Hi Ray,

Sorry, i forgot a couple of things
As you say, you have a Mk2 RS. From what i have been told, the Manthey kit does not deliver the same gains on the later model as it does on the MK1. This is because the Manthey kit duplicates many of the improvements porsche made on the MK2. I believe the kit raises the power to about 395 which is the same as the Mk1 kitted, so i would be pushed to recommend it. However, a friend of mine has the Manthey muffler boxes fitted and they sound fantastic. Much better IMHO than the likes of Cargraphic, which were fitted to my car originally, but fell apart pretty quickly, as did another UK GT3 owners.
If you want some advice, speak to Steve McHale at JZ Machtech. They are the UK's Manthey agent, and dont tend to deal in BS.

Best regards,

Steve B

 

Hi Steve,

Thanks for all that info.

My car is will actually be a dedicated track day, club racer and may see limited road driving to and from the garage for tweeks. Actually, the car is not road registered due to 100% tax here in Hong Kong. However, after two years there will be a depreciation factor and then I will re-register the car for the road - Cheaper!

I have a list of modifications planned and have already purchased the following:

Recaro Pro-Racer SPG
BBS Magnesium wheels
Full set of camber adjustment shims.

Next on the list will be:
8:32 Ring & Pinion
Alternative gear sets (Have the complete available list already) - Maybe?
Carbon fibre doors, rear deck-lid and cup car spoiler - at a later date.

I am also searcing for solid bushes and linkages for the car at some point in the future. One question which I don't know is whether the rear of my RS is actually using monoball top mounts for the suspension. I know that these are not used within the MKI or II GT3.

My ex 993 RS was running on solid busehes all round and the level of information and feel was awesome.

Will wait for the magazine article as you suggested. Have also thought about the headers installed on a 996 GT3 RSR where the tuned exhaust tips, about 1 foot long are attached directly to the headers. No cats, no silencers and one awesome sound! No DB noise readings for tracks within SE Asia.

Thanks,

R

 

8:32 Ring & Pinion
Tell me more about this........ how does it make the car feel, is it streetable, do I want it, and if so is there a porsche part no for it?

 

Hi Ray,

One question. Why didn't you buy an ex-supercup car? From the mods you are lining up, you're going to be 8/10ths the way there. here in the UK, we have a GT3 register, and there was a guy from the US selling a shed load of parts from their cup cars. LOTS of BBS rims, centre lock i think, engines, gearboxes you name it. I will try to find his info and PM it to you.
So how is HK these days? I was there for some years back in the mid 90's until the millenium. Loved it

Best Regards,

Steve B

 

Or better yet buy a full blown GT3-R or RS (racing) with low hours of usage and spares.

My choice would be to get the 3.9L engine upgrade from Manthey, for 500 naturally aspirated horses... Talk about a monster.

 

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the mail and the response, very informative and will do.

As for a cup car, I actually wanted a GT3RS but a "genuine" clubsport model similar to 964RS and 993RS vintage or RSR as they are known in the UK. Remember those which had a bare metal interior and factory welded cage!

If I could have taken a cup car on the road in HK then I would have bought one. However, we cannot drive LHD cars on public roads here in HK. I do eventually plan to road register my car here in HK but at a later date.

Also, financial considerations come into play and my guess is that in four years time, a GT3RS (road ver.) will probably be worth more money. Porsche marketing were also very good in gently leaking the information on the GT3RS about one year ago and hence I was one of the first to put a deposit down thinking that it would genuinely be a very limited car. However, that's not the point with these cars and I am going to see how far I can get with the car on the track.

As for HK, the car scene is ever growing in popularity and track days are also increasing. Mainly Zhuhai, China as the only track but Shanghai and Formula 1 will start later this year. We, Porsche Club HK plan to visit with our cars later this year.

Another great surprise is a club race series called "Roadsport Championship" visiting Zhuhai and Macau GP street circuit. Raced there last year in a 996GT2. Will post pics as soon as I know how.

Will be doing this series almost for sure and it is unlimited modification save minimum weights. Can't wait!

Macfly,

8:32 (4.0) ring & pinion alters the final drive ratio of your car and it effectively shortens the overall gearing. The standard installation is 9:31 (3.44:1) and it is this that provides 190mph top speed. The former gives you something around 160mph max but provides you with much quicker acceleration. 190mph top speed is not of great use if the tracks that you visit consist of short straights with a lot of bends! I would rather have better acceleration!

Any comments guys?

Regards,

R

 

Here's a post mds made to funcarsonline last year on the effect of changing to just the 8:32 R&P as well as the cup car gearing: GT3 gearing changes. I had talked to Alex Job Racing about changing my GT3 over to the Cup R&P and gearset but that's now going to have to wait for a resumption of employment on my part.

 

Gearing choise is complicated. At the turn 4 exit at Laguna Seca I'm in the low to mid 90mph in 3rd gear. There is plenty of gear left for further improvement, which the car is very capable of. But with Cup gearing I'd be nearly at redline and for further improvement would have to short shift before turn in I think. But then acceleration would be slower, the car would be less near the limit and I would be having less fun.

 

Do the Cup teams re-gear for each track they run on or are the transmissions sealed like the motors? I was going to see what the standard gearing was like at Sebring (my "home" track) before I got too serious about Cup gearing. Too bad you can't easily bump the redline up a couple of hundred RPM (since reports are the GT3 motor is good for about 9000 RPM) to accomodate tracks where you're just a little short on gearing. To eliminate a need to upshift to 4th in the middle of turn 11 at Sebring (a very fast left hand sweeper with slight banking) I changed the rotor in my 911T to the S version (6500->7200 redline). I also had to modify the fuel pickup in the carbs to eliminate starvation as the g.Analyst reported well over 1G in that turn. Sometimes I don't miss carbs.

 

Steve,

I think the gearing on the cup cars, certainly within the designated Porsche Carrera Cup Races, are not allowed to change their gearing to suit individual circuits.

Some of the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia guys which I have raced with in other Porsche Club races often complain how long a geared they find the standard cup cars. Often they will find that they are only using 5th gear and only for the briefest of moments despite the '03 model cup car running on shorter gearing from 3rd through to 6th and also 8:32 R&P.

Even in Sepang, Malaysia where there are two long straights, the cup cars on factory gearing cannot attain 6th gear!

A relative cheaper option to replacing all of the gear sets is to inter-change the standard 6th gear and place this into the 5th gear slot, junk the original 6th and buy new 3rd, 4th and 5th gear sets. Not perfect but will save some cash.

Anywhere, whether Stateside or Europe is better than Asia in terms of the number of tracks you can attend. You guys are better placed to fully utilise your cars!

IS this thread getting too long! Perhaps we should start another?

Regards,

R