Carrera T + more power = the perfect driver's car?
 

I need to start this post with my belief that the Carrera T - especially with a manual transmission, rear-axle steer, and the carbon buckets (if they fit you and your needs) - is one of the best "driver's cars" on the market today. By that, I mean the level of engagement, performance, and sense of reward when you get it all right is extremely high for it's price. You could call me crazy and I know plenty disagree, but I even see it as an excellent value! I really don't care about the lightweight marketing claims, but the reduction in sound dampening does increase the overall engagement.

The only two areas that I feel hold it back from being among the best are the "lack" of power (at *only* 370hp), and the 7-spd gearbox is clearly a bit sloppy and not as strong as the 6-spd. The second one is harder to fix, but I've definitely addressed the first!!

A more complete documentation of the parts and process are here for those that want to skip to the technical parts and pictures:

http://www.brrperformance.com/projec..._More_Power_42

The car started life as a custom ordered T with delivery at PECLA ... by far the best delivery experience ever ... some pics of that event are here:

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B1ZGv6DhEG3Mvxf

While waiting months for that delivery and knowing that I was going to want more power, I began talking to the folks at Tial/Mimo about their upcoming turbo kit for the 991.2 generation ... including a turbo with all new CHRA and custom built housings, turbo inlet tubes, intercoolers, and plenum. These guys are doing some incredible engineering work, including 3D aluminum printing of the plenum, intercooler end tanks, and other amazing parts that simply could not have been built with previous design and manufacturing technologies!

Please visit the first link to see some pictures of this amazing work!

Suffice it to say that I was able to secure one of the first batches of this kit that is entering production now ... and the meticulous and extremely knowledgeable folks at BRRacing in Los Gatos, CA installed it seamlessly, to the point where you would never know what's lurking under the deck lid. And I promise you what is lurking is absolutely insane. According to the Cobb AP logs, the car is making around 1.7bar peak boost with almost zero ignition correction, is holding around 550+ ft*lb flat nearly to redline (as calculated by the ECU ... no idea how accurate that is), and the IATs drop as low as 2 degrees F over ambient while cruising on the highway and only rise to around 10 degrees F over ambient after a hard pull. All of this is done without any additional lag - in fact the remap feels MORE responsive now than stock.

Quick shot of the AP showing 40 psi boost absolute 😱
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...3da82aa51c.jpg

I will direct most questions about the technical details of the parts, pricing, and availability to TiAL/Mimo and BR Racing, but I'm happy to answer what I can and provide additional data as desired. Also - if you live in the Silicon Valley area and want to check it out, please don't hesitate to DM me! Also - I paid full price for parts and install ... so I'm not in this for advertising or anything ... I'm just extremely blown away by the level of engineering of this kit and the performance ... it's actually MORE power than I expected! According to the AP logs, the car is making 700+ horsepower.

So I might have gone overboard, but this really is one of the best driver's cars on the planet right now, and with GT2RS type of power, it's on an entirely new level.

Next up is a 3D printed exhaust manifold to complete the kit ... I'm waiting in line for mine to be produced soon!

I agree with you, though I'd substitute PCCBs for the buckets. Don't need or want the uncomfortable buckets in a road-focused, non-GT car and don't want to lose my backseats (or be forced to pay for the Alcantara steering wheel). And yes, if you look at everything the T does (and does so well), I agree with you that it's an excellent value.

I'm open to the T having more power, though I think it already has good power for road driving, and you want to be careful to not upset the no-lag, linear-acceleration experience of the T. Porsche did wonders with this the Carrera base engine. But I'm open to this and I look forward to reading your updates and others' comments.

I agree with the sentiment 100%

My T is the favourite car in the garage and I prefer it to my GT2RS or McLaren 570 GT for a fun drive out, mostly due to its sweet short shift manual box and non laggy engine. Mine has PCCBs and 18 ways which I prefer for a road car.

It's about to get a full Kline Inconel system and customer tune from Nine Excellence (9e) in the UK which should raise its output to 500PS. Future mods could include do88 intercoolers, GTS or aftermarket turbos, Sachs clutch and 9e should have big bore kit in 12 months which should see it at 600PS++.

I've found that my T is one of the most enjoyable cars I've ever been behind the wheel of. For me what makes it so is the overall balance of performance the car has. Adding power to it may really ruin it.

YES!! I completely agree with this. The beauty of the tune that's in the car now (which is similar to the Cobb OTS stage 1 map, just turned up quite a bit) is that is does NOT change the character of the car or the way in which it delivers power. It just enhances it and makes it stronger. There is no 'tuner-style' torque rush in the midrange that falls on it's face as you approach redline. The power delivery is COMPLETELY linear ... near ideal ... holding flat torque for almost the entire rev range.

So you can still drive it exactly like the stock car, but if you get into it, it just pulls harder and harder all the way to redline.

I should be able to post some data logs/graphs that demonstrate what I'm describing ... but I'm *very* impressed with the tune on the car and how maturely and thoughtfully it's been created to enhance the strengths without turning into a peaky tuner-car.

I would say a must-do mod are headers (I'm partial to Vektor if you want the best performance, lots of, ehem, 'discussion' on headers....). What headers will do is improve spool-up and transient which will improve the drive-ability by giving you better throttle response. And a nice power bump too. High flow cats will also free up power and I think improve some transient response, but at the cost of emissions.

I totally appreciate this sentiment. It's a fantastically balanced machine. Honestly, I'm just a power junky! But I wouldn't have done it if it was going to completely change the character of the car and it absolutely hasn't in my book ... it's just enhanced it. The power delivery is still linear and there is no additional lag whatsoever.

I totally understand and respect what you're saying, I just needed a little more power to round out the package. I was actually surprised how strong the car felt stock ... definitely seems like more than 370hp!? Or maybe that's just because it's producing SO much more torque versus my previous 996 GT3 that supposedly had more power? Still though, it felt a bit anemic on the highway and I wanted more power! Now that I have it, I would definitely not got back ... this is waaaay too much fun!

Yeah the stock headers look like they were designed by a 3 year old!?

TiAL/Mimo is working on a set of 3D AL printed headers that look amazing - I would definitely stay tuned there!!

Anyone know if you can get aero package on the carrera t.

On the build it shows a sport package aero package but no pictures

Impressive and subscribed ! Perhaps BRR should correct the info on their site as it says "A custom ordered Carrera Targa, w the Carbon Fiber sport bucket seats, manual transmission, steel brakes". Pretty sure the "T" doesn't stand for Targa … :cool:

Good catch! I did point that out to them ... Also, my previous GT3 was a 996, not a 991.1! I probably would not have sold a 991.1 GT3 for a T.

Compared to other cars the 991 is quite light. So power/weight is really good. The torque that the turbos provide really come into play for a street car. My T feels faster than my GT350 did just driving the car around every day. That car has 526 hp and 429 lb ft but not much of it below 3,500 rpm.

[QUOTE=joshd;15565012]




https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...3da82aa51c.jpg

... I'm just extremely blown away by the level of engineering of this kit and the performance ... it's actually MORE power than I expected! According to the AP logs, the car is making 700+ horsepower.



This sounds amazing.
Correct me if I'm wrong, But is this a Cobb Stage I tune? Not the Cobb Pro Tune?
Thanks

Thanks joshd for posting this. I have a T arriving this week, and although I might never do the Cobb tune, it's great to know that it's available. Looking forward to more of your posts to see how your experience with the tune changes over time. Please keep us posted.

This is not the 'off the shelf' Stage 1 tune ... it's a tune that will come with the turbo kit. I have also run the Stage 1 map and it felt good, but the jump from stock to Stage 1 was not as big as the jump from Stage 1 to the tune I have now ...