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An Atlas Grey Journey: 997.1 Carrera S Build Thread
911 always had a special place in my hear, since I was still a kid playing Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed back in the 2000s. Over the years, I have driven pretty much all the modern sports cars, from ND Miata to Corvette/ZL1 Camaro/GT350 Mustang, Lotus, and of course 991s and 997s. Each of them are amazing in their own ways, but there is something about the 997s, especially the .1 Carrera that really offers the perfect mix of driving feedback, usability, and understated look for me. 991s are great cars but the driving experience is just too filtered for me. Lotus Emira is great as well. But after putting down a deposit two years ago and trying to work with an frustratingly uncommunicative and rude dealer, I have completely lost my confidence with this brand on this side of the Atlantic. By the way, I have a E92 335i that I owned for 15 years now. Aside from stripping out the interior and putting bucket seats and roll cage in it, it had basically everything done to it for it to be track-comptent.
Anyway, that's how I ended up with this beautiful 2008 Carrera S that I picked up earlier this month. Color is Atlas Grey--a very interesting color on its own and somewhat similar to the Monaco Blue on my old BMW. Interior is full leather stone grey with loaded with carbon fiber trims (more on that later), together with exterior colored door leather trims, deviated stitchings, and exterior colored carpet and headliner. It is definitely a very unique build--the original owner must had a lot of fun putting together this order. The best part of this car is that it only has ~6400 miles at the time of sale.
Mechanically the car is perfect. But the carbon fiber interior pieces Porsche used in these cars are problematic, and mine is no different. A few of them are delaminating or cracked. These will be fixed with replacement from DB Carbon or by fixing them myself. Aside from that, I got a few other goodies on order or already installed.
- 245/35 and 305/30 Michelin PS4S. Dealer throw them on as part of the deal--I asked for 245 at the front, as I was not a fan of the stretched look with the stock 235 tires.
- Thicker leather steering wheel from DallasSteeringWheel to replaced the CF one that is cracked on the back.
- Numeric pedals (I need some throttle extension to heel-to-toe more reliably and comfortably, these seems to fit the bill well)
- Numer shifter (Not of fan of the loose stock shifter)
- DB Carbon steering wheel CF steering wheel multifunction switches and trims. I might get the inner door sills from them as well.
- Carnewal PSE controller (already installed )
- DT40 oil (I had the shop drained out the Mobil 1 just today and replaced them with these. I am well aware of the bore scoring issues with these engines)
- Paint correction and PPF (Dropping the car off at my detailer tomorrow for this)
Other things I am still contemplating.
- PCCM+. It would be nice to have CarPlay instead of using my phone for nav like an uber driver and burning CDs for music.
- Heavier shift ****? The stock carbon fiber one looks nice but doesn't offer the best feel.
- GT3 front LCAs. Need some front cambers if I ever want to do some track days with it down the line.
- Some sort of PASM compatible lowering kits or coilovers. Still deciding between Bilstein B8 with springs, B16, and Tractive Touring kits. I would like to have better damping and slightly lower ride height (0.5-1" lower).
- DSC controllers, heard good things about this, but so far I find the stock PASM to be pretty decent.
- Lightweight forged wheels. These exterior colored Carrera Sport wheels look great, but they are quite heavy. They are also cast and not easy to replace these days. Some lighter ones like the Apex EC-7R should offer some noticeable improvement in unsprung weight and not cost a fortune. Might want to paint them in Platinum Satin too.
@cloud9blue Congratulations and welcome to the 997 family! You've put together a fantastic list of mods, each of which will enhance your enjoyment of this incredible car. The only thing I'd add is miles, lots and lots of miles.
@cloud9blue Congratulations and welcome to the 997 family! You've put together a fantastic list of mods, each of which will enhance your enjoyment of this incredible car. The only thing I'd add is miles, lots and lots of miles.
Working on that. Already added 700 mi to it since last week!
Small update while the car is getting ceramic coated and PPF'd.
More or less figured out what direction I want to go for the chassis improvement plan. The goal is to have a street friendly setup that can also be taken to the track with 200 or r-compound tires from time to time. So I am aiming to keep most of the stock bushings (which are still in perfect condition given the miles on this car). Front end: Tarett cup-series front LCA (monoball for inner end and for caster connection) -- On my E92, the monoball upgrade on the front LCA offered the biggest improvement in steering feel out of anything else I have done with the car (frankly it has better steering feel than the Lotus Emiras I have driven at their Hethel test track). I hope to achieve the same here with the 997 given the similar suspension layout between the 997 and E92. Rear end: Tarett toe lockdown kit + Elephant Racing rear adjustable lower toe arm (really dig the bump steer adjustability and fully weather sealed boot). I love to trail brake, so having consistent rear toe angles would be ideal. Coilovers: I am still chatting with @Tom@TPC Racing to decide between TPC/Tractive RT or the Touring kit along with some other details. DSC controller has been ordered though. ETA is late next month. Sway bars: My thought is to keep the stock bars in for now and drive for a few months to learn the car a bit more before deciding on which bars to get. Roll bars on these cars are pretty easy to replace myself unlike the rear on the E92, so these don't have to be done along with the rest of chassis work.
The Numeric pedals and shifter assembly are on their way to me finally. I hope to at least get the pedals installed in a week or two along with the new steering wheel. These two alone should really improve how I interface with the vehicle.
PCCM+ has also been ordered. That will get installed together with the shifter and DSC controller+accelerometer, so I only have to take apart the car's interior once.
Carbon fiber eye candies from DB Carbon will have to wait until April as these guys are bit backlogged at the moment. I noticed the rear center console carbon fiber has also completely delaminated on one side... Very disappointing given how much Porsche charged for these pieces. Will attempt to tape that back with some thin 3M tapes when the weather improves a bit.
Haven't taken any pictures as the weather has been awful and I have been mostly out of town in the past week, so here is one more from the day I picked up the car.
Last edited by cloud9blue; 01-21-2024 at 02:43 PM.
Looks like a good plan. I installed RSS front LCAs and the adjustability for more negative camber, plus monoball made a big difference in front-end feel and responsiveness. I paired that with a bigger 25mm rear sway bar from Eibach. This is GT3-spec and handling is much improved. Finally, you will love the DSC. One of the best mods you can do for a PASM car.
01-11-2024, 10:49 PM
An Atlas Grey Journey: 997.1 Carrera S Build Thread
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