When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
This thread will be a journal of my forays with a 997.2 GTS. Some of the early posts are a bit out of order. I'll update this thread with new posts every time I do something I feel is significant enough to share and I think might be of interest or contain beneficial information for others. I do everything myself unless otherwise noted. Happy to share info with anyone who wants it. Just PM me.
2.8.15 A child is born
My search for a 997 began in late 2012, became serious in early 2014 and materialized in early 2015 when a friendly Brit named Guy at Porsche Conshohocken sold me a fresh, off-lease 2012 997.2 Carrera GTS with 21,393 miles on the clock.
Here's the build sheet:
It was specced nearly exactly how I would have from the factory. The one thing it didn't have that at the time I wanted was SPASM. It wasn't a deal breaker because I knew I'd be changing the suspension on it anyway. In retrospect, I should have sourced a car with the Sport Buckets and aerokit, because $$$ but.. whatevs.
The sales transaction was smooth and I think I got a fair deal, shipping was arranged and it was almost delivered during the Super Bowl blizzard that blanketed 20 states (remember that?), but the carrier got stuck in Indiana. So, I was saved until the roads were plowed and picked it up a mile away the next day (can't deliver 18 wheelers to my downtown condo.. trucks don't fit).
Here it is coming off the trailer and immediately going into hibernation:
No one will ever know.
More to come as it needed some minor cosmetic work before it's spring awakening.
The mods on old Ragnarok are less frequent as I've got it pretty dialed in. Additionally, I've been spending free time mostly being a dad and sorting my new house and barn find E46 M3 (also have the new Bronco incoming). However, this car gets its legs stretched plenty and there are always things to fiddle with. Onto the latest fiddling....
I'm big on tactile mods... seats, steering wheel, door pulls, shifter, pedals, et al. All the stuff you feel while you're actually driving the car. Don't get me wrong performance and cosmetic mods are great too. You all know I have plenty of those. Tactile mods are my jam though.
My shifter was the neglected element in my interior. I went back and forth for a few years about getting a weighted wooden shift **** but I've only seen one application that looked good in the 997. The wood looks great, the shifter looks like an afterthought.
So I was excited to see Heavy ***** product hit the forums last month and received my set shortly after. I didn't think it could do much with the space the pieces were filling but to my pleasant surprise, they converted the lighter plastic standard shifter from a bit of an afterthought to an enjoyable experience to the already great 997 6MT. I tossed some pics from the past half year in here to catch us all up. I'm doing mostly long rallies now. Did a trip to Minnesota last fall for the Overcrest Rally and am headed out to West Virginia in June for the Ruchlos Rally. Then hopefully out west (our south) in the fall.
2.8.15 - 4.1.15 Winter blues.
Like I said, the car needed some minor cosmetic work before I started track days and understanding what I needed to do to the car for it to fit me, literally and figuratively.
February: Clear side indicators were installed as an initiation into this Rennlist cult:
Glorious.
The front GTS spoiler lip had a small crack in it so I popped that off one weekend while the wife was out of town and used the spare bathroom to epoxy, sand, prime and repaint it.
I don't report things to Carfax so no one will ever know.
March: The car was serviced just before I picked it up but I did the 20k minor service anyway (air, cabin, oil filters and oil change) for peace of mind. Did this at a rent-a-lift place. Dale, the owner of I Can Fix this in Gurnee is as genuine as they come. Plus, it's the only one in a 200 mile radius. He cleans up and deservedly so.
I realized right away on the way home from servicing the car that I would need protection from hot fuzz.
So I hardwired a Passport Max2 and remote. Love this thing. The GPS memory is terrific.
Now I needed to focus on the cosmetic work. The car was full of swirls from poor washing... like the PO used a brillo. Really bad. I took it to Ivan at LUSTR here in Chicago. His biz is one of the most reputable and trustworthy in this city and he does outstanding work. Not cheap but not exorbitant either. He and his guys are awesome.
Two stages of paint correction and Cquartz went on. In retrospect I should have wrapped the entire car after the chips I've had from Chicago freeways. I'll do that when I feel the front needs a respray.
Summer 2015 On a Sunday cruise down Lake Shore Drive with some fellow pcar neighbors
It wasn't all sunshine and ********. The sunroof gasket decided it no longer wanted to be attached to the car. Warranty covered a replacement sunroof mechanism. The whole thing needed to be replaced at what would have been nearly $2k and took three weeks to get parts from the motherland. Yikes.
The dual tone horn stopped working and turned the car into a single squeaker. Hard to remind people not to cut you off when you're as intimidating as an ice cream cart. Warranty covered too.
So, on we go to functional mods which is what most everything after the previous posts will be and these will be described in more and more detail the closer we approach to present day. I'll link to previous threads that expanded on these in a lot more detail.. no need to reinvent the wheel.
Sharkwerks bypass.
What can I say that hasn't already been said a million times about these. I installed this with the help of a friend and his garage. Very easy to do in a couple hours. They are nearly essential for the 997.2 car and way too expensive, but totally worth it. Thanks, Dan and Alex.
Rennline Pedals Added
Many of you have this same problem. The throttle pedal isn't high enough while braking during street driving to blip on down shifts properly. So, I added Rennline pedals to counter that. I'm tall too so I have to do a roll/heal blip even on track and can't execute a proper heal blip with the legroom available in the 997. So the added pedal lift helps there too.
OP can elaborate how you painted the headlight innards black? This is a mod I would love to do as I think it looks fantastic on the 991s.
Another one fooled. They aren't painted. It's the LAMINX tint that makes them look darker because it reduces light allowed into the housing AND reflecting out of the housing. So it makes them look darker than they are without sacrificing headlight output as much.
That being said, I did look into opening the housing and they are bonded with silicone. You'd have to melt the silicone with a heat cutter, literally cut open the lights, paint them and melt or silicone them back together. Not something I wanted to risk screwing up at ~$1500 per light.
That being said, I did look into opening the housing and they are bonded with silicone. You'd have to melt the silicone with a heat cutter, literally cut open the lights, paint them and melt or silicone them back together. Not something I wanted to risk screwing up at ~$1500 per light.
Silicone is a viscoelastic, or a cross-linked polymer. It doesn't melt and re-flow.
04-21-2016, 01:49 AM
Life with a 997.2 GTS 6MT
