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Alternative to turning a GT3/RS road car to full-time track car
This is one of the recent projects that has kept our shop busy. We actually did two of the these conversions- 997.2 Cup with H-pattern gearbox conversion. I dare not post this in the Cup Car section knowing the hardcore racers will flame us for swapping out the sequential gearbox. At the request of a pair of our local customers, whom are also our friends and long-time Porsche owners and they are senior HPDE instructors, we have converted a pair of 997.2 Cups to G50-type H-pattern gearboxes prepared very similar to 996 GT3R. Over the years they have owned cars from ultra-lightweight highly modified 944 Turbo, to 996 GT2 and 997 GT2 road car for HPDE and open track days. Switching up to 991 GT3's was considered an option but they both like the feel of driving the 997 chassis but wanted something "more" than a 997 GT2 road car with bolt-on suspension upgrade and track safety equipment. The 997 Cup was lightly considered but the idea was dismissed after evaluating the cost of operation on the sequential gearbox doing 30+ track day annually. Sequential is totally awesome, but for a one-man-band HPDE go'er it can be cumbersome and definitely costly to repair as the track hours rack up. So what's one to do? Well, with so many good examples of 997.1 and .2 Cups on the market, convert it to H-box. With the prices of GT3/RS roads cars holding high and most drivers aren't willing to put their pristine road cars on the track, the Cups with H-box can be an appealing option to enjoy the best of the 997 evolution, in pure motorsport form(factory competition chassis. Mezger engine, light weight, no electronic nannies, tuneable braking bias, motorsport suspension geometry, and more) without the sequential box blues, which we get its part of the deal and its budgeted for in competition, but perhaps it doesn't need to be for someone only wanting to enjoy the rest of the car doing open track days having fun and getting the most out of their driving and not so much worried but tenths of a second. The conversion cost including acquiring an H-gearbox core, rebuilt it with race parts & gears & diff, 4.0 clutch, LWFW, shifter, cables, and labor came to just shy of 30K. The owners ended up with the sequential gearbox and matching clutch to sell or hold to on to. I don't expect a nod of approval from hardcore racers on this conversion, just letting the word out there's an alternative option to taking a pristine GT2 or GT3 road car to the next level to beat up on track. This is GT3 track experience on steroids!
Taking a cup and turning it into a dedicated DE car makes a lot of sense. No better platform with all the safety bits. Why not change the engine and transmission as a unit dropping in a street car motor, transmission, and DME? The cup engine is still uber expensive to run in a DE environment. 30 track days could be 60 or more hours a season, half an engine or $20k.
Very interesting project - makes sense to me. The Cup car section seems to have a lot of people interested in the 996 Cup cars - because of the H pattern gear box.
That's actually very smart, as I suspect it would cost much more to go the other direction by starting with a street car, and trying to match the safety and handing of the cup. I never thought this was possible, nice work.
Taking a cup and turning it into a dedicated DE car makes a lot of sense. No better platform with all the safety bits. Why not change the engine and transmission as a unit dropping in a street car motor, transmission, and DME? The cup engine is still uber expensive to run in a DE environment. 30 track days could be 60 or more hours a season, half an engine or $20k.
The cup engine is essential the same as the street car engine minus the vario-cam, AC compressor, PS pump, vacuum pump, and emission controls(still have cats though). I think running either engine in same operating environment one engine really doesn't significantly out last another. The typical 997 Cup operating environment is running the engine up to redline every gear all the time and with throttle flat to floor on upshifts. In HPDE operating environment, if one short shifs by 300-500rpm, sometime run a taller gear, and proper throttle lift clutch-in up shifting with H-box, the engine hours can be extended. In sanctioned body competition its a big deal to be down 10-15hp. To ensure peak power engines are rebuilt every X amount of hours. For HPDE one can go more hours and car will still be pretty quick.
Its much work to convert to street car DME and wiring harness.
After I pay off the loan on my street car in couple years I'd love to find me a 997.1 Cup w/ extra sets of wheels for around $65K and do H-box conversion!
Very interesting project - makes sense to me. The Cup car section seems to have a lot of people interested in the 996 Cup cars - because of the H pattern gear box.
Thanks. 997 Cup with H-box has superior suspension and bigger brakes over 996 Cup(no ABS though, but can be added). 7's have Motec dash as standard.
That's actually very smart, as I suspect it would cost much more to go the other direction by starting with a street car, and trying to match the safety and handing of the cup. I never thought this was possible, nice work.
Yeah it'll cost way more to go the other way. 997.2 Cup has the RS wide body so would be the cost of an RS just to get started. A fender bender on a road car will destroy the resell value whereas a bender on a Cup car is no thing as long as its repaired prior to resell.
Trans Isn't what kills you it's 2,500 tires every 90minutes especially if you put in Hollinger and throttle cut which makes the trans actually pretty robust
Did you soften spring and swap to street tires?
That could be interesting and actually pretty cheap to run in DE comparatively
Trans Isn't what kills you it's 2,500 tires every 90minutes especially if you put in Hollinger and throttle cut which makes the trans actually pretty robust
Did you soften spring and swap to street tires?
That could be interesting and actually pretty cheap to run in DE comparatively
Suspension unchanged at the request of the owners, for now. One car is on Pirelli DH the other on Yokohama Cup slicks. They don't put a set of stickers on every 1.5 hour, they run a set for 2-3 days and adjust driving pace to the grip. They aren't breaking any records they're just having fun driving with friends and peers and very quick among the HPDE instructors run group. They ran the same tire schedule on 600+hp 997 Turbo and GT2 on Pirelli DH.
Last edited by Tom@TPC Racing; 12-26-2016 at 09:21 AM.
This is very cool, thanks for posting! I am switching to a cup car for similar reasons, although I would like to race mine as well as some track days. I cannot stomach the costs to maintain the sequential so H-pattern is the go for me, which = 996 cup.
Everyone I speak to says tires are the biggest difference in costs between running a street car and Cup car. A good set of r compounds is the same cost as a set of slicks, with the slicks lastIng half the time. I guess I will have to get used to driving on old slicks
This is very cool, thanks for posting! I am switching to a cup car for similar reasons, although I would like to race mine as well as some track days. I cannot stomach the costs to maintain the sequential so H-pattern is the go for me, which = 996 cup.
Everyone I speak to says tires are the biggest difference in costs between running a street car and Cup car. A good set of r compounds is the same cost as a set of slicks, with the slicks lastIng half the time. I guess I will have to get used to driving on old slicks
Just never put new slicks on ! When you drive fresh slicks, good set up, predictable grip...
Lets just say it takes time to get rid of the addiction
12-22-2016, 08:22 PM
Alternative to turning a GT3/RS road car to full-time track car
