Joining the Porsche family, track rat style.

[itsnotanova]

I'm facebook friends with the guy who races this rallycross boxster in England. He has an Audi 2.7 twin turbo in it and prefers to use the 987 5 speed. He goes through a transmission every year and told me he usually blows second gear out when he is coming off dirt and onto tarmac. The 987 gear ratio is similar to the early 2.5 gearboxes. My other friend with the 3.4 also uses the 987 five speed and both believe the 987 transmission is stronger than the 986. Externally it looks the same as a 986 gearbox though. I believe the transmission code on top of the bellhousing for a 987 is GAL

[Qingdao]

Originally Posted by itsnotanova

I'm facebook friends with the guy who races this rallycross boxster in England. He has an Audi 2.7 twin turbo in it and prefers to use the 987 5 speed. He goes through a transmission every year and told me he usually blows second gear out when he is coming off dirt and onto tarmac. The 987 gear ratio is similar to the early 2.5 gearboxes. My other friend with the 3.4 also uses the 987 five speed and both believe the 987 transmission is stronger than the 986. Externally it looks the same as a 986 gearbox though. I believe the transmission code on top of the bellhousing for a 987 is GAL

Does it take different axles? Bellhousing is the same I take it.

[MaxD]

Originally Posted by itsnotanova

I'm facebook friends with the guy who races this rallycross boxster in England. He has an Audi 2.7 twin turbo in it and prefers to use the 987 5 speed. He goes through a transmission every year and told me he usually blows second gear out when he is coming off dirt and onto tarmac. The 987 gear ratio is similar to the early 2.5 gearboxes. My other friend with the 3.4 also uses the 987 five speed and both believe the 987 transmission is stronger than the 986. Externally it looks the same as a 986 gearbox though. I believe the transmission code on top of the bellhousing for a 987 is GAL

So funny to see that much suspension travel in a Boxster.

One thing about the Brits is they are true enthusiasts.

Wizard - Rock on. That car has to be a hoot!

[WizardSmokey]

If the 987 5 speed is stronger than the 986 5 sped but it nearly identical, I'll keep it in mind. But they're also about twice as much as a 986 box. If I have an issue with blowing my current box too often, i'll consider it.

Quick google search, and they certainly look pretty similar, if not the same.

[itsnotanova]

I talked to my friend with the 3.4 boxster that was previously a spec boxster. He works at Porsche of Plano and only works on race cars. He said that the synchros inside the 987 transmission are thicker, but everything else is the same as the 986. He swapped the 987 flanges for the 986 flanges because the 987 uses 10mm bolts and the 986 uses 8mm. The 1997-2002 986 inner cv joint is better for extreme angles and he's running 4 degrees of camber. He could have used 2003/04 axles (03/04 inner cv joints use a 10mm bolt with 8mm threads) but he felt the thicker 97-02 axles would last longer. The five speed is a good transmission if babied but you can't subject it to any kind of shock load. He uses the 987 5 speed because his car was already set up for a five speed, weight(6 speed is tough but heavier), and gear ratio.

[Qingdao]

Originally Posted by itsnotanova

I talked to my friend with the 3.4 boxster that was previously a spec boxster. He works at Porsche of Plano and only works on race cars. He said that the synchros inside the 987 transmission are thicker, but everything else is the same as the 986. He swapped the 987 flanges for the 986 flanges because the 987 uses 10mm bolts and the 986 uses 8mm. The 1997-2002 986 inner cv joint is better for extreme angles and he's running 4 degrees of camber. He could have used 2003/04 axles (03/04 inner cv joints use a 10mm bolt with 8mm threads) but he felt the thicker 97-02 axles would last longer. The five speed is a good transmission if babied but you can't subject it to any kind of shock load. He uses the 987 5 speed because his car was already set up for a five speed, weight(6 speed is tough but heavier), and gear ratio.

Yusss Thanks dude, and dude's internet friend from over the pond.

[WizardSmokey]

Hell yeah dude, that's great info!

[WizardSmokey]

tire letters are cool.


HELL YEAH BROTHER!

[WizardSmokey]

Apologies for such the delay in any updates. Haven't been doing much actual work to the car lately, other than driving it around, taking pictures, going to shows and showing it off.




(even in a line of classic Ferrari and Porschii, including a RUF Yellowbird, we still pull the crowd!)





But that doesn't mean we have been absolutely idle! The cheap oil resivoir we've been running keeps gurlging out the cap, so we dropped some real money on a nice Moroso unit. No problems since!

Also, the entire timeline of the car is now written on the hood. This started way back when we started racing it, as a way to keep track of who was faster. Now it includes all the work of the engine swap with dates. We plan to keep doing the lap time documentation, as well.



We have also decided to attempt a new exhaust setup. The 3" hater honkers were fantastic, but simply way too loud, even with the two Borla mufflers. So we've decided to drop down to 2 1/2 inch pipes. But that's not all! We're going to try 180 degree headers.

Yeah, this'll be fun.

[Qingdao]

Wait... took me a while but 501??? are you a Star Wars fan?!?

Yeah, I can't stop driving my car too. TOO much fun to drive and I'm so confident in the engine after I dropped the compression from 11.1:1 down to 9.0:1. I've put over 300 miles since I got it back together last weekend. 87 octane NO PROBLEM.

So when are you gonna weld those doors shut, remove the links and guts from them? You know all that unnecessary weight. LOL

[WizardSmokey]

Hahaha, yes! 501st, baby! Although, that was done before the new trilogy came out....

Gutting and welding the doors has been something we've been planning on doing for a long time. We usually just hop the doors to get in and out, anyway. We just haven't gotten around to it.

Glad you've been enjoying your car! You've got one hell of a cool build, too. I also really like the hardtop. I want one, though we'd have to massacre the rollbar for it to fit.

[WizardSmokey]

Hey guys! I just realized that I haven't actually posted any updates here in almost exactly a year.

To put it shortly: Between work and moving to the opposite side of the country, the Porsche has had very few updates. It's been driven a good bit, and broken a few times, but the only real new thing on it are some cheap bolt-on fender flares on the rear.




Taken it to a few events, and a lot of shows. Haven't really raced it, though. However, that's because we've decided it's no longer going to be a proper 'race' car. It simply doesn't fit in classification for many race series anymore, and the few it can get in, it would be in some insane 'outlaw'-esque class. You know where it fits right in, though? Drift! Yeah, it's gonna be a drift car.

Until then, it's just a righteously insane hotrod.


Oh, and one other small update: I bought a bus and we hacked it into a car hauler/camper.

[WizardSmokey]

Two quick clips from our most recent outing:

Taking the car on a quick coffee run

it spits fire

[986tate]

Just borrowed my dad’s ‘12 Quattroporte with the 4.7 F36. Holy shi+, that would be wild in my Boxster.
Showed him your thread but he wouldn’t come around

[WizardSmokey]

Hell yeah! The 4.7 has even more power! The only reason we didn't go with a 4.7 was that it's wet sump instead of dry sump.

[WizardSmokey]

Wow, been a long time since I've posted here! Okay, long story short because I don't feel like typing a novel at the moment;

I put the back of the Porsche into a wall and bent the frame. Our solution was to build a tube frame for the whole rear end.

[maytag]

Originally Posted by WizardSmokey

Wow, been a long time since I've posted here! Okay, long story short because I don't feel like typing a novel at the moment;



I put the back of the Porsche into a wall and bent the frame. Our solution was to build a tube frame for the whole rear end.

Got video of that incident!?
Love your project, man. Love it!

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

[dave98986]

Sitting here reading this entire post tonight for the first time and I love it! Just wanted to chime in and say as a life long hot rodder (as a muscle car enthusiast) and now just purchasing my first Boxster, I can really relate to what you are building. Haven't seen any other hot rodded Boxsters yet, mine will just be a weekend cruiser at best. Keep updating!

[WizardSmokey]

Originally Posted by dave98986

Sitting here reading this entire post tonight for the first time and I love it! Just wanted to chime in and say as a life long hot rodder (as a muscle car enthusiast) and now just purchasing my first Boxster, I can really relate to what you are building. Haven't seen any other hot rodded Boxsters yet, mine will just be a weekend cruiser at best. Keep updating!

Thank you, brother! Unfortunately, I don't really have any updates at the moment. We blew another 5 speed trans, so the next step will be a 6 speed swap. We have the trans, we just have a pile of other projects that are taking precedence at the moment.

[WizardSmokey]

@maytag I know some video exists, but I'm not sure where that footage is at the moment. I do remember that it honestly doesn't look very impressive, it looks like i barely clipped the wall, but the edge of the bumper support made contact just hard enough to twist it all.