6 months to live build thread

[steved0x]

This is my new favorite thread!

[itsnotanova]

Sorry I've been distracted these last few months. The rallycross boxster gets more impressive with every event. We added 17x8.5 with 265 tires in the front on the last event and came away with the number 1 in our class and .10 a second behind the fastest car there (WRX STI). That was with my partner driving. I came in fifth in class. That was behind my partner in first, a professional race car driver who has won at pikes peak in second, third and forth were two guys who race a lot. I'm not sure I'll ever be faster than my partner or the professional, but the other two are in my sights. The next day I took it to another track and got first overall. Needless to say the competition wasn't as strong at that track.

This weekend was suppose to be the next event for both tracks. In preparation for this weekend's race, I've been busy prepping it. There were three major items I wanted to address before this weekend. First was the need to get the motor to rev faster. Sometimes you come off a corner and you're down to 2000 rpm. You have a straight stretch in front of you and it's only 100ft long. I'm sure it's in my head, but it seems like eternity for the motor to reach 4000 or higher. I want power and I want it now!! The boxster is great all over the track but it kills most cars in the straights. I want to slaughter them! The best way to get this motor to rev quick is with a lightweight flywheel. It just so happens that I bought one for my 3.4 boxster. And it just so happens that I'm thinking about converting my 3.4 boxster to an Audi 2.7 turbo motor. So I have this $750 flywheel just sitting there not being used. It seems like the logical thing to do. I can't let the flywheel just sit there. Needless to say the rally boxster will rev up quicker now.

While I was at it I added a clutch disk and pressure plate out of a 3.2. The 3.2 and 3.4 have a narrower disk that help it bite better. I don't recommend doing this upgrade on a 5 speed as the shock can put unneeded stress on the gears. I'm racing in the dirt so my tires will spin. Unlike asphalt or concrete where the tires will grip and that shock goes directly to the gears.
The second thing on my list was a cage. I got the cage from a friend who had in a track toy. He ended up turning the car into a parts car but had left the cage in the car. His wife was sick of looking at it so we struck up a deal. I traded a 6 speed transmission, one axle and one rear upright for what was left of the car. He also threw in two custom axles that are for putting a cayman 6 speed into a 986 boxster.


The rear bumper my partner built was really getting to me. The more I saw it the more I disliked it. Luckily I also got another boxster in and was able to use that bumper. After installing the bumper I threw another quick paint job on the whole car.
After all this prep this week, turns out they cancelled the race for saturday as the track is half water from all the rain we keep getting. My fingers are still crossed that the track for Sunday's race dries out by then

[itsnotanova]

Drone video of my boxster racing.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eWpfvA9bB_MU7xkRURxYUu_ZeNlJBuKX/view?fbclid=IwAR3jQ49hpsClmOZZa0C7rQ9JjQVH3H5vT0hu FyVddKJnFj4kENyt3qal_a8


This is with the new rear bumper and cage

[TeamOxford]

That is HELLA cool, Woody !

Thanks for posting.

TO

[jreissenweber1]

damn ....

just found this thread ..
looks like you are really enjoying yourself ..

thanks for sharing ..

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[itsnotanova]

Thanks for the interest everyone. Sorry I've been up in Alaska hanging out with my Dad for the last few weeks. Trying to get away from the constant 100+ days we've been getting down here in Texas. On that note about Texas heat. My rallycross boxster does not like when it gets over 90. It can't handle two people racing it at the same event. The last two events it overheated after just a few runs. It might be able to handle just one person racing with it's current cooling system, but not two. At the last event in June my partner and I got in two runs each. On my second run(4th total), it was hovering at 190 at the starting line. By the time I crossed the finish line 1 minute later it had jumped all the way up to being pegged. We let it run for a few minutes and it barely cooled down. The whole system had become heat soaked and wasn't showing any signs of cooling down. We packed it up and went home. I had thought maybe the water pump had gone out but after closer inspection, the pump was in great shape and had recently been replaced. So I've been thinking on how I can rectify this problem. If you look at the whole cooling system, it's not that great. It has puny little base coolant tubes going to only one radiator and a mechanically driven water pump. Address any one of those problems, and it will probably fix the overheating problem on very hot days. I've decided to start with the water pump. I like the idea of using an electric water pump. It gives me the ability to regulate the water flowing through the motor with the engine running or not. I think with the EWP I can come into the pits, shut the motor off but continue to circulate coolant through the system with the electric fans still blowing over the radiator. I'm hoping the few minutes between runs should be enough time to cool everything down. Some other reasons I like the EWP is that it will free up some horsepower and I don't have to worry anymore about little pieces of water pump clogging up a water passage inside the motor.

In preparation of using a EWP, I took a low mile water pump and drimmeled off the propeller. I also removed the thermostat as I'll be controlling the flow of coolant with the EWP. I ordered a Craig Davies water pump. They sell a little LCD control unit too, but I'm to cheap to buy one of those. I plan on using a simple ON/Off toggle switch for now. The EWP was only $200

Jon, That rally Boxster is nice! The 2.7turbo motor is inspiration for my street boxster

[BRAN]

Looks like HELLA fun!
Awesome lightweigt rally Boxster.
Was that drone flying autonomous?
Now I just need a playground and within a fingersnip, I will transform my Boxster into that (I wish, lol)...I Need, I Need, I Need

[rick3000]

Not sure how I missed this thread until now, very cool Woody! Had a great time looking through the progress of the build!

[Smallblock454]

WOW! That video is awesome!

And congrats on the 1. place!

Hope we can see more content soon! Thank you!

Regards, Markus

[78F350]

Are you ready to post any updates yet? I just saw this intercooler set-up on Angry Spider and was wondering how your latest plans are coming along. Also, I'm liking their mud flaps.

[Hasbro]

Newby here. Great thread! I'm at a little under 2,500, shooting for 2,300?. It's amazing how much extra weight is on Boxsters. Street legal and keeping the ac because Georgia. Will lower windshield and make a sort of spyder/918 type roof.

[itsnotanova]

Originally Posted by 78F350

Looks good, nice buy on the wheels & tires. One issue with the current Toyota radiator set-up that I don't like is that the fan blows directly on the brake reservoir and ABS unit. I don't know if it's hot enough to really be a problem, but it worries me. I'm going to cut a section of aluminum heat shield from the piece that goes over the transmission and use that to deflect the air across and up. If that doesn't work, just mount a fan on the other side instead.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Most brake boosters in other cars live their life right above very hot exhaust manifolds. Sure cooler is better but I don't think the 180-190 air temp blowing on it will effect it.

Originally Posted by Hasbro

Newby here. Great thread! I'm at a little under 2,500, shooting for 2,300?. It's amazing how much extra weight is on Boxsters. Street legal and keeping the ac because Georgia. Will lower windshield and make a sort of spyder/918 type roof.

Thanks. Removing Interior and sound deadening pieces are where you'll get a lot of weight reduction. Even better if you go topless.

[itsnotanova]

Update on the radiator. I'm loving the new radiator/water pump. I don't think it has much more cooling capacity than the single Porsche radiator, but having another cap in the front is helpful. I can check if the waterpump is working, add coolant and bleed the system easier. I did notice that air was circulating around the radiator inside the trunk and not going through it. I bought some foam from Hobby Lobby and filled the air gaps around the radiator. I think I have my cooling issue solved. I'll know more come May.

The cooling issue has been a learning experience. Even bigger than that has been what tires to use and driving style. Everyone dictates that you need to use winter or rally tires and drift like crazy. I tried those winter tires and my times were down. I thought that maybe I needed to drift more now that I have the "correct" tires. Times were even slower! Maybe that's the case with some tracks, but where I race it seems to be wider and stickier tires work best. I've also noticed that the more the ass end swings out, the slower the car.


This past weekend I was at COTA helping some friends race in WRL. It's an endurance race with a 8 hour race on Saturday and 7 on Sunday. We finished second out of 22 both days and I think we're third out of 60+ in points for the year. We were only 10 seconds behind first on Sunday. The corvette that beat us blew it's radiator right before it crossed the finish line. One more lap and we would have gotten first and it would have also bumped us up in points to first for the year too. That's racing!


Anyway, while I was there I noticed this huge pile of tires. I believe they were left over tires from F1. I went over to look at them and noticed that about 1 out of 10 were competition racing rain tires with more than half their tread. There's still ton of life left in them. I quickly found someone who worked at COTA and asked what's the story with all the tires. He told me they were going to have to pay someone to take them away and I could have as many as I wanted. So I quickly stuffed as many as I could fit in my subaru. They were all for 18 inch wheels. I wish they were 17's but I can live with 18's. Specially when you're getting $400 tire's for free. There were a verity of widths. I grabbed 8 260mm, 2 280mm and 2 300mm wide tires. I skipped on the 320's.


Now I'm on the lookout for some 18x10or11 turbo twist

[itsnotanova]

So after a year of racing the 77,000 mile rear struts are blown. I plan on replacing them with a set off a 2001 S tiptronic. I'm hoping the stiffer spring rate will help with compression, but not be too stiff that my rear end is bouncing all over the place. Everyone I've seen, no matter the car, has had problems with too stiff a rear end. Cross my fingers this decision doesn't set me back. Seeing that I'll be taking the rear suspension apart, I decided to also reinforce the rear subframes. I've seen lots of guys break them on asphalt tracks. Most of the time it's when they go off track sideways. It's a huge problem for the 97-98.5 boxsters. I'm actually surprised I haven't broke one yet as the suspension wasn't designed to have the car landing sideways after getting lift. I took a pair and had my neighbor tig weld on plating to box in the part of the subframe that gets the most abuse.

[itsnotanova]

It looks like I've started a new fad. I had a customer come out and watched me at one race. He went back home and turned his 2.7 5 speed boxster into a rallycross car. He did ok his first time out but I haven't seen him since. He did make it to one race that I couldn't attend. I'll post some pictures of his boxster when I get some.

My friend who originally had joined in on my boxster has decided to build his own rallycross boxster. He's using a 2001 S 6 speed with 135k as his car. The first race he brought the car to, he used his the first half and mine the second. He said both cars were about the same. Mine turned and rode better but his had more power. He set the fastest time of the day with his. He brought it out this past weekend and broke a toe link on the first run. The car is a work in progress.

I also have a customer/facebook friend who saw me posting about it and decided to start rallycrossing his 924.

[GLImages]

I want to do this so bad! I have done one amateur rallycross in my brother's WRX wagon. Might be the most fun in a car I have ever had. Keep the pics coming!!

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[itsnotanova]

Originally Posted by GLImages

I want to do this so bad! I have done one amateur rallycross in my brother's WRX wagon. Might be the most fun in a car I have ever had. Keep the pics coming!!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Do it! It's a blast.

[itsnotanova]

[itsnotanova]

I'll post more pics later

[itsnotanova]

About a little over a month ago I invited my friends on facebook to join me at an event and they could drive whatever car I wasn't. Forum member Senigen decided to come out and give it a try. He looked a little nervous but was eager to get in the boxster and give it a try. He had a long history of DE, porsches and recently spec boxster racing, so I was confident in handing him the keys. He went out there and drove respectfully for his first time. With every run he improved. My other friend brought his rallycross boxster too but was having issues with his boxster. He's decided to try driving mine so he could compare the two. Senigen made his 6th run and my friend jumped in after Senigen pulled in. My friend pulled up to the starting line and took off. About 75 feet down the track the rear wheels locked up and the car wouldn't restart. I ran down and helped push it off the track. The boxster was done for the day. After the race we tried jump starting it as we towed it back to the trailer but the damage was done. The motor was seized. I haven't taken it apart to see what happen internally but I suspect the abuse of overheating it this past summer caught up to it and the crank bearings gave up. These motors don't like being overheated. So the car sat while I got enough motivation to replace the motor. I had a 2.7 out of a 2000 that I've been sitting on for two years now. The car was bought non-running, partially dismantled and missing the transmission. I suspected the motor was still good and looked clean inside. I took a gamble and decided to try using that motor. While I was replacing the motor, I decided to try some performance experiments and upgrades. First on the list was a semi-solid engine mount. I just replaced the rubber mount a few months ago. When I was removing the blown engine, I noticed that the replacement rubber mount was already splitting. I also decided to use some upgraded transmission mounts I had laying around. Here's where the experiment begins. I've also decided to throw a 3.4 intake/throttle body on it. I suspect I might lose some low end torque but gain a significant amount of horsepower up high. I'm rarely below 3000rpm, so HP matters more than TQ to me. I've put a 3.4 intake on a 3.2 before and didn't notice any difference between a 3.2 motor with a 3.4 intake and a 3.4 motor with a 3.4 intake. I did that experiment on my street boxster a few years back. I'm curious to see how the 2.7 responds to the same intake.


This time I wanted to do things a little different. Last time I followed Pelican Parts 101 things to do to a boxster. I used the 996 fuel rails last time and to this day I regret it. It has you spicing into the stock fuel line and to me that's a fail point that one day come loose and start a fire. This time I used the 986 fuel rail and it was much easier and safer. I modified some hose clamps to hold the fuel rail to the aluminum 996 intake runners.

Another difference was that I need the bottom of the motor to sit at the same height as with the 986 intake. With the type of racing I do, I don't need the motor any lower than it already is. Being a race car, I don't mind hacking up some sheet metal. As you can see in the pictures, the intake sits higher than the engine cover and I now have the air filter and maf sensor inside the trunk. I plan on boxing in the filter and drawing air from above the trunk. Here's some photos of the new engine cover getting built. The first pic is the cover cut for clearance. I then covered the motor with three towels (for clearance) and then a sheet of plastic. I then plan on laying fiberglass over that.