Hi guys, I wanted to get your opinions on my next toy/weekend car purchase. I have always loved Vettes and 911's. I have owned vettes before and now have my eye on the C7 Z06 that is coming out soon. I am only interested in the base car with the new A8 auto (forklift accident many years ago) and I have it on pretty good authority that the car will be around 80-85k.

I also saw some really nice low mile 997.1 cars for around 75k and I plan to purchase within the next two years so I may be able to get a low mile 997.2 by that time. I really love both cars but the advantage I see with the Vette is it will be newer and have a warrenty. I've never owned a turbo so I am not sure how much the Porsche maintnence will be. I also wanted to know if I should stick with the tiptronic cars since I read on here they can handle more power and can be built stronger if needed. I would love the performance of the PDK but I would be scared that if it broke I am in for a huge repair cost.

My last vette was a 2008 C6 coupe that was supercharged by East Coast Supercharging, longtubes and meth injection. On low boost it made about 600 to the wheels and ran a 10.4 @ 136mph. I'd like to get my new car to around the same performance levels. If you guys were in my spot what 997 would you look at and what mods or tuning would get me to where I want to be safely. Without worrying about blowing the tranny and so on. Thanks guys and love all your cars !! Badass : )

 

Come on 85k, these are GM dealers you are talking about. My guess is $125k or even more for the first year and then 7k off sticker for the late second and beyond.

 

I don't care about dealers over charging. I'm not buying for 2-3 years anyway and by then the hype will die down and again the MSRP is what I am talking about. That base car will be under 85K that i am fairly sure of. I would just like to have a idea and plan of what 997 i should be looking at if I go that route.

 

If you can swing it, a 997.2 PDK Turbo is the best route. You're going to get very similar (if not better) performance that your ECS Vette, with the German refinement & reliability. The PDK at this point has proven itself to be nearly indestructible, with videos of people doing 50+ launches in a row and no significant damage.


Champion Motorsports has taken a full bolt-on (tune, exhaust, intercoolers, intake + piping) 997.2 over 600 WHP, and run it sub-10s at 135. Champion uses the GIAC tune, but COBB has recently started supporting the platform also. Longboarder (using the Champion tune) and webcarconnection (using COBB) are two 997.2 guys you could speak to about the reliability of their setups on cars.

The only "drawback" of the 997.2 is their are no legitimate fueling upgrades, so you're kinda limited to bolt-on performance & because it is a Direct Injection motor, you'll eventually need to clean carbon build up on the intake valves.

 

Great info, that's exactly what I am looking for. What would a typical full bolt on and tune package cost from a reputable tuning company like GIAC or COBB?? I don't think I mind the being limited to tune and bolt on mods because that is all I really wanted to do with this car anyway be it a 997 or c7 z06. Is the cleaning carbon build up a big job or high maintnence cost?? Sorry I am really new to P cars.

 

Whoa, whoa, whoa...keep that to yourself!

 

LMAO poor wording at its finest.

 

Welcome to 6speed.

I have a lot of airstrip videos so you can see how my bolt-on 997.2 Turbo S PDK compares to many built cars.

The unique feature of the GIAC/Champion bolt on package (besides laying down a 9.8 quarter mile pass with their shop car and many 10.0 and 10.1 passes with customer cars with street tires and as you can see with my airstrip vids, running with cars with WAY more power) is that they will Piggyback the factory Porsche warranty in writing. And no I'm not kidding. Anything breaks and Porsche denies the warranty and Champion will work with you to make it right.

Champion Motorsports is a subsidiary of the largest Porsche dealer in the country in South Florida. I personally went to the Champion MS facility to meet with the Champion representatives and see for myself what they are really about. And it is legit. The MS facility showroom had a couple of the most incredible cars on the planet, and their shop was huge with separate fabrication rooms where they make their turbos and intercoolers looked more like a medical facility with techs in lab coats. It is beyond impressive.

Tom@Champion is fantastic to work with and he and the GIAC team (who are located in SoCal) are extremely easy to work with and very supportive. Both GIAC and Champion have been to our SoCal airstrip events to support their customers. And not just one event, at least one of them attends every event.

You can see the progress of my car through my videos in my signature link...where initially I purchase the GIAC tune and the IPD plenum. The tune is about $3K and plenum $800 IIRC. I beat many exotics pretty badly with this setup from a roll. And even though I'm not a drag racer I put down a 10.6 @ 130.X at a pretty slow track (Famoso in Bakersfield, CA).

Next I went with the "Stage 2" file, which is the one that Champion did the 9.8 @ 135 quarter mile pass. They did this with a full weight car with street tires on the front and street legal drag radials in the rear. In order to go with Stage 2, you need a more free flowing exhaust and intercoolers and then GIAC will remap your file with more boost/timing. The price of an exhaust can be as little as under $2K for a catless unit, but I paid more for the BBi unit that uses 200 CEL FJS cats as the mufflers. The cats are moved away from the turbos (cats near the turbos is what caused high EGTs) and are in place where the mufflers usually would be. This fixes the high EGT issue, allows me to still run cats, and makes the car sound like a 911 GT2! The intercoolers are from Champion and cost ~ $3,500 IIRC. This full package with give you 600 wheel (Mustang dyno) which is somewhere in the 700-725 crank HP level.

I also went with Toyo r888 tires and as soon as it cools down here in SoCal, I'm going back to the drag strip to try and pull off a 9-second pass with street tires. Other's with this same setup including a heavier convertible did a 10.0 pass with a 1.4XX 60-foot time with the R888 tires.

So there it is. Hopefully this helps with your choices. To keep the costs down, you can try a 2010 Turbo PDK. Don't bother with the "S" and try to get one with less options. Since you are gonna tune it, also don't bother with the Sport Chrono package.

Any feel free to ask further questions and hopefully I can help or point you in the right direction. In the mean time please visit my YouTube page in the link below and look for my 911 vids (I have another car I race as well) so see where a bolt on 997.2 PDK compares.

Cheers.

 

Sounds like Longboarded answered most of questions regarding the cost of various mods & GIAC/CMS tunes. I used to have an N54 BMW (another direct injection motor) and it's normal for people to get their intake valves cleaned every 35-50k miles (depending on driving habits) and it cost $500-750 (depends on the shop + if they're running a group deal). I'm gonna expect the Porsche will be more expensive since the intake valves aren't as accessible as the BMW's, but it's far from being "regular maintenance" like oil changes or new performance tires.


Regarding the tunes, you can't really go wrong with either. IF you're considering COBB, I would contact them directly and COBB PROtuners in the area who would be able to do you a custom dyno/street tune -- Since you also live in NJ, I believe Garth/Undercover Performance (NJ) and PROtuning Freaks (MD) are both tuners (and forum vendors) that would be able to custom tune your car on the COBB platform. Not sure if there are any local CMS vendors or if you'd have to deal with them directly.

 

Adam, who offers a catless exhaust for the 997.2 for under $2k? I'd like to pick one up myself to have in addition to my Tubi


OP - I have all the same mods as longboarder and live in NJ. If you would like to check my car out and all of the mods, pm me and I would be happy to meet up.

 

Thank you so much. I'm going to save and bookmark this thread for all info!! I also will check out your youtube page. Thanks again

 

Yes, thanks a lot both of you guys were huge helps. Appreciate it