550 bhp ?

jonluik · Jan 5, 2005

Hello to all !

I have just joined the exclusive 996 TT club, and the PCGB.

I have got my self a fantastic car, but I am trying to get a good understanding what has been done to it.

My car is from France and has had a some work done to it(by PSI motor sport), but I am not clear what has been done. Can any one help ?

From the French invoices I can gather it has:

1. A body kit, supposedly carbon fibre, is it a GT2 ?

2. I am told it has wide base wheels, what are these?

3. PSI motor sport has worked on the car, reprogramming of the ECU and changing the turbo to KKK24(16,000 Euros spent). There is a graph showing 397 Kw. What is that in horse power? I am told it has 550bhp but have no proof.

4. 3,000 Euros have been spent on brakes - 355mm Front brake kit (steering knuckle, bearings, disks, brake pads, metal hoses, hoses, AP600 fluid). Are these bigger than normal?

5. 4,000 Euros have been spent on H&R adjustable sports suspension. There are notes to say it is GT2 suspension. What do people think? How can it be adjusted ?

Any help would be gratefully received.

I hope to meet some of you at various PCGB events.

Jon

Guest · Jan 5, 2005

Congratulations.

1. Depends on what the body kit looks like (a picture would help). You can look at Porsche's website (www.porsche.co.uk) to see a GT2. The main differences are the front bumper has no plastic grills in the radiator inlets on the GT2, just a horizontal bar, the front lower lip is lower and does not have two holes in it, the top of the bumper has a couple of slats before the bonnet, to allow air from the central radiator to go over the car rather than under it (although you need to angle the radiator and add some ducting to make it work rather than just changing the bumper), the rear wing is not a pop up job, but a fixed in place proper wing with the droopy ends, that should be adjustable up to 5 degrees and incorporates to small air intakes in the supports attached to the engine cover.
On the GT2 the wing can be left as unpainted carbon (and part of the front bumper) as a no-cost option.

2. The standard wheels are 18 inch diameter, and 11 inch wide at the rear with 295 wide tyres (GT2 12 inches with 315 I think). They might have changed the width or the offset (look at the numbers near the valve. However, the track can't really legally be increased without adding wider wings. The GT3 racing variants use bolt on wider covers to give 2 inches per side (I think - I need to check the spec.)

3. 331kW = 450bhp so 384.5kW = 523bhp.
Take it G-Force, they'll give you an accurate and believable figure.

4. Standard brakes are 330mm diamter with 4 pot callipers all round (painted red)

5. The springs and dampers have obviously been changed. Whether this is all there is to making it GT2 like, I'm not so sure. There should be more changes since the anti-roll bars, camber and caster are all adjustable on the GT2.
I would guess there should be more rose joints on a GT2? (I am not sure on this, since the 996 GT2 is more road biased than the 993 GT2, but there is a clubsport option for the GT2).

jonluik · Jan 5, 2005

Many thanks Stuart.

Check out the picture on my first post regarding the body kit - looks to be GT2.

I have had a good look at the PSI web site and by comparing the prices on the original invoices I think I have the following modifications:

Brakes
355mm Front brake kit (steering knuckle, bearings, disks, brake pads, metal hoses, hoses, AP600 fluid)

Suspension
H&R adjustable sports suspension

Engine
Porsche 996 Biturbo Kit PSI 3600 ccm3

Performances:

Standard : 309 Kw (420 DIN hp) 560 Nm
PSI : 397 Kw (540 DIN hp) 700 Nm

"¢ Reprogramming the Motronic ECU-241 electronic accelerator unit"¢ Sports air filter "¢ Sports clutch"¢ Stainless steel sports exhaust and catalytic converter, with original outlets"¢ 2 KKK 24 Turbo"¢ 1 Fuel pressure regulator

Price #PSI-T96-540b : 14.995,- Euro/B
Assembly price (3d.) : 845,- Euro

This appears to be it:
http://www.psi-motorsport.com/porschetuning/e/reportages/porshe996-biturbo.php

A rolling road will let me know if this is true or not ! Does the club have organised rolling road sessions ?

Guest · Jan 5, 2005

Looks like a GT2 front and rear wing to me. On the GT2's I have seen, the lower softish lip on the front bumper, is unpainted though.
Hard to tell whether they are really carbon, unless the weave shows through (or you accidentally damage it). I guess you could take it off and weigh it if you were that bothered.

It's interesting that the callipers were not changed (to 6 pot ones) despite the larger discs. Maybe the new pads are larger and work fine in the standard callipers.
I like the idea of the metal hoses though.

The suspension should be able to be adjusted in several ways, I think the top mounting for the front struts is eccentric, so you can adjust it somehow by unbolting it and movingit (don't know since I have never seen it done), the dampers can be adjusted by turning a knob or a nut somewhere, the ride height can probably be adjusted by screwing the nut, that holds the the plate against which the spring acts, up and down, and I think the roll bars have 3 or 4 positions they can be attached at.
You need to have a wheel off and have a look around (or ask someone knowledgeable at one of the independants).

From time to time various groups have gone for a rolling road session.
It's not normally the 996 guys, apart from the GT3 lot. There is no real process, just ad hoc.

Do you know if the car had the X50 option as new (look at the options list under the bonnet, it should be in the first line of options).
The picture looks like it might be lowered as well, standard is 10mm lower than a C2, but GT2/3 is 30mm lower.

(Edited to improve the grammar.)

Guest · Jan 5, 2005

Does the club have organised rolling road sessions ?

I had my TT on the AMD rolling road in December (476.5BHP) and they offered to organise a Regional meeting - Fab, Thames Valley RO, is workign on a date to meet at AMD and get some cars on their rolling road so keep an eye on the R19 schedule.

NicD · Jan 5, 2005

Jon,

PSI has an agent in the UK, maybe you know this already, Rupert Lewin

http://www.rupertlewinracing.com/

jonluik · Jan 6, 2005

Thanks Nic

I was not aware of Rupert Lewin.

In answer to Stuarts question on whether my car has the X50 option, it appears that it does not.

Concerning its height, it does seem to be very low. Check out the picture. I am hoping that the suspension can be adjusted so I can do over the occasional speed bump !

Thanks to every one for the advice.

Guest · Jan 6, 2005

The wheels and bodywork look standard (standard wheels will have 8 50 on the front and 11 45 on the rears, this is the width and rim offset, and is on either side of the valve). I don't know what the "wide base wheels" means.

The ride height is definitely lower than stadard, I would guess that it has been lowered 20mm (X73 option from the factory).
The issue is that this is largely set by the springs, so raising it would need longer springs I think.
Visually it will also look lower since the front lip is painted (and lower than standard turbos) and the sills are painted in body colour too. This makes the side of the car look like it extends down further.

I checked on how to adjust the suspension.
The castor is adjusted with the top plate at the top of the suspension turret which looks like it can fit on one of two positions(I think there is a couple of degrees of adjustment, although perhaps shims can be used to get more).
The camber is adjusted by changing the length of one of the arms. This is mostly to get more negative camber, which is not so desireable for road driving (as you'll wear the tyres out).
None of it looks like the sort of thing you might want to tinker with yourself. It is more a case of setting it and leaving it.

I guess the dampers may have some adjustment nut somewhere.

BTW, RUF do a sports suspension that can raise the car up to 50mm to give more ground clearance, to make it easier to park, get over speedbumps, get up ramps, etc.
Not sure how much it would weigh though.

I asked about the X50 option, since most tuning places now seem to offer their more aggressive tuning options for X50 cars. X50 gives you upgraded intercoolers, turbos, ECU and gearbox.
I'm not sure the intercooler is really an issue in our climate, and larger turbos and a modified ECU come with all the mods. I just noticed that no-one seems to consider the gearbox at all, so wonder what Porsche do (and whether it is necessary).

Guest · Jan 14, 2005

Hi Jon

Rob from work here!!!!
AMD is just around the corner from me, so if you do organise a power run on their dyno I can perhaps meet up with you
Alternatively G Force are also only up the road.

http://www.amdtechnik.com
http://www.g-force-motorsport.co.uk/