Poor Man's "Clubsport" 986S Build
 

Hello all! I've been posting this on Pelican, but figured this might be a receptive crowd as well. Picked this up last month, 2003 Boxster S with 82k. Needs a few little things but is overall a very nice little car. I'm considering taking a sort of lightweight back to basics approach, call it the CS that Porsche never made. Simplify some things, remove some weight, etc. We'll see what happens.


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First step was 7mm front and 15mm rear spacers from Otisinla, new Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 tires which seem like a cheap alternative to the RE11, and some new Hawk HPS pads up front.

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The next step was to "add lightness" as Sir Colin Chapman once coined.

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I've actually been weighing the parts as they went in and out, see below. My starting point was 3120 lbs with a full tank of gas. As of today I calculate that I am at 3043 lbs. I ended up reinstalling the trunk carpets minus the rear sound deadening after my wife freaked out;), and reinstalled the carpet above the engine cover because the high pitched belt whine was really annoying.

Component Weight
Initial Weigh Full Gas
Rear upper sound pad 6.4
Rear shelf box and speakers 9.2
Frunk upper plastics 1.2
Spare and tools 30.6
Amp 6.8
Master cylinder trim 1.2
Frunk rear carpet 1.4
Frunk front carpet 2.3
Stereo wiring and hardware 1.4
Rear lower carpet 5
Rear side carpet, base, and handle 1
Stock exhaust 33.2
New exhaust 14.4

Catching up progress to the present, it was a good weekend of wrenching with an oil change yesterday, and I'm heading outside to do plugs and coil packs now. I also added an Agency Power muffler from Vivid Racing, which I'm very happy with. But per my wife (and me) it's not loud enough, so I think some secondary cat bypass pipes and maybe headers are in the very near future. As a bonus the muffler swap lost 18.8 lbs.

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That is a very clean Boxster. There is a board member on the Racing Forum here (Tom, ihis handle is thstone) that has documented his efforts to reduce weight. A tad different than doing the club sport you're doing, but fun to watch. Keep the photos and progress coming. And quit showing your wife the progress!

Nice looking car! I look forward to seeing where it goes.

What are the brand and model of your lift?

Great looking car! Is it Guards Red, the first few pictures make it look almost orange? :cheers:

2003 is a good year, Enjoy Matt!

I went through a similar process with my 2.5L Boxster and got the street car weight down to about 2800 wet. That made a noticeable difference in performance of the car. Light weight seats and an AGM/LI Iron battery will probably shave another 100lbs.

Those stock seats are soooo heavy

Great looking car and I like the concept!

My Spec Boxster currently weighs around 2,461 lbs with no fuel (close to 500 lbs lighter than a stock 986).

Entire car build is documented here (thanks for the shoutout Chuck!): http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-racing-forum/46070-spec-boxster-build.html

Also, the muffler you installed will give you a few extra horsepower at the high rpm (dyno results are in the link above) and removing the cat's and installing test pipes will definitely increase the SOUND LEVEL. I wear earplugs. :)

DMS Lifts, it's a regional company based out of MO. Lots of local guys have them and are very happy.

Yes, Guards Red. It looks great in person after a detail, the pictures are a little washed out.

Thanks, both are on my to-do list. I would love a nice set of more aggressive seats like a Recaro SRD.

Great info there, thanks!

I had that same muffler with cat bypass pipes on my 04 S. It was too much for me. As in it gave me a headache after 10 minutes. I took the muffler off the same day I put it on and put the stock one back on. This is coming from someone in their early 20s! The stock muffler with bypass pipes is a little quieter than what I would ideally want but I think it is a good compromise. Not to mention I think the stock tips look and fit a lot nicer.

Lots of people on here have the combo and like it, however. It just depends on what your preferences and expectations are. You've been warned :)

front cats
 

Where do the Oxygen sensors go after "cats" are removed?

I have the same concern, but there's only one way to find out. At the moment it's marginally louder than the stock muffler. Once it sounds like my 911 with SSIs and a Dansk sport, then I'll be happy.:)

Onewippedpuppy from the pelican 911 gang? I remember the name from 10 years ago if same guy when I was a 911 guy. Enjoy your office topic stuff too. I think your new on the 986 board so welcome.

I love the concept so thanks for sharing. I'm curious to know at what point in weight reduction to you start to feel a difference?

The same! I was actually semi-active here a few years ago when I had a 1999 986. I've also had 5 987s so I'm not new to the mid-engined water pumpers.

That's really a great question. Think of it this way, if you carry a 200 lb adult passenger can you tell a difference? I'm honestly not sure if I can or not, because it's really down to the butt dyno at that point. It would have been fun to run a legitimate instrumented performance test when stock then run it again after dropping some weight to see the improvement, because I'm sure there would be something. C&D did a magazine article several years ago where they did staged weight loss on a car and tested, by the time they had hacked it up entirely it was turning pretty good numbers.

That's a beautiful car. Is that your 911 also?

More info on the FD.

I used to have a nicely prepped '84 GSL-SE with a streetported S5 13B, standalone EMS, and full RB suspension. Didn't have space to store it so I sold it. I miss it.

Thanks! Yes it is a 1982 911SC cab. It has about 66k and is a very nice car, definitely a keeper.

I actually bought the FD from a Pelican, his father bought it new and daily drove it until he died a few years ago. Well maintained original CA car that had a lot of cosmetic wear, I did a full repaint, mostly gutted and refinished the interior, the usual reliability upgrades, and a bunch of maintenance. Right now it's a really nice driver. I will probably be selling it soon as I just have too many cars. It is a fantastic car and I'm sure I will kick myself for selling, especially if they are $50k someday.

nice...very nice.
Love your car fleet :cheers:

SC CAR GO = sounds like the French escargot, but I am sure it's not :D

Nice collection.

I can't help but think that every Porsche owner ends up getting another one until they have more than will fit at their home :D

I like what you've done so far, should be interesting to see whats next.

Not huge progress so far as any upgrades, though I did score a nice weighted shift knob used on Pelican and found out I have an FVD shifter. Also replaced a dying window regulator, broken tension cable, and replaced the missing gas door spring. I removed the GPS unit, door speakers, and dash speakers, total removed is 17.2 lbs from those three. I should be at 3026 lbs per my calculations after putting a few things back in, so almost 100 lbs lost from zero dollars spent. I have a GT3 console on the way so I'll figure out the net loss from that, I suspect about 2 lbs. The clean look and extra legroom will be totally worth it though. I posted a WTB ad on the classifieds for a set of excellent condition base model door panels with pockets (no speakers), so please let me know if you have a set for sale. I also have a set of Fabspeed headers and Topspeed cat bypass pipes on the way, so that should yield some nice weight loss and associated noise.

At this point I'm almost done with the cheap weight reduction, so now I'll have to start spending money.:(

Nice Boxster S. Can't go wrong with Guards Red. Definitely interested is seeing the progress.

Great progress over the last few weeks. I now have Fabspeed race headers, Circuit Werks cat bypass, and the aforementioned Agency Power muffler, total weight reduction of 34.4 lbs from the exhaust. Vivid Racing tune removed the CEL and helped smooth power delivery, it is a freaking rocket now, I would say at least 996 fast and definitely feels as quick as my previous 987S if not more so. The sound is absolutely, positively, epic. Actually less annoying drone than just with the muffler, way more power through the entire RPM range, and totally linear. GT3 console delete saved another 2 lbs, cleaned up the interior, and game me a little more legroom. So I should be at 3008.6 lbs and somewhere in the ballpark of 285 HP, I'm happy as can be!

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