I had the same questioning and went for PSE install by the dealer. I'm so happy best move I made I love my car more because of it

 

I was between IPE F1 and PSE + Fister. Exhaust is not installed yet but hoping I made the right choice. Even without PSE - car still sounds "right." more "right" than any other stock exhaust I've had.

 

Thought I should chip in with some 'buyer beware' info re aftermarket parts. I had the Fabspeed sport headers (the ones with the 200 cell cats) on my 991 GTS and had to return the car to stock to get some warranty work done. I liked the sound the headers added, but was never sure whether the increased power I 'felt' was just due to that, or whether anything meangful was being added, as Fabspeed claimed. I took the car down to Rebellion Automotive, my long-time tuning shop who installed the headers and who now have a dyno, and they carried out ten runs, including warm-up and adaptation, then two test runs with the Fabspeed headers and two with the car returned to stock.

Here is the readout for all four runs.




Points to notice: 1) The car seems to be producing a lot less power than Porsche claims. This may have something to do with having to run the dyno in 4WD mode even though the car is RWD, because 991s freak out if the rear wheels are turning and the front wheels aren't. Whatever the reason I'm not too bothered. I don't think my engine is defective or my car too slow!

2) The torque seems to come in really early. Sure 'peak' tq is at over 5,000 which is where Porsche says it is, but we're getting most of it by 3k, and well over 2/3 of it by 2k. This seems to provide some evidence against the GTS engine being 'peaky'...

3) The curves look pretty darn similar. Rebellion said that all were within the margin of fluctuation for dyno operation. I'm afraid that, other than making the car a bit louder, it doesn't appear that the Fabspeed headers do anything.

This becomes more uncomfortably evident when we compare the best Fabspeed run (the first) with the best stock run (the second).




The car puts out 10hp more at peak with the stock setup. Rebellion said they wouldn't call this sufficient evidence that the stock headers are superior (margin of fluctuation again), but that there is definitely no performance advantage to using the Fabspeed ones on a GTS. This seems particularly true because there is no change in the shape of the curve - no ironing out of the dip at 2.5k for example. Also, I know Porsche ECUs adapt to mods, and we didn't do more than warm the car up thoroughly on the dyno after we changed the headers over, but it seems noteworthy that it was the second run with the stock headers that was the better...

To be fair to Fabspeed, their website uses a readout for a C4, not an S, and not a GTS,




and no specific claims for the GTS are made. But when they sold me the headers they knew I had a GTS and did claim power would be increased.

I was also surprised by the appearance of the headers when we took them off. On November 17 they looked like this:




But less than 3 months later, this:





and this:





A number of the bolts were so corroded that they snapped when being undone. After less than 3 months' use.

Let me be clear that I enjoyed doing business with Fabspeed and they were never anything other than courteous, quick to reply and helpful. I do not feel I was deliberately misled, but am nevertheless disappointed that this particular product, which has a list price of $2,995, was in my particular case was both of lower physical quality than it first appeared and failed to perform half of its advertised function (increasing power).

Anyway, just thought I'd share. Happy to hear what people think!

 

Wow, thanks for sharing Magic Rat..and im sorry to see the dyno results you found. Not cool. I'm considering Fabspeed's carbon fiber air intake for my 2012 997 GTS. ..Fabspeed claims around 15hp gain. Your experience does not bode well on my decision process.

 

I've emailed them the dyno results. No reply as yet. Will be interested to see if/how they respond.

 

I'm debating an exhaust, but only for sound. I don't push this car anyways so a couple extra hp aren't really going to mean anything in real world use. I'm just trying to decide if I add the PSE switch and can have it quiet most of the time, should go go with something like the switchpath that is louder than PSE when I want it loud?

 

I have PSE and love the sound. I just wanted to hear it a little more in the cabin and went with Fabspeed xpipes. had it for 1 week. Its loud, i can really hear the gurggle and pops...but it is a little loud for my taste. I would say it is about 2x as loud as stock pse. I also feel i lost low end torque. Im going to keep and probably go back to stock pse in the fall.

 

Just wanted to let everyone know of a development. Fabspeed got back to me, and it seems that they do indeed stand behind their products. After I directed them to this thread they said they were going to get a GTS into their shop and test out the headers on it themselves. I'm guessing they replicated my lack of result, because a couple of weeks later I got a call saying they had developed a sport header specifically for the GTS (the ones they sold me were developed for the S, but apparently GTS exhausts were the same as S ones in previous generations, so they expected the same results). I think the difference between the two is just a wider-aperture 'hi-flow' cat, but stand to be corrected by Fabspeed if it's more than that. Two weeks seems like an impressive R&D turnaround if it is...

Interestingly, when my tuning shop were changing headers about, what they noticed was that the aperture on the cat was narrower on the Fabspeed header I had than on the stock one. I wonder if this is a difference between the GTS and the S, and what causes the slight difference in exhaust sound between them.

Fabspeed are going to take back the headers they sold me for a refund and replace them (at a pleasingly solid discount) with the new ones.

As far as the rusted state of the fastening bolts go, they seemed as mystified as I was and said they'd never had a problem like this before. I am sending the old bolts back with the headers so maybe they can shed some light when they've seen them.

Overall, though with the big proviso that the new headers perform as advertised when I fit and test them, I'm pretty impressed with how Fabspeed have dealt with this. They took the data I sent them not as a threat, but as a piece of scientific information, and made sure the inconvenience I've gone through was compensated.

I will publish results here when I have them, but in the meantime here is Fabspeed's claimed graph for the GTS sport header.




Hopefully we GTS owners will now have a product that truly improves our cars.

 

That's is great to hear. I expected as much from a great vendor. Ran their system in my late 997TT

To throw an update since I started this thread.
I almost bought a GTS myself, having owned a TT in the past, a well tuned one I might add, I founded hard to convince myself that I can go any other route but another TT.
Ended up buying a 991 TT new in GT silver and waiting for delivery.
I think with this beast I have two options, either stay stock or go after market.

 

Regarding the wheels, I love the black Porsche GTS wheels, and the fact that they are OEM makes them even more appealing. Have they grown on you at all since you began considering the car? In the end it all comes down to what you like, but if you think the black wheels will grow on you, I would stick with them. They look great IMO, and are an option that I think makes the car more sought after and appealing, and will continue to do so, if that matters to you.

The most recent vehicle I bought was an expensive 4WD truck which offered optional factory bead-lock wheels. At first they didn't do much for me and I did not consider them. I was spring-loaded to the standard wheels which I liked, but over the course of the month I spent shopping and considering all options, the wheels grew on me so much I ended up getting them with no regrets. I went from having no interest in them, to loving them and enjoying their look every time I look at the truck. They are also one more selling point if I ever decide to sell the vehicle. Any chance for this in your case? If not, either wait for exactly what you want, or get the dealer to make it that way.

 

Incidentally, I preferred the silver GTS rims.

 

Nothing wrong with that look! I have brushed aluminum Fikses on my black Porsche, and think it is the best combo for that particular car. The 991 has larger diameter wheels which I think work better for dark colors. Just my take on it.