9A1 engine into 996 Carrera (Jethro B)

[samoht]

Just reading through the current issue of evo and my mouth dropped on reaching Jethro Bovingdon's fast fleet update. His long-broken red 996 has just had an engine swap, Litchfield have replaced his broken M96 with a 3.8 9A1 from a 2014 Carrera S. Refabricated engine mounts, adapter for 996 gearbox, 996 Cup electric PAS pump, exhaust, wiring... Apparently it's all up and running well.

I actually thought this was a late April fool at first, but on reflection Jethro's TG USA earnings plus Litchfield's enthusiasm and the publicity opportunity all combine to make it possible. Sadly it sounds like the work involved mean it's unlikely to ever become a standard conversion.

https://twitter.com/BenJacksonTP/status/1380843512...

[samoht]

RichardCHXX said:

what's going on with this fab conversion, Evo has gone very silent on the topic

https://twitter.com/JethroBovingdon/status/1455485...

Jethro B said:

Quick 996 update. The car is painted & the 9A1 3.8 engine & the gearbox are back in. Lots of intricate & time-consuming tidying now being undertaken by @Litchfield_UK
Latest headache is 996/991 hybrid air con system talking to @syvecs
ECU. But it is CLOSE. Mega work as ever.

[samoht]

Jethro B said:

It lives! Now the mapping, tweaking, roadtest phase begins. So far so good. The boys at @Litchfield_UK really have done an amazing job. (And if you're going to reply something about 'could have bought a GT3', please don't. It's very dull and annoying).

https://twitter.com/JethroBovingdon/status/1471803...

[samoht]

Jethro B said:

And here's a contender for eCOTY 2022. My 996 restomod by @Litchfield_UK
fitted with a 991 Carrera S 3.8-litre engine. I have now driven this car! Final tweaks, new exhaust etc to come. But already feels fantastic. And cheaper than a Singer.

https://twitter.com/JethroBovingdon/status/1476519...
(includes vid of car idling which I can't see how to include here)

[samoht]

WojaWabbit said:

Yep, a good summary of whats required there. I reckon you'd likely end up at closer to £30k if going down the OEM-look install.

If you were prepared to have a digital dash, lose the a/c etc. you could chop a wee chunk off but the bill would still sting a tad.

The £20k reference was what I'd consider to be a price that a reasonable number of people would be prepared to put into a 996 conversion, however at ~£30k it's not something I see being commercially viable unless a company found significant cost and time efficiencies when scaling up the quantities. Litchfield certainly don't seem to think its worth their effort!

£10k-15k 996 base car; £30k engine conversion; £5k-10k suspension, brakes, wheels, tyres etc... just isn't worth it for most of us, considering the alternatives at the price point. We've seen what happens to used CSR prices, the same would apply to a £60k 996.991.

Jethro said:

if you're going to reply something about 'could have bought a GT3', please don't. It's very dull and annoying

I'm inferring from this that it is in fact true that Jethro could have bought a GT3 for the same money as he's spent on his car.

If you say he could have sold his car for £20k as-was (?), and a 996 GT3 starts around £75k, I'm inferring he's put circa £50k+ into this car in total, presumably most of that in the engine swap.

Which might go some way to explaining why Litchfield aren't expecting this to be the first of many conversions.