dave-C2

John, that is truly an impressive cage. It is incredible how many improvements there are over the 996 / 997 Cup cages.
For the T45 tubing what OD and wall were used?
IWill the shoulder harnesses attach to the rear bar between the shock towers?

powdrhound

There are several sizes of tubing used on the cage. If I recall correctly, all the main tubes are FIA spec 44mm x 1.5mm and some of the rear supporting tubing in the seat area and the roof bars are slightly smaller. It's all spelled out in detail on the cage certificate in the documentation but I don't have that handy.

Yes, the shoulder harnesses attach on the rear horizontal bar, one shoulder strap in each side of diagonal bar. All the newer generation cages are designed to attach the shoulder straps in the rear in order to allow for more stretch thus minimizing the G forces imparted on the upper torso in a crash. Porsche went to this arrangement in the 997 and later generation Cup cages. The 992Cup cage design is very similar in overall architecture to the cage installed my car, the main difference being the additional bars that attach to the rear seat area on the cage in my car.

rbahr

Great build John. This has to be one of the best developed GT3 around!

A heads up, when you install the Tilton, make sure you measure the TOB clearence - Tilton ahs a spec, and I needed to turn mine down a bit.

Ray

Mtrboatvr6

Awesome to get to see some pictures of what we talked about. Cant wait to see this done John!

powdrhound

It's getting there, slowly but surely. Parts are trickling in and some have been collecting dust for a while waiting for the cage to get done. Here are the new SS321 headers with 48mm runners. Stock headers are 37mm so these have a 68% greater cross-sectional area for a substantial drop in back pressure.

powdrhound

Just picked up the car from the paint shop yesterday and dropped it off at CTS. Still pretty dirty but I figured I'd snap a few shots. Painting a cage is an absolute nightmare but they really did a fantastic job. The inside is done in body color with a matte finish and the cage is done in a gloss finish. I also had them do the A pillars of the cage and the gussets in matte finish to minimize any glare on the windshield. They glued in the roof and the finish looks perfect on it. The Cup doors will need to go back and have the outer frames done in a satin black to match the plastic Cup mirrors but that's about it. Car is a bare shell with just the suspension bolted on so now it's on to drivetrain install along with reassembly and installation of all the associated bits and pieces.

zbomb

Very, very nice John. Love seeing the progress pics.

Cemoto

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Ooh la la!

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rbahr

Hi John,

Is that a CF roof? WHere did you get it and how much?

Thanks

Ray

powdrhound

The roof is CF. It's made in Germany by a friend who used to be a supplier of various CF parts to Manthey Racing. He has his own company now. The roof is a superb piece. 100% raw carbon and has a perfect finish. The roof panel weighs 5lbs vs. 17lbs for the OEM solid roof panel which yield a very nice 12lb weight saving from the very highest point of the car. PM me if you'd like his contact info. He may have some in stock here in the US. He also has a shop on the east coast here in the US and bounces between there and his shop near the Nurburgring.

996clubsport

Did you build those radiator ducts?

powdrhound

No, those are RUF ducts, all 3 of them. They are specific to the RUF number. The sides are slightly larger than the OEM Porsche ducts as the RUF bumber side air inlets are marginally bigger. The center chimney duct the other bits and pieces are OEM GT2 parts...

Mtrboatvr6

Glad to see some pictures, turned out great. Love the roll cage tech, and the carbon roof puts it over the top.

powdrhound

Thanks. It's been slow going with close to 200hrs in the cage and paint work. Should see more progress now that things are back in Chris's hands at CTS..

powdrhound

Had a free day in my busy travel schedule to stop by the shop and see the car going back together nicely with the gearbox getting ready to be mated to the engine. One of the very neat features that CTS did was to install a microswitch with a custom CNCd bracket attached to the shift linkage. What this does is to allow the engine to be started without having the clutch depressed when the transmission is in neutral yet prevents the car from being started if the car is in gear which could potentially ruin the day. Since I usually start the car at the track when standing outside in order to warm it up in the morning (or for other reasons), it adds a layer of protection from the inevitable run away with no one seated inside.

I figured this may be of interest to those guys that have bypassed the clutch switch allowing them to start the car without having the clutch depressed for the numerous benefits that mod brings. Pics below show the details. Obviously the wiring is not pictured but in our case this plugs right into the gearbox wiring harness which has the gearbox oil temperature sensor and the oil cooler valve control. On a factory car this could be wired inline with the existing clutch switch that normally gets bypassed. Cheers!

Gearbox in NEUTRAL with microswitch depressed allowing engine start.




Gearbox in GEAR with microswitch open preventing engine start.