6 months to live build thread
 

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About two years ago I was at a SCCA autocross event and there was a Miata that was completely stripped of everything. No body panels, no interior, nothing. It was just a bare bones rolling chassis. It was by far the ugliest car there but it performed pretty good. The theory is lighter is better and with autocross aerodynamics isn't as important because you don't really go that fast. I thought it would be fun to do that with a boxster. I've been daydreaming about building one for years but never had the time or a good car to use. "Good" in as not wrecked and no one would buy the motor as soon as I got it. I got this car last year after hurricane Harvey. It was flooded but water didn't make it into the motor or transmission. The interior was shot but the car only had 72,000 miles and ran great once I put a good immobilizer in it. It's a 2001 2.7 manual. I rarely sell 2.7 5 speeds and 2.7 motors don't exactly fly off the shelves either. As you can see from the pic, I've been picking parts off it. I had a few bites on the motor but she's just been sitting for the last year. So I figure I'll have some fun with it since it's just sitting there.

So here's my plans. I want to do just like that Miata. I'm going to remove almost everything that doesn't keep the car from moving. I want to make this thing the lightest I can make it. I also don't want to spend a dime doing it. In fact, not spending money trumps everything. The second most important thing is time, because I have none to spare. Removing weight is the easiest and cheapest way to make a vehicle perform better and I'm going to test that theory to the extreme.

You're probably wondering what I'm going to do with it once I'm done building it? Well the first thing I want to do is a few autocross events. I know they won't care about the way it looks. I'd also like to take it to a drag strip for ****************s and giggles. See what she'll do in a 1/8 or 1/4. Heck why not right? If she makes it that far then I have some real fun planned for her on Easter. I have epic Easter parties. This year I plan on getting some beater cars and have a race around my property with them. I've already built the track on about 4 acres and have a 2000 camry and 1999 Legacy lined up to race. I plan on taking the racing slicks off and installing some 31 AT's on it to see what she'll do in the sand. My property is all sand so I'm hoping it doesn't get stuck. The subaru might kill it on the offroad track. I can't wait for Easter! So if the boxster makes it this far, then the great finale of it's life will be when I jump it over other boxsters. Hence the title"6 months to live".

Ok.... I'm in.
Subscribed.

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+2! Sounds like a fun project.

I’m diggin it!
 

:dance:

Hold my beer....

I'm in, me too, want to see it.

right on. hack off the windshield. i've heard there is 20+ pounds of rust-proofing on the underside of the car. regulations require a roll bar or dashboard? probably need your interior door structure for rigidity unless you seam weld? drill holes in everything!!! don't need radiator fans, bumpers, charcoal canister, fender liners, underbody panels, headlights, abs. straight pipes are lightest. manual steering.

I looked online, but couldn't find an article I read in Hot Rod magazine many years ago. They took a giant late '60's Pontiac sedan with a 455 cu-in V8 and wrote about the performance gains possible from reducing weight.

They started out with 4 very large men and a trunk full of tool chests, and ran a 21 second 1/4 mile. They then set about removing weight with a cutting torch. By the end of the article, it was basically a bare chassis with a milk crate for the driver to sit on. They did put slicks on the drive wheels, because it was so light that it would just smoke the tires the entire 1/4 mile. If I remember correctly, they ended up with the car weighing less than half of it's original weight, and were able to get into the 11's in the 1/4. That is with no modifications to the engine or drivetrain, simply less weight.


It will be interesting to see how far itsnotanova will go to remove the pounds from the car.

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Here's the pile of stuff going straight into the garbage. An equally size pile was saved to sell. I still have quite a bit of wiring to remove but I want to get the exhaust and cooling system done first. I've seen people go crazy ripping out wiring and then have issues. I plan on getting it running and then slowly removing unnecessary wiring.
I spent a lot of today planning out how to modify the exhaust and cooling system. The 986 exhaust system is extremely restrictive and heavy. Mostly the catalytic convertors are worth money and that's the biggest reason I'm going to make my own exhaust. I had these 997 exhaust manifolds laying around. As you can see in the pictures, the difference in tube size is huge. Maybe even too much.
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They aren't a bolt in but I should be able to mount them and run the exhaust over the axles like the 987. For the cooling I've decided to use a 987 radiator mounted inside the frunk. I'll take some pics of that when I'm done.

You maniac, love it


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I remember seeing somewhere that a guy got his early 986 down to under 2100 lbs by removing as much as he was willing to. If I can find it again I'll have to see the specifics. Definitely interested in seeing where you end up!

Edit: I found it. Someone got theirs down to 2080 lbs but had no windshield, etc. Before that he was around 2300 lbs.

Awesome, can't wait to see how this ends up.


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Sounds like an adventure for sure.......I can't quite fathom the difference in exhaust tube diameter! Those look like 3.2 manifolds....which one would think should be close to the 3.4. What are the respective engine displacements for each manifolds?

@JayKay: Google for exhaust manifold diameter calculator

@Mr Flat Six: Wouldn't recommend to remove the windscreen. Windscreen frame and windscreen add a lot of stability to the 986 chassis. If you remove them you have to a a lot of weight to get the stability back. And if you want to use the car as a track tool, it's also a safety aspect to have a windscreen.

@ Woody: all thumbs up!

Regards from Germany, Markus

Boxster Spyder - Page 2 - Pelican Parts Forums

http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/50239-boxster-no-windshield.html

Just to comment, I definitely don't suggest getting rid of the windshield frame. I was just saying its been done before to lighten the chassis.

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Here's the exhaust I plan on using for now. I took the 997 manifolds and added pieces off a B6 S4. The rear pieces are the catalytic convertors off the Audi. I'm using the cats as mini mufflers. With them off it's very loud. With them on it's just loud. I'll experiment with them on and off. I figure that I'll already be getting dislikes from the way the car looks. Ugly and loud might get me kicked out from events. I'm guessing the exhaust system weighs 15-20 pounds and the cats add another 10. On to the cooling system for today.
As for the window frame. I'm definitely not putting a windshield back in it. I'm torn between cutting the frame off or keeping it. I do believe it adds some rigidity to the body but not enough to worry about. My biggest reason for keeping it is that I plan on jumping this thing and the rollover protecting might come in handy. That being said, I do think it would look cooler without it and will cut some weight. I'm still thinking about what I want to do. I'll be adding some reinforcement tubes for sure though.

Ugly might not be a problem as long at it's safe.;)

The problem here is that the windscreen glass and the windscreen frame as constructive element add the rigidity. If you remove the glass you loose a lot of rigidity. You'll get the the best rigidity with windscreen frame, windscreen glass and sidewindows up. Without windscreen glass you'll get a lot more torsion in the front.

Reinforcement tubes can shurely help. But in the end this should be a kind of full cage (left to right and front to back) if you don't want to use a windscreen glass.

If you remove the door panels and the dashboard panel there will be enough room to do such a tube enforcement. But take care that there is enough space for yourself in case you have an accident and you don't can hurt yourself from how the reinforcement tubing is layed out (don't know if it's the right term – what i mean is where you put the tubing so it can't hurt you when there is an impact – so you have enough room for knees, elbows and so on) in the exterior. So safety always first. ;) It can be ugly and loud as hell, but it has to be safe. ;)

Regards from Germany,
Markus

Yes! We need more projects like this!

i'll disagree with that. regarding rigidity of the boxster chassis, you have two concerns - (a) rigidity of the front subframe, and (b) rigidity of the front subframe relative to the rear subframe.

in the front sub-frame, the only opportunity for relative movement of the various components is at the strut top mounts. specifically, they may try to spread apart when subject to cornering loads. this is where a strut brace comes into play - it stops that from happening (which is why they can be made of carbon fiber - they don't need to deal with compression, only tension). they may also try to move a bit forward/backward if subject to caster loads, but note that there are already triangulation braces in the car. to support those braces i would also note the quality of steel used in that area as per the following:

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regarding relative motion of the front and rear subframes (typically a torsion or twisting force - that creaking you get when you drive over a driveway lip unevenly for example) is not going to be impacted by your windshield or the presence of any strengthening along the upper forward cowl. to address this, look to reinforcing that big flat open space between the front and rear wheels - which is why you keep your door structure in place unless adding a cage.

rollover protection, front impact protection? yeah, keep your windshield. and your airbags. and your factory seats. and seatbelts. not certain that's what this is about, however. do check your regs; the broomstick test looks different without a windshield - oem rollbar probably not high enough.

I threw on some 17x8.5 wheels with Hankook RS4 tires I got from hanging around the track. You can find cheap tires at race events. I got these for free but you can expect to pay $20-25 a tire if you get lucky. There are some very rich guys who race boxsters and they're very competitive. They want the best and will throw away tires with lots of life still in them. I'm going to leave the box like this until I can get a vibe for where I'll be racing. If the place is laid back then I'll remove the body panels to lose more weight. It only takes 5 minute to remove the hood, doors, clam and truck lid.
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This is probably where most of you are going to ask why I did this. I put the radiator inside the frunk for a few reasons. I went to one radiator to lose weight and make it simpler. One radiator for a car that won't be running for long periods of time should be enough. The biggest reason is that the radiator mounted on the side can not handle the abuse I plan on putting it through. Being in the frunk should help protect it. I just need to build a mounting frame for it. I let it idle for about a half an hour with the hood closed and it stayed at 180.
I spent some time clearing for the track on my property. Here's the straight section. The total track is about 1000 yards. I had to keep it small so I could see the whole track from one spot. The first group to race are teenagers.
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Almost forgot to add that I took it for a quick spin down my street. It probably wasn't the smartest thing testing how fast a car can go when there's no brakes, and the seat and steering wheel weren't bolted down. It laid rubber for 20 ft though!

You'll like the Hankook R-S4 I bet :cheers:

We have a Corvette like that down here that runs autocross and some track at The FIRM, it is pretty fast and light. I don't know if i would want to be blasting at 150 down the front straight at a track like Roebling with it...

Well, i think you have looked to long on that technical drawing. ;) You should also take into consideration that your chassis has also doors, windshields and side windows. Especially the closed doors with closed side windows in combination with the front window frame and front windscreen add a lot of rigidity. That was what i'm talking about. If you remove the windscreen under that aspect, you have a lot more torsion and a less rigid chassis. If you want a fast and stable car, you need a ridgit chassis. I think we both agree on that.

Regards, Markus

Here's a shot of me smoking one Hankook R-S4 tire for about 100 feet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRFV_rATtF8

Another thing to remember is that I'll have at least 1000lbs less weight to be moving around. less weight = less structure stiffness needed. I've taken so much weight off the front end that the car under steers like crazy. I might be taking the front sway bar off because of it being so light.

I moved the battery and used a much smaller Miata battery. The Miata battery was in my other boxster for about a year. I took it out because I kept burning through them. Not so good on a street car but seems to work fine for the beater boxster.
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That's so frigging cool, Woody! I'd love to do something similar. 1000lbs is HUGE!

100 thumbs up! :D

I think you need a locking differential. ;)

Regards, Markus

Thanks guys. I'm hoping for a total weight of 1500-1600 lbs. I'm going to go get it weighed next week to see. I'm half tempted to throw a Lincoln locker in it. I'm too cheap for a real LSD.

I'm not sure if I'll ever get to take it to a real track, but if I do I threw on some tow hooks in case. As you can see, one is a nice manufactured tow hook specifically made for a Porsche, and the other is Woody engineered from scrap. I took the factory bumper shock and cut off both ends of the shock. I then welded the mounting bracket to what was left of the shock tube and then welded a clevis shackle to the tube.
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I also decided to throw a quick $10 paint job on it. I liked the blue but there are areas that are not painted at the factory. I figured it would look less ugly if it was one color everywhere. Plus flat black adds 15 horsepower. :D
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As you can see I painted everywhere and almost everything. Besides looks, the paint will protect items from the elements. Mostly the sun! You'd be amazed at how quickly the sun will destroy plastics and wiring on these cars. The brake reservoir turns to dust and the wiring gets brittle in only a few months. I also changed the radiator mounting up a little bit also. I wanted it off the bottom because I'm sure the front area will be get a little abuse.
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Thank you for this thread! I’ll be keeping up with this one!

Thanks and thanks to those in the past or future who are entertained by this build

So the AOS went out on the motor. There's a little trick that I've seen a race team do. They cap off the tube that goes into the intake and run a hose from the aos to a catch can in the trunk. The guy I got the idea off of says he doesn't even put the tube into a bottle but his dad does. These are spec guys and somewhat successful. I told another spec friend of mine about that and he said he tried that once. He said his bottle started filling up with oil and he believes you lose a little power. I'm cheap, so I'm going to try it and see what happens. I don't feel any power loss and my catch can has no oily residue. I'll see how i feel about it later but for right now I give the idea two thumbs up. Also in the picture below you can see I removed the secondary air injection and made my own plates out of scrap aluminum. I now have a 3.2 ROW tune too.

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Now the big news. I had a friend send me a link to a local rally cross track not too far from my house. We've been joking about driving this boxster off-roading and he kind of sent me the link as a joke. Today I had some free time and was going to stop by two tracks so they could see/hear my car before I commit to any races. I stopped by the rally track first because the road course track wasn't open until 10. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot, everyone came out and wanted to talk to me. They don't get too many people showing up in Porsches. They were very excited to see what it would do. I hung out all day until everyone was done racing and then let the owners take it out on the track. The car performed amazingly well! In fact, with the right tires it might have been the fastest car all day. That's not saying a whole lot but it's still pretty impressive. Most of the cars there were complete beaters. Mostly Subaru's but there was a STI and EVO there. After they were done having fun with it, I took it for a few laps myself. I couldn't believe how well the boxster rode in such rough terrain. I was expecting to get my filling rattled out of my teeth. It was quite the opposite. It handled bumps and ruts without a sweat. The boxster makes a great rally car! It worked so great that I've decided not to kill the car in six months. I'm keeping it and racing next year in the little race series they have here. Another bonus about racing in this series is that it's only $50 to race at a one day event they have once a month. Real hard to beat that anywhere else. Here's a video of it on the track and a video of it doing drifting donuts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bTZCBbA2h4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI-Ow75qo_g

That video is crazy! :D Looks fun :cheers:

Think the 986 can be a real good dirt car. Mid engine, RWD.

50 bucks a day sounds really good.

And be careful: too much paint means too much weight. :D ;)

I think it could be interesting to get more cleareance to the ground. So maybe with different, higher profile tyres or a kind of a lift kit.

Maybe you can get old Cayenne or Touareg rims and tyres / wheels with all terrain tyres. They have 5x130.

So you can get something like that:

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Regards, Markus

Lol, i only put one coat down.
From talking to the people who were there, huge ground clearance isn't needed. It's all about the tires. I was running the R-S4's and definitely needed more grip. They did say that on some days where the ground is really packed that the R-S4's actually do pretty good. I'm going to switch to some 18 turbo twist with some more aggressive tires I have. I was worried about bending the rims I have on now. Those 17's are very hard to find but 18 TT's are dime a dozen. I have three sets of those.

Got the boxster weighed and it came in at 2150. Needless to say I was disappointed. I was hoping for under 1900. That was with the hood, trunk and doors. I'm guessing those together might weigh 100-125 LBS. The car sure feels lighter. I'm hoping the scale was off as it was a scale meant for large trucks.

Hm, i'm not shure about that clearance thing. You have the engine and the drivetrain in the rear. So if you accelerate the nose of the car is up and the rear is down. If you hit a "rock" that could be a problem.

Weight: don't think that it's that important. Traction and HP seems more important to me. Especially if you want to use it as a dirt car. Who cares about 200 lbs if you can have fun on a dirt track all day long?

Do you need a roll cage or other "heavy weight" safety features to attend the dirt track events?

Regards, Markus

Hi Woody,

because you've removed the soft top, how about the idea to replace the intake hoses with something that comes directly out of the engine cover. I think the long intake hose with the corners to the intake filter cut hp. If you go directly up out to the cover and add a good air filter with a good air flow, this might gain some hp.

Also it would be an interesting idea to use 2 throttle bodies instead of one. So using an additional throttle body instead of the connection hose. Because now you have space above the engine, i think this could be an option. I know this also would need an individual remap and i know that is not cheap. Also this might need a modification of the fuel system / injectors. And maybe other cams could be useful. Maybe an interesting approach to get more hp out of the engine. But in the end not cheap for shure.

Regards, Markus

I have thought about adding an intake system that forces more air into it. Not sure what yet.

As for the dual throttle body. I've been thinking about something like that for years. I was thinking of using the 97-99 intake manifolds but instead switch the two sides so the two intake tubes stick outward. From there connect a throttle body on each side with their own individual air filters. Each side would then lead to the side air intakes of the car. The engine compartment fan would either have to be moved or eliminated. I think the intake manifold could be modified easily but wiring up the MAF sensor and individual TB's to work might be the biggest challenge.

Awesome project. The Texas Gambler 500 is in your neighborhood. Have you considered it?

https://www.facebook.com/TexasGambler500Rally/

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/feel-lucky-the-2018-texas-gambler-500/136980/page1/

Thanks. Looks like fun but converting back to a street legal car would be a hassle.
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In preparation for my first race, I switched to some Yokohama tires I had thinking they would grip better than the Hankook rs4's I had on at the previous test&tune. I also added some down turns to the exhaust in attempt to quiet it down some. Everyone at the test&tune said it was fine, but I thought it couldn't hurt.
This past weekend was my first official race with the boxster. My friend who races autocross decided to join me as I told him how fun it is. He's been racing on payment for years and has had no experience on dirt before. He was excited to try it out but was apprehensive about driving a car he had no knowledge about on a surface that was just as foreign to him. He went out first and did badly. I went out and was horrible. The car couldn't get any power down. As soon as you touched the throttle, the back end would try to swing out. It was like drag racing on ice with bald tires. I had the air pressure set at 50. I was told at the T&T that you typically want to run high so you don't lose a bead. I believed it too because I saw a car lose a bead at T&T and it really sucks. Not only does it mess your run up, you have to get out of rotation to fix it. Hopefully you can make it to a place to fix it before ruining the tire. Another bad thing about losing a bead is that dirt gets crammed up in there and can keep the tire from forming another seal. I won't say it ruins your day, but losing a bead sucks. Well it turns out that too high sucks too. It took us three runs each before we had the tires low enough to where we got decent grip. By his 4th run, my friend was at the top of the pack and had the fastest round of the day if he didn't hit the last cone. My 4th round was embarrassing. I was at the bottom of the pack in the same car my friend was kicking butt in. In my defense, this was the first time I've officially raced a car. For the last run we had the rear tires down to 28psi. Again my friend went out and nailed it. Now it was my last run. With nothing to lose, I went out and slung the car around like I didn't care if I spun it. I rode every corner like I should have. On my last run I went from the being in the back of the pack to being in the top and it felt great. Run 1-4 I was the second slowest car in in modified 2wd and 4wd. I'm no alpha male who has to be at the top but I'm definitely not comfortable with being on the bottom either. By lap 4 I was very disappointed in myself. Something clicked because I killed it in run 5. Needless to say I was happy that I vindicated my driving ability to myself and others. It kind of sucked that it took us 3 runs to even get competitive.
Because of issues with timing, the track could only let one car race at a time. On a normal event you get 10 runs. The track decided that because people got shorted some runs that at the end of the day people could go run a few unsupervised/timed runs. Basically open practice. If you wanted it timed someone would have to operate the timer for you. I told my friend that I thought I had better grip at the T&T with the rs4's. My friend and I then switched back to the rs4's on the rear to see if there was a difference. With the rs4's my friend would have beat every car there. Even 4wd! The boxster is amazing at rallycross. It soaks up bumps and ruts like they're not even there. Next time I'll get video of other vehicles vs the boxster. Some cars look like they're about to go air born from the bumps, but the boxster makes it look like a paved road.
So my friend had so much fun and was blown away by the car that he wants in on the car. We're going to start racing the car as a team and elevating it back up from it's "Hold my beer" roots. First on the list is wider rear tires. Getting power to the ground is the biggest problem. My friend is more concerned about looks and wants to put fenders and bumpers back on it. We also want to participate at real sanctioned SCCA rally events so I'm not opposed to putting them back on. There's some other plans we have so stayed tuned.
Below is my friend's car to give you an idea of where rally boxster might be going
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Some air intake inspiration. ;)

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It's getting close to looking like that. My racing partner, his employee and I spent the day working on the rally boxster and making it look like a boxster again. We started by putting fenders and a bumper cover back on it. The single radiator inside the frunk works great, so we made the center hole bigger.
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I threw on some S rear uprights and brakes. The S rear hubs are much larger than the base hubs and I figured it should help with the durability. Those rear hubs get a lot of abuse. The brake calipers have slightly larger pistons. Braking isn't as important with rallycross though
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We're throwing some 18x11 wheels with 275 tread width to hopefully help with traction. We experimented with the rear wing. I got it for free so I thought I would see if we liked it. It's not needed on most of the tracks we'll be at, so we decided to yank it
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