Poor Man's "Clubsport" 986S Build

[onewhippedpuppy]

Hello all! I've been posting this on Pelican, but figured this might be a receptive crowd as well. Picked this up last month, 2003 Boxster S with 82k. Needs a few little things but is overall a very nice little car. I'm considering taking a sort of lightweight back to basics approach, call it the CS that Porsche never made. Simplify some things, remove some weight, etc. We'll see what happens.

[onewhippedpuppy]

First step was 7mm front and 15mm rear spacers from Otisinla, new Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 tires which seem like a cheap alternative to the RE11, and some new Hawk HPS pads up front.

[onewhippedpuppy]

The next step was to "add lightness" as Sir Colin Chapman once coined.





I've actually been weighing the parts as they went in and out, see below. My starting point was 3120 lbs with a full tank of gas. As of today I calculate that I am at 3043 lbs. I ended up reinstalling the trunk carpets minus the rear sound deadening after my wife freaked out, and reinstalled the carpet above the engine cover because the high pitched belt whine was really annoying.

Component Weight
Initial Weigh Full Gas
Rear upper sound pad 6.4
Rear shelf box and speakers 9.2
Frunk upper plastics 1.2
Spare and tools 30.6
Amp 6.8
Master cylinder trim 1.2
Frunk rear carpet 1.4
Frunk front carpet 2.3
Stereo wiring and hardware 1.4
Rear lower carpet 5
Rear side carpet, base, and handle 1
Stock exhaust 33.2
New exhaust 14.4

[onewhippedpuppy]

Catching up progress to the present, it was a good weekend of wrenching with an oil change yesterday, and I'm heading outside to do plugs and coil packs now. I also added an Agency Power muffler from Vivid Racing, which I'm very happy with. But per my wife (and me) it's not loud enough, so I think some secondary cat bypass pipes and maybe headers are in the very near future. As a bonus the muffler swap lost 18.8 lbs.

[Chuck W.]

That is a very clean Boxster. There is a board member on the Racing Forum here (Tom, ihis handle is thstone) that has documented his efforts to reduce weight. A tad different than doing the club sport you're doing, but fun to watch. Keep the photos and progress coming. And quit showing your wife the progress!

[BIGJake111]

Nice looking car! I look forward to seeing where it goes.

[KevinH1990]

What are the brand and model of your lift?

[rick3000]

Great looking car! Is it Guards Red, the first few pictures make it look almost orange?

[Topless]

2003 is a good year, Enjoy Matt!

I went through a similar process with my 2.5L Boxster and got the street car weight down to about 2800 wet. That made a noticeable difference in performance of the car. Light weight seats and an AGM/LI Iron battery will probably shave another 100lbs.

[madmodz]

Those stock seats are soooo heavy

[thstone]

Great looking car and I like the concept!

My Spec Boxster currently weighs around 2,461 lbs with no fuel (close to 500 lbs lighter than a stock 986).

Entire car build is documented here (thanks for the shoutout Chuck!): Spec Boxster Build

Also, the muffler you installed will give you a few extra horsepower at the high rpm (dyno results are in the link above) and removing the cat's and installing test pipes will definitely increase the SOUND LEVEL. I wear earplugs.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by KevinH1990

What are the brand and model of your lift?

DMS Lifts, it's a regional company based out of MO. Lots of local guys have them and are very happy.

Originally Posted by rick3000

Great looking car! Is it Guards Red, the first few pictures make it look almost orange?

Yes, Guards Red. It looks great in person after a detail, the pictures are a little washed out.

Originally Posted by Topless

2003 is a good year, Enjoy Matt!

I went through a similar process with my 2.5L Boxster and got the street car weight down to about 2800 wet. That made a noticeable difference in performance of the car. Light weight seats and an AGM/LI Iron battery will probably shave another 100lbs.

Thanks, both are on my to-do list. I would love a nice set of more aggressive seats like a Recaro SRD.

Originally Posted by thstone

Great looking car and I like the concept!

My Spec Boxster currently weighs around 2,461 lbs with no fuel (close to 500 lbs lighter than a stock 986).

Entire car build is documented here (thanks for the shoutout Chuck!): Spec Boxster Build

Also, the muffler you installed will give you a few extra horsepower at the high rpm (dyno results are in the link above) and removing the cat's and installing test pipes will definitely increase the SOUND LEVEL. I wear earplugs.

Great info there, thanks!

[boxxster]

I had that same muffler with cat bypass pipes on my 04 S. It was too much for me. As in it gave me a headache after 10 minutes. I took the muffler off the same day I put it on and put the stock one back on. This is coming from someone in their early 20s! The stock muffler with bypass pipes is a little quieter than what I would ideally want but I think it is a good compromise. Not to mention I think the stock tips look and fit a lot nicer.

Lots of people on here have the combo and like it, however. It just depends on what your preferences and expectations are. You've been warned

[hihobruce]

Where do the Oxygen sensors go after "cats" are removed?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by boxxster

I had that same muffler with cat bypass pipes on my 04 S. It was too much for me. As in it gave me a headache after 10 minutes. I took the muffler off the same day I put it on and put the stock one back on. This is coming from someone in their early 20s! The stock muffler with bypass pipes is a little quieter than what I would ideally want but I think it is a good compromise. Not to mention I think the stock tips look and fit a lot nicer.

Lots of people on here have the combo and like it, however. It just depends on what your preferences and expectations are. You've been warned

I have the same concern, but there's only one way to find out. At the moment it's marginally louder than the stock muffler. Once it sounds like my 911 with SSIs and a Dansk sport, then I'll be happy.

[DWBOX2000]

Onewippedpuppy from the pelican 911 gang? I remember the name from 10 years ago if same guy when I was a 911 guy. Enjoy your office topic stuff too. I think your new on the 986 board so welcome.

[aczyzewski]

I love the concept so thanks for sharing. I'm curious to know at what point in weight reduction to you start to feel a difference?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by DWBOX2000

Onewippedpuppy from the pelican 911 gang? I remember the name from 10 years ago if same guy when I was a 911 guy. Enjoy your office topic stuff too. I think your new on the 986 board so welcome.

The same! I was actually semi-active here a few years ago when I had a 1999 986. I've also had 5 987s so I'm not new to the mid-engined water pumpers.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by aczyzewski

I love the concept so thanks for sharing. I'm curious to know at what point in weight reduction to you start to feel a difference?

That's really a great question. Think of it this way, if you carry a 200 lb adult passenger can you tell a difference? I'm honestly not sure if I can or not, because it's really down to the butt dyno at that point. It would have been fun to run a legitimate instrumented performance test when stock then run it again after dropping some weight to see the improvement, because I'm sure there would be something. C&D did a magazine article several years ago where they did staged weight loss on a car and tested, by the time they had hacked it up entirely it was turning pretty good numbers.

[heliguy]

That's a beautiful car. Is that your 911 also?