Stainless Steel Exhaust and Rear Spoiler

[Kenny Boxster]

Originally Posted by ins_man

Thanks guys for the input. I think. Some of it was a little harsh. The pics don't show the detail in the wing and the front and back lids. They are not "horrid". They are very nicely done carbon fiber vinyl design. Still, it's not the type of Porsche that I want to drive. I may very well keep the vinyl carbon fiber on the lids because it helps contrast the prominent purple that the car throws off in certain light. But, it will probably have to go anyway. I do think I will get rid of the white sticker on the front of the car. I had the exhaust fixed yesterday. They could not put the two factory side pipes (converters ??) back on because the angle of the new headers. So, I will have those to sell. They were able to reinstall the factory muffler. It sounds nice.
I would like to take the wing off and replace it with a smaller, less "Fast and Furious" spoiler and the Boxster emblem. The problem at this point is the drill holes that will be left behind. Not a big deal, I know. Just fix it. A few things at a time though. I bought the car on Friday. I have already repaired the radio, the drivers seat and the exhaust.
For reference - This is a '99. I live in East Texas between Dallas and Texarkana. I am in a small town where there is no Porsche parts, mechanics, experts, or really anyone who has an opinion on what a "real" Porsche should look or sound like. I could leave this thing alone and be invited to participate in every parade that we have. LOL
I am new to Porsche and new to the whole forum thing as well.
Thank you all for your patients and input.

I know exactly how you feel haha. Live in a small, small town where only 10 porsches exist in a population of 65,000. Perhaps if you ever come down near Arlington sometime we can chat.

[Kroggers]

Originally Posted by Overdrive

I would definitely let the spoiler go...and someone on the forum is looking for one like that for his Boxster race car, so maybe you two can work out a deal.

That would be me

Send me a PM if you want to part with that spoiler - I can use it as a starting point for my racing car if we can come to an agreement...

[Jaxonalden]

Kenny Boxster & ins_man,

My thoughts and prayers go out to you and everyone else in the Dallas and the NE I-30 corridor areas, all the way to Greenville. Hope you all are alright and damage is at a minimum. I travel down their for work all the time and watching the news last night made me sick to my stomach watching all the destruction.

Stay strong

[ins_man]

Wow. That was fun. We had 4 twisters touch down within 10 miles from my home.
Kenny Boxster is in Arlington, I believe. Which was hit really bad. They declared a state of emergency there. I hope all is well with Kenny.

[Overdrive]

Glad to hear you're still intact, ins_man.

Kroggers, I simply could not remember your forum name and forgot to go back to your post and look it up to drop in here. I hope you two can work out a deal...it's always good to see members helping each other out.

My apologies if anything I mentioned before was said in any harsh way. Don't take it personally, it's directed more toward the person who set the car up that way before you bought it, not you for owning it. To be a little more diplomatic with my verbiage this time around, and though I'll likely be repeating myself, having that big spoiler out back without having something equally downforce-inducing up front (functional splitter or a GT3-style bumper) will actually have bad effects on the car's aerodynamics at speed. Also, just because a spoiler looks like it came off the back of a race car doesn't mean it will actually do any serious downforce inducing. We've seen plenty of useless pieces of plastic and "carbon fibre" on the backs of many a street car that's worth less than the spoiler itself...sometimes you'd be better off just mounting a 2x4 to some steel trusses and hanging that off the deck of a Ford Probe.

I digress since I'm doing it again: While I imagine you're not looking to take all 201 crank horsepower up into the triple digit speeds on a regular basis, if you ever do with that car as it stands now, it could start exhibiting some strange handling characteristics.

The stock spoiler is there to counteract some rear end lift that starts when you pass 75mph and gets increasingly worse as your speed increases. Without it the car would get extremely squirmy out back and the rear end will be ready to float out and come around on you in anything other than a perfectly straight line. I'm not trying to scare-monger you and say that it will happen, just saying it's a serious possibility. Putting anything other than a spoiler designed for the car (read: AeroKit or AeroKit II) will affect the ability for sufficient downforce to be applied to the rear end. If the spoiler does produce more downforce than stock you also run the risk of the front end getting light...not something you want with the wheels that steer. On the other end of the spectrum, some folks put a GT3-type bumper up front and nothing extra (and functional) out back, and that creates a situation where the front end receives much more push down than the rear.

If you're just going to be cruising around, then your worries are minimal and you'd see no real harm in putting on a different permanent spoiler or modification to the retractable one (see Johnny Danger's car for what I mean on the latter) that will look nicer. There are plenty of options out there that can be applied that will look much better than what's there now. They may have more form than function, but they're not as overdone.

Don't take the behavior in this thread as the norm, even I found some of the exchanges above to be a bit unnecessary. Overall everyone here is very helpful and are not trying to make you feel like an idiot to make themselves feel better.

You'll find that the car is set up pretty nicely out the box, so adding to it or changing anything is really more of a "want" than a "need", maybe with the exception being adding something like the M030 sport suspension option to it (check the white sticker under your front trunk lid and see if there is a "030" among any of the 3-digit numbers on it...if so then you've already got that option)...but even that isn't truly needed. The car handles very well as it was built, especially for any kind of spirited street driving. Enjoy it.

[Kroggers]

Originally Posted by Overdrive

Glad to hear you're still intact, ins_man.

Kroggers, I simply could not remember your forum name and forgot to go back to your post and look it up to drop in here. I hope you two can work out a deal...it's always good to see members helping each other out.

Siting over here in Finland, I did not even know about what has happened - so looking at the news I am also glad that ins_man is still OK....

Not a problem Overdrive, we have already had some PM discussions about the spoiler. I am looking to use it as a base to build something that is functional rather than just for the look - and will also be compensating at the front, along with some other changes to the body during next winter...

But I agree that any aero change to a car should be done with thought - some things that people do actually make the car handle worse and can create bad problems on motorways an on track days if they ever take the car to a club event.

[picar20]

150 shipped for the muffler