vandersmith

Glad to be a part of the GT3 community and excited to share the story of this car and build. In short, I'm in love and we're going all out on this thing.

Many of you might recall my 996 C4S
build over the past 3 years. A car Ioved and completely transformed for track duty that ultimately helped me become a much better driver. Its now in the very capable hands of another rennlister in SoCal tearing up AutoX and other tracks.

This winter, I put out a few search engines (Autotrader, CarMax, Autotempest, Cargurus, and others) to track the national pricing on 996 GT3s. I wasn't anticipating much but just wanted to keep an eye out should one come up for sale that completely went against the market trends.

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, it finally happened:
2005 GT3 popped up at 5pm PT
85k miles
Black on Black.

My phone went off. With my house full of family members, I had to step out and make an immediate phone call.




I got a hold of the dealership, Lexus of Albuquerque, just before closing. The sales manager told me it was a desert car for its life and was just traded in on a new SC. Whatever.

They were great to work with and answered all of my questions. The car even had a stack of services paperwork going back to 2008. I gave him my card information for a deposit as they were closing and that we'd talk again on Black Friday morning at opening.

They put the car on the lift and completed an inspection. We even facetimed so I could have the sales manager point the camera at some of the common trouble spots.













The car got inspected with a clean bill of health. With a stack full of services paperwork it seemed too good to pass up.

I made one of the biggest purchases of my life and bought a Porsche GT3, sight unseen, on Black Friday of all days.







It would take 4 weeks to get the car to Seattle from Albuquerque as a lot of snowstorms had hit the coast.












Time to make room...let the overhaul begin.

Martin S.

Great price...It should be a blast. I bought my car sight unseen. I knew the seller's agent, so I trusted that the car would be as described. It was...I have had it for 8 months, epic machine.

AudiOn19s

vandersmith

Here's the part where things escalated pretty quickly.

It started small. I told myself I didn't need to do much to this car.

That the paperwork showed all of the following had recently been done:

• Clutch/Flywheel
• Alternator/Battery
• Brake Pads/Rotors/Flush
• Water Pump/Coolant Tank
• etc.

I felt pretty good, I wanted to keep it mostly stock so I started small. The BMC Air Filter.




While I was in there, I also changed out the worn engine mounts to these RSS units.






Then I got an amazing DM here and a few phone calls later. To paraphrase:

"Hey Colin, I'm reverting my 996 GT3 back to stock and I have a ton of track parts I need help getting rid of. Are you interested?"

Friends helping friends.

Here's how that went:











Disassembled then helped him by putting all of his old stock parts back on.

Took 3 days while adding some new parts to my install list:

-KW V3s
-GMG Front & Rear Sway Bars
-Tarett Front & Rear Endlinks
-GMG Front Bump Steer Kit
-GMG Rear Toe Kit
-GMG Rear Control Arms

Then came the installation on my car (plus some Wrightwood Cup Rotors I had from my C4S GT3 Brakes):







Before


After


All done.

vandersmith

If you are curious about stock versus aftermarket weights, this is your post.



Aftermarket - Tarett Engineering Cup Adjustable Control Arm


Stock GT3 Adjustable Control Arm




MRG Titanium Studs & Nuts (10x)


Stock GT3 Wheel Lugs (10x)



Wrightwood Racing Two-Piece Cup Rotors (Slightly Used)


Stock GT3 Rotors (Worn to end of life)



Front GMG Sway Bar + End Link


Front GT3 Sway Bar








Rear GMG Sway + Endlink


Stock Rear Sway

vandersmith

While putting the suspension on, it occurred to me that there were a few more "things to do while I was in there."

In the go big or go home dept. I had a few eBay searches running to try and find some rare parts.

One search popped with some ridiculous results in the middle of the night while I was putting my car's suspension back together...we're talking ultra, ultra rare stuff.

WHATS IN THE BOX!?



.
.
.
.
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MANTHEY RACING GT3 COMPLETE EXHAUST SYSTEM (found on eBay)
The owner owned his own shop on the east coast and found his dream car, a 2005 GT3 with only 6k miles on it. Apparently, his new find came with this Manthey exhaust system installed on it and similarly, he was looking to return the car back to its original form.
Look up Manthey, I got really really lucky.






Installation begins:













Now begins the while you're there. New Plugs and Coils:















Weight Comparison:




Stock Muffler Weight


Manthey Muffler Weight


Single (1x) Stock Cross Pipe Weight


Manthey X-Pipe Weight


Stock Header Weight


Manthey Header Weight


Installation Begins:










If you've never heard of "Muffler Bearings" - this is what they look like.

vandersmith

Manthey Exhaust all buttoned up:







Everything that we maintained/upgraded:

vandersmith

Now the really fun part begins. Getting the car ready for track season.

For any GT3 drivers or PCA instructors out there, you may recall these cars are notorious for coolant pipes popping out on the track under load and spilling the goods all over the place.

My intention was to bring the car to my friend's shop to have all of the pipes pinned along with an alignment considering the service history. Of the 8 pipes that needed to be pinned, we found 4 that were already about to fail, which is scary stuff.

That was the plan at least and is not how things went at all.

vandersmith

Problem #1:

The Rear Main Seal was toast and leaking oil all over the Clutch and Flywheel.

vandersmith

Problem #2:

Every Coolant hose was looking pretty brittle. I believe all of them were original from the front radiators all the way back to the engine. All of them were suspect.

vandersmith

Problem #3:

Wheel hubs. They were terrible.

vandersmith

Problem #4:

The Radiators all looked a little suspect. Not the debris, the plastic connections and such.

You won't be able to tell by these photos with the AC units in front but trust me.

vandersmith

Problem #5:

The Front Main Seal was also leaking. Not bad. But leaking.
The transmission seals and axle seals were also heat stroked and in need of changing on the transmission.

vandersmith

Problem #6: You might as well do it all while you're in there.

Cooling:

• Pinned Pipes with JB Weld
• New Radiators = CSF Racing Aluminum Radiors for Left/Right & Center
• New Coolant Hoses = All of Them
• New Water Pump with Brass Impeller
• New Low Temp Thermostat
• New Coolant Level Sensor
• New Coolant Temperature Sensor
• Coolant Flush with Distilled Water + Water Wetter

Seals/Sensors:

• New Front Main Seal
• New Rear Main Seal
• New Axle Seals
• New Oil Expansion Tank Seals
• New Oil Heat Exchanger Seals
• New Transmission Seals
• New Crankshaft Sensor
• New Camshaft Sensor
• New Oil Pressure Switch
• Oil Change

Suspension/Brakes:

• New Solid Subframe Bushings
• New Upgraded Thrust Arms
• New Wheel Hubs x4
• New SS Brake Lines x4
• New Speed Sensors x4
• New Metric Head Brake Pad Pins x2
• New Speed Bleeders x8
• Brake/Clutch Flush

Transmission/Drivetrain:

• New Slave Cylinder
• New 2nd Gear Detent (Gbox)
• New Numeric Cup Shifter Cables
• Transmission Flush

Jewel Pieces

• 991 RSR Wheel with Rennline QR
• Rennline QR Fire Extinguisher
• Numeric Ball Bearing Shifter
• ECS Aluminum Oil Filter Cap
• ECS Magnetic Drain Plug

Performance:

• IPD Competition Plenum
• 82mm Throttle Body
• Euro 996 GT3RS Lightweight Flywheel, Clutch, Pulley, Belt, etc.

Finished with a corner balance, height adjustment, and aligned to Kussumaul settings.






























You guys know I do a lot of my own work but the big stuff I leave to the professionals. I may have a lift but you can't always solve for know how.

All of the major work above was done locally by my friends at Group2 Motorsports in Seattle, WA. I can't say enough about these guys as they knocked it out of the park. This was a project.

Major thanks goes out to John, Mimo, & Matt and the gang for all of their awesome work!

vandersmith

Next comes the 858 mile shakedown from Seattle to San Francisco...