Das Chin

greetings from other side of the pond.

so before the GT3 I had a silver grey m3 CSL. great car, second one but I always had the GT3 itch to scratch and glad I done it.

bought the car back in June 2014 and spec:

996 MK2 GT3 in Guards Red
03 Plate 69k miles
RS front bumper with vents
RS carbon rear spoiler with the ram air ducts
RS 29 pads all round
sports exhaust
Porsche bucket seats with Shroth harnesses
Porsche half cage in rear
Porsche and Porsche indy history
all shocks rebuilt by Bilstein in 2013 with new H&R springs

Das Chin

exhaust wise the previous owner had removed the silencers which was not very sociable and it lacked low down torque/pick up.





Steve at Viper Exhausts in Essex is a real genius with exhaust metals and bends. used to work in an F1 team making their exhausts. top grade 304 stainless steel rear boxes and 2mm steel thick piping at right bore.
























end result is LOADS quieter and it drives so much better now. actually has some back pressure at low revs and torque. still a sport sound but very liveable.

much better pick up and has that GT3 sound back. still sounds nice. very happy and very good pricing. about one third what it would have cost to do OEM stuff!!

Das Chin

wheels needed a refurb so off to lepsons which is about 15 mins drive from home. old wheels had some odd gold flakey finish which was nice but any sort of issues then how do you match the paint.
back to gloss black!







july 2014:

Das Chin

October 2014:

centre console and seat eyelets for the harnesses done in guards red. really pleased with the outcome and really brings out the changed wheels and gear lever with the red stitching.



















have also changed the tyre to some semi slicks which have helped a lot.

the other piece was changing the ARB settings around. was on full hard setting so very harsh on the road. went down 2 on the front and 1 on the rear. feels easier on the road and less crashy. handy if u get caught in the wet too.

Das Chin

car had new plugs and coil packs as a few of them had cracked so was running lumpy. that was October 2014.

have been busy getting bits over winter....

BMC panel air filter:


RS style rear air ram duct to help get more air in:





some black mesh for front bumper to protect rads n air con.

GT3 kick plates/side sill protector from OPC as mine were missing!

Michelin Pilot sport cups all round (awesome prices on tyreleader)

997 GT3 front and rear brake ducts - blow me down it was like just over £20 for all 4.





997 GT3 Front Ducts - £2.18 each plus vat
997.341.483.92
997.341.484.92.

997 Rears - £6.30 each plus vat
997.331.487.92
997.331.488.92

fronts will look like this:





rears:





front and rear bumper as well as bonnet getting some paint.

will report back when done in 3-4 weeks.

Rovman

She is a beauty. So good to see folks keeping the older GT3's going. Looks like a very well set up car. Enjoy in good health...

Raven 666

We don,t see many 996 GT3,s in guard red here in Australia,,,Black and Silver seem to be the most common ,,,,,I just love yours in Red,,,very nice

spiller

^^^ true, i've only ever seen one in the flesh, although there are 7 others kicking about somewhere.

Love the car Das Chin, those 997 brake ducts are interesting, and they are so cheap! are they larger than the 6 items?

christallon

More on the brake ducts please. Nice car man!

Das Chin

Thanks for the positive comments folks.

I have always loved Red Porsches...from the days of being a kid in the 80s and the pictures of red 930 turbos on the wall. Red went out of fashion in the 2000s, as there were loads of 964s in red but with the 993 and then 996 then you saw less and less. more Greys, blacks, dark blues.

I saw a 991 GT3 the other day in red and it just looked AWESOME!!

there is a lovely GR 6.3 mk2 for sale in UK at moment. comfort spec but with buckets and half cage = £60k. market is going bonkers for GT3s and good weather around the corner too.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifie...omfort/3780366

TBH I am going to lose the 'RS' decals as I am not a big fan of them on anything but an RS and the car came with them on. there are a few marks on the wings and doors so I might even go the whole hog with the paint to get it super mint and matched. red does fade over time!

want it to look like this:





ok the brake ducts...been looking into it for some time as I knew my car did not have any!! maybe they fell off the front as not sure the 996 has rear ducting? the Turbo did as heavier car from OEM.

Spiller, the 996 mk2 OEM ones are quite big and a little bit bigger than the 997 ones. however they are like £120 EACH ($170) so not worth going for them. I think you can only get the GT2 fronts now. for what I need (fast road, euro tours, odd ring trip, couple of track days a year) the 997 GT3 fronts and rears should be a big step up over nothing!!

you can get the 996 GT3 RS ones (same as the 996 CUP) but they are about $250 each. same for the 997 CUP. it really depends on your application and how much you want to spend on some plastic really.

I spoke to Jackwood (pistonheads GT3 mk2 owner - see thread below) about this and he said I will be fine with 997 GT3 fronts and rear caliper cooling. he done this at the start, but then started tracking a lot more and the rear pads were getting hot and grumbling/wobble! he has now got the additional 996 GT2 rear ducts but then he is a real track hound. they are about $90 oer side.

there are a couple of good threads on Pistonheads and Rennlist too which helped out a lot with the part numbers and how they fit on:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/t...ucts&mid=61749

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-gt2-...p-ducts-3.html

http://www.renntrack.com/forums/show...stalled&p=7628

I could not believe the price of the 997 stuff when I rang the dealer...are you sure was the question? can I have it in writing!! they are really easy to fit and clip in though I think a couple of extra cable ties will help to secure them in.

spiller

As I said to you mate I like the RS decals on your car but you raise a good point with the pics of that clean one above...that looks perfect!

I don't believe the 6 gt3 came with rear ducting but that would be useful for rotor life depending on what sort of rear compounds are being used. I believe the rear brakes don't so much in faxtory config. Nonetheless better than nothing!

Das Chin

yeah I prefer the clean look and if I take the decals off there could be a nice sun imprint on the paint too ;-)

the 996 GT3 had no rear ducting. I spoke to Porsche and the rear caliper cooling is from a 997 TT but they use it across the range (TT/GT3/GT2/GT2RS).

the brake bias on the 6.3 is more to the front but abit of cooling should help.

the GT2 rear disc ducting (part numbers are 996.331.127.91 & 996.331.127.90 ) will push air right onto the disc so help cooling further out. in hotter climates this might be a good thing so ideal in Oz.

its this part:

https://i.imgur.com/I38dsUbl.jpg

spiller

Thanks for the part no.s, the particular track I head to often is incredibly hard on the brakes so they can only help. I guess it's best to order directly through Porsche?

Das Chin

yeah just go to the OPC.

if on track in Oz then you might as well get the lot:

997 GT3 fronts (if u don't have the 996 ones - if you do then keep 996)
997 Rear TT caliper ducts
996 GT2 rear disc ducting.

should be plenty cooling.

cfjan

The 997TT rear caliper ducts is a direct fit to the 996 cars? Sounds like a very cheap upgrade (from nothing)!