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I’ve decided to trade my 2011 Turbo S in for a 2021 Spyder. The Turbo is amazing but after spending time in the 718 platform with a manual, it is just a much more engaging car to drive. Not as fast perhaps, but more fun. I’m close to closing the deal on a few allocation options and just negotiating trade at this point so hopefully this will happen quickly.
Here is the Turbo to give you an idea of what I’m moving from:
Never again with a black car (I’ve said that three times before)! Here is my build for the Spyder - PMJAJ680 and some of my key decisions. I’m only on the fence about a few things:
Decided:
White - I looked everywhere for a white Turbo S with aerokit and settled on black. Not this time, it must be white and I prefer CWM
Manual - Sick of my PDK even though it is an amazing transmission. On a daily, absolutely, on a weekend car, not engaging enough for me anymore.
PCCB - Love them on my Turbo, must have for me. Everyone talked about brake dust which is a nice bonus, but these are so much lighter and you can feel that. Basically lifetime brakes for a non-tracked car. Mine will see a few events a year but I’m more of a tour guy than a track guy. Expensive option but I wouldn’t consider one without them.
2-way Sport Plus seats - Again, have them in my Turbo and love them. Easy, simple and very comfortable. I can’t live with the entry/exit of LWB even though they look good.
Satin black Porsche logo, de-badged 718 Spyder although I may add just Spyder at some point.
”Downgrade” to high performance summer times. Love this option for Seattle tours.
2-Zone climate - I love the set it and forget it feature.
Heated seats - Yes please
Smoking package - I want to close the hole and get the extra power adapter. People over-estimate the size of that hole in terms of it holding anything but lint and coins.
Leather wheel/shifter - I know, big debate but for me, I prefer the feel of the leather wheel and shifter and don’t like the look of the Race-Tex wheel. Highly personal choice and in my case, an expensive one.
Interior trim in black brushed aluminum, I’m sick of CF which I’ve had in other cars.
Light design package - Here Porsche, take an extra $350 so I don’t have to explain why this car doesn’t have light up visor mirrors like every other car in the world
Bose and Apple Car Play
Body colored headlight washers if required. The two tone white/black theme could live with the black washers, but that isn’t a part of the car I really want to highlight.
Still Debating:
Regular wheel or heated multi-function. I like that the stalk goes away and heated might be nice but I like the cleaner look of the normal wheel. A last minute call...maybe a coin toss
Extended deviated stitching option - I want the leather wheel but I also want deviated stitching on the wheel and shifter. $3200 is a big pill to swallow but doing this opens up more color choices. I’m very likely to go this route with chalk stitching and chalk seatbelts so the stitching, pull strap and belts would all be in chalk. I wish I could get the configurator to display this option but I’ve seen it in person and love the look.
If I go with Chalk stitching, I will go with black calipers. If I go with yellow stitching, I will keep the yellow calipers. I’ve had the yellow accents on my Turbo and I think I’m ready to move on and just go with a full two tone white/black look with the Spyder. On my Black Turbo, the yellow accents really pop, especially in photos, but I think the body shape of the Spyder makes me want to hide the calipers more and let the rest of the car speak for itself.
I like the blacked out look of the Bi-Xenon headlights but the performance of the LED. Another coin-toss at the last minute perhaps! Part of me wants to just save money here and live with the stock headlights and no washers but I do love mountain road driving at night and the higher performance lights are justifiable.
Likely more info than anyone cares to know about, but talking out loud about all of this is helping me make some final decisions about the build. Comments and counter-points welcomed as always.
I’m moving from a 2013 TurboS to a 2021 GT4...but mine were/are both my daily drivers. The 997.2 turboS could genuinely be the best daily ever. The GT4 will certainly be a bit more challenging as a winter car in Chicago, but I do also have a truck. I seriously considered a Spyder but I think that would make winter even less doable.
your build looks awesome! I found my car at a dealer and had my dealer swap for it. Love the Black and white!!
I am struggling a bit giving up the 997 Turbo S, a car that isn’t depreciating and is so perfect for long drives. I’m not a collector and given how I use the car, I just really want something more engaging. I would keep them both if I could but the Turbo would not see much use I’m guessing
Regular wheel or heated multi-function. I like that the stalk goes away and heated might be nice but I like the cleaner look of the normal wheel. A last minute call...maybe a coin toss
Extended deviated stitching option - I want the leather wheel but I also want deviated stitching on the wheel and shifter. $3200 is a big pill to swallow but doing this opens up more color choices. I’m very likely to go this route with chalk stitching and chalk seatbelts so the stitching, pull strap and belts would all be in chalk. I wish I could get the configurator to display this option but I’ve seen it in person and love the look.
If I go with Chalk stitching, I will go with black calipers. If I go with yellow stitching, I will keep the yellow calipers. I’ve had the yellow accents on my Turbo and I think I’m ready to move on and just go with a full two tone white/black look with the Spyder. On my Black Turbo, the yellow accents really pop, especially in photos, but I think the body shape of the Spyder makes me want to hide the calipers more and let the rest of the car speak for itself.
I would take the multifunction if it got rid of both stalks, but it only eliminates one (to my understanding). So I went with the basic wheel to keep things looking clean. I am in Canada so you can imagine the utility of a heated wheel but I think heated seats are the must have and heated wheel is just a nice to have unless you are actually driving the car in the winter. If the standard wheel had a heated option I MAY have checked the box, but even if I likely would have just kept to the heated seats.
unsure what chalk looks like, but my car is CWM and I went with silver stitch as I saw one with this at an autoshow before my build locked. I’ll be damned if that’s silver, it just looks completely white to me. Seems like a perfect match to CWM trim or exterior. I have a hunch they just call it silver as to not have “white” stitch scare people off from a cleanliness perspective.
I do however like the yellow stitch on that car if you are going with yellow PCCBs. The deeper offering deviated stitch is a steep price to pay to go with the leather wheel and contrast stitch when you are 95% of the way there with the more standard contrast stitch options and an Alcantara wheel.
Personal opinion but going too monochromatic takes too much away. You could go black interior trim and contrast stitch and yellow calipers and still have a pretty understated build but with a bit of pop. Or maybe go black calipers and contrast stitch as some sort of middle ground. Or go silver (basically white) stitch and yellow PCCB and have the PCCBs as the lone splash of colour?
Last edited by Jim Rockford; 01-03-2021 at 04:04 PM.
Heated steering wheel in a convertible in the pacific northwest seems like a good idea. Personally, I love the yellow calipers and would only blacken them on a python green build.
A heated wheel is a no-brainer on a roadster owned where there are seasons, especially with a PITA manual top like the Spyder's. The wheel warms up immediately on a cold open-top day, and extremities (hands/fingers) need/feel heat the most. The car feels much more welcoming from the get go. Without it, you'll probably just keep the top closed when cold. I'd first drop the light design package and 2-zone auto-AC before even considering to eliminate the heated steering wheel.
A heated wheel is a no-brainer on a roadster owned where there are seasons, especially with a PITA manual top like the Spyder's. The wheel warms up immediately on a cold open-top day, and extremities (hands/fingers) need/feel heat the most. The car feels much more welcoming from the get go. Without it, you'll probably just keep the top closed when cold. I'd first drop the light design package and 2-zone auto-AC before even considering to eliminate the heated steering wheel.
I disagree, the heated wheel is really going to come into play mostly when the wheel is cold to the touch and you don’t really care to fully warm the car up, Ie below 5 Celsius from startup.
But given it’s unlikely most of these cars are going to be driven in these temperatures, its usefulness drops considerably. You just use the front vents to warm your hands while driving. And yes of course there is a warmup period before the vents get pushing hot air, but I doubt anyone is going to go out in their Spyder at 5 degrees without sufficient warmup.
I do fully agree however that I’d still trade the light design package and 2-zone climate for the heated wheel
I disagree, the heated wheel is really going to come into play mostly when the wheel is cold to the touch and you don’t really care to fully warm the car up, Ie below 5 Celsius from startup.
But given it’s unlikely most of these cars are going to be driven in these temperatures, its usefulness drops considerably. You just use the front vents to warm your hands while driving. And yes of course there is a warmup period before the vents get pushing hot air, but I doubt anyone is going to go out in their Spyder at 5 degrees without sufficient warmup.
I do fully agree however that I’d still trade the light design package and 2-zone climate for the heated wheel
Good points. But with a heated wheel, heated seats and a hat, you can enjoy open top driving with the windows down in much colder temps than if you mostly counted on vent heating to keep you warm. And -5C is an exaggeration. The wheel will be plenty useful at +10C too.
Seems like you have a very similar build to mine. I wanted my car to be entirely monochrome, other than the crest on the hood and on the wheels. My car has chalk stitch and chalk belts, white exterior, platinum wheels, black calipers and painted rear reflectors. So I am super biased, but think your car looks pretty good
Thanks for all of the feedback so far from everyone, very helpful. I do go back and forth between full monochrome or yellow calipers and interior touches. I don’t love the full yellow deviated stitching but I am considering going with the silver stitching and yellow belts. That would require me to go with yellow pull handle aftermarket because I really want the belts and pull handle to match. That could give me a bit of color without the full stitching. All good reasons to continue playing with the configurator
The $3200 is a tough one to get past just so the steering wheel and shifter are leather and deviated...I need to sit with that for a while. Six months into ownership, I’m not sure how much I will care about the missing stitching on those two pieces. I really don’t want the Race-Tex wheel even though that is clearly the most economical choice by far. I could always go that route and swap it out later if I hate it, likely for less money than $3200!
Originally Posted by JAhmed
Seems like you have a very similar build to mine. I wanted my car to be entirely monochrome, other than the crest on the hood and on the wheels. My car has chalk stitch and chalk belts, white exterior, platinum wheels, black calipers and painted rear reflectors. So I am super biased, but think your car looks pretty good
Would you mind sharing some photos, or pointing me to an Instagram account if you have one, so I can see how yours looks? I’m actually likely to pick up a monochrome hood crest as well to complete the look
I think you may have a winner there. Yellow PCCBs, belts, door pulls, and silver stitch. That’s pretty monochrome but with a few splashes. It’s an interesting approach to do the pulls to match the belts then have the contrast stitch in neutral silver (aka white)
They are both seatbelt looking material so that could be a good way to go. Suncoast has the door pull replacements in a number of colors including yellow for $469 for the pair.
If the silver stitch looked silver then yes, but the stitch just looks white. So a white car with white wheels perhaps. Very 80’s cool, but no way to spec colour matched wheels on the Spyder I don’t believe.
OP, here’s a post of my interior (CWM) if it’s of any help. I went for the leather steering column casing; highly recommended. The door pull is arguably the most silver looking item, but frankly it looks far whiter in person and also that’s the piece you would replace with yellow.
I have silver stitching in my Turbo and agree, it looks white. Silver, chalk and pebble all pretty much look like white stitching but when you get the belts (or pulls) you can see the real color. I have silver seatbelts in my Turbo and they look silver.
I’m more going for white/black, not monochromatic but the pop of color is really nice on a sports car like the Spyder. I also have a yellow stripe in my garage playing off my Turbo calipers so it would be worth going yellow just for that!
I’m not sold on paying even more for additional leather (steering column) but it does look nice. Adds up quickly.
The final config depends a bit on what I negotiate for the trade. Better trade equals more add-on budget
01-03-2021, 03:21 PM
White/Black Spyder Build
