Best sub $1k power mods?

[mikefocke]

What are the rules at your track? What mods are allowed? What class are you running in?

What safety improvements have you installed?

Obviously have you done significant time with an instructor? Have you done any instrumented and recorded laps to allow you to review your performance? IOW, have you gotten the most out of the driver?

[NewArt]

Originally Posted by mikefocke

What are the rules at your track? What mods are allowed? What class are you running in?

What safety improvements have you installed?

Obviously have you done significant time with an instructor? Have you done any instrumented and recorded laps to allow you to review your performance? IOW, have you gotten the most out of the driver?

I hear you mate. The answer to your last question is a resounding NO! However, one doesn’t preclude the other. I’m not racing, just trying to hang with my 911 buddies on the straights.
I have spent quite a bit of time with instructors and will continue to do that on occasion as I continue to improve.

[jsceash]

Originally Posted by NewArt

I hear you mate. The answer to your last question is a resounding NO! However, one doesn’t preclude the other. I’m not racing, just trying to hang with my 911 buddies on the straights.
I have spent quite a bit of time with instructors and will continue to do that on occasion as I continue to improve.

It is very hard to hang with a 911 in the straights with a 986. You need to beat them in the corners, but like Tom and others stated that take training and getting smooth so you can carry more speed before the pedals goes to the floor. But once the pedals go down there isn't much hope if your not carrying more speed than they are out of the corner.

These cars with bigger brakes can enter the corner faster, so brake later and catch them going into the corner. Trail braking does not upset them as quickly, which sets you up so you can be of full throttle much faster sometime even before the apex. The 911 can't do that. Learn these 2 things and you can cut down your corner time by seconds while increasing your exit speed by 10 or more MPH above them.

1. Find 100 pounds to remove from the car, more if you're willing to part with trim and fluff
2. Get a set of Pagig R19 or R29 brake pads. These will not fade and wear like steel.
3. Buy a set of slick tires BF Goodrich R1S, Hankook Z214 or Hoozier R7

[Topless]

Yep, I am sure there must be some fast 986 cars out there somewhere with just the intake, plenum, throttle body, and re-flash mods, I just haven't seen any. Ever. The 986 guys consistently at the pointy end of the time sheet have 4 things in common: suspension, tires, weight reduction, and talent.

YMMV

[thstone]

Originally Posted by mikefocke

Have you done any instrumented and recorded laps to allow you to review your performance? IOW, have you gotten the most out of the driver?

As Mike suggests and without a doubt, the best investment of $1,000 is in high performance driving instruction.

Even with a completely stock Boxster on street tires, an untrained driver is, by far, the weakest link in the pursuit of going fast on a race track.

No one would expect to walk into a calculus class and think that they could just kind of "pick it up as they go" just because they've been doing addition and subtraction their whole lives, would they? Of course, not. Then why do people think that they can show up to a race track and know how to really go fast just because they've been driving around on the street? Like calculus, high performance driving is a skill wholly unto itself.

And track driving isn't about having big balls. The size of your balls has very little to do with performance driving. Its really all about learning specific driving techniques; techniques that you have most likely never been taught or practiced.

Even after 135+ track days and 50+ races and as a DE/Time Trial instructor myself, I still hired a professional instructor to work with me over this weekend because I still don't know everything. We analyzed video and data and I had another driver's data (who is faster than me and who graciously shared his data) to compare against. The insights were astounding and it helped me to pick up quite a bit of time per lap. And it doesn't end when we left the track, since the instructor and I will have a call to go over final points and talk about what I need to work on next later this week.

Forget about the car mod's and get as much seat time and instruction as you can because the most fun you can have is outrunning the 911's in your stock Boxster because you are a better driver then they are!