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Just throwing this out there. What does the 20 lbs do to the already rear weight bias? Is it insignificant to effect that? Older Porsches used ballast in the front to help with the rear weight bias. Does this move the balance in the rear direction with any significance?
You're right, it will undoubtedly increase the rear weight bias...BUT...my suspicion is that it's not hugely significant because of a few factors:
1) The older 911s were incredibly tail-happy and already relatively light weight so they may have benefited more in certain circumstances from added front weight than being harmed by overall weight gain.
2) Porsche has largely de-tuned the oversteer out of the modern 911s with things like suspension, PSM, wider rear tires, etc. They're also no-longer feather light, so...
3) I suspect that any weight loss is a good thing, and won't adversely effect handling. I track the car and have never felt it to be tail-happy, and in fact, I routinely deal more with understeer than oversteer. I seriously doubt this 20lb front end weight loss will turn it into a "widow-maker" from days of yore.
4) The battery is in a relatively high spot in the car so any weight reduction at that spot effectively lowers the center of gravity -- much like the desirable CF roof option of the new M3 or why people don't like the glass roof of a 911 targa. I don't have any idea how to quantify the importance of this, but anecdotally speaking, the 997.2 has the engine mounted 10mm lower than the 997.1 so CoG is at least somewhere on some very smart German engineer's radar.
5) My particular car is on coilovers so once I'm done shedding weight, I'll have it corner-balanced which will help distribute the weight more evenly (with the understanding that I'll never get exactly to 50:50 like my old E46 M3 was).
6) It's entirely possible that 1-5 above are purely justification for me to install a cool, racecar-like mod
Last edited by Feelgood MD; 12-07-2016 at 04:18 PM.
Update: Odyssey PC925T with Rennline bracket installed!
Installtion was pretty straightforward. The only issue was that the negative cable was almost too short. I had to really stretch it to get to the negative post on the Odyssey because it sits further toward the middle of the car and even then it BARELY reached. It doesn't seem to be putting any undue stress on the cable and the whole system feels very secure so I don't think it'll be a problem. Just don't be surprised if you have the same (almost) problem. The positive cable was more than long enough.
The car fired right up afterward, although it did throw a PSM error code on the dash, but this resolved/reset as soon as I pulled out of the driveway. I suspect this would happen with any battery change so no fault of the Odyssey. All settings remained intact except the clock which I had to reset.
My wife's 997 had a dead battery so I just dropped my old one into her car. So both cars are now functional...mine is just 17.5lbs lighter for only $55 more than I would have paid to put a new standard battery in her car.
Overall, I'd say the weight savings is definitely worth the $3/lb 😬
Update: Odyssey PC925T with Rennline bracket installed!
Installtion was pretty straightforward. The only issue was that the negative cable was almost too short. I had to really stretch it to get to the negative post on the Odyssey because it sits further toward the middle of the car and even then it BARELY reached. It doesn't seem to be putting any undue stress on the cable and the whole system feels very secure so I don't think it'll be a problem. Just don't be surprised if you have the same (almost) problem. The positive cable was more than long enough.
The car fired right up afterward, although it did throw a PSM error code on the dash, but this resolved/reset as soon as I pulled out of the driveway. I suspect this would happen with any battery change so no fault of the Odyssey. All settings remained intact except the clock which I had to reset.
My wife's 997 had a dead battery so I just dropped my old one into her car. So both cars are now functional...mine is just 17.5lbs lighter for only $55 more than I would have paid to put a new standard battery in her car.
Overall, I'd say the weight savings is definitely worth the $3/lb 😬
12-07-2016, 11:06 AM
