I finally decided to do an ongoing build/ownership thread. I have a similar thread I put together for my old ESS supercharged E90 M3 (https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1102054&highlight=rat3d_m
) so at just over 2 years of ownership now on the 911, I thought it was about time. I will continually update this over the time of ownership as a way to document the progress of the vehicle. I hope you all enjoy the progress I have made with the car. I personally always enjoy reading threads like this.



Purchase (January/February 2017)

After selling the E90 M3 to make room in my garage (and bank account) for a Gallardo, I made it perhaps three weeks without a weekend toy before I came across a 2007 911 Turbo on eBay. The car was listed for sale on consignment by 360 Exotics in Austin, Texas. The car is previously owned by Zohair Jaffery’s, the owner of Boost Logic, who share the same warehouse space with 360 Exotics. After some back and forth, we settled on a price, and I flew into Houston from Frankfurt, Germany on January 31, 2017 to pick the car up, and drive it to the port for shipment back to the Fatherland.


Listing photo from 360 Exotics



As you can see from the photo, when I bought the car, it had a few aftermarket mods, to include:

-H&R Sport lowering springs

-D2S GT2 style wing and decklid

-European spec bumper markers

-Agency Power catless straight pipes

-Cobb Accessport with a custom stage 2 tune by Boost Logic

-K40 radar detector

-Extended wheel stud conversion

-Dark smoked factory tail lights



The only item I did not negotiate with the car was the ADV.1 wheels. The car was purchased with the factory wheels and the owner kept the aftermarket wheels to sell privately.


At the hotel in San Antonio, the day I took delivery (February 2, 2017)



I dropped the car off in Houston the very next day, and hopped on a plane for the 9 hour flight back to Germany.


Pick-up in Bremerhaven (April 2017)

After a couple months waiting, the car arrived in Bremerhaven, and I drove up to pick it up. First mod I did almost immediately after getting the car home? Removed the back seats and seatbelts.


A week after picking the car up in Bremerhaven



New wheels (July 2017)

After regretting not paying the extra $1500 for the ADV.1 wheels, I decided it was time to make my first upgrade. I settled on some Forgestar F14 wheels in factory size with a slightly wider offset front and rear.




Interior mods (Fall 2017)

With the new wheels on, I was satisfied for the moment with the exterior look of the car, so I turned my attention to the interior. Over the Fall of 2017 before putting the car away for winter storage, I performed a few interior mods:

-Red alcantara GT2RS shift ****/boot

-Red alcantara GT2RS console lid

-Custom e-brake handle wrapped in red alcantara

-GT3RS style door pulls










Nurburgring Trip (September 2017)

Being an hour and 20 minutes from the legendary Nurburgring, I had to take the 911 on the Nordschleife at least once to see how the car handled, just as I had done in my E90 M3. I took my son out on the track with me, so it was a relatively slow and leisurely lap. The experience was a ton of fun for both of us (he was 3 at the time) and he remembers it to this day, nearly 2 years later. We made a video of our lap, which can be found at the link below:

You Tube

Headlight mod (Winter 2017-2018)

I generally store my weekend car from mid-late November through mid-late March. There is no better time to mod and catch up on maintenance than over the winter months when the car isn’t driven. I decided to take on a headlight modification project in December of 2017, which I slowly completed through February of 2018 little by little.

The mod involved removing and opening up the headlights, and painting the chrome portion of the housing flat black. I created a DIY video, which can be found in the link below. I also took this time to color match the headlight washer nozzles to rid the car of anything chrome.

You Tube

Rear bumperette delete (March 2018)

I wasn't a huge fan of the US Spec rear bumperettes, and having been told by a few German's that I needed to get rid of them (apparently they hate them too) I decided to remove them and cover the holes with a sheet of black plastic. It is a temporary solution, and I will eventually do a 997.2 euro bumper and tail light conversion, but it works for now.

(photo pending)


Wheel spacers (March 2018)

While the Forgestar wheels were a huge improvement over the factory wheels, the offset was still a tad on the narrow side for me, so I added some ECS Tuning 8mm/12mm spacers to the front and rear, respectively.




Dension Gateway 500 (March 2018)

Also toward the end of the winter storage period, I decided I was over the antiquated PCM system. Not wanting to lose the additional features of the Sports Chrono, and wanting to keep a factory look, no matter how dated it is, I decided to go for a Dension Gateway BT500 unit. No photos to share of the install, but you all know what Bluetooth does.


Steering wheel and Fabspeed intake (June 2018)

With the car out of storage and back on the road for the 2018 season, I began looking at the old leather steering wheel which was in serious need a refresh to match my other alcantara interior pieces I had installed the year prior. I came across a good deal on a used 997 steering wheel, and promptly sent it out to Royal Steering Wheels in the UK for treatment. They performed the following modifications on it for me:

-Added thumb grips

-Added padding to make the wheel thicker

-Wrapped in grey alcantara with red stitching

-Red leather stripe at 12 o’ clock




Also added at this time was a Fabspeed carbon fiber intake system.












New seats (August 2018)

While on vacation back in the US, I decided to take advantage of being able to avoid expensive shipping charges and picked up a set of Carrera GT replica reclining seats, and brought them back on the plane with me. No, it wasn’t easy, but I made it work. My only regret? Not going for the fixed back seats, though I will say I decided on the reclining seats for ease of transport on the plane. I mounted them in the car with a set of Planted seat brackets. These seats are on my list to be replaced with something more robust/appropriate for a car that sees light track duty.




H&R Coilovers (October 2018)

Next up it was time to replace the H&R sport springs and factory shocks, which at this point were blown. The car sat too low for practicality, the ride was bouncy, and I felt I needed some proper coilovers to improve the handling and overall look of the car, not to mention the added plus of being able to adjust the ride height if needed. After going back and forth between Bilstein B16’s and H&R’s, I decided to lose the PASM and go with the latter option. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about deleting PASM, but I haven’t missed it one bit. After an alignment I noticed the car handled 10x better. I noticed however during installing that the front upper shock mounts were blown, so the thought of what to replace them with became a consideration.




Guards red seatbelts (November 2018)

I couldn’t leave the plain black seatbelts for long with the new seats in place, so I had to install some guards red seatbelts next. I found some for a great price, and promptly put them in just before putting the car away for the winter.




Winter makeover (December 2018- March 2019)

Noticing that I had a sort of black on silver theme going with the car, and still having regrets for not buying the car with the ADV.1 wheels, which in my opinion were absolutely stunning, I decided to have the wheels powdercoated gloss black, with a red stripe around the lip to add a bit of separation between the wheel and tire. At this point, the tires were in need of replacement, so I replaced them with a set of Continental Extreme Contact tires as well.




The wing that came on the car is something that always bothered me. Not because of the style of the wing, but because the decklid was cheaply made and never fit properly. It was made for a Carrera, so fan placement was off and I wasn’t able to run one which caused an error on the dash while sitting in traffic in the middle of summer. I was dying to go back to the factory decklid for OEM quality, but I hated the factory wing, so I opted for the best of both worlds; an Agency Power carbon fiber GT2 style wing. The factory hydraulic system was inoperable from the day I bought the car, so to support the new wing I opted for some EB Werks 12 way adjustable uprights. Rather than running the chrome “turbo” script badge on the rear decklid which would have gone against the direction I was taking the car, I opted for a gloss black “911” badge instead, which was installed at the same time as the wing.




I discovered at this point that my neighbors had called Polizei on me and reported me for my exhaust back in October, not even 2 weeks before putting the car away for the winter. In Germany you may have a maximum exhaust noise rating of 95 dB. Needless to say they weren’t happy with my 127dB catless straight pipes, so I was in the market for a new exhaust. I decided to go with an old Speedtech system for two reasons. It was reported to be only a small amount louder than stock, and for the price I paid it couldn’t be beat. The system uses 200 cpsi cats, and a separate two muffler design. The car sounds 100% different, but I was happy to no longer have to worry about who I was going to upset by damaging the environment or waking people up at 10 o’ clock at night.




For the last two winter mods, I added a set of DEPO smoked bumper markers, and since I was gearing the car toward the track and giving it a more aggressive look like the GT2/GT3, I decided to remove the front badge and replace it with a decal. Weight savings, right?








Headlight repaint/reseal (March 2019)

One item I had wanted to re-do for a long time was the headlights. Originally the adhesive I used (a windshield putty) would heat up in the summer and the lenses would begin to pull away from the housing. They would also occasionally take on moisture when I washed the car, fogging the inside of the lens. In addition, I was slightly tired of the all black look, and wanted to add in some color, so I took them apart, repainted them, this time color-matching the ring around the HID projector, and then resealed them with some proper windshield glue. So far even in 90+ degree weather, there is no condensation and no signs of the lens separating. I also took it upon myself to wet-sand and polish the lenses to give the headlights a new look.




Exhaust tips (Spring 2019)

I couldn’t bear to look at the back end of the car with the factory exhaust tips on the Speedtech system. I even tried to paint the factory tips in matte black paint, but it never looked right. I began researching and found the company Soul Performance Products. I decided to give their GT2 style exhaust tips a try, and couldn’t be happier with the look. I’m still not used to the new sound, but I have to say the back end of the car looks much better than with the factory tips, or even with the quad tip design of the straight pipes.






Track oriented mods (Spring-Summer 2019)

With the car 75% where I wanted it in regards to power and looks, I realized it was time to focus on an area that needed drastic improvement. The car drove great, but with 60,000 miles on the odometer, bushings were worn, and the car needed a refresh/upgrade of several parts. I started out small, with a few much needed mods:

-Numeric Racing shifter
-Rennline semi-solid tunable engine mounts
-Cantrell 85A polyurethane transmission mount

The Numeric Racing shifter is a huge difference! The factory shifter was sloppy and didn’t give any sense of confidence with your shifts. The Numeric Racing unit is solid, precise, and totally changes the driving experience. The increase in NVH from the Cantrell transmission mount and Rennline motor mounts was honestly negligible. I am running the Rennline mounts on the hardest setting, and the motor and transmission are definitely more firmly planted to the chassis of the car, but the vibrations as I have heard people refer to before are not nearly as bad as the hype.







BBi Slave Cylinder Upgrade (Winter 2019-2020)

Just before putting the car away for the winter in November 2019, it developed a bad Pentosin leak from the slave cylinder. I had actually just changed the oil and was on my way home from what was going to be the last drive of the season when the leak developed. I managed to limp home, and knew right away that I had to get rid of the factory slave/accumulator set-up. I decided to go with the BBi GT2 style slave cylinder, with a slight change. Rather than routing the power steering fluid through the BBi slave, and returning it back to the reservoir as the BBI slave is intended, I modified the factory power steering pump and reservoir to function the same as the GT2 reservoir. This method of installing will ensure that there are no further issues in the future by tying the two systems together. They are now 100% independent of one another, and the clutch system now uses DOT 4 rather than Pentosin. The pedal feel with the BBi slave is a 100% improvement over the factory system.






While I was under the car installing the slave cylinder, I decided to re-install my Agency Power straight pipes. The Speedtech system just wasn't doing it for me anymore.





More track mods (March-April 2020)

Being off work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to find something to keep me occupied. I figured it was a good time to continue what I had started the previous year with the engine mounts and Numeric shifter, so the following were installed:

-Eibach rear sway bar
-Mode Inc rear pillow-ball shock mounts
-Custom roll cage finished in guards red
-Custom rear badge

I had actually purchased the sway bars and shock mounts early last year when I bought the engine mounts and shifter, but never got around to installing them. They've just been sitting around collecting dust. I do of course have the front shock mounts and front sway bar which will be installed at a later time when I can get the car on a lift.

I also had a custom "911" sticker made in matte black for the rear of the car, since I added the Porsche crest sticker in lieu of the hood emblem last winter, because weight savings, right?








Techart Style Front Lip (May 2020)

I came across the Better Bodies USA front lip which is very similar in style to the Techart. I wanted a more flared look in the front like the GT3 and was originally planning on a 9FF lip, but opted for this style instead. The lip is made of urethane so it is very durable and won't crack like carbon fiber or fiberglass. The fitment was very good for the price and what you would expect for cheap aftermarket body parts, about an 8/10. I still need to work the fitment a little, but I love the look and am glad I went with this style over the 9FF lip with the winged flares.




Cup Decklid, GT3RS Carbon Wing and Bimarco Seats (May-June 2020)

I began to get a little bored with the factory decklid and GT2 style wing, so I decided to go big or go home. I added a Cup decklid and 997.2 GT3RS carbon wing for more downforce in the rear. Maybe it's a placebo effect, but with the Techart style lip and GT3RS wing the car feels much more planted on the Autobahn. At 150+mph there is absolutely no floating feeling in the front like I had before.

I knew that the OEM seats wouldn't be in the car long. I didn't regret selling the Carrera GT replica seats, but I regretted not buying a fixed back bucket seat to begin with. After a great deal of deliberation, I decided to go with a custom set of Bimarco Cobra III's from Poland. I was wary of the price, but reviews were good, and I have to say they feel great. They are rock solid, and far more comfortable than I imagined. I am a larger guy (6'2", about 240 lbs, 36-38" waist) and they fit me perfectly.

At the time the decklid and seats were installed, I also added a fire extinguisher to the passenger footwell area with a custom made bracket, and added a Fall-Line Motorsports red tow strap in the front. Lastly, I decided to remove the rear tint. It was over 5 years old, and with all of the interior mods I was performing, I thought I would try something new and make the interior more visible from outside the car.








Coming Summer 2020

.I purchased a set of OEM 997.2 tail lights, which I have on hand, and just ordered a 997.2TT Eurospec rear bumper. I am excited to finish the back end of the car. After the bumper and tail lights, I will move on to the rocker panels, by adding some 9ff side skirts and Moshammer side scoops.

 

Hell of a write up & build thus far, congratulations!

 

Thanks for sharing! Keep it coming

 

thanks for sharing

 

Nice share!

Enjoy it in good health.

I recommend going with ESmotor tune and equal length headers.... With SpeedTech car will sound like a turbo GT3!

And do88 bigpack.. they make good intercoolers, plenum, Ypipe and intake tubes for the turbos inlets

 

Love the write up! Looking forward to more!

 

Great thread, love what you have done. Looking forward to seeing you continue.

 

do they still sell Red alcantara GT2RS shift ****/boot ? Ive searched everywhere and it seems to be out of stock. looking to buy one with no luck

 

Hey guys, it's been a long time since I've updated this. Toward the end of last year I didn't do much with the car, so I had actually forgotten about this thread. I've done a bit of work over the winter, and have some more fun stuff on order and planned for the upcoming months while we are all quarantined for the pandemic. I hope you all enjoy the updates, and I will do a better job of keeping this updated as the car progresses.

 

nice to see a fellow American TT in Germany, keep up the good work! We're stationed here in Wiesbaden, someday when we're allowed out again, maybe we can meet up.

 

Definitely! I'm always down to meet fellow porsche owners. I didn't think there were too many American owned TTs in Germany. If you get a second join the facebook group Kmc Porsche. It's a page I run that has kind of died but Im trying to get it going again.

 

Car's looking great! Can you post more pictures on the updated headlights? Planning on doing the same mod but think I'll keep the chrome around the projectors.

Also, do you mind posting the name of the new sealant? I've bought this stuff https://www.theretrofitsource.com/mo...TYL?quantity=1

 

Here is a couple pictures I took earlier. I'll look tomorrow and post the sealant I used. I have an unopened tube in the garage.

 

I found your headlight tutorial on youtube and was thrilled to see you were here on 6speed. I know you mentioned elsewhere you had issues with the headlights when you resealed them with butyl tape and ultimately switched to gasket maker.

For those looking to open and reseal their headlights, butyl tape is the best product on the market for doing so and the way the pros do it... but the 997 headlights provide a unique challenge due to the their shape (more on this in a moment). I recommend anyone looking to do this mod follow Rat3d M's tutorial all the way through to the sealing portion, then watch this video from Lightwerkz on resealing with Butyl tape:
The problems Rat3d M had regarding the tape were due to not baking it after and not clamping. Baking after is the easy part, the challenge with the 997 headlights is the clamping. There's nowhere to put a spring clamp on the headlights. Initially I wasn't sure how necessary clamping actually was, but I reached out to TheRetroFit source which manufacture the Morimoto Resealing tape and they told me the tape will not work without the pressure from the clamping in addition to the heat from the post bake. After looking into all sorts of traditional clamps none of watch could latch onto our headlights I discovered band clamps (also known as a strap clamp).

This is the only solution I could find and works perfectly for our headlights. You place the ratchet on the back cover panel of the headlight with a towel between the plastic and the ratchet so it doesn't dent. Then you loop the band lengthwise over the lens of the headlamp from the 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock points and ratchet slowly until you see the Butyl start to ooze out of the seal. Hopefully this is helpful for anyone resealing their headlamps and shout out to Rat3d M for the overall video which was essential in actually disassembling the light.

 

Hello,
real estate istanbul
Keep up the excellent job! It's great to see another American TT in Germany. We're stationed in Wiesbaden, and if we're ever permitted out again, we might be able to meet up.