5 front and 11 rear as per gt3 spec? I can’t recall from the 40+ pages whether you had converted to 2wd or not. Presumably 17mm spacers on the rears to get the offsets right (assuming they are 63)? Asking as I have a vanilla C4S but love the GT3 wheels. The internet suggests 4wd shouldn’t run with 8.5 fronts because the rolling difference messes with the front diff, but interested to understand what MLR say. Thanks.

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I thought the same, £120k seems great value.

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Anything exciting planned for the interior? Or keeping it bare bones/stripped out?

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Converted to 2wd.

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Carbon RS seats, black with blue Alcantara inserts and then just what you can see really, some blue accents in the dash and things like the blue Alcantara arm rest. It’s actually a Bentley Alcantara that is being used. Everything is RS, even a genuine OEM RS carpet from Porsche.

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For a genuine ground up from bare shell (including the strip down from the donor car) then I think it is too. They’ve got about a dozen or so either built or in production and I reckon if it takes off they won’t stay cheap forever.

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Yeah, would far rather put 120k into this than buy a new 911 (in the fantasy world in which I have 120k)

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Be careful what you wish for, it was a fantasy for most of my life mate, I put myself through untold hardship in jungles and deserts working for whoever paid the most to be able to get this far. I might have the car (eventually) but my brain is fried

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don’t doubt it for a second and massive respect for it. Probably wouldn’t have the minerals to do that myself. The thought of having a 996 that is essentially new and a 1 of 1 is awesome. All the pros of a 996 with none of the cons. The dream.

I can't wait to see this one finished. What's the current ETA?

I had a chat with them a few days ago and after I mentioned the timeline they were very apologetic about the amount of time it's taken. In their defence, they're moving shops and fitting out the new place, they've had loads on including other builds and I did say not to rush it because I'm away for most of the time anyway, so it gave them time to experiment with it a lot, so my car has lots of little bits that needed R&D. However, we're moving back to the UK next year and he promised me faithfully it will be ready for Easter, because it will then become my main weekend car, or I'll be down there every day badgering them.

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theyve been fast compared to my guy - he's had my R107 nigh on 3 years and so far just done all the metal work -but there is light at the end of the tunnel as he claims to be doing paint samples a week on friday so i can choose the exact shade of colour to go for................you would have thought a standard mercedes colour would be a standard mercedes colour - apparently not.........still, theres no rush is there

It’ll be almost 3yrs if I get it in Easter but to be fair I kept telling them I’m not coming back to the UK until 2027, so take your time. I’d rather have it in their workshop and them taking their time so they can tinker with it and keep trying new ideas than sat in my garage doing nothing. Plus it took so long I bought the 997RS as a stop gap and that’s worked out well. Well it will if I get double my money back because it’ll have paid for this 996 project.

What a result ! It's really unbelievable how we all thought prices of these rare special cars would fall after the insanity of Covid and they did very briefly but not by much, then they flat lined for a while and then this year in particular they've risen in value so rapidly it's hard to keep up, all good if you got one or more in your garage but for those that don't they're constantly drifting off into the arena of unobtainable. I guess it's the perfect storm in terms of a retiring generation that suddenly have a pile of disposable income and just want one before it's too late. Supply and demand in action. Also boosted by the junk that we're being served up in the form of new cars that have no appeal and never will.

Yep and the obvious downside is that once I’ve sold it I’ll probably never be able to get another. And even 996s are getting to the point that every one needs work, so they haven’t gone up very much in ages but where you could once swap and change without much expense or barriers to entry, you’re now buying cars that you know might need £20k spending to get them right.