ca993twin

I have the Ruf a-piller fairings, and they should be quite effective. Less-so than shaving the entire a-piller, which should also help that air-flow disturbance on the front glass plus reduce the cross-section a small bit. This still leaves the question about shaving the entire rain gutter which may or may not yield an aero advantage. The "seat-of-the-pants" evidence indicates that it may help. Thanks for all the contributions so far. Keep 'em coming.

chris walrod

Despite Porsche planning to redesign the roof for the 993 (sans gutters ala 996), I am glad they kept them. Just an iconic feature of the classic!

ca993twin

It seems that building the old cars without the gutters would be a serious redesign. They're pretty integral to the way the car is assembled. There weren't many cars built in 1998 that still had gutters.

mkhn

Bradford,

Correction, cyclists shave their legs because it makes it easier to treat road rash in a spill without having to deal with hair all over the place.

chris walrod

So true -- Just 993's and Ford Rangers

bb993tt

I'm new here; should have introduced myself before. Great site. Love the info, arguments, etc.

Actually I have both a 993TT (97), which is here in London and a Ranger which is back at the house in Napa. The TT is a daily driver (well, not daily;nobody drives daily in London if they don't have to) and stays parked on the street the same as urban-alchemist and for the same reason.

Cheers, as they say over here!

ca993twin

bb911tt,

Welcome aboard... or is that welcome abroad? Or, if you're a female its "welcome, a broad". Cheers right back atcha.

bb993tt

Thanks. From what I could tell from the "age of 993TT owners" thread, could be that you and I are the elder statesmen (?) (naah!) of the group.

Jean

Interesting thread. Not sure about how important is the impact on aerodynamics due to their location and direction, it will be worth doing some research... I do love the looks of Leon's 993TT without the gutters, shaving them even seems to be healthy for him!

Chris, that is an awesome installation...!

JJayB

Ok, checked with my guru Howard Meister who drove a 935 at Daytona back in the golden area of sports cars, and the gutters on the forward pillar are a 6mph drag on the straights. Thats at around 200mph. So without a wind tunnel eliminating the forward rain gutters is a 3% improvement. So for those cruzin, or 6 speeders thats about a 1.95 mph at 65.
I just as soon put a K&N filter to regain the loss rather than shave my gutters. There are a lot of things that I would perfer to shave, but gutters are not one of them.
Jimmy

Jean

Thanks for the input JJay and the good laugh

Stummel

That is what I thought the whole time.
I bet you can also gain enough horse power for the 1.95 mph if you have a quick 3 second dyno run resulting in 460 rwhp for a stock tt.

dennywags

i don't know, but if you ever see a 911 with shaved gutters it sure looks sweet.

urban_alchemist

... and don't forget the pre-BMW Mini... rain-gutters too...

guess that means I've got two of the three...

C.J. Ichiban

I asked Ruf the other day about that while my car was getting serviced and they spoke of the extensive re-welding process that goes into shaving off the entire gutter...probably one of the reasons the Integrated Roll Cage costs 19,000 bucks! it looks amazing in the flesh, but i think if you filled up your a-pillars with the inserts then you're probably better off this late in the game.

I saw those little aero mirrors and was actually thinking- why don't we all just go one step further and only use a mirror on the left side like the old school cars? I had a mercedes with one mirror from 1982 i think. that might free up some drag!