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‘Here’s to the beginning of my thread to take a bone stock 996TT and to convert it to mainly a track car.
I’ve been posting quite a bit lately asking a lot of questions about modifying a 996TT for the track. There have been a bunch of great people who have chimed in and offered advise through my other posts and via pm. I have learned a lot from people who have a lot of experience and I’m grateful!
Basically, I bought this car so I could hone my driving skills on the track and build something personal to me that will give me many years of enjoyment. I like learning about cars and what makes them work and figuring out how to change things in ways that will allow the car to be better on the track.
‘My skill set is basically that of a new be and beginner as far as tracking goes as,well as knowing how these cars work. So, I am learning a lot and am in no way an expert and am looking to learn. And have a lot of fun doing things.
So, here goes....
If you have $5,000 to upgrade your car, what would you do to it?
a. Mods for more horsepower
b. Better brakes
c. Suspension upgrade
d. A chrome wrap so I can be just like Justin Bieber
i chose... a!
wrong! Lol. I may be new but I’m not stupid although option d had a slight appeal with the guilty pleasure factor
Actually, the first thing I bought was suspension bits. In the next post I am going to list out what I’ve done or have planned. But first, time for some pictures: Ok, so that’s not even close to my car but a guy can dream 2003 Seal gray 996TT bone stock 2003 Seal gray 996TT bone stock 2003 Seal gray 996 TT bone stock 996 GT3RS KW Clubsport Suspension kit 996 GT3RS Clubsport KW suspension kit 996 GT3RS Clubsport KW suspension kit RSS MONOBALL STUFF RSS Monoball stuff Some stuff put on Subframe mounts 996 GT3RS front uprights 996 GT3RS front uprights
What I actually bought What I almost bought A la 997.2 GT3RS These things are just huge. I just love the way they look
Stock suspension on this16 year old car is pretty darn good, and despite the old tires and the fact that absolutely nothing had been updated since the car left Stuttgart, it handled very nicely through Topanga and old Topanga. However, in order to face the mean streets of Willow, it needed something much more solid.
After talking to my mechanic, he recommended KW 3-way Clubsport suspension. I, again am no pro, but my understanding is that this one is the notch below the fancy Motorsports kit they put on the cup cars and the “MR” version of the Cayman Clubsport. My only experience with KW prior was for a little BMW 3-Series that I put a v.3 system on for canyon carving. Day and night was my experience with the setup. It did take s break-in period of about 1,000 miles with some tweaks as everything settled but I am beyond excited to see what an even better system will do with the car!!
RSS monoball bits. There are actually a ton of different manufacturers of great suspension pieces but in the end, we decided on these because they are well made and the price point for these is pretty good. We got a whole kit that includes the lower control arms and all the links and everything. I think this is going to stiffen up the suspension quite a bit. The metal subframe mounts were purchased as well as RSS motor and transmission mounts.
For sway bars, we got some H&R 3-way adjustable front and rear. I think this is going to give some nice adjustability for the car.
Sitting around in the shop were some unused 996 GT3RS uprights which we will be fitting in to complete the setup. I think this should give some really nice steering geometry for the car.
New wheel bearings will will be put in on all four corners. I had a wheel bearing break on me at the Streets and left me stranded. That was zero fun.
Finally, to round off the setup, and to lose some weight, we got a set of OZ alleggerita HLT wheels and wrapped them with Nitto NT-01 tires. They are 235-40-ZR18 in the front and 315-30-ZR18 in the rear. I have attached some fun pictures with the different wheel colors that tire rack has on their configurator. We decided to stick with something close to OEM tire sizes for the 996 GT2 because these cars handle pretty good out of the box and we will see how it works out. I was tempted to get 9.5” wheels in the front.
For comparison, I have included a couple of sources on tire sizes for race cars:
Since this car is going to be doing a LOT of heavy lifting, for the foreseeable future, I wanted to document and catalog what we are doing in the maintenance department. Yes, maintenance is boring but breaking down or wrecking is worse.
The engine and transmission were being dropped anyway so it made perfect sense to replace the 16-year old rubber hoses. We changed everything. All new hoses throughout. It is well documented that cooling lines in these cars are a weak point. Despite this, I don’t know that Porsche Motorsports has integrated a welded or pinned solution to date for these cars. My understanding is that the glue they use to attach the metal component of the coolant line fails and if under load, the engine will dump all the fluid in short order and can lead to catastrophic engine failure. This has been discussed in multiple threads here:
In addition to addressing this, we changed everything that was rubber and could degrade. We put some really nice 997 spark plus and coil packs on the car and an all metal water pump. A new starter and alternator was purchased basically because while we are in here, we may as well. The sheer number of parts that go into this car is mind boggling. I took a few shots of the stuff we replaced and there are literally new parts EVERYWHERE!
Finally, there will be nice new fluids of every kind put back in the car. Once I have a list of those things I will try and post that.
Engine out Engine out Hoses and MORE hoses Lots and lots of hoses Hoses Tubes and hoses Long fat hoses Short fat hoses Donut Oil cooler. Sits on top of the engine New alternator New alternator New starter New starter Coolant reservoir and fuel filter Coolant reservoir and fuel filter Coil packs and spark plugs Stock exhaust The piece with the three holes is the engine mounting bracket. The motor mounts from the chassis attach to this whis is in turn attached to the motor itself. Another view of various and sundry parts
996ff is a great platform for track duty it can become a slippery slope depending on how deep you go. Looks like a fun build and hopefully many years of enjoyment ahead.
Really cool, GL with it. I'd stay with the stock plastic impeller on the water pump though. It's designed like that for a reason. When it fails, a metal impeller can do some damage to the housing and send metal through the system.
plastic impeller not metal. these pumps fail and better to send plastic than metal thru the system
if your replacing the alternator use the 997 tt 150 amp vs the oem 120 amp
are you staying with the stock slave setup/ now is the time to convert to a gt2 slave setup. much more reliable
i see a new guibo. are you staying awd? wont work with the uprights you have and the tire size you are going to run
The 235 width front tires won't work with those 315 rears, ask me how I know... If you are going to stay AWD you need to use a 245 front tire in order to use the 315 rear.
996ff is a great platform for track duty it can become a slippery slope depending on how deep you go. Looks like a fun build and hopefully many years of enjoyment ahead.
Thanks Oak! We will see how far down we go. Car is supposed to be ready on Wednesday!
Hi all and thanks for the comments. We will be finishing the suspension today or tomorrow hopefully. Basically, we are in a bit of a rush because the car needs to be done this week. I am not sure which way things are going with the suspension at this point. The sway bars have arrived and they are picking up the brake system today so I am basically in a holding pattern for now as to what he’s going to do with it. But at least the wait won’t be that long hopefully!
Looks like you're well down the slope, congrats!
Assume you're going RWD as mentioned.
Might as well add the LSD and pull apart the trans to see how the internals are while you do the GT2 main 1/2/3 mod.
Might as well add ______, _____, __________, ____-___,
The suspension is pretty much as described above. Here are some pictures of what things look like: KW Clubsport Front KW Suspension Monoball RSS lower control arm H&R sway bar H&R sway bar Old vs new. There is no weight savings here. These H&R sway bars are sold. Factory is light enough to twirl like a baton
I did get some new pictures today in and things look like they are progressing nicely
Since the engine is out of the car, this is a perfect time to resleeve the case for a 3.8 liter build. No! Unfortunately my fantasy life has not caught up with reality lol. The case is staying sealed. However, it is a good time to change the clutch, so that’s what we did. Here are some pictures: New kit with all the parts
04-22-2019, 01:00 AM
996 TT build for track
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