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Congrats on the baby! I was visiting my Porsche dealer about 18m ago or so, and they were doing just that to a 996 GT3. They had to weld in some of the missing bits, e.g. seat belt anchors and the like. The job was labor intensive. I read something somewhere that the 997 GT3 has the same items removed to save weight. In short, I expect the answer is yes given enough time and money :) Good luck with your project. Nestor

Found this link to a Michelin "Care and Feeding" PDF for the sport cups. Seems to have some useful info. Nestor http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tec...e.jsp?techid=62

Thanks. Nestor

I know one individual that routinely tracks his GT3 RS. I was chatting with him at Texas World Speedway a couple of weeks ago and he mentioned that the Pirellis, in his opinion, were far superior to the Michelins. He drives his RS to the track. He seems to cut respectable times - or so I hear :) Thus, it seems like the Pirellis have at least one enthusiastic and knowledgeable supporter. Don't know/think this helps much, but at least someone out there thinks you have the superior tire. Nestor

Don't know all the details, so forgive me if I'm off. It seems to me that the tire pressures are a function of ambient air temperature (and by extension, road/track surface temperature), humidity (?) and how much work the tire is performing. I would agree that on a cold surface/day you might in fact start with a higher pressure. I live in Texas where daytime highs can easily creep into the high 90s / low 100s. I've been experiencing tire pressure increases of as much as 10lbs in the rear and about 7 or 8 in the front. The shoulder wear indicators (little arrows on the shoulder of my MSCs) seem to indicate appropriate wear when I have about 44lbs hot in the rear and about 37 hot in the fronts. These numbers work on days with temps in the mid 90s and humidity up around 80% or so. Also, these are for Texas World Speedway which is a 2.9 mile, 15 turn, high speed track (wide track, plenty of run-off, etc). I use a 2006 Boxster S, so I understand that your application will be different. I think the bottom line is that the tire pressure will be dictated by a number of factors that will change with track and weather conditions. For track use, it's probably a good idea to keep a log of the various variables just to get a sense for what works best for your driving style and car. Regards, Nestor

I'm running 18s because they're light and I have a better selection of tires than I do with the 19s. I don't use any timing gear at the moment. I simply run as hard as I know how and then compare against my buddies - did they point me by or did I point them by? :) I can infer my "times" from theirs. I like the traqmate - it's on my wishlist. Nes

I'm running 18s because they're light and I have a better selection of tires than I do with the 19s. I don't use any timing gear at the moment. I simply run as hard as I know how and then compare against my buddies - did they point me by or did I point them by? :) I can infer my "times" from theirs. I like the traqmate - it's on my wishlist. Nes

The track width didn't make a difference I could feel. My suspicion is that since I changed to stickier tires at the same time, any difference due to track width would be lost in the overwhelming difference the tires made. The car seemed to retain its neutral handling. Previously I was running Michelin Pilot PS/2s. They seemed to get a little "greasy" after a good session - one where I made fewer mistakes and was able to keep my speed up :-) The Sport Cups are pretty amazing. Lots of grip. Next time out I'll have Pagid Black (RS14) brake pads and ATE Super Blue brake fluid. Those two items should provide another noticable step forward. Nes

Here's the car entering the track. In the rear, I'm running Michelin Pilot Sport Cups in 285/30-18 on 18x10 Enkei wheels. The fronts are 235/40-18 on 18x8.5. The rear offset is 60 w/o the spacers. The front is 50. Nes

Here's a picture of the car on a high speed right hander at Texas World Speedway. You can see that the outside tires are relatively deep into the well. No rubbing at the track or on the street. Nes

When I lowered my car, I ended up with more negative camber than the factory specs. I didn't know the spacers would work. I figured they probably would since many others have done the same thing and I had more negative camber than the factory setup. My rear camber is currently set at -2 deg. This causes the tops of the wheels to tilt in towards the center of the car. I don't have any rubbing with either my factory wheels, shown in the pictures above or my 18" tack wheels. I'll post a picture or two of the track setup so you see what I mean. YMMV as each car is unique given the manufacturing tolerances. Also note that as the rear suspension works through its radius, e.g. on bump, the camber will go more negative than the static setting. So in essence, you'll have a little more room to play with as the wheel goes deeper into the wheel well - to an extent. Nes

This is turning out to be more of a problem than I initially envisioned. I'll search out the other thread. The BK roll bar extension apparently doesn't work for the 987. Let's do keep in touch. Nestor

Here are a couple more pics - this time in daylight. Nestor

Thanks for the advice Gustavo. Both look like good choices. Hadn't thought about the Pole Position. Might be just what I need for track days. My biggest concern right now is safety as my helmet sticks about an inch above the rollbar. Nestor

Thanks, Nestor! So you only did the rears and it fits just fine? I am planning on going to max. negative camber with stock suspension. Do you have a picture of how it looks? I am not sure about the offset of the 19"s. Did they come with longer bolts? I assume you can not use the Porsche supplied wheel-lock any more? I bought some track wheels. The spacers came with the rear wheels and were required to clear the rear strut. I installed them for use on the track and left them on for use on the street. They work just fine in both cases. Cosmetically, I think the fronts look fine without a spacer, but that's just me. Longer bolts were part of the deal and you cannot use the stock wheel locks at all. I've attached a quick pic I took to give you an idea of what to expect. The offset of the 19's is 46 in the rear and 57 in the front if I have that right. Nestor

Hi folks, Any suggestions on vendor and brand for a racing seat? I'm considering a Sparco Evo XL. Insights and suggestions welcome. Thanks, Nestor

I'm using H&R 15mm spacers in the rear. I've lowered the car with H&R sport springs and am running 2.0 degrees of negative camber which is probably helping the wheels/tires clear the fenders. Don't know how they'd work with stock camber settings. I run 19" carrera classics on the street (stock wheels and tires). Nestor

Didn't see a response to the 2004 vs 2005 question. I have a similar question. I understand that the 996 GT3 RS was introduced in Europe in '04. I was wondering if any of the GT3 RS changes trickled down to the GT3 for MY05. Anyone know? Nestor

Just to close this out - wassn't able to connect with my local Porsche dealer. Went ahead and drilled a pilot hole for the third screw, taking care to not drill more than about 1/4". Still would have preferred to remove the pedal but wasn't able to figure it out. On to the next project. The guys at Rennline were very helpful in guiding me through the process. Nestor

Ok - I went ahead and drilled the necessary holes in the pedal assembly in situ. So you don't really need to remove the pedal assembly to do the install - at least not completely. I'd still like to learn how to undo the connector on the pedal assembly since I'd like to add at least one more screw to better secure the pedal cover and the logical place to do that appears to interfere with the pedal position sensor. Won't know for sure until I can pull the thing apart. If anyone has any ideas - I'd like to hear them. I'll ask my local Porsche dealer in the morning just the same. I'll post the results here for anyone doing the same mod in the future. Nestor

I should note that my car is a 2006 Boxster S. Nestor

Trying to install a pedal cover on my 987. The goal is to facilitate heel and toe. Here's a link to the one I bought: http://rennline.com/product.php/sid/9/auto...sche/prodid/115 There is a connector at the top of the pedal assembly. The assembly itself removes from the floor board easily enough, but I can't see how to remove the connector. Is there a special tool required? A special trick? Any help would be much appreciated. Nestor

The H&R springs I purchased for my 987 were a direct *fit* but not a direct replacement. I assume you're getting springs that will lower your car about 1" to 1.5". If so, after the replacement, your alignment stands to be significantly off. Enough to induce poor (dangerous) handling and significantly increased tire wear. To give you an example, after I fitted my springs, my front toe was out (toe-out) by about 3/16 of an inch total. The factory calls for 1/16 of an inch toe-in total (1/32 per side, +/- 1/32nd). Note that the factory calls out these dimensions as minutes of angle. The numbers I've used are computed for my car with 19" wheels as measured at the edge of the rim. Additionally, my camber was way off as well. I decided to not take any chances. I did the alignment immediately after installing the springs. As a side note, I checked the alignment about a week after the install and it was holding at the established settings. I'll check again in a week or two and if there's interest, I'll post the results. By lowering the car, I have had to accept increased camber angles (so far). Rear camber is now about 1.7 degrees negative and the front is at about .7 degrees negative. The factory calls for -1.3 and -0.2 if memory serves. On my car, I'm at the limits of adjustability on the suspension and thus cannot restore the factory settings. Solutions to improve camber at the front seem to include camber plates, extending the slots on the front strut tower (risky?) and coilover shocks with built-in camber plates. For the rear, it seems like the options are a) different (shorter) lower control arms or B) adjustable camber plates. Since I haven't seen anyone offer/propose an adjustable camber plate for the rear (including the factory), for now I'm assuming that's somehow a bad idea or otherwise not possible. I consulted two different experts and their recommendation was: "go with the alignment settings you have - they're not that far off and given an aggressive driving style, your tire wear will probably not be an issue". For now, that's the path I'm following, while further investigating the others - just for fun :-) Good luck with your project. Nestor

The service manual says: "After working on wheel suspension parts, when replacing the steering−angle sensor and after changing the wheel alignment values, calibrate the steering angle sensor with the front wheels in straight−ahead position using the PIWIS tester" Take it to your Porsche dealer. They ought to be able to calibrate the angle sensor and address your problem.

Agreed - also, once you do start to push the envelope on the car's capabilities, suspension upgrades will be the next area for substantial improvements. Keep in mind that the car works as a system - each item you modify has the potential to force modifications elsewhere. For example, lowering the car can yield a useful performance improvement, but may necessitate changes to the lower control arms and/or toe links and/or camber plates if you plan to restore factory alignment specs. You can forego the factory alignment specs, but that will increase your tire wear. One other thought - the car is a balance of trade-offs. To increase performance, you will necessarily trade something else off, e.g. comfort, reliability, durability, practicality, etc. Nestor '06 987S