2mAn

Rear coilovers are all adjusted and in, still have to install the sway bar arms. Those should happen one of these nights, but for now I wanted to get started on removing the mufflers and beginning the install of the sporty shorty mufflers. Weighed the old hardware and they came up a little more than what I have seen online (~20#), but mine have the gundo/fister mod done and I also threw in all the hardware since none of it will be needed with the new stuff. It came in right at 28/29# for one side.






Excited to hear what this will sound like. It will be loud, but shouldn't be as bad as the straight up deletes. Not quite finished, but close to being done for one side. I will add a support hanger since its otherwise just a clamp on the exhaust.



Once the front is done and it goes in for another alignment, I will get it corner balanced again and this time the weight should be under 3000# as I will also have removed the spare. I have the carbon fiber hood and (eventually) the Antigravity battery that should shave ~50+ pounds off the nose. Once thats all done, I should be around 2920 based on my calculations. I think I can find more weight to shave off the rear since I dont want to shift the balance to the back anymore than it is.

2mAn

Pretty much wrapped up the main part of the install.


Installed the bumper and its not perfectly centered in the cutout, but I will live with that. Will I be able to live with the exhaust note? We'll find out soon. Autocross is this weekend and I have a few loose items to wrap up tomorrow night.

Heres all the stuff that I removed, weighed. A little worried about the 'parachuting' effect the empty cavity may have and sadly the bumper is in good condition so I cant justify the dremel or sawzall yet





I think the net loss will be right around 50# !! I'm going to remove and store the spare for my LA driving, and pack it for long-distance driving since I have AAA+ and can have them deliver the car home within 100 miles ( I may have upgraded to the 200 mile package, cant remember haha)

This mod, plus the spare removal should officially get me under 3000# as-is. At this point the goal is to get this car down to the 2901 claimed weight that Porsche said these weighed

De Jeeper

I think i would put the plastic side supports back on. They retain the bumper edges behind the tires. U can strip the heat shields because u have no mufflers

2mAn

I'll see how 'floppy' it is without the big supports in there, but thats something I'll be looking into.

2mAn

Well, I have been waiting for pics from the autocross but it looks like you'll have to live with the crappy ones taken with a cell phone.




In other news, I got the front Coilovers out and sold. Sadly the top nut I needed for the GT3 Coilovers had to be special ordered and the 996 part is superseded with a 997 part #. All this to say, Pelican Parts had to order it from the East Coast and it wont get here until after the long weekend. Bummer as I'll miss two good weekends of driving.

Also, my order for the frunk organizer and cover arrived. I already had a Euro triangle, but looks like Porsche wants me to order theirs, so I just took it out of its red box and now there is a triangle in the kit.

Really don't like how the cover looks in there. Its the wrong color, and doesnt cover the whole thing (which I was already expecting) but its worse than I thought... Might be sending the cover back and doing something else. Not sure yet. I still have a few more things to buy to 'complete' the kit


Cant wait to get it all back together and driving again... I miss driving this car and anytime it sits without being driven, my mind wanders...

MrKromz

sup simon?! still have the einser / mk1?
-paul aka chromosexual aka smeg0r

2mAn

haha talk about a blast from the past. I was actually just on vortex bumping a thread from 09 where I was asking where my old TD Coupe ended up...

Right now the only VW I have is my DD 06 Jetta TDI. Getting the itch to play with something like that again though. My friend has a full-on project mk2 VR6 GTi that I kinda want to build and sell. I want to play with a VR6 again but dont think I want to own one long-term...

2mAn

Had a few moments in the garage and decided to weigh the spare, jack and other few things that came out to see what reduction I've got from this.

Another ~30# and this comes off the nose. I am still considering getting the antigravity battery, but that wont be until the battery actually dies. That means that other than the Carbon Fiber hood, I'm done with front end weight reductions. Time to see what I can do on the other end of the car, but that is likely to be in 5-10# increments through various minor changes.



BTW according to my tally, this brings me to a grand total of 2985#

Tom Loder

I have an oem cover from a C4 if you’re looking for something to match the liner fabric

2mAn

Hey Tom, Very interested. I sent you a Private Message

Sending the other cover back to Suncoast, hoping that shipping wont kill me since its on my own dime... something I'll need to consider in the future since they are across the country.

2mAn

Looks like the photographer only got a few pics of my car 'dancing' around the circuit and didnt quite get a good one... this was his best shot of mine



Snuck out of work mid-day to head to Pelican and pick up my special-ordered top nuts. Came home and once I put the kiddo down, I finished assembling the front coilovers.



Wanted to get a pic of the goodies before the install...



Cant wait to drive this thing again, but I will likely need to get another alignment done after changing the coilovers... will add a corner balance to the task list to see what the corner weights (and overall weight) looks like.

circuit.heart

$55 Longacre toe plate kit my friend. As long as your rear alignment doesn't change, you can tweak the front in your garage and get it just as accurate as any normal laser rack. Slap the camber setting all the way in, measure toe, lift car, shorten tierods, drop car, roll it back and forth a few times to settle, re-measure toe, lift car, adjust tierods again, drop car, settle car, re-measure. Once you get the hang of it, the front alignment on a 996 (and basically any older car without EPS) is a 1hr DIY.

2mAn

@circuit.heart That's funny, because that's actually the plan after this initial setup. I want to drive the car ASAP and would rather have the plate kit for making adjustments down the road rather than getting this setup done now. I generally have very limited time, but its a skill I want. For Ex, I had to install the front and rear coilovers at totally different times, and installed the fronts last night starting at 9pm. Balancing Dad/ Husband life along with all the other stuff isnt easy, but I make it happen.

TLDR; The initial alignment could take me forever, so I'm farming this one out.

2mAn

Alright, car is all done and wrapped up, installation wise when it comes to the GT3 Coilovers. Needs an alignment, still sort of drives straight-ish but Im still having it towed to Johnson Alignment in Torrance to get its ride height corrected (higher in the front, and lower in the rear), aligned, and corner balanced.



Also, to close the loop on the rear sway bar tabs, I used some Eibach adjustable ones because factory GT3 were $300 for a very basic tab.

996love

I didn’t understand why you would want to raise the front and lower the rear until I saw your photograph, LOL.

I think the front will scrape when trying to board the flatbed. I don’t know how much you care, but it may be something to consider before ringing for a tow.