Trackday Porsche 996 - Undergoing build at Autofarm
Discussion
Sorry for the cross-post from the Porsche forum, but thought this may be of interest in here.
The rebuild/ conversion of my 996 is currently going on up at Autofarm (www.autofarm.co.uk) under the watchful eye of Mikey Wastie, who manages the 'Projects' department.
To give you some background; I bought my black '98 Porsche 996 Carrera 3.4, manual back in March 2008 from the PH classifieds. It was in pretty good condition and didn't have too many miles on it (72k). There were no signs of engine trouble and it had recent bills totalling a fair sum of money. It was in the spec I wanted (black with black leather) and had the LSD, which was important to me as I always knew I would track it at some point.
After collection, a gearbox fault appeared and that was changed under warranty, so I had a nice, new gearbox! I ran it as a daily driver for about 9 months before starting to collect a load of track parts at the start of this year. I now drive my Renaultsport 172 everyday and the Pork has become a strict trackday/ weekend car.
So, a (probably not complete) list of the parts I have bought:
- Intrax titanium adjustable dampers (all round)
- Short shift kit
- Equal length exhaust manifolds
- Carbon and black alcantara (with red stitch) bucket seats
- GT3 black, alcantara (with red stitch) gear lever
- New, clear front lights
- New, all red rear lights
- New M030 ARBs & bushes
- Carbon strut braces front & rear
- Induction kit
- New front & rear bumpers (for cosmetics)
- Toyo R888 tyres on refurbished rims (www.wheelrefurbishing.com) in Honda Civic Type R grey
- Steel braided brake lines
- Assorted other bits and pieces
Other services performed by Mikey at Autofarm
- Full front and rear brake rebuild including new seals etc
- All brake calipers painted yellow
- Fitting of all parts & Geo
- Air con radiator change
- Sorting out some niggles/ rattles
So, the car is due back from Autofarm at some point next week. It has been there a while now as Mikey is very thorough and the car also had to go to and from the paint shop as both ends of the car needed spraying. He has also been very patient with me w.r.t. getting parts sent to him. We are still waiting on the seat mounts/ sliders and the alcantara gear stick, but both should be there today/ tomorrow, so it is just a case of bolting it all together!
To say I am excitied is an understatement!
It has cost a fair amount of money and I could have probably bought a 996 GT3 at Christmas, when the bottom fell out of the market, for what it has cost me over the past 16 months (including buying the car). But, 'playing' with cars doubles up as my hobby and it will be 'unique'. It is not meant to be a GT3 replica (hence no bodykit), but it should be lighter, with more track oriented suspension and the shorter gearing, so hopefully a good match at least at 9/10ths.
I certainly won't be putting a GT3 badge on the back
Mikey has been taking photos of everything as he has been doing the jobs, so I have quite a selection:
Intrax Titanium dampers (picture from web):
Brakes after being blasted and cleaned:
Brakes after returning from paint shop:
Exhaust manifolds fitted:
Front bumper post-paint:
Rear bumper post-paint (note it is a 'later' style bumper):
All red rear lights:
Short shift installed:
I will get some more photos of parts like the seats and gear stick etc up when Mikey sends me some photos or I get the car back. It should look great, lowered, with shiny black paint, slightly grey (but very metallic) wheels, with yellow calipers sitting behind them. Hopefully it will handle like a dream (if a little stiff) and I will still be able to squeeze my frame into the carbon seats!
As a project, it is still not finished. I will be getting 200 cell sport cats custom made and fitted and then some custom rear silencers (to get me through noise tests) and a remap to tie it all together. But they will be done once I have it back. In the long term, I would love to get rid of the sunroof and save some weight and rattles with a carbon roof. But that will be next year methinks!
Some more progress:
Mikey has been very hard at work the last couple of days trying to get my car out of the door! As per usual, you will see his attention to detail! I can't wait to get the car back now, it shouldn't be too much longer!
Piccy of a table of parts, mainly cosmetic - Have a look at the new front badge! It is off a Porsche 962 (one of my favourite cars of all time), it is my little tribute to the great Porsche racing cars:
This is my GT3, alcantara gear stick - Red stitch to match the seats:
The brakes being skimmed:
A bolt in the hub needed a threaded insert - Nicely picked up and sorted by Mr. Wastie:
Brakes and dampers on the car and looking great, IMHO:
ARBs, both old and new:
Gratuitous damper picture:
Almost there now, maybe a couple more days while we wait for Design911 to get the seat sliders and brackets over to Mikey:
The rebuild/ conversion of my 996 is currently going on up at Autofarm (www.autofarm.co.uk) under the watchful eye of Mikey Wastie, who manages the 'Projects' department.
To give you some background; I bought my black '98 Porsche 996 Carrera 3.4, manual back in March 2008 from the PH classifieds. It was in pretty good condition and didn't have too many miles on it (72k). There were no signs of engine trouble and it had recent bills totalling a fair sum of money. It was in the spec I wanted (black with black leather) and had the LSD, which was important to me as I always knew I would track it at some point.
After collection, a gearbox fault appeared and that was changed under warranty, so I had a nice, new gearbox! I ran it as a daily driver for about 9 months before starting to collect a load of track parts at the start of this year. I now drive my Renaultsport 172 everyday and the Pork has become a strict trackday/ weekend car.
So, a (probably not complete) list of the parts I have bought:
- Intrax titanium adjustable dampers (all round)
- Short shift kit
- Equal length exhaust manifolds
- Carbon and black alcantara (with red stitch) bucket seats
- GT3 black, alcantara (with red stitch) gear lever
- New, clear front lights
- New, all red rear lights
- New M030 ARBs & bushes
- Carbon strut braces front & rear
- Induction kit
- New front & rear bumpers (for cosmetics)
- Toyo R888 tyres on refurbished rims (www.wheelrefurbishing.com) in Honda Civic Type R grey
- Steel braided brake lines
- Assorted other bits and pieces
Other services performed by Mikey at Autofarm
- Full front and rear brake rebuild including new seals etc
- All brake calipers painted yellow
- Fitting of all parts & Geo
- Air con radiator change
- Sorting out some niggles/ rattles
So, the car is due back from Autofarm at some point next week. It has been there a while now as Mikey is very thorough and the car also had to go to and from the paint shop as both ends of the car needed spraying. He has also been very patient with me w.r.t. getting parts sent to him. We are still waiting on the seat mounts/ sliders and the alcantara gear stick, but both should be there today/ tomorrow, so it is just a case of bolting it all together!
To say I am excitied is an understatement!
It has cost a fair amount of money and I could have probably bought a 996 GT3 at Christmas, when the bottom fell out of the market, for what it has cost me over the past 16 months (including buying the car). But, 'playing' with cars doubles up as my hobby and it will be 'unique'. It is not meant to be a GT3 replica (hence no bodykit), but it should be lighter, with more track oriented suspension and the shorter gearing, so hopefully a good match at least at 9/10ths.
I certainly won't be putting a GT3 badge on the back
Mikey has been taking photos of everything as he has been doing the jobs, so I have quite a selection:
Intrax Titanium dampers (picture from web):
Brakes after being blasted and cleaned:
Brakes after returning from paint shop:
Exhaust manifolds fitted:
Front bumper post-paint:
Rear bumper post-paint (note it is a 'later' style bumper):
All red rear lights:
Short shift installed:
I will get some more photos of parts like the seats and gear stick etc up when Mikey sends me some photos or I get the car back. It should look great, lowered, with shiny black paint, slightly grey (but very metallic) wheels, with yellow calipers sitting behind them. Hopefully it will handle like a dream (if a little stiff) and I will still be able to squeeze my frame into the carbon seats!
As a project, it is still not finished. I will be getting 200 cell sport cats custom made and fitted and then some custom rear silencers (to get me through noise tests) and a remap to tie it all together. But they will be done once I have it back. In the long term, I would love to get rid of the sunroof and save some weight and rattles with a carbon roof. But that will be next year methinks!
Some more progress:
Mikey has been very hard at work the last couple of days trying to get my car out of the door! As per usual, you will see his attention to detail! I can't wait to get the car back now, it shouldn't be too much longer!
Piccy of a table of parts, mainly cosmetic - Have a look at the new front badge! It is off a Porsche 962 (one of my favourite cars of all time), it is my little tribute to the great Porsche racing cars:
This is my GT3, alcantara gear stick - Red stitch to match the seats:
The brakes being skimmed:
A bolt in the hub needed a threaded insert - Nicely picked up and sorted by Mr. Wastie:
Brakes and dampers on the car and looking great, IMHO:
ARBs, both old and new:
Gratuitous damper picture:
Almost there now, maybe a couple more days while we wait for Design911 to get the seat sliders and brackets over to Mikey:
Edited by dom9 on Tuesday 11th August 08:55
The Riddler said:
Thats pretty f
kin nice mate! Are the only engine mods going to be the manifolds?I look forward to seeing more pics.
It gets run exclusively on Shell 98Ron, so I may get a remap to suit that and the exhaust/ induction mods and the combination of all that will probably give me 'something' in the power department, but hopefully some more torque through the mid range.
To be honest, the M96 Porsche engine is not the most reliable statistically, so i wouldn't want to go further than that on the same internals. Next year I may raid the kitty again and ask Autofarm to provide me with a 3.7 engine running upgraded liners and cams, but we shall have to see.
To be honest, I doubt my driving abilities are upto using this car at 10/10ths, at least not yet, so power upgrades are probably the last of my concerns. I looked into oil system/ anti surge type upgrades for extra protection as Autofarm do a deep sump kit, but with me living in London and penned in by speed bumps, this didn't seem like the way forward, necessarily.
We shall have to see how it holds up on track!
Soovy said:
I LOVE those yellow calipers.
How much to get them painted?
These were stripped, blasted, all seals etc replaced and everything refurbished... Painted in yellow, decals applied and lacquered over... They weren't cheap as it was fairly labour intensive. They were originally going to be powder coated but the powder coater couldn't guarantee that they would not damage the piston bores, so they were painted instead, which was honest of them.How much to get them painted?
Anyway, it was £900 or so! Some will say that is expensive, but that includes all labour to strip and includes refit, all the braided hoses and fluids etc. I believe they can be done cheaper by places such as RPM: http://www.rpmtechnik.co.uk/porsche_upgrades/upgra... but that price looks like 'per caliper'. I also think AP, I think they are called, who advertise in the Porsche mags do them for around the £500 mark, but you have to get them off and refit them yourself, or pay someone else to do it, which probably pulls the price up.
To be honest, I got 5 or 6 quotes to do mine and Autofarm were on the money, so I am not sure what the difference between these advertisements and everyone I asked is... Some were well over £1k!
Expensive for a mainly cosmetic upgrade, but they will look great behind the slightly grey wheels and I wanted the braking in tip top shape before going out on track, so I didn't want to scrimp here and I trust Mikey's workmanship and budgeting!!
minerva said:
Fantastic! Please don't forget to post up completed pictures when you get it back.
I love the new badge. That'll make it go MUCH faster!
LOL - Nah, but it should set the calipers off nicely!I love the new badge. That'll make it go MUCH faster!
I like my yellow!
I will post pics up of further progress later this week...
Should be finished any day now!
Here are the latest pics from Mikey:
Threaded insert for the caliper mount was apparently a pain but sorted now:
Rear 3/4 view - How cool does that look on the (slightly) grey alloys (hard to tell compared to standard), with the Toyo R888's and yellow calipers? I am really pleased with it! It looks very aggressive this low and the ride height will have to come up a bit for it to be useable to and from London, but I think it looks awesome:
Front view - Again, quite racer-ish without the bumper on:
Just waiting for Design911 to get the seat mounts over to Mikey and we are almost there - Really excited about all this now, in case you could tell!!!
Threaded insert for the caliper mount was apparently a pain but sorted now:
Rear 3/4 view - How cool does that look on the (slightly) grey alloys (hard to tell compared to standard), with the Toyo R888's and yellow calipers? I am really pleased with it! It looks very aggressive this low and the ride height will have to come up a bit for it to be useable to and from London, but I think it looks awesome:
Front view - Again, quite racer-ish without the bumper on:
Just waiting for Design911 to get the seat mounts over to Mikey and we are almost there - Really excited about all this now, in case you could tell!!!
Edited by dom9 on Tuesday 11th August 08:55
Looks like it should be fun As a mainly track car though would you not have been better upgrading the brakes rather than spending money on having your stockers refurbished and new body panels/trinkets put on? Or are the stock brakes pretty good for trackdays?
Any more plans - cage, stripping out the interior etc?
EDIT - just seen you are using it at the weekends too so I guess nothing too drastic
As a mainly track car though would you not have been better upgrading the brakes rather than spending money on having your stockers refurbished and new body panels/trinkets put on? Or are the stock brakes pretty good for trackdays?Any more plans - cage, stripping out the interior etc?
EDIT - just seen you are using it at the weekends too so I guess nothing too drastic
Edited by benny.c on Wednesday 22 July 16:46
Thanks for all the kind comments everyone!
It is very much appreciated, especially when I have to hand my credit card over soon and need to know I did the right thing!
Time will tell, but a change of disc, pad, fluid etc may be in order if they overheat or take a pounding as the sticky tyres may put some extra heat through them!
There are more plans to strip it... I would LOVE a carbon roof to get rid of the high CoG of the sunroof and all the wight associated with that. It would also rattle less! The rear seats will go and then maybe i will get lightweight carpet... We shall see, perhaps next year!
The cosmetic stuff was mainly because I was getting generally upset about the condition of the outside being 'poor' because of others. i.e. poor drivers/ parkers had smashed both my bumpers and the gearstick, seats etc were well worn after 10 years! The rest was really maintenance and preventative maintenance!
The car will still be used outside the track, just not as much... Weekend trips to the country etc should be good! I don't think it will ever get a cage, but we shall see... If I keep it forever, I guess I may end up doing just about 'everything' to it... We have to see how work goes over the next few years and what else we add to the garage!
Thanks for all the interest everyone!
It is very much appreciated, especially when I have to hand my credit card over soon and need to know I did the right thing!
Rotary Madness said:
Looks awsome
Are you planning to do anything about the offset of the wheels? They look a little "sunk in" into the arches, or is it like that for a reason?
This is a kind of suck it and see thing... Before the dampers were on, we thought the (standard, hollow and light) wheels may rub the arches as the car will still have to negotiate the pot holes and speed bumps of South West London, so we thought best not buy spacers and risk a damaged arch or shredded tyre. Will see how much damper movement there is and how much camber I run and make a decision on spacers or wider alloys then.Are you planning to do anything about the offset of the wheels? They look a little "sunk in" into the arches, or is it like that for a reason?
benny.c said:
Looks like it should be fun As a mainly track car though would you not have been better upgrading the brakes rather than spending money on having your stockers refurbished and new body panels/trinkets put on? Or are the stock brakes pretty good for trackdays?
Any more plans - cage, stripping out the interior etc?
EDIT - just seen you are using it at the weekends too so I guess nothing too drastic
As a mainly track car though would you not have been better upgrading the brakes rather than spending money on having your stockers refurbished and new body panels/trinkets put on? Or are the stock brakes pretty good for trackdays?Any more plans - cage, stripping out the interior etc?
EDIT - just seen you are using it at the weekends too so I guess nothing too drastic
Edited by benny.c on Wednesday 22 July 16:46
Diesel Meister said:
I'm thinking the standard brakes are more than up to it - Porsche brakes are generally rather good (although I've never tracked a Porsche 
). Some uprated pads should be complimentary for the brain out track sessions though .
My feeling was that the standard brakes were up to the job. They have never let me down before and now that they are back to 'as new' condition, as opposed to having 80k on them, the braking should be even better. The car is now lighter (the carbon seats are 10's of kg lighter than the Porsche electric) than standard and the early, bsaic 996 is one of the lightest cars Porsche made with those brakes, not forgetting the fact that it wasn't the fastest - So I think they should hold up ok! ). Some uprated pads should be complimentary for the brain out track sessions though .Time will tell, but a change of disc, pad, fluid etc may be in order if they overheat or take a pounding as the sticky tyres may put some extra heat through them!
There are more plans to strip it... I would LOVE a carbon roof to get rid of the high CoG of the sunroof and all the wight associated with that. It would also rattle less! The rear seats will go and then maybe i will get lightweight carpet... We shall see, perhaps next year!
The cosmetic stuff was mainly because I was getting generally upset about the condition of the outside being 'poor' because of others. i.e. poor drivers/ parkers had smashed both my bumpers and the gearstick, seats etc were well worn after 10 years! The rest was really maintenance and preventative maintenance!
The car will still be used outside the track, just not as much... Weekend trips to the country etc should be good! I don't think it will ever get a cage, but we shall see... If I keep it forever, I guess I may end up doing just about 'everything' to it... We have to see how work goes over the next few years and what else we add to the garage!
Thanks for all the interest everyone!
When's the first track outing with all the new bits on then?
How do you get away with the all red rear lights with regards to the indicators BTW? Are the indicators in the white sections or is there another way around it? I've heard a green bulb through a red lens will produce an orange light.
How do you get away with the all red rear lights with regards to the indicators BTW? Are the indicators in the white sections or is there another way around it? I've heard a green bulb through a red lens will produce an orange light.
Edited by benny.c on Wednesday 22 July 23:59
benny.c said:
When's the first track outing with all the new bits on then?
How do you get away with the all red rear lights with regards to the indicators BTW? Are the indicators in the white sections or is there another way around it? I've heard a green bulb through a red lens will produce an orange light.
Will organise the first track outing when I get the car back... Will be enxt month with any luck!How do you get away with the all red rear lights with regards to the indicators BTW? Are the indicators in the white sections or is there another way around it? I've heard a green bulb through a red lens will produce an orange light.
Edited by benny.c on Wednesday 22 July 23:59
My missus fancies joining me in the 172, which might be nice!
W.r.t. the lights... Honestly, I haven't much thought about it as they are identical to Porsche Tequipment ones, so they must be legal... I think the indicators are iin the non-coloured sections and use orange bulbs!
Dan7357 said:
well done Dom, you must be proud !?
Hows about a Tequipment cage ? Look good in the back of her.
I am very proud and very 'proud' (if that is the right word) of Mikey as his quality of work and attention to detail is unbelievable! I certainly made the right choice there!Hows about a Tequipment cage ? Look good in the back of her.
As for the cage... Not yet, but I will think about it... If I go the carbon roof way, then the rear seats will come out and the cage go in, maybe, but that is a year away i would suspect! Would also then get Mikey to line the roof in black alacntara and red stitching to match the rest!
Yummy!
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