der meister

Well that sucks..new longer bolts cost as muchas the spacers!! andd will rust again! I wonder if the SS ones I see advertised are truely strong enough...

I have 15mm H&R spacers on my front wheels (17") and they improve the looks noticeably. You'll need to buy longer bolts, but since the original bolts are pretty cheap looking and rust quickly, I replaced all mine with very attactive chrome lug bolts made by Boothe Design. They are very high quality and even have the swivel washer built in.

Yeah, Ralph Boothe is a cool oldtimer, good stuff.

http://www.boothedesign.com/boltsstudslugs.html

I have 7mm front and 14mm rear. I got a great price, otherwise I might also got 14mm in the front.

14mm really pushes the stock 18" wheels out nicely.

I think you may be feeling the rear engine bias of the Porsche versus your Lexus. When I first started driving a Porsche I felt that the front was not well planted. At high speeds the sensation felt more pronounced. Remember only about 40% of the weight is on the front end in a Porsche. In you Lexus its probably closer to 60% and a much heavier car. Tire pressures will play a role but I think you just need to get used to this new weight bias.

I tend to agree with this, probably just take a while for you to get used to the different feel of a rear-engine 911 at speed.

Did you have a PPI when you bought the car? Are the tires in good shape? Had an alignment lately? Maybe check the toe-in?

I've also had a similar feeling, but then I realized it's a different feel and just highly responsive with a whole lot of grip.

Good luck and enjoy!

Look at this:

http://www.fabspeed.com/996_GT3.html

Then go down click the following! Shows a cross section of the Porsche can.

PRODUCT VIDEO: 996 & GT3 & 997 Muffler Exhaust

Thanks for the link. I'm still thinking of doing the PSE mod, that's fine for the sound, but you've still got all the extra weight back there....

I guess everything's a compromise. :)

Hey Darin, do you have a picture of these stock early 996 muffers split open? Like how they're designed inside?

Have you ever tried improving the internal design (?), like maybe removing a baffle?

I'm just wondering because the stock mufflers are kind of heavy, which was part of the attraction for me to try the bypass pipes (got on eBay from a shop in Santa Ana for $200 -- which was worth it just for the polished tips).

But it's really nice to get ~ 30 lbs off the rear of the car.....

Have you ever tried something like a "glass pack" with bypass pipes? Is that even feasible (?) to maybe cut them and modify a section like that?

I'd be fine if they could be quieted just enough to run at Laguna Seca where they have a kind of low db limit.

Thanks

Dave

The sound is growing on me. I did drive 2.5 hours to VIR and back, plus a full day or driving on track. And the sound is phenomenal on track, awesome response. Driving to the track with new XM radio, it was not bad at all either. But agree with you, it is a cool cool sound, specially when the engine is idling the gurgling sound comes out....

Hey Izzy, how are these working out for you?

Help educate me: in which situations would anyone want to turn PSM "off" anyway?

In order to show off?

Oh. :)

Way to go Walter.

I do a lot of work on my '62 Bug Cabrio, but never thought I'd want to do something like this on the 911.

Well, maybe it's not so very different after all....

Have fun,

Dave

but after 4th ticket was told by wife to SELL IT.

Ha!

I haven't gotten any tickets yet, but when I do ... I'll probably need bail. :o

Anyway, I'm aware of several early 996s in the 80k range with no motor issues.

Perry, you got a great deal, but this just reflects the current market/economy....

:welcome:

Congrats and welcome. You'll enjoy it!

Come back on the next weekend and post up some pics. :)

Cheers Loren,

At the risk of uncontrollable laughter - how?

U-LOL..... :)

Have you checked your steering wheel position, RHD doesn't seem, uh, right.

Good luck Amigo.

Looks like a worthwhile project, but I guess you can run into some challenges putting it all back together as new.

My temp also goes slightly to the right of 180 occassionally. I imagine I've got a similar collection of bug guts. :)

fluid level is good(checked in in cold condition)

Any other ideas on this? There's another thread on Rennlist and it seems like it's not uncommon.

Congrats! Get ready for sleep deprivation!

Phillipj

Congrats on your daughter, future Porsche driver. :)

This is what I see you with. :)

Geez folks, the car's designed to go all out on the Autobahn.

That might mean cruising at about ~140mph at 5000rpms in 6th (?).

No big deal really.

I cruise my '93 Eurovan (Audi 5 cylinder with 109hp) at 75mph at over 4,000rpm and it's got about 160k miles and it doesn't miss a beat!

Izzy, thanks for the tip on the book, Vic Elford's a legend of course.

XSU Lowered Seats (-10 mm)

Congrats and welcome, sounds like a nice ride, pictures are always welcome too, ha.

Haven't heard of that option before, wish I had it.

Welcome, and where are you located? (You can add this to your profile.)

Well, I think that would be a great dealer price for a clean C2 with 42k miles, if it's what you want (color, interior, etc).

For your reference, I bought mine in November with 49k for $29.5.

(The economy hasn't gotten any better, so there is price pressure on these cars.)

Is the car for you or your wife? Coupe vs. cab are different cars obviously, and cabs require a bit more from their owner.

Why do you think the rear-ender was minor? afaik, carfax only shows accidents reported to insurance companies. If it was really minor, the owner wouldn't have reported it, so it must have caused some damage at least to the bumper (or could have been more?).

You should get the car inspected yourself before purchasing.

At $26k, you're saving a little money which could fix the hood or cover some minor costs down the road, but you do not want to have to buy a new motor.

Do you know what options the car has? (They're listed under the hood in case the dealer says they don't know.)

What kind of dealer (a well-established independent, Porsche, or a fly-by-night operation)?

I think these cars are exceptional values in the $30k range, but be aware that major repairs can be very expensive.

Good luck,

Dave

Just installed a Hamburg MP57 in my 99 C2, love it.

Installation was a breeze since it's using the same DIN wiring as the OE unit, just unplug the CDR220 and plug in the MP57.

Even the speed sensitive volume control works. I installed the Mic (for the Bluetooth Handsfree) next to the sunroof switch and ran the cable down the left side A-pillar (also did the remote controll range-extension mod while I had the cover off).

Bluetooth works like a charm, I paired it with my Samsung Blackjack. Allthough the 996 is quite noisy on rough roads, voice quality is excellent.

Best $199 spent on my p-car so far..

Sounds good guys. My CDR 220 has had a rough life, faceplate hinge is kind of tweaked.

I've got a similar JVC system in my Westfalia that just has the plugin jack on the front, works fine for my iPod purposes.

Where did you guys purchase your Hamburg?

Hi there,

Sounds like the traffic where you're at is worse than LA.

I see that at least you've got a Tiptronic to deal with that.

Otherwise, you ought to get a little beater (old car) for that commute.

The fault turned out to be a failed earth in a stop lamp!!

Failed earth = bad ground?

One people separated by a common language. ;)

Took the 996 out yesterday for a 400 mile run. Had a great time.

On the way back I pulled in to fuel up and was behind another 996. It was a C4S. Man.....it sounded like a bag of spanners and smoke and stink coming out the back. Spoke to the old guy who owned it. He said he's had the car 3 years, bought it used and done 40,000 miles and that "IT HAD ALWAYS SOUNDED LIKE THAT AND ALWAYS SMOKED". He thought it was normal. He then said it has been his most reliable car. It really sounded bad as he drove off. Crazy I tell you.

Hey Berny, so you're in Liverpool, right?

It sounds like a scene from a British comedy, I can almost hear the guy's accent. :)

:cheers:

Dave

I don't have any experience with the 996 top, but several years ago I replaced the multi-layered top on my '62 Bug .

It's a lot more involved than it might look. In my experience, the material needs to be pulled extremely tight and then secured while keeping everything perfectly lined up.

I was fortunate enough to do mine with a buddy that had some experience, but there's really some technique involved that is hard to learn while you're doing it the first time.

If you're in Chicago you should have some experienced installers in town.

Good luck,

Dave

Danyol's given you some good background and ideas.

It's definitely a buyer's market. Be willing to walk away or kind of play a dealer off another.

Where are you located? (you might add your location to your profile.)

Sounds like it might be a nice find.

Are you sure you want a Tip? The car drives great as a manual.

Also make sure you get a good price. Those are low miles, but negotiate in your interest.

As Loren said, you'll want to get a PPI before purchase.

It's not about losing pressure.

It's about rapidly increasing pressure as the tire heats up.

I can't believe that Porsche didn't sort all of that out in testing. Now after doing some recent research (especially now that all the car mags are comparing it to the GT-R) I read the opposite of what I used to, that Porsche's don't have the high speed stability that a lot of the newer cars have. My guess is that at 100 to 130 they are great, and that's probably where 95% of Porsche owners tread in their "opening her up" outings, so Porsche probably hasn't had that many complaints about it in the past. Like Corvette Z06 owners, cars that are capable of going almost 200 but 98% of their owners drive them 60mph in the fast lane and may if they're feeling spry get them up to 120 or so.

Some seem to forget or just disregard that Germany is home to the Autobahnen?

I had a lowly 323i when I was there for several years, and I certainly got stomped by a few Porsches going in the 150mph range.

Remember the basic phyics involved of the very rear-engine design and such a light front end.

It's not unheard of for people in Germany to add weight in their cars to enhance stability at the very high speeds and in winter.

But I got mine up to speed incrementally on New Year's morning (talk about empty roads in SoCal), to 110, 130, and hitting 145mph.

The car was completely stable and settled, even through long sweepers at those speeds.

I have no aero kit or other wings.

As noted earlier, if your alignment is off, your tires even slightly out of balance, etc, you're going to really feel it at high speeds.

In Germany, people drive these speeds *every day* during a normal commute, so they inherently know their cars much better than we do.