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Building a Boxster race car in your home garage....A to Z...
Hello All,
Recently with the help of some friends we built a "Spec Boxster" track and autocross car in the span of 8 calendar days. We documented the build in a local car club in Northern California but several folks have said this would be a good place to post since many people may be interested in how our build went. Spec Boxster is a startup competition class in POC (Porsche Owners Club) much like Spec Miata or other classes that have a recipe for the type of modifications that are done to the car. The series is based on the 1997 to 1999 2.5L cars, but will undoubtedly branch out to the later cars as the series grows. As most of the startup activities are based in the Southern California area, I'm trying to carry the flag and generate interest in Northern California. For me, The Boxster is a great platform for a track car. We plan on competing in local Time Trials, Autocrosses, and club racing with not only the POC and PCA, but other car clubs as well. Have a look at our build. All I can say is 8 consecutive days from daily driver to Viper killer!.... We decided to gather a small group of friends from the 914Club and take a weekend to build our Spec Boxster. Working on a car is nothing new to 914 guys, but working on a nice rust free chassis that all bolts together sure was! Our timeline looked like this: Fri Oct 20th: pull windshield Sat/Sun Oct 21st and 22nd: R&R Spec suspension and gut car Mon Oct 23rd: Drop car at TC Design for cage install Thu Oct 26th: Pick up car from TC Design, reassemble dash Fri Oct 27th: AM re-install windshield, PM corner balance and align Sat Oct 28th: AX the Spec to shake it down Sun Nov 12th: Infineon Raceway test day Here are some pics documenting what we did. We started with the donor car, 1997 chassis with 68K original miles and hardtop. http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1160279048.jpg |
My wife cooks breakfast for the crew of 6 people....
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161443822.jpg |
We assign a team to the suspension and a team to the interior...
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161464698.jpg |
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I purchased my suspension goodies for the car's transformation from Epiq Autosport....Thanks Todd!
Since this is going to be a track only car, we swapped out the stock PSS9 springs for 450lbs springs in the front and 500lbs springs in the rear.... http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161465458.jpg |
plasma cutter to the door....I plan on running some custom door covers (ala GT3 style) to clean up the look and have a latch...
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161465607.jpg |
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Boxster entrails on the front lawn.....
lotsa stuff in these cars to pull out.... http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161466022.jpg |
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Sparco Pro2000 seats in the car and a wheel mounted....
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161530519.jpg |
me backing the car out of the drive way for an 11:30pm test spin...
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161530546.jpg |
Stage I of car build completed. We took it from street car to ready for cage install in a time period of 28 hours. 9am Saturday to 1:00pm Sunday....
Here's what "Lucille" looks like now.... http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161552381.jpg |
things temporarily zip tied together for transport to TC Design for the cage install....
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161552671.jpg |
3 days later I got the car back with a handbuilt TIG welded safety cage inside the car. We decided on a custom cage versus the bolt in types due to wanting to make the car as easy as possible to get in and out of and to help with driver visibility.
side view...the bars are hidden... http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161838941.jpg |
TC Design did my cage. The do great work and went the extra mile in designing the cage to fit the car.
rear view....x brace http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161838996.jpg |
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"A" pillar....notice how close to the A pillar the bar is...the AC grill is untouched and sides are not damaged...
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161839323.jpg |
Let's go inside and see all the custom bends on a hand built cage....notice how Tony snugged everything up to the top...and the latch is free and clear!
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161839417.jpg |
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Here's the trick part....the knee bar is up behind the lower dash pad, but he did not trim the lower pad. It fits perfectly between the back of where the CD player used to be and in front of the AC/fresh air diverter. I definitely can use some flexible hose to the outer vents if I choose to....don't know if I will but I may....
Take a look.... http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161840113.jpg http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1161840125.jpg |
Now with the build completed it was time to drive...
My race partner and I took our Spec Boxster out for it's maiden voyage at an AX the following weekend. This is the car that we took from bone stock to Spec Boxster trim in 8 calendar days. Out of 100+ cars we met our goal as we both put the car in the top 10 overall. We ended up 6th and 7th overall and coming in 1st and 2nd in class. We were the highest placing Boxster overall and beat all the Cayman's. All this with a bone stock 68K mile 2.5 liter motor. We did put on a gutted muffler...but that probably hurt our low end. We were on Victoracers. Overall the car was a delight to drive, very easy to turn and toss and the platform was extremely balanced. Here are a few pics of my co-driver Randal and I in action. Action picks from the AX....from street car to Spec in 8 days..... One of the folks that helped with the build, Dan Thompson and I at the sweeper at end of course.... http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1162225072.jpg |
Braking and turn in after the high speed section of the course....
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1162225148.jpg |
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Randal starting in on the backside of the course...
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads...1162225277.jpg |
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