Best / First track mods?

[Jriley9922]

2002 boxster base.
Have track brakes and tires on the car... it's being turned into a 24hr lemons car.

just for the record... I am not ruining a good car here :0 ... salvage auction car that someone took a baseball bat and a knife to pretty much the entire interior and exterior... and it wouldn't start, so it was dirt cheap.

Mechanically, I've sorted what it needs... and it did great at the first track day in summer heat.
So now I'm onto the cage... and while I'm here, what are the common things track folks do on these cars?
Definitely interested in any cooling solutions... even though the stock system did fine on track... if there are any common 'tricks' to improve that?
It's a lemons car, so at least for now mainly looking at DIY type of stuff... ducting, re-routing air, etc... i have no issues cutting stuff up and making ducts/flaps.

anyone done a generic universal $100 oil cooler from Amazon? We put one on our other lemons car and it works great, but it's a Ford... i know very little about boxsters... but I'm sure i'll be finding out a bunch here, hopefully not sooner than later.

[Gilles]

For improved cooling, try to find a used center radiator for the front bumper and a larger (GT3) heat exchanger

[S50Sinner]

I've done a few free mods for daily driving, but they could help on track (plus some I've heard about but not tried)

1. remove the clutch helper spring. This is easy and free, there are plenty of write-ups around, look up "clutch helper delete". Others have replaced it with a McMaster-Carr spring, but I find the unassisted clutch pedal perfect, and can feel the bite point way better. To preserve engagement of the top-of-travel switch, I zip-tied a piece of vacuum hose onto the nub that pushes it. Sometimes on start-up I have to pull the clutch up with my toes to engage it, then it goes back to working perfect for the whole day. But any squishy thing between the pedal leg and the top switch will keep everything working well.

2. I don't think the snorkel delete does anything noticeable for performance, but it makes the intake sound really cool and gets rid of a few ounces. Ripping the foam off the stock air filter also makes it lighter and hypothetically better-flowing, but of course it's just another excuse to make the intake louder. My intake sounds phenomenal with both of these done.

3. I haven't done it yet, but it's popular to drill through the exhaust tip into the muffler chamber to get a fuller exhaust note. Again, drill out like 2 grams of metal as an excuse to have a louder car. CRIOS mod works even better if you have a welder.

3. Shifter risers are popular, just a plate that lifts the whole mechanism closer to the steering wheel. Pretty easy to fab if you have a sheet-metal brake or a bench vise and hammer. I haven't done this or the following mods.

4. slotting the front strut towers can let you get more camber, you want close to 1.5 degrees for ideal/ neutral cornering, and will also keep your outside shoulders from getting chewed up in endurance races.

5. Many spec racers delete the evap canister from behind the front right fender, it's supposedly quite heavy.

Here are some not-so-free upgrades that are often recommended:

1. An under-drive pulley helps keep the power steering system from overheating and reclaims some 5hp from parasitic drag. If you can spare the cash, the harmonically-balanced one can possibly extend engine life.

2. A deep oil sump kit is nice to have

3. The 996 oil pressure sensor is a direct bolt-in where the factory sensor goes, and can be plugged into an oil pressure gauge. The factory sensor is an on-off for the idiot light.

4. another pair of rear wheels on the front are popular for racing. Combined with added camber it makes the car too tail-happy, but with a bigger front sway bar it balances out. Worth considering if you still think it understeers too much after slotting the towers.

I don't have experience with any of these other than the first two, but have been browsing this forum avidly for several months and this is the sum of what I learned.

[78F350]

Inexpensive front brake cooling mod: https://986forum.com/forums/diy-project-guides/34296-installing-gt3-brake-cooling-deflectors.html

[Jriley9922]

thanks 78f, definitely will scoop those up for a few bucks.

appreciate the insight S50sinner,

i saw the snorkel delete, I don't think it does anything either, so i'll just leave the intake stock.
as for the exhaust, that 40 pounds of muffler is coming off all together.

shift risers don't seem necessary, I'm probably sitting much lower in the car since I mounted a racing seat to the floor.

slotting the strut towers is definitely a good idea... I've been looking for coilovers with camber plates, and I see a set on ebay generic brand for $900... kind of hoping between now and early spring to find a set used pop up on here, ebay, Facebook, wherever

evap delete I shall look into

underdrive pulley... wouldn't it reduce water pump output? Probably the #1 important thing for Lemons is keeping the car from overheating. That's true for any endurace race, but lemons we're not typically shelling out big bucks for custom cooling solutions.

The rear wheels up front I already did for the car's first shakedown day, bought a pair of rears locally and ran 255 kuhmos squared. car felt fine, but I don't have track time in any other boxster, so I have no reference to what a stock or well built boxster handles like. Just this salvage car with blown shocks on wide sticky tires... i thought it was pretty good start considering where it will end up with some kind of suspension/cooling/aero upgrades.

[S50Sinner]

Many people here run the UD pulley on track with no impact on temperature, the water flowing slower through the engine just gets more exposure time, so inlet/outlet has a greater difference, but the same applies at the radiators so it balances out. It's still well within the functioning range of the system and as far as I'm aware has zero downsides unless you plan on running A/C at idle, which doesn't get quite as cold with the UDP.

If you're getting camber plates, slotting the towers is probably unnecessary.

edit: also I think the best thing I've done to the car was by far the clutch helper delete, it makes shifting feel waaay more natural.

[Jriley9922]

hmm, i see your point. entire HVAC system is gone, so that's not a concern.

anything GT3 related sounds like it's going to be expensive, even a heat exchanger
That might be a DIY project janking a small center radiator in there somewhere.

gotcha on the clutch helper delete. will take a look at it and try it out.

[elsabeth]

Adding a small center radiator as a DIY project can be a clever way to manage cooling if the factory heat exchanger is too pricey or unavailable. Ensure it’s properly sized for your application and that it has enough airflow to be effective.