N_Jay

With my daily driver being a 987.2 PDK 2.9, I am starting to think about tinkering a little.
I figure it worthwhile tapping into the brain trust before blowing $$$ on stupid stuff.

Robert Nixon

Best bang for the buck depends on what you want the car to do. One option, if you want it to be faster on track, is to get an instructor and improve the driver.

jscott82

Max performance tires is where I'd start. If daily driver in the cold you will want to keep your all season tires on another set of wheels.

We put a set of Continental Sport Contact 6 on my wife's car. They suck in the cold (doubt they would even be safe in the snow) and only last 12k miles but transformed the car.

Edit: Just noticed, you are in Charlotte as well.... Those tires do fine here year round....

N_Jay

Yes, I always need more instruction.
Used to be a decent "Seat of the pants" autocrosser, but that was 25+ years ago in a 914.

I was going down that path, wondering of there were some well known easy mods that were worthwhile. (exhaust, tunes, etc.)

bluebonnet

You have to spend a lot of money to get a little more power out of the engine. You need to state how you will use the car; b roads, track, touring, commuting, etc. Practice and instruction are best for track. Track tires and a second set of wheels are the biggest gain, perhaps followed by something like an Ohlins coil over setup. Do you have sport chrono options? If not, consider those, but also consider software/chip upgrades because they will also change the response and character of the engine and are less costly. Exhausts can change how the car sounds and feels, but I do not think it makes a big difference in delivered power.

Porsche typically makes cars as the best solution across a wide range of applications. You need to determine how you want to focus on one application over another.

N_Jay

Mine has few options, so no "Sport" and no "Sport Crono".
I understand the "Sport" is a $125 switch and about a $1000 SW upgrade form Porsche.
Is Sport Chrono any different? (I am sure the clock and trim are pricy)

Are there good and safe aftermarket tunes that do similar, or does Porsche have the edge?

Yes, I know that Porsche tends to have well optimized designs so getting much more out takes putting a good bit in.

Not sure I am up to needing coilovers, as I haven't started tracking the car, and want to keep a decent ride for weekend touring.

bluebonnet

Aftermarket software extracts more from the engine. Porsche sport and chrono also scale back on traction and stability management allowing you to drive more aggressively. I do not have an aftermarket tune so someone else can comment on that. You might want to just go through the car thoroughly to make sure everything is as good as it can be since the car is very fun to drive on its own. A little track instruction will help get some more out of your driving on back roads. You will also get to talk with everyone else at the track to see what they did with their car.

Instead of coilovers, consider doing lowering springs like H&R and checking the health of your existing struts. These cars sit fairly high in stock form and lowering the car with the right springs will not affect the ride quality much.

Zach L

Second set of wheels with 200-treadwear sticky tires for autocross and track days.

For suspension, skip the coilovers/springs. Spend that money on some adjustable front lower control arms for additional camber. Secondary would be larger sway bars.

For exhaust, skip the catback as it'll give you no gains. All restriction is the four cats in the headers. Aftermarket headers with high-flow cats or race headers are the biggest power gain for your money.

9eight7

I'm going to come in at a different angle here and say PPF on the front and doors. It's the best bang for the buck in terms of keeping your paint fresh in the elements, protect from little chips, potentially tiny door dings, and easier to clean. It's a daily driver and will be near other cars so a little protection is nice.

In terms of seat of the pants, I recommend a sprint booster. Crank that baby up or down if you want to feel like a gas pedal hero. In short, it increases/decreases the sensitivity of the accelerator which will change your experience at a small cost. Note: there are no hp/tq gains and will not show on a dyno.

The alluring hp/tq improvement - IMO losing weight, on the car, costs less than adding HP in the HP/weight ratio which is one metric race car classes make rules on. You can do this with a battery, rims, seats, and exhaust (HP gains are so minimal I consider this a weight mod).

N_Jay

Car came to me as a Salvage rebuild, with a 20/20 respray (Maybe more 5/5) so paint protectors are not in the mix.

Yep, you could feel every LB in the 914,

9eight7

I'm not sure what your budget is but I would still recommend a sprint booster which is under $300.

If you are looking for more dB and tone change then I would recommend headers + tune. Personally, I don't feel like this is a life changing gain in hp/tq because I didn't notice any difference on track when comparing the data. Off of memory, my lap times (<.4s) and Vmax (<3 mph) were very similar. So similar that I would speculate that it was due to driver, elements, or consumables rather than header/tune performance. That being said, this would cost anywhere between $2,000 and $7,000 depending on new/used/installed/DIY. Is this worth it or not?

N_Jay

I have never figured out the value of an accelerator peddle re-mapper.

I can move the peddle as fast as I need to across the range.

9eight7

One of my friends has it on his 2.9 and really enjoys it. He says it has transformed the car and gives it a little extra when driving. For him, it greatly improved his experience at a minimal, however YMMV. What do you value or wish you could improve on your car?

This was the order of my mod list however I had more of a track focus than street. Looking back, I think I valued functionality and cosmetics the most while the exhaust/headers were nice to have but didn't help me go faster. On my current car, the only performance upgrade I'll consider is the Deman 4.5L engine... and mayyyyybe the Dundon headers because they sound really really good.

1. Carnewal GT Exhaust - Improved tone with very slight volume increase. If I were to go back I probably wouldn't do this.
2. Fabspeed tips - Purely cosmetic and 100% worth it.
3. Catless headers + tune - Significant increase in volume, deeper tone, and really stinky. At this point I was still 100% street.
4. Brake pads/Tires/LCA/Alignment - 100% worth it and makes the difference night/day for turn in, holding a line, and especially grip
5. Shifter cables - Pre-emptive upgrade but 100% worth it. Not applicable for PDK.
6. Bucket seat - Weight loss, better feel, and more stationary 100% worth it!
7. Coilovers + camber plates + more aggressive alignment - Coilovers were phenomenal but a bit too jarring with all monoball parts. I didn't ever think I'd get coilovers but a good friend sold them to me for a good deal. I also found myself driving this less and less on the street. I was able to extract 1s out of these and probably could do a little more if I didn't sell the car.
8. Catless header #2 - I broke my previous on track (broken weld due to heat). My ears started ringing too much and I blew sound a few times so I would likely revert back to stock after the next smog check. IIRC it was 96-98 dB (blew sound on 94 dB and was fine on 103 dB).
9. Cayman R wing - Purely cosmetic but it effected the aero. I really needed to add the front splitter.

sectachrome

IMO opinion it’s better to invest in greater handling and driving experience mods. And doing preventative maintenance on common failure areas. Better to just leave the engine alone considering the small gains and large cost of power mods. See my sig for what I’ve done to mine. I also have a Sprint booster and like it though I’ve got it set very low. Makes the engine feel a little more responsive and throttle blipping is easier.

GroupJ

I also have a 2.9 PDK. I did all the performance and lightening mods mentioned above and each of them improved the sporting experience. Probably the single best bang for buck was the installation of proper paddle shifters. The 2.9 L are not as quick as the 3.4 L cars but I feel they have a reliability advantage on the track. My biggest disappointment is not with the engine but with the PDK. IT is sluggish. My next mod is to install Soort/Sport+. You get the buttons and software but no clock wart which is fine by me. Supposedly Sport+ transforms the PDK into lightning quick shifts.