2011 Updates

I've been neglecting the updates to this blog lately.  Will post details soon on what's been changed this year.

• Spherical rod end rear toe links
• Solid control arm bushings (trailing arm connection) front & rear
• New spring / shock setup
• Porsche GT3 upper spherical bearing mounts
• Porsche GT3 Recaro race seats
• New 81mm Pro Race Series ACS "Track-Studs" 

315 Race Tires fit?

996 Track Prep - Race Tires
Originally uploaded by apex944

Yes they fit. I get this question a lot. The car is lowered to stock GT3 ride height. With OE GT3 wheels, no spacer and 315/30-18 Pirelli Corsa race rubber I have had no problems at all with rubbing. They do not stick out beyond the fender at all. This size is probably a little bit overkill for the rears. A 305 or 295 may be a faster tire actually. The front is where you need the wide rubber on these cars. 235 is the minimum. I'm looking for a set of wheels that will allow me to run 245 or 255 up front.

Instructing at Beaverun

Dei Weiße 911's

Originally uploaded by apex944

Beautiful day, new race rubber, and a full tank of high octane fuel. Summer time @ Beaverun Motorsports Complex.

A great group of students showed up and we had a blast instructing them at the track today. The new Pirelli PZero Corsas really transformed the car. The old ones just had far too many heat cycles in them.

Check out our newest photos on the Flickr pages by clicking the image to the right.

- Sponsored by Track-Studs.com

2010 ... more mods

And you thought this blog was dead, no?

There are a few more mods planed for the old 996 this season.  It's time to get rid of the old seats and put something in that will give me the support and control I need now that the car is cornering and braking better. 

Keeping with the OEM theme we will be going with a set of original GT3 seats.  The decision to go with leather (nice for street) or the more grippy fabric has not been made.  A nice compromise may be a leather GT3 seat with Alcantara inserts for grip.

Factory GT3 seat mounts and sliders have already been obtained (via ebay) and a set of Schroth belts from my old race car will be converted for use with these.  Schroth (pronounced "shroate") sells harness ends that will convert the belts from snap in to Porsche type ends for use with the factory mounting points. Just as where delivered on the optional GT3 competition harnesses.

Porsche GT3 Cup Cars come with Schroth belts direct from the factory. They are specific because of the lap belt attachment. They have a sewn-in bracket that fits perfectly on the factory mount. Standard belts require additional fabrication and a spacer to make them work.

A few more mods coming this way in 2010 are; partial roll cage or harness bar, new video/data system, more suspension upgrades, minor interior mods, and possibly new / wheel tire combos.   Also the old engine may need a bit of attention as there is a slight lifter noise and a broken exhaust stud to fix which should address the small exhaust leak. So while we're under there, might headers, X51 pan baffles, and firmer engine mounts be in store?

Black boot & bonnet release

OK this is hardly a performance mod but I was getting tired of looking at the worn out paint on my OE hood and engine decklid release levers. So when I stumbled across yet another cheap find on EBay I snatched it up.

It is a black on black set of release levers and the housing. Not sure what car this came from but it was shipped from Germany and appears to be NOS (new old stock but never installed)

One of my goals with this car is to eliminate ever bit of the original "Graphite Gray" interior trim and replace it with solid black. I just cannot stand the Graphite Gray. It looks cheap. One of my biggest complaints about the 996 series is it's poor interior finish. There is too much cheap plastic that doesnt wear well over time. Compared with early 21st century interiors from Audi, BMW and even VW, Porsche was way behind. So this helps with my conversion to an all black interior. Just a plain no frills black interior is the way to go in my book.


Before:
After:

Gimme a Brake - Whats that light?

OK this week we spend a little more time on the brakes. Last time we improved the ability to cool them... now we can try to push the braking system a little harder. I hope the ABS cooperates! We'll know soon enough as our next test day is at the end of July.

So, one of the things you will encounter when you begin to track your 996 or GT3 (especially if you run race compound pads and tires) is that you will begin to generate massive amounts of heat in the braking system. The 911 will stop on a dime if set up for the track and the brake pad wear sensors can literally burn up as installed. This will of course cause the brake warning light to stay lit all the time. Porsche, Pagid & others actually recommend that you do not run the pad sensors when you track the car.

There are two things you can do about this:

A) You can remove the sensor wires before each event. If you are the type that spends a lot of time prepping before an event this may work fine for you. This works well especially if you do pad changes for track events. Note that when you simply pull the sensors out of the electrical connector located on the back of the hub, the brake pad wear light will come on. Another alternative is to pull the pad sensors out of the pad before they fail and fold them up and tie wrap them out of the way. This is a good intermediate step before you make the decision to disable them entirely.

B) If you are like me, and you run race pads on the street and DOT race tires which you leave on the car for extended periods, you may prefer a more permanent option. Below I have outlined my particular method for disabling the brake warning light when you don't use pad sensors.

Here is a photo of the complete Porsche brake pad sensor wire. On the left you can see the plug that goes into the electrical connector shown below. On the right you can see two "pins" that are each inserted into holes drilled into the side of the brake pads. When the pad wears, these pins grind down and expose the wires that are looped around them. Eventually the wires break and the circuit is broken. So we are going to modify the wear sensor wiring so that the circuit remains permanently intact.

First, locate the electrical connector on the back of the hub carrier. It's located on the back of the hub carrier just above the outer CV joint. Flip up the metal clip that locks the connectors in place. Trace the wires back to their sources. One goes the the brake pads and the other is your ABS sensor. It's quite obvious which is which. Remove the brake pad sensor plug and pull the entire sensor and wiring off of the car. The pins in the pads just pull out.

Now with the pad sensors completely removed you will cut the rubber wire sleeve and wires about 2" from the white plug end of the sensor. Then strip the wire ends so that you can twist the two wires together. Put a crimp connector on them and then re-attach a small section of the rubber heat protection tubing to keep out the dirt and moisture. Fold over the tubing and seal it off with a tie-wrap or similar. Voila you are done. No more brake pad warning lights. Ever.

The photo above shows the wires stripped. It is for explanation only. In actuality you will not leave the wires anywhere near this long.

Shown on the left here is the brake pad wear sensor wiring in it's final state. Plugged back into the connector with the short 'pig tail' of wire all sealed up inside the rubber sleeve. All in all a simple mod.

Should you ever wish to return the car to its original brake wear functionalty, the sensor wires can be purchased for under $10 per side.

GT3 Brake Ducts - Take 2

Earlier we installed GT3 brake ducts to improve cooling. (Shown at left above) However since we drive pretty hard on a regular basis (while instructing at BeaveRun) it has become appearent that still more cooling could be used. This really came to light after we started running Pirelli Corsa track tires and began generating much higher brake torque as a result.

So to assist with more cooling we have installed a set of 997 GT3 brake ducts. These are deeper and have additional channels to feed more air to the front brakes. We will be testing soon and will see whether they suffice or whether we need to go full tilt with the 997 GT2 ducts. The GT2 ducts are so large that they can reportedly scrape speed bumps man hole cover etc. So hopefully the regular 997 GT3 ducts will suffice.