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^ that's a good cnc but did Hsin bring donuts cookies (Antoines are great) and coffee hahahah...
I am fine until ppl start telling me about their interior leather and CXX options.... then I need wagyu,
You are a tremendous story teller @ChrisF . Thanks for continuing to share your journal updates with us, and how fitting that the Porsche commercial you shared was for the 997 generation too. Just awesome!
I wish I was as good at documenting my time with my GT3 over this last year.
Bought the car with 27k miles a few weeks before you started this thread, and almost a year to the day I hit 45k.
Would love to get together and drive sometime! I take the GT3 up your way several times throughout the year for little road trips and some change of scenery.
I wish I was as good at documenting my time with my GT3 over this last year.
Bought the car with 27k miles a few weeks before you started this thread, and almost a year to the day I hit 45k.
Would love to get together and drive sometime! I take the GT3 up your way several times throughout the year for little road trips and some change of scenery.
Love this thread.
Wow, that's impressive! Been a while since I put that many miles on a car.
Ping me if you head up this way. I know a few good roads up here...and on your way up. Lived in LA most of my life.
Weekend drives on my local loop are purposefully early as mentioned previously. There is a "magic hour" of sorts where one can avoid most other drivers and cyclists too. The more common risk seems to be sleepy wildlife. I always do my best to avoid them and give them a wide berth but occasionally our worlds do collide.
A few weeks ago, out on the loop, I drove through a densely wooded area and a pretty high rate of speed. In the middle of the road in one of the corners were several birds just wandering around pecking at something. They saw me and quickly scrambled for the shoulder. One got a late start and headed for the bushes to the right. The rate of speed was high enough that I closed quickly and there was nowhere for me to go to avoid him. He disappeared at the right side with no telltale thump to be heard so I assumed he made it. It reminded me of other similar incidents near the same spot.
On a morning drive on the same loop, I was leading a group of about 5 friends and we were pushing pretty hard through the clear morning. I was driving my panda spec 991.1 RS and the driver behind me was in his beautiful white/gold 997.2 RS. He's a very capable driver and was always very close behind. In hindsight, I'm thinking he wished he maybe wasn't so close. As I tore down highway 1 and a high rate of speed, I saw a small family of quail right in the center of the road. For those who don't have quail in your local area, they are beautiful birds, but definitely not the highest functioning in the bird world. Most of them scrambled for the shoulder and bushes but one got a very late start and instead of flying towards the shoulder, flew directly at the oncoming train of cars. He tried to gain some altitude but between being a fat little f'er and not reacting quick enough, headed straight for my windshield. I was thinking this is gonna end badly for him...and my windshield. In what felt like a slow motion 2 seconds, he got just enough air to hit square in the center of my windshield and leave a red tracer up to the roof line where he flew off. There was nothing that could be done. I just figured he bounced off so i kept going.
About 2 miles, up, we all pulled over and we all got to see the full extent of the collision. Where I thought the poor bird had hit the windshield and bounced off, well...he kind of did....only then to drop just enough and hit the giant wing of the RS square in the middle. After hitting the wing, I was told he exploded and split in two and did a two sided slide up the nose of my friend's poor 997 RS. It was truly gruesome but luckily caused no permanent damage, except to the poor quail. We did some cleanup, slowed down a little and finished our drive.
On yet another drive, I had nearly the same incident happen on another part of the loop in my GTS. This time, the poor bird was swallowed whole by the radiator vent in the nose and had to be fished out. This later led to the addition of nose screens for that car. (Highly recommended BTW if you have a 911 that has no screens in place from the factory).
Ok, so why the talse of the exploding quail and the ingested bird? When I got home from my drive, I assumed nothing had happened. I looked for a hit and saw nothing on the nose of my GT2. The car sat parked for the next week or so and went about my life. Cut to the following weekend when I noticed the distinct smell of dead animal. We've had rodents occasionally in our garage and attic because we live so close to open space. I was pretty sure one had gotten caught in an attic trap and died. The smell was pretty terrible so we called our pest control guy for a visit. He came and all the traps were clean and there was no sign of any rodents on the property. This put me into the same type of problem solving loop that occurred when I encountered what became the tale of the Sprint Booster. Where else could this smell be coming from? What in hell could it be? I checked all the other cubby holes and spots in my garage and sat down again. The quail and the radiator bird stories came to mind. Uh oh. What if...
Lucky for me, I have no shortage of face masks on hand. I put some cologne on one so i could mask what I anticipated would be an even stronger dead animal smell if and when I found the culprit. Flashlight in hand I headed towards the right hand vent of the GT2. I had looked for grill screens when I bought the car for the reasons cited above but couldn't find any that were direct fit so I gave up. When I got right up to the right vent, I knew what I was going to find. There it was, the one I thought got away, very much dead and very stinky gobbled up whole by the GT2. I used a grabber tool to remove the poor creature and gave him a quick burial. It still took three days for that stench to finally leave the garage. No pictures of the innocent on this one; just a couple from tonights drive, where the car did more killing. This time it was just bugs. A lot of them.
I really appreciate this thread and your storytelling. This entry reminded me of when I pulled the bumper cover on my previous 997.1 c2s and found a petrified frog between the bumper cover and the radiator. The car was relatively new to me so it happened on a previous owners watch!
This morning on FB, I had a memory pop up of getting the car delivered to me exactly 1 year ago today. I was crazy excited then. Still crazy excited now. As one who is afflicted with Auto A.D.D., usually around 12-18 months, I start getting bored with cars. I ponder whether there is something else out there that is better, different, more fun. Not happening here. Nearly 10,000 miles later this car is still an event every single drive.
This past week, several packages showed up for her as well. I cracked and finally ordered a set of Surface Transforms CCB rotors so I don't have to swap back and forth between iron and stock PCCB's when I want to track. I tried to rationalize the purchase as "the last rotors this car will ever need" and what have you. In reality, I just want the car the way I want it and without compromise. "Buy what you REALLY want the FIRST time." My wife says. She's smart. I listen. Updates after they are installed. Pic from drive up the coast last weekend. Jenner, CA Rotor ****! Surface Transforms rear 380mm
It’s been a busy last few weeks but today (finally) I had an appointment for some GT2 love. On the menu today: Surface Transforms carbon ceramic rotors; Pagid RSC1 pads; a new set of Pilot Sport Cup 2’s and an oil change. As posted previously, I wanted to switch from the stock (not very robust on track) PCCB’s to the Surface Transforms rotors so that I could drive both street and track without a care. While iron rotors are perfectly awesome for track work and more cost effective, after trying PCCB’s on this car I was sold. I just needed a set that could handle being beat on. ST’s fit the bill.
With my laptop in toe, I headed south to Alekshop to get everything taken care of. My goal for the past several months was to get the car fully track prepped so I could finally get her out to one of our local tracks (most likely Thunderhill, with it’s generous run-off). I arrived at 1030 handed them the keys and setup my laptop in the guest lounge. We had already discussed that while the ST’s should fit perfectly, the ST home office had never actually fitted a 997 GT2 with a set; a reminder of how rate these cars are.
The rear rotors available for the 997 GT’s are slightly upsized over stock (362mm vs 350mm) so we started there. All seemed to go fine until they installed the RSC1’s into the calipers. The fitment was VERY tight. I reached out to Rick Hinz at Hinz Motorsports (where I purchased the ST’s) and received an answer within minutes. We exchanged a few more emails and I was pleased that both Rick and Aleks were not only going through the same troubleshooting steps but also arriving at the same solutions. I ended up deciding it wasn’t worth the possibility of damaging the rotors by forcing the caliper on the rotor so we installed the OE pads which had more clearance until we could have the new pads sanded down. After that, everything went back together fine. Rick said the fronts should have even more clearance and should go on fine. They did without issue. Side note: I expected the ST rotors would be the same or heavier than the stock rotors. Of course, I had to weigh them and find out. The results:
RR: PCCB: 12.0lbs; ST: 10.5lbs
FR: PCCB: 11.5lbs; ST: 10.5lbs
We spent the next hour of so waiting for the tire shop to mount the new set of Cup 2’s. HUGE props to Aleks Doba at Alekshop for sourcing me a set when NO ONE else could. For those not familiar with the situation, the GT2/GT3 RS sizes are on national backorder. When I told Aleks I was trying to get the car ready for track but couldn’t find tires, he said let me try and find you a set. A couple of hours later, like magic, he had a set. Thanks again Aleks!
When the tires came back, the wheels went back on quickly. The oil change was already done so I loaded up the car with the stock rotors and headed home. Surface Transforms has a very specific bed-in process for their rotors and unfortunately I was headed into stop and go traffic so that was going to have to wait. With no bedding or pad material transferred, the brakes were not quite as grabby as before. I kept lots of distance just to be safe and got home without incident.
I had to wait until after dinner before I could head out again and find a nice series of open roads and finish the bed-in process. The process, for those interested is: 20 stops 30-0; 20 stops 77-25 and partial force; 20 stops 77-25 at significant force; 15 mins at 50mph without braking to cool them. Sounds like I needed some west Marin roads.
I finished all the drills and the brakes seemed to come alive. The grab started coming back and got better the hotter the brakes became. This is one of the benefits of the ST’s; they are supposed to perform better with heat but not ever get as hot as iron, resulting in fade. My friend Trakcar here on RL tested an early set and found significant performance improvements on track over his stock iron brakes on his GT3 RS. With the bed-in done and with the hope of a sneak preview of track performance, I decided to try a few high speed hard stops. I did three in a row and was really happy with the results. Well into the triple digits, there was no fade and the modulation even better than the stock setup. Overall, a good result.
Bedding and testing done, I headed home but there was some really twisty stuff on the way there. I flipped the dampers into firm and went at it. I have to think that my experience tonight was not just the new blingy rotors but the culmination of a purposeful series of mods on an already great platform: ST rotors and Pagic pads; fresh Pilot Sport Cup 2’s; DSC active suspension controller; aggressive alignment; solid toe links; 60/40 LSD: everything I wanted to do the car now done! The combination made the car sublime. Steering was sharp; damping was quicker and suspension flatter; grip was better than it has ever been; the combination of everything magical. God I love this car!
It’s been a busy last few weeks but today (finally) I had an appointment for some GT2 love. On the menu today: Surface Transforms carbon ceramic rotors; Pagid RSC1 pads; a new set of Pilot Sport Cup 2’s and an oil change. As posted previously, I wanted to switch from the stock (not very robust on track) PCCB’s to the Surface Transforms rotors so that I could drive both street and track without a care. While iron rotors are perfectly awesome for track work and more cost effective, after trying PCCB’s on this car I was sold. I just needed a set that could handle being beat on. ST’s fit the bill.
With my laptop in toe, I headed south to Alekshop to get everything taken care of. My goal for the past several months was to get the car fully track prepped so I could finally get her out to one of our local tracks (most likely Thunderhill, with it’s generous run-off). I arrived at 1030 handed them the keys and setup my laptop in the guest lounge. We had already discussed that while the ST’s should fit perfectly, the ST home office had never actually fitted a 997 GT2 with a set; a reminder of how rate these cars are.
The rear rotors available for the 997 GT’s are slightly upsized over stock (362mm vs 350mm) so we started there. All seemed to go fine until they installed the RSC1’s into the calipers. The fitment was VERY tight. I reached out to Rick Hinz at Hinz Motorsports (where I purchased the ST’s) and received an answer within minutes. We exchanged a few more emails and I was pleased that both Rick and Aleks were not only going through the same troubleshooting steps but also arriving at the same solutions. I ended up deciding it wasn’t worth the possibility of damaging the rotors by forcing the caliper on the rotor so we installed the OE pads which had more clearance until we could have the new pads sanded down. After that, everything went back together fine. Rick said the fronts should have even more clearance and should go on fine. They did without issue. Side note: I expected the ST rotors would be the same or heavier than the stock rotors. Of course, I had to weigh them and find out. The results:
RR: PCCB: 12.0lbs; ST: 10.5lbs
FR: PCCB: 11.5lbs; ST: 10.5lbs
We spent the next hour of so waiting for the tire shop to mount the new set of Cup 2’s. HUGE props to Aleks Doba at Alekshop for sourcing me a set when NO ONE else could. For those not familiar with the situation, the GT2/GT3 RS sizes are on national backorder. When I told Aleks I was trying to get the car ready for track but couldn’t find tires, he said let me try and find you a set. A couple of hours later, like magic, he had a set. Thanks again Aleks!
When the tires came back, the wheels went back on quickly. The oil change was already done so I loaded up the car with the stock rotors and headed home. Surface Transforms has a very specific bed-in process for their rotors and unfortunately I was headed into stop and go traffic so that was going to have to wait. With no bedding or pad material transferred, the brakes were not quite as grabby as before. I kept lots of distance just to be safe and got home without incident.
I had to wait until after dinner before I could head out again and find a nice series of open roads and finish the bed-in process. The process, for those interested is: 20 stops 30-0; 20 stops 77-25 and partial force; 20 stops 77-25 at significant force; 15 mins at 50mph without braking to cool them. Sounds like I needed some west Marin roads.
I finished all the drills and the brakes seemed to come alive. The grab started coming back and got better the hotter the brakes became. This is one of the benefits of the ST’s; they are supposed to perform better with heat but not ever get as hot as iron, resulting in fade. My friend Trakcar here on RL tested an early set and found significant performance improvements on track over his stock iron brakes on his GT3 RS. With the bed-in done and with the hope of a sneak preview of track performance, I decided to try a few high speed hard stops. I did three in a row and was really happy with the results. Well into the triple digits, there was no fade and the modulation even better than the stock setup. Overall, a good result.
Bedding and testing done, I headed home but there was some really twisty stuff on the way there. I flipped the dampers into firm and went at it. I have to think that my experience tonight was not just the new blingy rotors but the culmination of a purposeful series of mods on an already great platform: ST rotors and Pagic pads; fresh Pilot Sport Cup 2’s; DSC active suspension controller; aggressive alignment; solid toe links; 60/40 LSD: everything I wanted to do the car now done! The combination made the car sublime. Steering was sharp; damping was quicker and suspension flatter; grip was better than it has ever been; the combination of everything magical. God I love this car!
I wanna try ST Rotors on my RS after my current irons wear out. Thanks for sharing your experience and share more after a full trackday.
I'm seriously envious @ChrisF as I cannot wait to try my own ST brakes on my GT2. It is a process for my particular situation, as I believe you know, but there is a small light starting to shine at the end of the tunnel. I'm so glad that you have yours on and are enjoying them already!
Wow! Super cool write up, Thank you. I just checked the website. Am I right that the set of 4 are approx $12.5K? How do these compare to stock?
Cheers
Originally Posted by ChrisF
7/22/22 – The Culmination of Mods - 43,045
It’s been a busy last few weeks but today (finally) I had an appointment for some GT2 love. On the menu today: Surface Transforms carbon ceramic rotors; Pagid RSC1 pads; a new set of Pilot Sport Cup 2’s and an oil change. As posted previously, I wanted to switch from the stock (not very robust on track) PCCB’s to the Surface Transforms rotors so that I could drive both street and track without a care. While iron rotors are perfectly awesome for track work and more cost effective, after trying PCCB’s on this car I was sold. I just needed a set that could handle being beat on. ST’s fit the bill.
With my laptop in toe, I headed south to Alekshop to get everything taken care of. My goal for the past several months was to get the car fully track prepped so I could finally get her out to one of our local tracks (most likely Thunderhill, with it’s generous run-off). I arrived at 1030 handed them the keys and setup my laptop in the guest lounge. We had already discussed that while the ST’s should fit perfectly, the ST home office had never actually fitted a 997 GT2 with a set; a reminder of how rate these cars are.
The rear rotors available for the 997 GT’s are slightly upsized over stock (362mm vs 350mm) so we started there. All seemed to go fine until they installed the RSC1’s into the calipers. The fitment was VERY tight. I reached out to Rick Hinz at Hinz Motorsports (where I purchased the ST’s) and received an answer within minutes. We exchanged a few more emails and I was pleased that both Rick and Aleks were not only going through the same troubleshooting steps but also arriving at the same solutions. I ended up deciding it wasn’t worth the possibility of damaging the rotors by forcing the caliper on the rotor so we installed the OE pads which had more clearance until we could have the new pads sanded down. After that, everything went back together fine. Rick said the fronts should have even more clearance and should go on fine. They did without issue. Side note: I expected the ST rotors would be the same or heavier than the stock rotors. Of course, I had to weigh them and find out. The results:
RR: PCCB: 12.0lbs; ST: 10.5lbs
FR: PCCB: 11.5lbs; ST: 10.5lbs
We spent the next hour of so waiting for the tire shop to mount the new set of Cup 2’s. HUGE props to Aleks Doba at Alekshop for sourcing me a set when NO ONE else could. For those not familiar with the situation, the GT2/GT3 RS sizes are on national backorder. When I told Aleks I was trying to get the car ready for track but couldn’t find tires, he said let me try and find you a set. A couple of hours later, like magic, he had a set. Thanks again Aleks!
When the tires came back, the wheels went back on quickly. The oil change was already done so I loaded up the car with the stock rotors and headed home. Surface Transforms has a very specific bed-in process for their rotors and unfortunately I was headed into stop and go traffic so that was going to have to wait. With no bedding or pad material transferred, the brakes were not quite as grabby as before. I kept lots of distance just to be safe and got home without incident.
I had to wait until after dinner before I could head out again and find a nice series of open roads and finish the bed-in process. The process, for those interested is: 20 stops 30-0; 20 stops 77-25 and partial force; 20 stops 77-25 at significant force; 15 mins at 50mph without braking to cool them. Sounds like I needed some west Marin roads.
I finished all the drills and the brakes seemed to come alive. The grab started coming back and got better the hotter the brakes became. This is one of the benefits of the ST’s; they are supposed to perform better with heat but not ever get as hot as iron, resulting in fade. My friend Trakcar here on RL tested an early set and found significant performance improvements on track over his stock iron brakes on his GT3 RS. With the bed-in done and with the hope of a sneak preview of track performance, I decided to try a few high speed hard stops. I did three in a row and was really happy with the results. Well into the triple digits, there was no fade and the modulation even better than the stock setup. Overall, a good result.
Bedding and testing done, I headed home but there was some really twisty stuff on the way there. I flipped the dampers into firm and went at it. I have to think that my experience tonight was not just the new blingy rotors but the culmination of a purposeful series of mods on an already great platform: ST rotors and Pagic pads; fresh Pilot Sport Cup 2’s; DSC active suspension controller; aggressive alignment; solid toe links; 60/40 LSD: everything I wanted to do the car now done! The combination made the car sublime. Steering was sharp; damping was quicker and suspension flatter; grip was better than it has ever been; the combination of everything magical. God I love this car!
Pricing is close to that. As far as street, they feel similar. Where they will earn their price is when they don't disintegrate on track like the stock pccb's. That is why I upgraded.
Thanks for the response. Will they last the lifetime of the car, even with the track use you will enjoy? Is the thinking that you will not need to swap back and forth any more?
I'm in the city nearby. I love driving up in Marin and further north toward Sea Ranch and the accompanying roads to and from the 101. Hopefully we can hook up for a drive sometime soon. My car goes in tomorrow for some work, and should be ready later next week. My name is Chris
06-09-2022, 03:19 AM
