Dottore

So I'm relatively new to the water-cooled fraternity, but have had a long list of air-cooled Porsches in the past, most of which were discretely modified for enhanced performance.

Among the air-cooled crowd there was almost an agreed list of things that made sense in terms of performance (not mere optics) upgrades FOR STREET USE. These included SSI's, Steve Wong chip, performance Bilsteins, SS muffler, turbo tie rods and a few others. Each of these mods objectively improved the car for everyday use, and were non-controversial—at least to me.

I'm wondering whether there is a similar list for my 2006 997S?

I'm intrigued, for example by a complete exhaust replacement that saves weight and increases power. Fabspeed is often mentioned, as is AWE. I'm not so much interested in the sound, as in a genuine performance increase/weight saving.

What about suspension components? Bump steer kits?

Also, I absolutely hate the feel of the OEM Pirelli P-zeros. Far too hard IMO, and very skittish. Michelins or Yokohamas are in my future—but would appreciate recommendations.

Any and all thoughts would be much appreciated. It may be the old air-cooled guy in me, but it seems to me a Porsche isn't really your unless it's been individualized a bit.

At the same time I'm very conscious of the fact that the performance and handling of these newer cars is substantially governed by electronics, and I clearly don't want to go down some path that will compromise the factory engineering.

I look forward to your comments.

Cheers, Mark

winkingchef

All performance upgrades are good by me as long as you don't go this route:
http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/9...ammed-20s.html

I've got the new Bridgestone RE-11's. Only 200 miles in or so, but I like them so far. Great ride, low noise and fantastic grip. I liked my old Bridgestone RE050A's (N0) and I hear the new N1's are even better. The best thing is both these tires are cheaper than the Frenchies (Michelins)

Spiffyjiff

you mention "FOR STREET USE" but you also mention "performance"...i track my car, but def like my upgrades better on the street too, so i'll give you my opinions:
---i switched to b-stone RE050-A for street - they seem to have a longer life, are cheaper and i think they provide better grip than the OEM P-zeros i had.
---i love my new bilstein damptronics. do a search and you'll prob find theyre a good compromise for street/track.
---if you dont want to go for full suspension replacement, i suggest at least firmer sway bars. i got mine from TPC (BEFORE i did the bilstein upgrade) and it made the car a lot more stable.

all that said, the car is amazing as it is. buuuuuuut like everything else, it can always be improved.

good luck.

Nugget

I wholeheartedly endorse the Bridgestone RE-11 suggestion. They've been my street tires on my GT3 for about 10,000 miles so far and I couldn't be happier. They're predictable, grip well, take to water like ducks, and even at 10K miles they're still holding up quite well and I expect to get even more miles out of them before the tread gets too shallow for wet. Highly recommended.

I ran P Zero (rossos) on my C2S and the RE-11 are superior to them in every way.

cbzzoom

I think the only things that are unanimously definite improvements are :

GT3 Lower Control Arms so you can get more front negative camber (+ performance alignment to dial out toe and so on)

Stiffer sway bars (particularly in the rear)

As for mods for power, it's controversial whether anything helps much. Obviously saving weight is always good but I think I'd go with lighter 18" wheels before I go lighter exhaust.

alexb76

Key is non-controvercial, and already there's controversy about which tires are best!

Honestly, ANY 19inch tire would not be very comfortable, no matter what people say. I got 18inch rims for winter and they are much more comfortable. So, if you're really after comfort, change wheels to 18s and stick to any OEM 18 inch tires. So far, amongst OEM tires, sidewall stiffness from hard to soft is as follows: PS2, Pzero, RE050.

In terms of performance, the link provided is a good start, but I think the consensus is that 997 is designed very well and nothing major can be gained from minor upgrades. I think stock suspnesion with PASM does well on the street and track, so unless you want to do only track, upgrading is probably gotto yield less comfort.

In terms of exhaust, there are conflicting reports, but I've seen a full custom exhaust (locally) give 17 WHP, now dynos are controversial, so who knows!

Nugget

I agree that dropping down to 18" wheels makes a lot of sense. It's a great suggestion.

RonCT

Hate to say this but there's not much to do... Street only the car is pretty much 99% there out of the box. There's no need for suspension changes, especially GT3 control arms unless you are turning it into a track car. You can change out the headers, cats, and mufflers and lose some weight, but you won't gain much performance. The factory tweaked these cars and got just about every last drop of performance they could out of the platform.

If you look at my list of modifications you'll see pretty much the complete list to make my 09 that came with Sport PASM / LSD into a very capable track car. But if it was just for the street I think the only things I would have done are the Sharkwerks Center Bypass and Softronic Software. When I had an 07, I liked the X51 headers ($600) and AWE cats with Softronic - sounded great, felt stronger, proved out on the track as a performance improvement.

I tried the Damptronics on my 07 and didn't like them, though many do. It's about $4k and in the end I took them off and left the car stock (street and track use back then).

18s are great for the platform and I've always liked the PS2 tires since they came out. I had a DE student recently on RE11s and another on RE050s and both were great tires too.

Edgy01

As usual, many owners feel like they have to do something to 'improve' upon their Porsches. I come from the air cooled world as well and did some things then (like a turbo kit) to extract more power. I would suggest that you drive the car for awhile first to get a feel for it's stock configuration handling and performance. Too many owners go out and start changing this and that and often times wind up defeating the purpose of creating a better performance car. Give Porsche AG a little credit for doing these right. Then decide in time. A friend of mine went to all the trouble to add a supercharger and it was nothing but a nightmare...so much so he had to pay to return the car to stock.

kdurg

Upgrade your motor mounts. IMO, the 997 mounts are too soft and are hand-me-downs from the 964/993 cars with less power and less weight. You'll notice much crisper shifting and less twitch from the rear end in the twisties.

Here :
http://www.wevo.com/Products/Chassis...gineMounts.htm

Upgrade your thermostat to a low temp unit from LN Engineering.

Here:
http://www.lnengineering.com/lowtemp...hermostat.html

Now how about some info on your 997S ? Pics ? You know we love pics.

Dottore

All good comments—thank you.

I have driven the car long and hard this past month.

One comment that resonates immediately is "stiffer rear sway bars". The car can feel a little wobbly in the rear in the twisties—so that sounds like a sensible upgrade.

I also like the thought of a lighter and better-breathing exhaust—and would welcome your comments on this. (I have searched the threads on this—but they're mostly about the sound.)

Dottore

OK. Here are a few from a long tour this past week.

Crazy Canuck

Go to a track event with an instructor.

There is more car than most of the population can handle.

Coochas

I agree that your 997S is fantastic right out of the box. As others have said, very few drivers can truly extract the full potential of what Porsche has engineered in. It really needs nothing. If you haven't taken it to the track, consider doing so. If you are going to be track oriented with the car, I would focus on driving and then consider modding the car one day.

utkinpol

it all depends of what one wants to get from a car. it is quite typical to rebuild suspension with gt3 LCAs for more camber, put 200cell cats, flash ECU with Softronic, etc. and this list may get really long and was discussed countless times.

I think most people do all that without any particular reason in mind at all.

And it is quite true that car needs nothing, it`s an owner who needs more and more of something and it takes some time to find that 'something' depending of what goals were in mind. a lot of folks just treat that car as a piece of a jewelry and nothing is wrong about that too - so they do get all those wings and custom interior finishes, exhaust that roars like a jet fighter, why not? it is their choice, even if it serves no particular purpose at all.