981 GT4 pro's/con's how do they respond to mods?
 

Hi folks - I'm chasing a Cayman, either a 718 GTS or a GT4 of 718 or 981 variety. I'm a few months away from pulling the trigger, perhaps longer if I go used, which appears most likely. I've been reading for months on the 4.0 cars and really love that motor and the power delivery. Local Porsche dealer let me drive a GTS but when I told them I wasn't paying over MSRP they told me I could not drive another car. I went by today to drive a GT4 and they told me no dice. Makes for a pretty **** experience when they won't let you drive something you may be interested in.

Anyway, I know I can fit because I sat in them and drove the GTS last week. That's important because I'm 6'6. The 18 way seats work for me, the other seats are probably doable but lack thigh support so I'm not sure how much that can be fixed? This was the case with the 4 way non carbon seat and in the carbon buckets thigh support was worse. So 18 way are probably the way to go for me. Unless of you guys have a seat fix.

The 981 engine is basically bullet proof, there have been a few instances of 718 cars grenading for unknown reasons, mildly concerning but the 981 cars have the risk of strut tower failure, but these seems to be really limited as well.

How well does this 3.8L respond to basic modifications? I'm not talking about anything over the top, just an exhaust (not headers) a tune and anything else basic you guys recommend. The 4.0L cars respond really well to basic bolt ons and a bump in the rev limit. The 3.8L cars I'm not sure about, I recently started digging into these just in the last 3 or 4 days. I'd appreciate any insight or help from the folks here.

I think I need to make sure the 3rd gear recall was performed on anything I purchase? That seems like a huge problem otherwise. What else?

Not saying you're an unqualified buyer, but imagine Porsche dealers letting everyone that comes in test drive GT cars for sale. They'd have 500 teenagers coming in every day for test drives. Disappointment comes when expectation don't meet reality, and your experience seems to be an example of this. Like if they let you test drive the car, would you have 100% bought the car that moment? Probably not. You need to go in ready to buy a car with the test drive being the very last point of consideration for them to take you seriously.

I'm not saying you should pay over MSRP, hell I wouldn't, but you telling them things like "I'm not going to pay over MSRP" does not help your cause with wanting to get a good deal or a get a test drive. Something perhaps to keep in your head and not said out loud. If anything it'd be better to say "hell yeah I'm willing to any ADM you want" while asking for a test drive. lol.

I have no clue on how you can make any seats accommodate your 6'6 frame. I'm 6'3 and it's a tight fit in my GT4 with about 2-3" of head room with 18-ways. With a helmet on I'm against the roof. For myself, if I was 6'6 I would look at 911's and hope they have more headroom.

Any issues you think GT4's have are most likely overblown. I'd suggest reading about DME reports and over revs.

About how these handle modifications it's a NA engine so you won't get massive gains with bolt ons so temper expectations. I have a Fabspeed exhaust on mine and I have no idea what the power gains are nor do I care. It sounds and looks awesome and makes driving fun so good enough for me. If you want more power over stock, a lot of people say it's best to save for a deman 4.5L build. If you don't know what that is google is your friend.

Sharkswerk, Dundon on the west coast and I think BGB in the east provide modifications, and adding exhaust/headers seems to help with power too. Remember that the engine in the 981 GT4 makes 15bhp more in the 911S without the powerpack so it is not necessarily stressed.

I run my car stock. I don't find it lacking power for the mountain road driving. Tires and driver ability are more limiting for autocross than power.

As to 3rd gear recall: This affects mostly later cars (manufactured Nov 2015 and later I think), and definitely make sure it has been done.

As to LWB: some people put in shims to make them lean back a bit more. That may help with thigh support.

I did all the bolt ons on the 3.8L before converting to 4.5L :)

https://rennlist.com/forums/gt4-spyd...o-results.html

Struggled with this same question for a while. performance gains tend to be anecdotal, subjective, or inconsistent. So, I decided to do 100-200 runs to demonstrate the effect of some basic mods on my 981 GT4. I have a thread on it that I recently commented on - check it out.

Cliff notes - the header (catless), filter, tune combo yields an improvement of 1.2-1.4 seconds from stock 100-200. If you’re unfamiliar with this test, this is a very respectable difference. Much more than 20-30 hp would lead you to believe.

Yeah you know unfortunately you're not wrong regarding having some sort of way of screening buyers. However, as a business owner, I find it tough to go into a business and just lie to them about my intent. I try to be very transparent with my intent and timeline. On all our normal car purchases, BMW, Lexus, etc this tends to work well, but with Porsche it doesn't work they basically tell you to eat ****. When someone comes to me and misrepresents their situation it's a problem and can impact whether or not they become a client and a whole host of other things, I just try and treat people and businesses with respect. Not sure I'll be willing to change that, I might check with the local Porsche guys, I know a few of them and see if they'd be willing to let me drive a couple of their cars.
Although, at this point the only real concerns I have are the various seat options, I can squeeze in with a helmet, but my head is on the ceiling. Over rev report makes a lot of sense, appreciate the reply.

This is excellent info. I'm not one to change the character of a motor with things like cams for example. But simple things like mufflers or intake manifolds and a tune? Yes please. Easy, doesn't risk damaging internal components and is an easy way to squeeze some power and improve sound.

Another GT4 4.5 owner here. Great car, great mod.

Mine responded very well to a Softronic tune and Soul Performance headers.

That's a $50,000 "mod". That's just not happening.

Exhaust, intake, tune might put you in the 20K-30k range. While the 30k additional cost of the deman built 'aint nothing', I think the 'arguement' people would make is if you really want to mod for more power, the 30k is worthwhile and yields a lot better results. Like I think it's the concept of 'go big or don't go at all'. The car has like 385 hp stock, would having it at 410hp really be a good use of 20k? That's for you to decide, for me the answer is no. But neither is the deman build, so I'm happy with it basically stock.

If you want a big HP car another platform may be a better choice. IMO the best thing about these cars isn't metrics or HP numbers, it's intangible, it's how it makes you feel when you drive it. It's so raw, special and a precision driving instrument. It's perfect the way it is.

I hear you, it is unfortunate that we have to play the dealership game and be less than transparent etc. It's a bummer because my inclination is to be completely open and honest but from my experience that doesn't yield the results I want in this high demand, low supply market. It's tough I totally get it, right now is a hard time to be a customer looking for specialty cars due to how things are. I got super lucky with my GT4 but I bought it sight unseen, no test drive. Best car-related decision and purchase I have ever made though, by a long shot. And the porsche community, is badass. It's so cool to meet folks at a mountain run or track event, there's just a comaraderie that is unmatched.

When I started shopping for a GT4 about 1.5yrs ago, I knew I wanted a 981 so had to wait for one to come to market within a reasonable distance from where I lived. Surprisingly, one came up with basic seats and they had a GT3 with LWBs I could sit it to get a feel for them. Then while traveling, I saw one with LWBs that I could test drive. The dealer somewhat pressed me to buy but it was setup for a track toy so I passed.

PCA offers something where you can reach out to members and may be able to ride/drive in their cars if you are in the market for something specific? I never used it but could be something to look into.

It's one thing to lie, and I don't condone that. It's another altogether to not "lay all your cards on the table," when not asked to do so. Making a big deal out of bringing up your position servd only to shut down comms between parties. You made them feel like "he's absolute about not paying ADM, we're absolute about getting ADM, our current time investment in him is minimal, let's not waste any more time with him." Totally reasonable choice.

But if you don't lay that particular card on the table, in fact, if you don't even hold that card in your mind, perhaps you'd be better off. For instance, what if they said, "You need to pay $5000 ADM but we give you $5000 worth of free accessories and track days at Barber and swag," perhaps you would consider that offer. Or maybe they would say, "We charge $2000 ADM for every car we sell, but on your second purchase we give it back to you plus whatever discount you negotiate." Or, "We have to charge $5,000 ADM, front office says so, but they don't look at trade-in values; we can work a trade where you get KBB plus $5000 to offset the ADM." Who knows?

All of these and a host of other possible scenarios could maybe have allowed you AND them to "stick to your guns" and get a deal done that is mutually acceptable. And if not? Well, you still got all the test drives you needed, and you were acting in good faith because you never told them "I'll pay ADM so don't worry about it."

I have found the Grand Pronouncement to be one of the greatest deterrants to effective collaboration.

30k what? Pesos? headers are a 2k from fabspeed and a tune is another grand. There is no HP increase over the stock PSE so its not even worth doing. You get the better sound just doing longtube headers anyways. The IPD plenum is completely unnecessary and you are better off doing the X51 if you want to take it that far, which admitedly would be alot. but again, unnecessary.