986 mods - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

markh · 04-18-2010, 09:51 AM

hello, I am both new to my 986 S and to this forum, I am looking to modify my car and would welcome any help I can get. Here are my objectives, I would like improve th ehandeling and the power, so her eis my shopping list in some sort of order

1, dampers and springs (was thing KW any better options?)
2. wheels and tyres (have 17's on it but am thinking 18's something light)
3. maybe look at the brakes (they seem okay, but am still gettiing used to car)
4. limited slip diff
5. lastly a low pressure turbo as the car seems woefully under powered
6. put the car on diet, try to lose 100kg+ carbon fibre bonnet and boot

I f anyone has any other ideas please feel free to suggest them

thanks

Mark

kabel · 04-18-2010, 10:21 AM

oh dear, here we go again.

Welcome to the forum markh

jwade · 04-18-2010, 10:35 AM

See responses below. Just some unbiased thoughts from someone that has been here for a while...Do a search too as this topic comes up all the time.

Boxsters are just well balanced fun cars that pretty much run on a well optimized design from the factory as is. They are expensive to tinker with so you need to be aware of this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by markh

hello, I am both new to my 986 S and to this forum, I am looking to modify my car and would welcome any help I can get. Here are my objectives, I would like improve th ehandeling and the power, so her eis my shopping list in some sort of order

1, dampers and springs (was thing KW any better options?)

Porsche Tequipment RoW M030 or Bilstein PSS9/10

2. wheels and tyres (have 17's on it but am thinking 18's something light)

Go 18" - either carrera lites or turbo twists look the best. I have twists. I do not run spacers and correct boxster wheel fit are 7.5 x 18 up front and 9x18 rear.

3. maybe look at the brakes (they seem okay, but am still gettiing used to car)

I have has zero issues with my brakes. S brakes are fine. If you have a higher mileage car, maybe you need to replace rotors and pads, but most likely, just pads.

4. limited slip diff

Going to pay some bucks for this and unless you are going to a spec racer level, I think the stock S diff is fine.

5. lastly a low pressure turbo as the car seems woefully under powered

I would not do this unless you went with Turbowerx system and had it professionally installed by them. Most people here go with an 3.6 engine swap and that's going to run you twice what a turbo does @ approx. 20k.

6. put the car on diet, try to lose 100kg+ carbon fibre bonnet and boot

You can loose some weight of the rear by deleting the secondary cats and going with some fabspeed bypass pipes. There are some other things too, but nothing huge unless you really plan on going spec and stripping the car down to bare bones.

I f anyone has any other ideas please feel free to suggest them

thanks

Mark

extanker · 04-18-2010, 11:04 AM

gen 1 or gen 2 ?

markh · 04-18-2010, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by extanker

gen 1 or gen 2 ?

Gen 1 2000

extanker · 04-18-2010, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markh

Gen 1 2000

i have gen 2...my vette pals call it a pooch on the porch...cuz this dog wont hunt...so you aint alone saying it needs more power

markh · 04-18-2010, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by extanker

i have gen 2...my vette pals call it a pooch on the porch...cuz this dog wont hunt...so you aint alone saying it needs more power

Yes have come from a 5.0 TVR 400BHP and 980kg, so am used to a bit more grunt!

blackadder · 04-18-2010, 04:03 PM

If you are after big gains, TPC have a turbo kit that is probably your best option. You can do things like exhaust, intake, retune, etc - and while these will give you gains, they will probably not be what you seem to be looking for.

Handling - a few people have KW v3, Bilstiens, if you are staying on the road only the ROW M030 is good (that is what I have).

Brakes - S brakes should be fine, unless you add a turbo then you might like to look at GT3 brakes.

LSD - Can't recommend one as I have no personal experience. But on the LSD option - an Aussie mag ran a 'Tuned' car shootout. A Cayman S was part of it and its only mods were exhaust, retune and LSD. On track (only a short circuit, under 3ks/2mls) it was only about a half a second slower than a tuned turbo that was running coilovers. All the testers commented that the addition of the LSD really helped to make a great car EVEN BETTER.

kabel · 04-18-2010, 05:34 PM

Why did you buy a boxster?

markh · 04-18-2010, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kabel

Why did you buy a boxster?

because it looked like the basis of a good project, is this okay with you?

Topless · 04-18-2010, 08:36 PM

The Boxster is a great project car. Ignore all the fluff and just get serious. Anything less than this will just be weak sauce for you.

1- 3.6L X51 motor complete- $20K
1- set JRZ or Motons $7K
1- weight loss stripdown to 2000lbs with driver.

Keep your 17s and run Hoosiers. You will be shredding a lot of tires with this setup and 17s are about 40% less per tire.

Then just focus on keeping the shiny side up. Good luck!

al83s · 04-18-2010, 10:44 PM

Here are some of my ideas on the weight loss (some already done, some on the way):
Lose spare tire and tools
Stock exhaust is really heavy, how about a spec-like stock header-custom cat bypass-magnaflow race muffler setup.
Lose the stock seats in favor of some manually adjustable or fixed-back race seats+5-point belts
Lightweight wheels (I saw a 500awhp 997tt pick up ~20 whp by switching from stock rims to a set of really light Dymags)
Lose the airbags all around and install a momo wheel (not for everybody, but I dont mind)
some light-weight battery (kinda expensive)

That would give you several hundreed punds, without sacrificing too much comfort.
If you want to go further - lose stereo and speakers, AC/heater, gut doors, lose trunk carpeting and all the sound insulation, CF hood/trunk, interior carpet, lose the convertible top etc. etc.

Regarding the rest of the mods, stock breaks + race pads should be enough, +1 on m030 or PSS9+ stiffer sway-bars.
It is very expensive to make your car equally fast in a straight line to a corvette, that just wasn't the point. . . I am playing with the idea of a turbo kit or a 3.6 transplant myself in a few years.
Good Luck with your car, Im sure you will enjoy it.

extanker · 04-19-2010, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kabel

Why did you buy a boxster?

i didnt...its a cracker smack n jack ride...some fool elton john type came to da hood lookin 4 sum rock wit no money.....but dis po is 2 slo to flea from 5 0 so i,m cuttin it up....waazz ya need elton

kabel · 04-19-2010, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markh

because it looked like the basis of a good project, is this okay with you?

um, sure.
I was just curious.
We see a lot of first time posts like this and it surprises me that some project oriented people tend to not do much research before investing in a project car.

Of course if cost is not an issue you can do a lot, like what Topless listed out.

markh · 04-19-2010, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kabel

um, sure.
I was just curious.
We see a lot of first time posts like this and it surprises me that some project oriented people tend to not do much research before investing in a project car.

Of course if cost is not an issue you can do a lot, like what Topless listed out.

That is a fair comment, I did a fair amount of research before I made my choice, I looked at Lotus Elise/Exige (although a great drive, where a bit too basic and a slightly 'homemade' feeling, abit like my TVR's) an M3 (but am not an inner city drug dealer) and even a Caterham (was a bit too exposed)
The Boxster ticked most of the boxes straight away, well built handled pretty well, was convertble, seemed the perfect base for a quick road/trackday toy, as I said the only real problem was lack of power, this will the final part of my upgrade and only after the chassis is done to take the extra power.

Sammy · 04-19-2010, 03:20 PM

LSD was the best mod I put on the car other than Hoosiers. For street driving it wouldn't be worth it but autocross and the occasional track day it is worth every penny. It transforms how the car handles and how hard you can push it. I estimate that it took 1 or more seconds off of my typical autocross run simply because it helps keep the rear inside wheel powered when going through corners.

SeattleBoxers · 04-20-2010, 08:17 PM

It sounds like you might want to get a newer Boxster S that has more HP to start with...

That's probably the best bang for the buck.

markh · 04-20-2010, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeattleBoxers

It sounds like you might want to get a newer Boxster S that has more HP to start with...

That's probably the best bang for the buck.

Hmm thanks, not terribly useful as I have just bought the car

mbdevore · 04-21-2010, 09:58 AM

LOL. Don't feel bad man. I whent from an 84 944 to a 98 Boxster expecting to be able to make a super car out of it haha. Boy was I wrong. But now im stuck with it and im only 21 years old and not alot of money so it's not like I could just go get a newer one. But I still love my boxster. I would say swapping the engine does sound like the best idea. I hear right off the bat you gain an aditional 100hp.
Maybe even look into getting a used engine and rebuilding. There are alot of junk yards out there that have some fine engines.