A $1,600 Boxster and two projects

[78F350]

Originally Posted by Smallblock454

... In case of an accident your seat will fly with you through the front window. I know it's a budget build, but don't do safety relevant things like seat brackets on a no budget attempt.

Regards, Markus

Thanks for the comment and I appreciate your opinion. What I used looks like junk loosely cobbled together, but when it's firmly bolted together, it is stronger and more rigid than many of the commercial products available.


The thickness and strength of the steel angle iron is comparable to the original seat frame and I have it doubled together in the vertical axis. The shoulder harness straps are secured to the roll bar. The lap belt is secured the same as the stock seat belt - left side bolted to the frame, below and aft of the door and only the right side bolted to the seat rail. I considered moving the right side belt mount to the frame, but decided that it would be best to stay with the original mounting as designed by Porsche (using a bolt and spacer from an Audi seat belt). If the seat and I fly through the front window, we will take the roll bar, door frame, and seat rail with us.

[itsnotanova]

Those brackets won't win a beauty contest, but I think they'll hold. If anything I would add another bolt or two to each vertical part. I also think you need to add another fan to the radiator. I'm running into cooling issues with my radiator set up. Your radiator is larger than the one I have but our fans look to be the same size. My car overheats if you try racing in over 90 degree day's. I just switched to an electric water pump but I'm not sure it helped.

[78F350]

Plans have changed a lot since I started this thread. This was going to be about restoring the black 2001 car and making the silver '99 into a car for the $2000 Challenge. Now, I've ripped apart the 2001 car and barely done anything the the '99. I'll probably post a couple updates as I finish running the car in the $2,000 Challenge, then start a new build thread for it.
Here's an update:

Seat. The seat isn't really a big concern. I have lots of them. The reason for the aluminum race seat is so that I can properly mount a 5 or 6 point harness. Boxster seats and the Sparco seat I have don't have the hole for the mid-strap. I don't need the race harness, but want to have it available. At the moment there's a partially burned Savannah Beige seat in there - easy to work around.

2.5L Engine. The engine runs great, but still whenever I run it hard - sustained over 4k rpm, the coolant tank over-pressurizes and vents coolant. This engine needs to be put out of my misery. I plan to kill it in the drag race after I get a base run for points. I have installed a nitrous oxide system in the car that will give it up to a 150 wet shot. I expect I'll need some kitty litter. Hopefully I don't need to use the fire extinguisher, but I'll be wearing Nomex coveralls, an SFI jacket, and have the extinguisher within reach.

Cooling. The radiator units in a 986 weigh about 18 lbs each. They are out. I put a Toyota Corolla unit in the frunk that weighs about 12 lbs. Hoses thru the side-wall. Original fan harness tapped with a manual switch off the high speed fan relay. Cut bumper cover, holes drilled in the frunk and louvers in the hood. It's kind of ugly, but it doesn't need the fan at idle and cools well when driving. I'm going to have a bottle to catch the venting coolant rather than draining it by the right rear wheel.


Body. I started making a custom front bumper for it using trashed bumpers and construction foam. It wasn't going well, so I just went back to the original bumper cover and cut a big hole for airflow.


There's a partial hard top that I made from an aluminum Audi A8 hood and a convertible frame. Keeps the sun and rain off and should make better aero than topless. It can easily be removed.

The rear bumper is cut out at the bumperettes and the spoiler cap is riveted to a curved plastic 'fixed spoiler' cut from a scrap Jetta bumper.


Interior. Most of the carpet is stripped out. HVAC stuff is all gone. I kept most of the wiring intact and bundled the ends. Half the dash from my burned parts car to hold the instruments and add a little 'comfort'.


There's still a lot of work to do and two weeks left until the competition. Hopefully it all holds together through the first drag run. V8 swap is planned for a winter project.