After years of lusting over all era 911's, I finally bought a 997.1 Turbo. I kept my wish list low to keep my possible options higher. There are not a ton of 997.1 turbos with a manual trans for sale at any given time. So why limit myself to things that I can add later or would change anyways? I knew I would modify the car so I just went looking for a manual trans, locking diff, and the Sports Chrono. Knowing I would modify the car a super low mileage car wasn't a must either. I plan to drive and use this car a lot. So no mint, low mileage, garage queen was needed.

After many months of searching, I found a local car that worked out well for me. It was a 3 owner car that had 64K miles on it and has some issues here and there. It had good service records but had not had the 60K mile service done yet. The PPI showed the car was in great shape, the engine had some reports in rev range 1 & 2. But it but did have a leaking clutch slave cylinder. The passenger rear seat and trim was a little beat up. So knowing all that I was able to work out what I thought was a good deal on the car. I already picked up a set of rear seats out of an 1800 mile car for cheap. Now I need to hunt down a nice side panel and the interior would be a 9/10. A buddy will do a paint correcting to remove some swirl marks and apply a ceramic coating. Should have the car looking even better.

The car was a launch car. It has a few odds and ends that are not on the options list by the VIN search. Most notably the sport steering wheel with round airbag. I am not sure if that is common with that VIN option list results or if a few things made it on the car since it was a launch car? At least everything works and looks like it should be. It is stock other than an aftermarket radio, Passport 9500CI radar / laser jammer, and clear bra on the bumper, front half of the hood & fenders, and mirrors. I have put about 1200 miles on the car so far. It runs great and doesn't skip a beat. And oh boy do I enjoy driving the car! It brings a smile to my face every time I open the garage door and see it sitting there waiting for me. It really is a dream car I am lucky enough to own.
























So on day 5 of ownership, I was on the phone with Sam @ By Design. Needless to say, since I had been wanting a car for years I knew pretty much what I wanted out of the car. Sam and I went over what I wanted and picked out a parts list and made a game plan. So the first round of parts was shipped out the next day. That included a Cobb tuner, ID 1300 injectors for E85, Sachs clutch kit, and a Klein exhaust. I snagged an unused BBI clutch slave cylinder conversion from a Rennlist member. I know a few people at AMS as they are local to me. So I headed over and grabbed their Alpha intercooler kit. Parts list complete and we are on our way!

Or so I thought. The next day I am talking to Sam and the next thing I know he is sending me a pair of his upgraded vgt turbos with the 68mm compressor wheels. So yes, this got out of hand real quick. haha I hope to keep the stock motor for a few years. So these turbos made sense. When the motor gets rods and what not, I can look at other turbo options then. I look forward to dropping the motor and trans out of the car to do the maintenance and install the upgrades. I have read a lot of good things about Sam and I can not wait to start the tuning process with him. I feel I am in very good hands with him. I know how important a relationship with your tuner is. I have built a few cars over the years and many of the sucess I had was due to very capable tuners.


This forum has been a big help with research, fact-finding, and learning about these cars. I thank you guys for being a helpful community and I hope I can be helpful here are well as I share my build.

Thank you, Mike

 

Nice car - kind of like mine - same steering wheel and options etc

Enjoy

I am going the same route as you

 

Similar to my project as well, I have a build thread on here showing what I did. Sam is great you won't be disappointed.

 

good mod list

 

Thank you

I saw some of your threads recently. Those types of threads are helpful. They gave me things to look for and think about before doing mods.


I remember reading your build thread as you were building the car. I have been a long time lurker. haha You have a killer car for sure.

I remember you kind of went down the same road. Bought a car, went to do maintenance and ended up doing a whole lot of stuff right away.

I like reading your posts as you give a lot insight without giving proprietary things away. I get why. I could babble about the same kind of stuff too. I read Maximum Boost by Corky Bell years ago and was fascinated by it. It made me think and kept me reading to at least have a general understanding of fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and things related to turbos and engines. I may not have an engineering degree, but I like to try and understand things at least a little bit. But with this build, I just took a leap of faith based on Sam's recommendations and post about his 68mm turbo in other threads. I know I am in good hands.


Thank you. There are a bunch of other things I have that I didn't mention. Torque Solutions turbo inlets, motor mounts, and more. More items that I would like to admit buying. hahaha

The next stage of parts will be Numeric short shifter, DCS controller, and some suspension goodies. Should keep me busy for a while.


Hi Sam!

I am well aware of peer pressure. I am usually the one pressuring my friends. lmao But at least I do my share of spending money and doing mods. This is far from my first car build. All talking to you about turbos did was move the timeline for turbos up sooner. Everything else was going to get done anyways. I mean come on, did you really even try to upsell me? I think you mentioned turbos and I was like "I'm in, let's do it"

The turbos make sense due to efficiency, less heat, and so on. I have no doubt I will be happy I did them once dialed in.

But we need to talk about my headers. I didn't get my set yet. What's up with that? hahaha

We also need to talk about the road course tune. I'm not sure if you talked to Eric in the last day or two but we need to dial back that road course tune some. It's too hot for us newbs to the road course. I think we need a low boost, E85 tune for a while. lol

 

Eric's last track car was a Ford Taurus SHO with probably a wheezy 185 whp. Mine was a 440 whp 3800 pound Mustang. Having this much torque on demand is a lot different. All-wheel drive or not!

Although I have been telling him he needs a GT3 for a month or so now. I talked to him and said getting a tune from you to tame the car some should be no problem. We both need to familiarize ourselves with these cars for a while. Build up to some faster track times. But all day Monday he was smiling ear to ear. He had a blast and that is the important thing. Well after the fact that he and the car were fine.


Now that he has turbos as well, I can't let him have something up on me. rofl We'll talk headers soon.

 

Welcome aboard! Now buckle up for the fun ride...........

 

Congrats and welcome! Looking forward to following your build.

 

Welcome to the zoo...gray is one of my favorite colors...can’t wait to see what your build looks like..

 

It is a ride I am looking forward to very much. haha


Thank you


I know it is stuff that has probably been done and documented many times over on here. But I'll try to update as we finally get working on the car. It is always nice to be able to go back and see how the car progressed.


Thank you. I like black and silver. But I didn't want the work associated with keeping a black car clean. haha And you just see a lot of silver and black 911. I am happy I got the grey car and it matches my grey BMW 335i very well. haha






I have to say I am amazed the shifter Porsche used in this car. The shifter and the lack of feel in the clutch pedal are my only real complaints about the car. The stock shifter moving all over the place in gear is baffling. Especially in a car of this caliber. Even though I have not missed a gear or anything like that with it, it just does not install confidence. I am accustomed to cars with the shifter mounted directly to the shift rail. Which was also upgraded to an aftermarket unit. Going from those to this made me realize I need to upgrade the shifter in the 911 sooner than later. I will probably pull the trigger on a Numeric shifter soon.

I have read that stock cables fail from time to time. If it recommended to change them at a certain mileage? 50k, 100K, or does the mileage not really matter? They just break when they break. I probably would skip the Numeric cables and use stock ones. Due to noise and not really needing their benefits in strength & upgraded materials. But wasn't sure if cables are really something I should be concerned about. What is the consensus on replacing cables?

 

odd, my oem shifter is very tight and super precise

 

Mine move a good half inch or side to side when it is in gear. It has a lot of movement. Maybe in part due to work plastic pieces in the shifter assembly?

I have seen videos online and on here where people compare stock shifter to one upgraded with aluminum bushings or Numeric shifter. I don't think it is uncommon to see the stock shifter moving around in gear. I come from a background of shifters mounted directly to the trans and shift rail in the trans. Usually with aftermarket shifters. So I am accustomed to the "Rifle action" you hear people refer to with the Numeric shifter.

The car shifts fine and with little effort. It isn't horrible. But it isn't what I would expect from a proper sports car. Luckily there are aftermarket options to improve on this. So not a huge deal. Well besides the $700 price tag for the Numeric. haha If I had a SSK in the car already I would probably just buy the aluminum bushing and arm kit and install that. But I wouldn't mind a shorter throw. So at that point, the Numeric makes more sense. SImilar money when all said and done but I'll have an all aluminum shifter with more adjustability. I'm sure I'll be happy with the purchase one it is installed and I take it for a ride.

 

I was in the same situation - underwhelmed with the stock shifter. Went with the Numeric along with a Function-First billet **** and Wevo engine mounts. Very pleased with this setup and not planning to touch it.

 

I have not heard much negative posted about the Numeric. I'm sure I will be very happy with it. I have upgraded motor and trans mounts going in as well. With all the new parts the car is getting, I am sure performance and driving feel will be improved. I just can't wait to get it all installed. Hopefully by the end of next month.

 

Soooo Eric was swamped for months and couldn't make room to get my car in. So that meant I had more time to spend more money and get more parts. Because it would be apart so late in the year we decided to not work on it just to remove the engine again over the Chicago winter to do the coolant pipes. So I ordered up the Sharkwerks oil coolant pipes and the BBI billet coolant pipes. As more time went on I ended up buying Klein headers, IPD plenum, and GT3 throttle body. As well as trans mount inserts, adjustable motor mounts, Torque Solutions turbo inlets, and few other odds and ends.

Eric finally got the car in the shop and I started pulling the thing apart. The car came apart really easily, nothing broke, and it was interesting to see some of the engineering and thought used on the car. Eric then made sure everything on the top side of the motor was un-hooked and the motor was ready to come out of the car. Once out of the car Eric had time to tear the engine down to a long block. That engine looks so small with everything off it. haha We knew the car needed coils and plugs when I bought the car. They coil bodies were cracked in several spots. The only other issues we found was a seeping water temperature sensor and sure enough a loose coolant pipe. So it was a good thing we decided to do them now. We cleaned everything up and changed all the o-rings on the motor. There are so many o-rings! It took me hours to inventory them all, separate them, and change them on the parts. Seriously, hours. haha Everything went together fairly smoothly. We even changed all the fluids in the car. So the car should be set for quite a while.

The car fired up with no issues on the Cobb stage 3 tune and I got Sam data logs. We were off and running with tuning the car. The car is easy to drive like stock. The car feels really strong on 93 octane. Sam is great to work with and gets tune revisions to me quickly. Once the 93 tune was dialed in we switched to E85. We once again started with the Cobb stage 3 tune for E85. It felt good. I wasn't sure if it was me or what. But I thought the Cobb Stage 3 E85 tune felt a lot like Sam's final 93 octane tune. Sam said the logs looked good but there was some throttle closures in the log. So he sent me a new revision saying this tune should be smoother. And to let him know how this revision felt versus the Cobb Stage 3 tune. HOLY BAJEESUS! The car felt like it picked up 100 horsepower! I told Sam this and he just laughed. He replied that he threw all of his Stage 4 stuff at the tune all at once. lmao

On E85 the car is a beast. With the 68mm turbos, it spools well and the power just comes on smooth and predictable. Which makes it easy to drive as it doesn't upset the chassis or suspension. Plus the gearing in the car makes the car come up on power quick no matter what rpm or gear you are in. The car is just a rocket.


Sam has been a huge help and great to deal with. We are still doing small tweaks to the tunes but they are almost done. But I can't say enough about his support so far.