Subaru powered Boxster "Street Version"

[kcpaz]

This is the next conversion car that I'm working on... actually it's a pair of cars. The goal is to keep them as a street cars that can be daily driven comfortably, but still perform on the track for Time Trials. The engine on the white car is the same EJ255 that is in my green car, but the turbo will be a smaller GT2871 using factory exhaust manifolds.

The silver car will be a little different in some of it's components, but the goal is the same as far as the car's intended purpose.



GT3 front bumper

New timing belt system, water pump, welded/ported TGV's, ID1000 injectors, and secondary air injection delete.

Modified OEM Subaru wiring harness ready to be installed

Engine mocked up in chassis


Air/water intercooler in rear trunk. No goofy roof scoop needed...

Turbo and stuff...

[kcpaz]

Here is the silver car. It's a bit of a mix of spare parts that I have been collecting.

The hard top was from another project that got a fiberglass top.


Stripped the red paint off. The plan is to run the top with a brushed aluminum finish


The silver car had a horrible "pink" colored interior...


So we ripped that out...


And installed a black interior from a 2004 Boxster S. Now it has a glove-box

[AndyA6]

My goodness! I wish I could do stuff like this!

[MConte05]

Ahh, the good ole EJ's. That is an engine I know quite intimately. Been a Subaru guy for YEARS. Currently race an older Legacy in rally.

I've been wanting to do a project like this sometime soon.

[Meir]

What did you do with the red interior, if I may ask.?

[kcpaz]

Threw most of it away. All I really saved was the dash.

[Crono0001]

Where does the intercooler draw air?

[blue2000s]

Originally Posted by Crono0001

Where does the intercooler draw air?

It's what Lotus called a "charge cooler" on the Esprit Turbo where the compressed air from the turbo exchanges heat with coolant, not with outside air directly. I assume that there will be an extra radiator or that some engine coolant fresh from the radiator is diverted to the charge cooler.

[kcpaz]

Correct. An air/water intercooler doesn't require direct air flow over the intercooler itself. The cooling happens remotely via a front mount heat exchanger... or in our case, we will be using the factory third radiator as a heat exchanger. Think of it as a mini cooling system, where the intercooler is the engine, and we use an electric water pump to circulate water.

[Skrapmot]

Crap, I would have loved a silver car with the red interior. Can't think of a more classy interior color for a silver porsche. Even looks good with a black exterior.

[kcpaz]

Maybe if it had actually been red and not a faded salmon pink I would have been able to live with it, but trust me when I say, in person, it looked terrible.

[The Radium King]

enough about interiors! when will the kit come to market? how is it going interfacing the subi and porsche computers/harnesses? how did the track testing go - effect on weight distribution, centre of gravity, power delivery? from your other thread it sounds like the subi motor doesn't need as much cooling as the porsche, so using the third rad for the IC sounds like an ok compromise (i always struggled when tpc did that on their turbos, given the heat issues already present with FI on the m96/97).

[kcpaz]

I have been quietly offering the "basic conversion components" for a while now, but haven't really done any marketing. I know the street version is what everyone wants to see, so I wanted to wait until I had an example finished before I start ramping up sales.

The track testing has gone amazingly well. We haven't had a single component failure or anything. Literally 100% successful. In fact, since the green car was finished, we also built another race car using the same conversion parts and a Boxster S 6 speed...



Also, based on the results of our testing, we decided to convert the green race car to an air/water intercooler system. Now that we know that cooling isn't a problem, and the center radiator is available for use as a heat exchanger, we can reduce weight by getting rid of the roof scoop and related ducting... and make the car less ugly. We just finished the new system and will be testing it next weekend on the track. So far, the stock engine has proven reliable too, despite the experiences that you might hear from the "import tuner kids". We have been running the car at 400whp for the past 7 test weekends and when we did a leakdown test yesterday, all 4 cylinders are still around 10% cold.

I will post up new weight figures on the green car when I do an update with the new intercooler set-up.

As far as interfacing the electronic systems, I think you will be suprised at how easy this is, especially on the early cars (1997-1999).

[Eric G]

When you are ready to "go live" on the kits, please add me to your list of interested parties who would like to purchase one from you. I am truly impressed with the level of engineering detail and performance you are generating from this. I get perma-grin from just looking at the results and work you have done so far.

Take care...

[kcpaz]

Some pictures of the exhaust and intercooler system...

[Homeboy981]

Where are you pulling the Cold Air from?

Who does your welding? They are a perfectionist. What does the finished car weight in at?

Please post more when you get a chance. Of course, let us know what the "kit" will cost and here's a stupid question….what kind of mileage are you getting?

A 4 cyl with 400HP? The power to weight ratio must be OUTSTANDING! WoW!

What kind of a mad scientist are you anyway?

[AndyA6]

I say it again, very nice! Just a question, turbo lag much?

[kashmir]

This look yummy. Nice work.

[kcpaz]

Originally Posted by Homeboy981

Where are you pulling the Cold Air from?

Who does your welding? They are a perfectionist. What does the finished car weight in at?

Please post more when you get a chance. Of course, let us know what the "kit" will cost and here's a stupid question….what kind of mileage are you getting?

A 4 cyl with 400HP? The power to weight ratio must be OUTSTANDING! WoW!

What kind of a mad scientist are you anyway?

Not sure what the final weight is going to be yet. Since it's going to be a street/Time Trial car with A/C, stereo and carpet, I'd guess somewhere in the 2800-2850lb range.

The intercooler is an air/water configuration, so the intercooler itself doesn't need any direct air flow. A factory center radiator is used as a heat exchainger for the intercooler with an electeonic Bosch water pump.

I do all of the fabrication amd welding myself. I am a bit of a perfectionist according to my wife.

[recycledsixtie]

Can u give me some of idea what this cost to do incl. engine, mods and labor for the street version? We might get a lower cost of running Boxster plus more power on 4 cylinders. I do admire your work. Looks very professional.