DrJupeman

So in short, how reliable are the 997 Cup trannies, how frequent are rebuilds when following a proper maintenance schedule, and how much do they cost?

analogmike

I thought they were great my first year, no problems but a new clutch disk.

But this year it has been crazy, if you are the kind of guy who writes checks without looking at the invoice, the 997 cup is your car. Otherwise get the 996 cup.

RSRRacer

Posts like this keep me out of a 997 despite their increasingly attractive price points.

Maybe I'll keep the 996 for another year. It's a good car and only 1.8 - 2% slower than the faster 997 cup guys.

Mike I almost made it into your VIR video but I wan't agressive enough when Musante went off into the grass coming out of T1!!

PedroNole

By next year they should have it all sorted out and it will be the time to get the 997. A lot of people are spending a lot of money so we won't have to....

The "Club or Motorsport Engine Upgrade" PMNA is offering on the 996's may be the way to go in the short term. Question about this upgrade though.... Are people doing this and staying legal in GTC3? I'm not really sure what PMNA is doing to the engines but if they're doing it and they're re-doing the ECU's how are the scrutineers handling this?

mooty

mike you got pm.

Geoffrey

The Clubsport upgrade has many of the 996RSR parts, including pistons, long connecting rods, some variant of the 997 camshaft. It is not a legal upgrade in the GTC classes.

jmreiser

Brian Copans told me a few years ago that they really ought to be looked at every 30 hours or so for club stuff. I don't know if that recommendation is still current, but I would guess it is.

I was in Brian's trailer a couple of years ago at Sebring, and one of the Michelin Cup challenge guys came in, described what went wrong with his gearbox, and asked Brian what he thought was wrong. With about 90 or 100 hours on the gearbox, Brian answered that what was wrong was that he had skipped at least 2 rebuilds. So then the guy asked again, and then Brian repeated himself.

So that's to your point, about "following a proper maintenance schedule". Obviously not everyone does it that way. I think its safe to say that if you run til something breaks in one of the sequentials it will usually cost 2x to 10x more. Those parts are still pretty expensive. I don't know if any of it has gotten any cheaper due to economies of scale.

Looking at the Service_GT3_Cup for 2007, it says to take it apart and check everything every 2000 km. Also says to replace the shift cable, gear oil filter, and pinion bearing regardless of condition. If you ran a lap-average speed of 160kmh / 100 mph, that would be 12.5 hours. At 100 kmh that is 20 hours, and one darn slow track. So there you are.

analogmike

I did the service after 30 hours or so, then two races later there were problems with 5th and 6th gears

I hope it will be reliable for another year or more.

jmreiser

What happened with 5th and 6th? How many hours were on it after the first service?

Red9

Which transmission are we talking about--the Holinger or the current one?

jmreiser

There was only one trans in the factory 997 Cup, Porsche's adaptation of Holinger to the 996 GT3 trans. The new one with the drop-gear is only in the RSR.

analogmike

I think the 5th and 6th gear claw collars/sleeves were worn. It was about 5 hours after the first service. Maybe Brian can give us more info on what happened, and how we can prevent it. I think it occurs when you don't hit the shifter hard/quick enough in the high gears, slow shifting. Just what keeps my 915 tranny happy kills the sequential.

jmreiser

That sounds right (not shifting fast enough). Service_GT3_Cup warns about that. This could have been a problem all the way along, and finally reached the breaking point?

Anyway, big picture, you're right, the 997 Cup is a higher maintenance car... more often and more cost. Do I wish I had one, absolutely, but I can't justify it or afford to care for & feed it.

DrJupeman

Thanks.

ltc

I am fairly confident that Brian Copans isn't "disrespecting the forum in general".
I am delighted that he took the time to post on Rennlist.
A little bit of respect would go a long way IMHO.....after all, it is Brian Copans...