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Stock "before" looks much better. "After" looks like Tom Jones stuffing sweat socks in his jockey shorts.
I can live with my stock, Carrera, manual transmission, bumper's looks. It's growing on me, in fact. But really, "after" looks like a 177mph sports car. Not a shouty one, but a serious one. "Before" looks electric. Also, as photographed, from a low angle with bright sunlight, the contrasting black grills contrast a bit strongly with the bright silver car. As seen normally, this contract will be less, especially when the black bits are a bit dustier.
I like how 996 Carreras look. Many do not. Almost all, however, regard the C4S as the most beautiful 996, and the bumper is a big part of it.
But never mind, both look good enough. It's how the car drives that matters.
I have a turbo bumper on my 996.2 targa. I've never had any overheating concerns and I run it pretty hard at a local track. Although my oil pressure does drop significantly when it is hot which implies the engine gets pretty warm.
I wouldn't be concerned at all with the turbo bumper for street driving. For track driving it still seems to be okay and you could always install a third radiator when you do the swap.
Thanks for the info and advice! Sounds like I shouldn't be concerned this would cause heat issues. But on track, can you feel the reduced lift? And has it had any impact on your top speed at the end of the main straight? (Not that you'd notive a speed difference while driving, I suppose, but if you have a data logger ... .)
(Of course, it won't have a big impact on top speed at most tracks, unless it completely messed up the aero. But a 1/2 mph difference around 130 mph can be a much bigger difference at vmax. And since I have autobahns handy ... .)
Looking at the photos, it's clear the main difference between the shapes and locations of the openings in the bumper itself are that the turbo's oppenings are much higher at the top. Suprisingly so as the radiators are only sligtly bigger. Do you know if the duct that leads to the radiator on the Turbo or C4S extends as high as the openings in the bumper? Or if not, do you know how much higher it extenda that the regular Carrera's duct?
turbo bumper on a non turbo car is more rice than uncle ben! haha J/K
I was actually thing this. I could see if one is going to put in the 3rd radiator, but putting the turbo bumper on just for kicks is kinda fake poser-ish. Hell why not put the turbo badge on it too?
turbo bumper on a non turbo car is more rice than uncle ben! haha J/K
Ha! "more rice than uncle ben"... funny!!!
Seriously, you know Porsche put the *same* turbo front bumper on the Carrera C4S and 40th AE at the factory, right? Plus, Porsche sells many OEM aero bumpers for the 996 "non-turbo" cars.
I'm not for making "tribute" or "replica" cars, but there are many options (e.g. Aero Side Skirts) that really make the car look aggressive. IMO. In fact, Porsche will gladly sell Carrera owners a complete GT3 aero package and smile when receiving the cash. ha!
I was actually thing this. I could see if one is going to put in the 3rd radiator, but putting the turbo bumper on just for kicks is kinda fake poser-ish. Hell why not put the turbo badge on it too?
As I stated to Neto, this is not the same as building a "tribute" or "replica" car because the same *turbo* bumper was put on the C4S and 40th AE NB car. Porsche also provides several GT3 type aero bumpers to convert your base Carrera into a more "racer style" car.
However, I've seen many that converted base Carreras into turbo looking cars and even attempted to sell them as such. Therefore, sellers need to do their homework. But upgrading to different bumpers is not the Folex syndrome IMHO. (forgive the watch analogy) I didn't badge it up as a Turbo, GT3, or C4S. My car clearly says "Carrera" on the back. I've also kept the base bumper and even the horrible Becker stereo that came with the car. I'll gladly hand it over to the next owner along with the official COA.