Amfibius

edevlin, I have also upgraded the stereo in my 986. I think I have actually been succesful ... I won my last car audio event, and came in second the first time I entered (without any tuning). The comment from the judges at the last car audio event was, "this is the best car of the day, even better than the pro audio cars". And this was despite having no subwoofer. I am planning a subwoofer install into the passenger footwell very soon. It will be a PHD AF 10W "infinite baffle" sub but mounted in a small box stuffed with acoustic wool, and driven with a small class D amp. The rest of my system is: Pioneer DEX-P9R + DEQ-P9R CD player and outboard DAC/active crossover Butler TDB-475 valve power amp Dynaudio MD-130 and MW-160GT speakers If you do a search on this forum for "subwoofer" it will throw up a lot of things that other people have done. There are 4 places that people commonly install subwoofers, with pros and cons: - Rear parcel shelf. Pro: no loss of storage. Cons: you can only use a small diameter (6" or less) and shallow mount sub, like the Focal subwoofer. Not much air in the box. - Rear boot - Pro: neat. Cons: engine in between subwoofer and cabin! - Passenger kick panel - Pro: Monney Audio will sell you a kit that allows you to do just that. Cons: ??? Feedback seems to be pretty good. - Passenger footwell - Pro: most air therefore most bass (theoretically). Cons: passenger loses footspace, but only as much as the driver. Most installs have the passenger lose as much foot space as the driver does with pedals.

Yeah you have done very well! I'm looking forward to more pics :)

Jinster, you planning those mods for your car? :)

Stunning pictures Paul, I love them. I also saw them on the other forum you post in :) Tool Pants, next time you are in Australia make sure you give us a yell.

So how is your project going? Any updates?

While we are on topic, I should advise people AGAINST picking up the "Meguiars Gold Class Dash and Trim Foam". This is advertised as a cleaning product that also rejuvenates your dash. What it actually does is make your dash look shiny and greasy, although the greasy look disappears after a few days. And that's because all the grease evaporates into the inside surface of your glass window! Oh, the joy of driving into the sunset with dust stuck on the inside of your windscreen thanks to the grease ... you can't simply wipe it off because that just shifts the grease around. I had to get at it with detergent to remove it. It does an OK job with other plastics though. At the moment I am using it to clean things around the house - it did an admirable job on my vinyl sofa :) It will never get near my dash again. What I have used succesfully is a quick wipe with a damp cloth followed by a small quantity of Zaino's "Leather in a bottle". It returns just the right shade of lustre, smells great (like new leather), and is not greasy. And it works even on my vinyl dash.

Yeh I saw that posted on a rival forum. I'm the red Boxster in Australia ;)

Thanks for your response, Jim. That seems a bit counter-intuitive - removing a cat will result in "moderate to non-existent" gain in performance? Your post seems to imply that the reason for this is because of the engine management. Would it be possible to regain the HP by reprogramming engine management? After all, you now have a freer flowing exhaust ...

LaBoxster, if you have the factory upgraded stereo, it will come with door pods that can accomodate a 6" speaker. It's a direct bolt-in replacement.

Hi LaBoxster, The dashtop speaker grille will accept a 1" tweeter and 4" mid driver however you will need to modify the grille. This is because the grille comes with latches for the factory drivers. I got my installer to remove both drivers and replace it with a Dynaudio Esotec (MD-130) tweeter. This is a high-end audiophile quality tweeter. The advantage of this tweeter is that it plays very low and has a typical smooth Dynaudio sound. The disadvantage is that it needs powerful amplification, and it's rather big - it's bigger than the factory 4" mid driver! I elected not to install a midrange driver in the dash however I will probably go ahead and do it. My installer says there is enough space for another 4" mid driver in there. If your car came with the Porsche upgraded sound system, you will have door pods for a woofer. I have installed a 6" woofer in each door pod (Dynaudio MW-160) with sound deadening. No modification was required. Of course you may not want to go with Dynaudio - these speakers sound great but they are expensive and difficult to drive. FYI Morel makes a direct "drop in" replacement for the dash tweets and midrange. I have never auditioned this setup but Morel has a very good reputation. I highly recommend that you install an amplifier. The head unit does not have enough balls to drive the speakers. If you stick with the HU amp, you will find that when your music gets loud or complicated your amp will start to clip - you hear crackles in your speakers. Even at normal listening levels the speakers will sound like they are "shouting". Give them proper amplification and you will get a nice effortless sound.

From Stuttgart Motors (a UK company): CF door Standard Porsche 6.4kg CF street 5.1kg CF race 3.5kg Saving 1.3kg per door, or 2.6kg overall CF front wing Standard Porsche 2.3kg CF street 2.0kg CF race 1.4kg Saving 0.3kg per wing, or 0.6kg overall CF bonnet Standard Porsche 7.2kg CF street 5.6kg CF race 3.8kg Saving 1.6kg overall Unfortunately no pricing on that page. I am very impressed that the standard Porsche items are so light that switching to "CF street" replacement panels only saves you 4.8kg (before paint!). I could just as easily save 5kg by eating meatballs every day. In fact, if I have to scrimp enough money to buy those panels I might be forced to eat meatballs every day! So figure a 10kg weight reduction - 5kg from CF panels and another CF from starvation? I did an experiment to see if I would notice an extra 5kg on my car. I put a bag with a 5kg dumb-bell in it into my boot. Nope, no difference on the butt dynamometer. So I don't think I would be saving up for these panels. *sigh*, another potential performance avenue crossed off ...