pics of New Wheels and GT3 Seats
 

old 17" S wheels


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18" Carrera 5 Spokes with RA-1 Toyos (225&245). These tires are insanely sticky. I should have ordered 245 for the front and 275 for the back. Plenty of wheel well to spare, I' have no plans of lowering the car or any other mech mods.

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Recaro GT3 Seats, slightly used compliments of Ebay. I was planning on putting the old seats back in at the end of summer/racing season. Now way man, these seats are the greatest thing I have ever done to a car. They're staying in until I part with this car. I'm considering getting one for the house.
Installation is a snap, 20 minutes each side. No drilling or modification needed. just remove your seat belt female receptacle from the old seat and attach to your new GT3 seat. ***Honda, Ford Mustang and Chevy Corvette designer dudes: This is what a sports car interior is supposed to look like!

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I picked up a GT3 MK1 OEM front bumper that I'll be either adding these RS style inlets or popping in a set of GT2 louvers. GT3 MK2 (or new GT3 style) side skirts are on the way.
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A fellow autocrossing buddy told me he has a rollbar extension like on this white Boxster lying around from his old Boxster. Apparently its an easy installation.

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I upgraded to Litronics from a Brandywine group buy. Not so impressed with the bang for the buck. I guess its not meant for Urban drivers. This would definitely have been a bottom of the list upgrade.
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I earlier picked up a set of used clear tail lights for $150. A nice mod, even if no one noticed the amber was gone. Chrome plastic BoxsterS badge from the 550 edition Boxster.
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Gorgeous! What color is your interior? Stock or did you do this yourself?

It stockola. Boxster Red.
Funny, in the 996 its also called Boxster Red. :D

You got 245 series rubber on the back? Why so skinny? Maybe I read your post wrong.

wow, im jealous

Looks awesome! If I didn't like my power/heated seats, I would seriously considered finding a set of those.

What kind of wheel spacers did you have to put on to prevent rubbing when you went from 17's to those very nice 18's?

Lapper: Love the wheels. Does your right cheek bump into seat bolster/rail upon entry?

Great package.


Jim

yeah getting in your bum does take a few bumps. The side bolster is stiffer than it looks. But you develop a method unless you haven't had that cup of coffee yet after a long Sunday night. :D

RN,
no wheel spacers needed to go to 18" as long as you keep it at 9" width in the back. Everyone seems to agree spacer are not good if you plan to track or autocross. I got some incorrect advice from Frisby Race Tire on tire size.
the rears will be going up front and a set of 275's will go in back. Any body want to buy some 225's? :)

p.s. 29psi all around was recomended for the 70mph AutoX.
26F and 32R for daily driving recomended by the tech at the Porsche dealer.

My 18's have 225's and 265's on them.

I think the tech is on crack. 26/32 will be understeer madness, not to mention open up the front wheels for potential pothole damage with that low a pressure. Check with the guys on the Boxster racing board for pressure recommendations.


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29F 36R for a conventional street tire as per Porsche.
26 and 32 didn't sound so bizarre to me given the ultra stiffness(make that super ultra stiff) of the sidewall.
Running a racing tire on the street with too high a pressure often results in excessive center wear but you're right the Porsche techs are probably told to dial in oversteer for the average P-Car driver, keeps them from getting into trouble.

I was thinking about putting 10mm spacers all around on my S...why would that be a bad thing for track/auto-X?

using spacers results in more stress on the wheel bearings. I know Porsche sells spacer kits (5mm?) but I think they come with a disclaimer about racing/autox.
Heavily modified racing suspensions will often use them but that's a whole different story.

Ok. So it wouldn't hamper performance in anyway then? It just increases bearing wear. I thought alot of ppl on the boxster racing board had spacers and alot of them hit the track. Is this actually something to be concerned about with just occasional track use or an isolated incident? Why would heavily modified suspension reduce the load on the bearing?

I wouldn't worry about using spacers so long as it's not too excessive. Sure there's going to be more wear on the bearings. But so what? When you're autoxing or on the track you're also adding more stress on the brakes, tires, chassis, etc. Running 18" wheels adds more stress vs. 17", blah blah blah.

BTW, Porsche has a disclaimer about taking your car on the track...period; it's not just for the spacers.

And about the tire pressure issue:
It is a general concensus among a lot of the people on the Boxster racing board that Porsche's recommendation is garbage. It sets up the car to really understeer. Air up to 33F/36R and it'll feel like a different car. Having a stiff sidewall is great, but if you don't have enough air to support the car then you are risking a blowout due to stressing the sidewalls (see Ford Explorer fiasco) and damaging wheels. Run low pressure at your own risk!


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Thankyou for your response Lux. I think I will get the spacers to fill out the wheel wells. 10mm seems like a good compromise between too large and too small of a change. I'm glad you said that about tire pressure...33/36 is exactly what is in mine right now. I go up to about 40 all around when I auto-x.

I just replaced a set of wheel bearings at my local dealer.

$615 per wheel.

Just thought I would add the cost element here.

$615 :eek:

be careful up front some drivers with spacers complain of "wheel wobble".
Its a tricky science getting the right off set/wheel/tire/spacer. Make sure those lug are properly torqued.

$615??? :eek: That's the dealer for you. Now go have them replace your brakes and see how much $$$ they charge. :D It's much, much cheaper to do it yourself obviously. Usually wheel bearing replacements are a simple DIY, no? ...although I've never done one on a Porsche...

I have also heard of owners that have had wheel wobble issues with non-hubcentric spacers. You definitely want to be hubcentric. Not only does the hub need to be concentric with the spacer, but the spacer needs to be concentric with the wheel...thus making all 3 components concentric.


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