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Glad to be a part of the GT3 community and excited to share the story of this car and build. In short, I'm in love and we're going all out on this thing.
Many of you might recall my 996 C4S build over the past 3 years. A car Ioved and completely transformed for track duty that ultimately helped me become a much better driver. Its now in the very capable hands of another rennlister in SoCal tearing up AutoX and other tracks.
This winter, I put out a few search engines (Autotrader, CarMax, Autotempest, Cargurus, and others) to track the national pricing on 996 GT3s. I wasn't anticipating much but just wanted to keep an eye out should one come up for sale that completely went against the market trends.
On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, it finally happened:
2005 GT3 popped up at 5pm PT
85k miles
Black on Black.
My phone went off. With my house full of family members, I had to step out and make an immediate phone call.
I got a hold of the dealership, Lexus of Albuquerque, just before closing. The sales manager told me it was a desert car for its life and was just traded in on a new SC. Whatever.
They were great to work with and answered all of my questions. The car even had a stack of services paperwork going back to 2008. I gave him my card information for a deposit as they were closing and that we'd talk again on Black Friday morning at opening.
They put the car on the lift and completed an inspection. We even facetimed so I could have the sales manager point the camera at some of the common trouble spots.
The car got inspected with a clean bill of health. With a stack full of services paperwork it seemed too good to pass up.
I made one of the biggest purchases of my life and bought a Porsche GT3, sight unseen, on Black Friday of all days.
It would take 4 weeks to get the car to Seattle from Albuquerque as a lot of snowstorms had hit the coast.
Time to make room...let the overhaul begin.
Last edited by vandersmith; 03-18-2018 at 03:36 PM.
Great price...It should be a blast. I bought my car sight unseen. I knew the seller's agent, so I trusted that the car would be as described. It was...I have had it for 8 months, epic machine.
While putting the suspension on, it occurred to me that there were a few more "things to do while I was in there."
In the go big or go home dept. I had a few eBay searches running to try and find some rare parts.
One search popped with some ridiculous results in the middle of the night while I was putting my car's suspension back together...we're talking ultra, ultra rare stuff.
WHATS IN THE BOX!?
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MANTHEY RACING GT3 COMPLETE EXHAUST SYSTEM (found on eBay)
The owner owned his own shop on the east coast and found his dream car, a 2005 GT3 with only 6k miles on it. Apparently, his new find came with this Manthey exhaust system installed on it and similarly, he was looking to return the car back to its original form.
Look up Manthey, I got really really lucky.
Installation begins:
Now begins the while you're there. New Plugs and Coils:
Weight Comparison:
Stock Muffler Weight
Manthey Muffler Weight
Single (1x) Stock Cross Pipe Weight
Manthey X-Pipe Weight
Stock Header Weight
Manthey Header Weight
Installation Begins:
If you've never heard of "Muffler Bearings" - this is what they look like.
Now the really fun part begins. Getting the car ready for track season.
For any GT3 drivers or PCA instructors out there, you may recall these cars are notorious for coolant pipes popping out on the track under load and spilling the goods all over the place.
My intention was to bring the car to my friend's shop to have all of the pipes pinned along with an alignment considering the service history. Of the 8 pipes that needed to be pinned, we found 4 that were already about to fail, which is scary stuff.
That was the plan at least and is not how things went at all.
Last edited by vandersmith; 03-19-2018 at 04:09 AM.
Every Coolant hose was looking pretty brittle. I believe all of them were original from the front radiators all the way back to the engine. All of them were suspect.
The Front Main Seal was also leaking. Not bad. But leaking.
The transmission seals and axle seals were also heat stroked and in need of changing on the transmission.
Problem #6: You might as well do it all while you're in there.
Cooling:
Pinned Pipes with JB Weld
New Radiators = CSF Racing Aluminum Radiors for Left/Right & Center
New Coolant Hoses = All of Them
New Water Pump with Brass Impeller
New Low Temp Thermostat
New Coolant Level Sensor
New Coolant Temperature Sensor
Coolant Flush with Distilled Water + Water Wetter
Seals/Sensors:
New Front Main Seal
New Rear Main Seal
New Axle Seals
New Oil Expansion Tank Seals
New Oil Heat Exchanger Seals
New Transmission Seals
New Crankshaft Sensor
New Camshaft Sensor
New Oil Pressure Switch
Oil Change
Suspension/Brakes:
New Solid Subframe Bushings
New Upgraded Thrust Arms
New Wheel Hubs x4
New SS Brake Lines x4
New Speed Sensors x4
New Metric Head Brake Pad Pins x2
New Speed Bleeders x8
Brake/Clutch Flush
Transmission/Drivetrain:
New Slave Cylinder
New 2nd Gear Detent (Gbox)
New Numeric Cup Shifter Cables
Transmission Flush
Jewel Pieces
991 RSR Wheel with Rennline QR
Rennline QR Fire Extinguisher
Numeric Ball Bearing Shifter
ECS Aluminum Oil Filter Cap
ECS Magnetic Drain Plug
Performance:
IPD Competition Plenum
82mm Throttle Body
Euro 996 GT3RS Lightweight Flywheel, Clutch, Pulley, Belt, etc.
Finished with a corner balance, height adjustment, and aligned to Kussumaul settings.
You guys know I do a lot of my own work but the big stuff I leave to the professionals. I may have a lift but you can't always solve for know how.
All of the major work above was done locally by my friends at Group2 Motorsports in Seattle, WA. I can't say enough about these guys as they knocked it out of the park. This was a project.
Major thanks goes out to John, Mimo, & Matt and the gang for all of their awesome work!
Last edited by vandersmith; 03-19-2018 at 04:12 AM.