CameronD

My Porsche is a 2005 987S. It was purchased only days ago new and replaced the Carrera S that I wanted to buy. I never got the 997 but I did buy the Carrera S 19 inch wheels in chrome from Wheel Enhancements. Test drove the 997 S and just didn't find the fun factor to be as good as the 987S.(Especially the 2x the price factor.)
I had never driven a Boxter and never believed when people said it outhandled the 996 Generation of cars. Being a guy with a heavily modifed Techart Widebody, I can honestly say that my new 987S has far superior feel on the road than my old 996. (Although that is only my opinion) Another deciding factor was that the dealer came down 10k because it was an 05. Same car as the 06. Completely unchanged. Best 49k I ever spent.
I had my vehicle modified and bought 95% of my parts and had my labour done at "By Design Automotive" before they closed (In Los Angeles) I luckily located my old saleman/friend Allan and my old mechanic Dan who now own and operate a place called Speed Gallery. I know Dan really knows his stuff when it comes to Porsche and tuning(His Attention to detail is awsome). I first walked in with a 4000$ budget (humble when dealing with good quality Porsche products) .
Originally wanted to do the following mods on my 987S
1) Headers
2) Cat By Pass Pipe
3) Exaust System
4) Intake
5) Sway Bars
6) Lowering Springs
7) Short Shift kit
8) GIAC ECU Tuning
9) Cayman Side Vents
After talking with Allan, I decided partially based on his advice to drop the headers as they make virtually undectable differences in sound or power. I had done the full power kit on my 996 and knew that for 6k+ you will get only marginal gains, and I used only techart products which were supposed to be the best at the time. I discovered that losing unsprung weight in suspension and wheels is the best performance enhancer. (I removed nearly 300lbs from my old 996) (60lbs of that was unsprung weight that is supposed to be rated at 1lb of unsprung weight=8lbs of weight off the car. And 10lbs=1 HP
Tomorrow my transformation begins, I am getting
1) Giac Chip Tuning
2) Custom Exaust
3) Retaining Cats (Although I May Remove 2nd Set Of Cats)
4) Evo/Schnell Intake
5) B&M Shift Kit
6) H&R Spring/Stock Struts
7) H&R Sway Bars (Front/Rear)
8) Cayman Side Vents
I will keep you informed and I will give you all some product reviews. If you have any experience with the products I will be installing please give me some feedback. I am a Porsche owner primarly looking for a lower vehicle stance, less body roll, better throttle response, a meaner exaust note, and a deep and throaty induction roar.

Palting

My goodness!! I like the car pretty much as is. Do you actually plan to track/race the car, or simply like doing mods?

CameronD

I know the car is great, but I am a guy who doesn't like to leave things stock. The 987S is great, but the suspension is too soft for me and the car has too much body roll when taking hard twisties. The exaust note is fine, but needs more grunt, and the intake needs some more induction growl.
In my last Porsche and my current Mini Cooper S I did the ECU Remapping and found the cars to be 100% more responsive and torquey. I was perfectly happy with the ECU reflashes and am sure that it will do the same for my new car. My friend that owns the shop will not charge me to reflash my ECU back to stock if I am not 100% satisfied.
I just dynoed the car today and will dyno the car after the mods are put in. The car dynoed at 240hp. Couldn't test the torque on the dynojet because of something in relation to the plugs. All in all a fun day and I am looking forward to testing the Porsche after I get all of the hardware on it.
As for tracking the car. I may track it once or twice but I use it for street driver and it is my primary vehicle. I like to push it's limits sometimes and the few additions that I am adding give me just that little bit more fun factor.

CarsRGood

so much for break in..

(although some people insist it doesn't matter)

CameronD

Aside from the 4k test drive and the 20 secconds of redline at the dyno place I kept the car under 4.5 thousand rpms. I kept it under but still got on the car fairly hard just shifting at 4.5. At 1000K I have now started to get on it until redline. I do not think you need to put 2000k on a car to work it in. For example a corvette is only 500k. I think Porsche would rather be safer and possibly have less warranty issues as the miles begin to ad up on the cars on the road.