Hey all,

Was at the dealership tonight leaving my deposit and they happened to have a number of well trimmed 997 S cars that allowed me to compare trim and options, here is some info you might find useful.

- This is not for you carbon guys. I am not a big fan of carbon even though others love it. I was planning on modding my car in Aluminum and this was my discovery:
1) On a 2006 997 S, The Alum look package switch panel is expensive, $1500 bucks and doesn't significantly improve the looks on the car. I actually think it looks better in the black non upgrade alternative.
2) The door finishers ALUM, looks ok, another $1500 bucks that if you don't buy it, YOU WON'T MISS IT... and if you wear a heavy steel watch or such, you will probably damage it quick anyway. PASS.
3) Alum foot rest or dead pedal. Waste of $$$ it is not ALUM, it is framed in ALUM and is barely noticeable.. When you get the car, do a techart instead.
4) Even the gear handbrake in ALUM is a mediocre mod. I am doing it on my car but if I didn't have it, I wouldn't miss it. It's not as pronounced as on a 996 or 993.

-- So ultimately what I am telling you, if you are going crazy about what interior mods to do and what is NEEDED to make the car whole and what is not NEEDED.. You can take a deep breath. If you don't get any of it, the car still looks amazing. Matter of fact, too much of ALUM can look a bit EURO TUNER. I suggest just the gear handbrake.. save your money on the rest of the stuff, it's not that impressive unless you want a car that is bling bling.

Seats:
1) normal seats.. Very good, comfortable, easy to get in and out of.
2) Sport seats.. Nicer (imho) but door needs to open all the way to get in and out comfortably.
3) Adaptive.. Nice but wouldn't want to get in with bulsters set tight, too hard to get in and out of the car. And since it doesn't retract with key in ignition, I would say pass.
4) Supple.. Nice, but just like normal seats just a little bit more cushy.

PCCB -- who the hell knows?
Rear Axle Lock Diff -- who the hell knows?

Standard Rocker Panels painted -- only if you have a light or bright color, blue, yellow, white, etc.. But if your going with a black or dark grey etc.. Don't waste the $$$. You won't notice it.

I do like the metal door insignia. But not the illuminated door insignia.. It's too overkill.

Hope this helps some of you.. I was racking my brain for days trying to figure out what the car needed to have to look whole. (I'm on a mac so build my Porsche doesn't work that well.)

B
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at the end of the day sit in cars and compare and see what you like, don't like, etc...
it's your money, everyone has their own tastes. If you're happy with a stripper interior - well, lucky you! You'll save cash!

 

B-line, I agree with you, the basic interior should look great. I looked at a wood interior 977TT and sport seats and a Cayman with the base interior and regular seats. I liked the base interior and seats better. Of course its completely a matter of taste. I hope this is a daily driver for me so I want the wider seats with less bolster.

 

My car is just the opposite of all this. I call them the hard and soft options. The brakes and the locking diff are among hard options. I have the locking diff, but prefer the standard brakes. I felt for the $9K, and the fact that I will never go on the track, the regular brakes would be fine for me. My rockers are painted. I went with Adaptive, heated seats, no supple inserts.

On the soft options, I went crazy on the CF. I like CF and on a Slate/Black car I think it looks good. I will be posting detailed pictures show you what a car with every possible carbon fiber package looks like. I thought it would be overkill, but actually looks correct and somewhat understated.

When I get the photos up, I'll let you guys be the judge, let's hear the good, bad and the ugly...

 

Mastif,

I'm sure your carbon fiber is going to look GREAT.. And doing it to the 9's, I can understand easily why someone would do that. It does sort of add an element of "grand finishing" to the vehicle.
-- I don't know why I'm not more a carbon fiber fan for myself. The only place I've ever really liked carbon fiber and have considered it for myself is on a watch. An Audemars Piaget Royal Oak Offshore (JPM:Juan Pablo Montoya.)

Yesterday when I went to the dealership, I jumped in and out of 5 different 997's with various trim options to get a feel for what I like. Since some of these upgrade options are $1500 plus $1500 plus $750 plus etc. I thought it was important to see how it effected the look of the car. It really wasn't a money issue for me, if your spending $130K on a car, what's another $5k. For me it was about aesthetics. But I also tend to be a person who goes for function over form. The fit and finish of the "upgraded interiors" is really nice. But for a track guy like me who wears jeans and t-shirts all day, some of the upgrades just didn't speak to me.

But that's what is great about Porsche and all the options they give on a car. Every one can order exactly to their liking..

I just want to be clear why I posted this message though. I was racking my brain about what to order. I thought it might help someone in the same boat as me that might be concerned about "under" modding the car. I wanted to make it clear that with little to no upgrades on the interior, the car still looks GREAT.. and the upgrades are not neccessary to have a beautiful car.

B

 

The seats are a toss up for me at this point. I can't decide between any of them. I do need the lumbar support, but do the adaptives provide a significant step up from the std seats on a daily driver? The "no cost" std sport seats sound good but no lumbar support could be a pain...
What's the deal on the thicker steering wheel?
Can you get the gauges in black face?

 

Hey B-line: where exactly are the "bulsters" supposed to be on the car? Couldn't find it in the dictionary. Must be a Porsche thing. You couldn't possibly mean "bolsters" now could you?

 

My spelling is the worst.. No doubt about that.. But I'm not also using obscure terms like "anarchronism/anachronism" If your going to use big, fancy, words for us none to familiar with that fancy book learnin, please spell dem words correct like so we can look em up in ye old dictionary.

B

 

OK.

 

I find the lumbar support and heated seats very nice and have ordered them along with all of the hard options. I am still not convinced PCCB's
are an option worth almost 9K.