I thought I'd start a thread to list the mods I've done (and planning to do) to my 2022 GT3 GT Silver PDK Touring. Originally, I was shopping for a GT Silver TTS, but came across this car from a private seller up in LA - I wasn't really interested in a GT3, but it was a beautiful spec - I passed on the deal. Literally the next day the dealer in San Diego called me to let me know a TTS spec'd very close to what I was looking for was showing up, and the original purchaser backed out. It was Arctic Gray, but I ended up really liking the color, and bought the car. A few months later, I got a call for the seller of the GT3 telling me he needed to move it, and offered it to me at a very reasonable price, so I ended up buying it.

I ended up liking the GT3 MUCH more than I thought I would - I had read all the reviews claiming it was a "track only" weapon, and ill suited for street duty. In it's stock form, I found these critiques to be largely exaggerated. I loved the way the GT3 handled, and of course the sound, but stepping out of the TTS into the GT3 made the GT3 feel "underpowered" and somewhat crude - IE lots of annoying road noise, and lack of even the rudimentary convenience features like heated steering wheel, etc. I fully understand the GT3 "ethos", but my feeling is that one can maintain the sound and feel of the GT3 without all the coarse roughness. Conversely, stepping out of the GT3 into the TTS made the TTS feel like a marsh mellow . . . and really not as confidence inspiring while driving the twisties. The contrast is quite stark.

On my TTS, I did all the usual things (exhaust, intercoolers, tune) and installed lowering springs and HRE wheels (thanks @hcvone ) - this with better alignment greatly improved it's handling. Still not GT3 sharpness, but a big improvement. It's pretty much the best daily driver I've owned. With the TTS "perfected", I switched to the GT3. My objectives were to quite it down, tame the shock dampening, add back some convenience features, improve the stereo, and add as much power as economically feasible. And of course replace all the black exterior plastic I thought looked cheap with carbon. . .

First phase was installation of a full Akropovic system - LOVE it. A bit on the loud side, but with valves closed, very liveable. I then sent the ECU to softronic for a tune, mainly to delete the start / stop, make exhaust valves manual, and eliminate any CELs from the exhaust. With the exhaust and tune, the car seemed "happier". . . . but really not a noticeable difference in power.

Thus, I decided to send the car to Rick Deman for the 4.5L upgrade. I had read good things about this engines, and Rick is one of the few with experience with the 992 powertrain. I ended up sending a spare engine to Rick for the upgrade, and then trailered the car to him to swap. Ricks team swapped the engine in a day! The install when very smoothly, and the we drove only a few miles in NY to test - quite a remarkable difference! And this is before tuning. . . .

Next stop was M-Engineering down in Florida - trailered the car to M-Engineering for a custom dyno ECU and PDK tune. I posted the results in another thread, it seems the 4.5L upgrade is worth about 90HP, and significant gains in low end torque. My tune was set for 91 octane pump gas, so really not an aggressive tune. The car was transformed. Still not close to the TTS, but now the gap is MUCH smaller!!

Along the way, i added power folding mirrors, heated steering wheel, heated LWCB seats, prep for memory seats (I'm recovering a set of custom 992 18 ways), and have installed most of the cameras for surround view. I have new door handles already painted body color, and had all the parts and antennas to convert to comfort opening. Once I finish with the surround view and comfort opening, I think I'll have accomplished my "convenience" objectives.

Next was tacking the interior environment. First step was to pull out the entire interior, and install the complete Resonix system. I purchase the 911 kit, but also a bunch of additional material to address areas the standard kit did not cover. Overall, I added about 40 lbs of sound deadening - which is a lot of weight. But WOW - the difference is incredible. The Resonix upgrade was the best upgrade I've done (ST suspension very close second). Now the car is as quite inside as the TTS - you still hear the glorious 4.5 Deman engine, but almost no road noise or rock clatter. Amazing. I then installed the Musicar stage 3 system. Very turn-key kit and easy install - greatly improved sound, especially with the Resonix sound deadening. I opted for a Protekparts.eu carbon / leather steering wheel with GT3RS paddles, and a bunch of DB carbon interior bits.

Lastly, I was exploring ways to improve the ride, and make it more "streetable" . . the S/Ts were just showing up, and getting rave reviews. I started doing some reverse engineering, and quickly noted that the hardware between the GT3 and the ST was largely identical. In digging through PIWIS, I also noticed programming fields for the S/T, and thus thought it must be possible to load the S/T dampening into the standard GT3. I made a few half-assed attempts at it, but then brought in the big gun @rnlst_log (Mars). Mars and I spend many hours trying to pin down the correct combination of settings that would allow the PASM to accept the S/T programming. Even for the Jedi Knight of PIWIS (Mars), it was no simple task, but in the end we were successful. I instantly noticed the difference once we successfully flashed the body controller. However, as I'm not a very experienced driver, I was greatly relieved when the next few guys, all of whom had way more driving seat time than me, confirmed that the S/T dampening is dramatically improved.

There are a few other minor mods to note - titanium brake studs to replace the bolts, Manthey LW wheels (beautiful) with Pilot Sport 5S tires - very quite and very good handling. Manthey brake lines and SRF brake fluid. Euro wide view mirrors on both sides, Turbonite emblems on the hood and air bag (CL caps on the way). Exclusive Options sun visors, rear view mirror, vents, and door sills. GT3 duck tail paint matched GT Silver. Custom 4.5 logo (thanks @M3Inline6 ).

Also, in developing the S/T dampening with Mars, we also tried out several instrument panel configurations - I landed on the GR3RS panel format. There are plusses and minus to all the configurations, so really a personal choice, but I like the Track display in the RS best. . . . and you get tire temps as well.

As the final touch, I installed a GT3RS carbon roll bar - I found one that had a few scratches in the matt clear coat - I wanted gloss clear coat anyway to match the rest of my carbon trim, so easy respray. The refinished roll bar in gloss clear looks absolutely stunning - truly a work of art!

There are still a few more things to nail down on the "Mule", but she is close to perfect. In my opinion, this is the car Porsche should have built as the touring . . .the touring should be more than a "wing delete" - it should be a grand touring, and that's now what we have. I hope others can benefit from the Mule - the S/T suspension project alone has been very rewarding. One of the most rewarding things for me during this journey is understanding how all the systems in the 992 interoperate, and how to bend them to my will. Working with Mars has been truly enjoyable, and I've learned quite a bit, but still a long way to go!!

RS display w/ Tire Temps

Porsche Design Sub-Second clock

Exclusive Options (EO) leather trim

EO leather trim

Portechparts.eu cusom wheel


P1 designs inserts

RS OEM carbon roll bar - refinished in gloss clear

RS OEM Carbon roll bar


DB carbon rear valance

GT3 OEM Ducktail color matched GT Silver

Manthey LW wheels in Dark Silver

DB Carbon front spoiler and Racing Sports Concept Carbon Intake


DB carbon mirror bottoms - OEM carbon tops


Racing Sport Concepts carbon skirts


DB carbon splitter / RSC intake

Turbonite badge

Custom 4.5 badge

RSC rear diffuser - full Akropovic exhaust


Here's the list of mods:

1. Deman 4.5L engine
2. M-Engineering ECU / PDK custom tune
3. Akropovic full Ti system (15 lbs weight reduction)
4. Racing Sport Concepts rear Carbon underbody splitter (5 lbs lighter than stock!)
5. Racing Sport Concepts Carbon Side Skirts
6. Resonix sound deadening (40 lbs weight penalty)
7. DB Carbon rear valence, front scoop, splitter, lower mirror housings, wind deflectors, various interior carbon bits.
8. OEM GT3 wing ducktail - mechanical spoiler delete via PIWIS (15 lbs lighter than mechanical tail)
9. Matrix activation via @rnlst_log
10. S/T suspension dampening via @rnlst_log
11. Custom rear 4.5 rear badge via @M3Inline6
12. GT3RS instrument panel programming
13. Various PIWIS hacks (seat belt warning, airbag warning, etc)
14. Manthay dark sliver lightweight GT3 wheels (10 lbs weight reduction)
15. Manthay braided steel brake lines
16. Michelin Pilot Sport 5 S tires (265 front, 325 rear)
17. OEM power folding mirrors with euro wide view heated lenses (no writing on passenger side)
18. Protechparts.eu custom carbon / leather heated wheel
19. OEM heated wheel conversion (TOTAL PITA)
20. OEM heated seat conversion - OEM button in center console, heat wiring added, heating pads added to LWCBs
21. OEM GT3 RS rear air duct upgrade
22. P1 designs tartan LWCB inserts
23. Ed's protectors
24. OEM GT3RS carbon roll bar
25. Exclusive Options leather trim (mirrors, sun visors, vents, door sills) - beautiful work Frank!! Frank is doing a few sets of custom 18 ways for me - can't wait for those.
26. Porsche Design Sub-Second clock

I'm sure there are some things I forgot - I'll edit this post as work continues on the Mule, but really, the Mule is the test bed for my S/T clone project.

 

Insane build. I love it !

 

Wow! Deeply impressive😊

 

Impressive

 

I've been watching many of your mods with keen interest and once I get a moment (and now that I have PIWIS) I'm going to be trying out many of them First step is the ST suspension recode (hopefully this week if I can find a way). Great stuff and happy to help beta test your next crazy idea

 

Nice

 

What are the specs of the 4.5l Deman? I can only seem to find power numbers and everything else is for the GT4 engine, not the GT3 engine.

 

I’m most curious about that 4.5 build. You hear very mixed things about the Deman motors being time bombs. So u think the motor is nearly 600hp?

 

Great work on this project. It’s been fun watching this progress and an inspiration to make my Touring MY dream car that Porsche doesn’t offer. The ST suspension coding has me loving my car like the first day I bought it again. I just drive around with this **** eating grin all the time now.

 

Never heard them referred to them as "time bombs" - I spoke with 4 separate owners about their experience w/ the Deman engines and 100% positive feedback - I've yet to hear of one failing . .

yes, 600 crank HP - this is what they guys at M-Engineering estimated . . their dyno is a wheel dyno, and w/ picked up about 80 - 90 HP over stock.

 

Cayman Deman’s have had issues for sure. I know first hand at least 2.

 

What issues?? Please elaborate.

 

Only issues I ever heard of was folks running around with high strung tunes needing to carry around octane boosters or not using the proper fuel. If the tune is safe and can run on the crappiest of 91 octane one would find on a road trip then it shouldn’t be an issue. Nobody can say how those motors were maintained either. I’m sure Dee is on top of maintenance more than most.

 

Negative. Not posting on a public forum. Everyone does their due diligence.

 

if there were legitimate verified issues, no one would object to describing the issues publicly - I would be the first to post any problems I encountered, as I've done on several posts on this forum.