Over the weekend, I ordered a VR Tuned ECU flash, and an IPD standard plenum for my 997.1 S. I'd wanted a flash since I got the car, and there was a great Black Friday sale ($800). I'd considered a plenum for a while as well, and usually move slowly on any mod. Then Cyber Monday came, and Suncoast had an offer I couldn't refuse ($600). It was a little impulsive for me, but I just needed a nudge. Both mods should be in place by next week.

So, what's next? I'm in no hurry, but I need to have something to look forward to, and to ruminate over. I suppose convention wisdom is to address the exhaust. It's stock now, except for a recent Gundo hack (omg, I love it!). I'm tempted to leave those mufflers, and maybe think in terms of higher flow cats, but I don't want or need to do anything extreme. I don't think I want to bother with headers, but I'm open to suggestions. Maybe I'm already done.

I don't track my car, although I might. Honestly, I'm afraid doing so will only give me a worse case of mod-itis. Its a daily driver for my one mile commute to work, but it's mainly for fun. I have an Aerokit wing, but can't live with the low clearance of the corresponding front bumper and splitter. I have a SSK, pedals, a nice thick wheel, LEDs, and a few alcantara and carbon fiber trim pieces. I've come to accept that's there's really no end point, but I don't currently anticipate doing much beyond whatever my next mod is (who do I think I'm fooling here?). It should be something worthwhile, performance-wise, as well as driveability-wise.

Any thoughts? Gentlemen, start your engines.

 

You have opened up the intake side. I would also add a higher flow filter to the stock intake. Now, you should also open the exhaust side. The VR Tuning that you have will now be able to maximize your mods. With that said, consider looking at headers and cats and keeping the Gundo Hack. Talk to Rhonda at FVD. Very insightful discussion regarding headers and cats.

 

Great advice. I just got a deal on some Fabspeed cats, so I pulled the trigger, again. I was a little hesitant at losing some low end torque with the X pipe design, but I've otherwise heard so many good things that it seemed to way to go.

I'm still hesitant to touch my headers, though. I understand that the choke point in the exhaust is the cat. I don't see enough bang for the buck in spending another grand or two on headers. I'm not very mechanical, so I also need to factor in labor for the installation.

 

Whats next is to take your car to the track.

I did and found out that the car is already way overpowered for my skills on a track. The additional power is useful for drag or straight aways.

Next mod is the driver.

 

Excellent point. Even my mechanic told me I should track my car (and by extension, myself).

 

If you talk to Fabspeed and M&M (maker of Headers and Cats for FVD and Porsche Motorsport), the headers are actually the restrictive point of the exhaust. The Cats are restrictive too, but....

 

+1


these cars have more than plenty of power for most. If u need the push-u-back-into-the-seat kind of power for straights, just get a turbo. (or add a bolt-on)


Cats (& headers) are nice and will work nicely with ur tune.. but u will have to deal with very loud exhaust sound, emission, and/or possible CEL.
Is this worth it for $2-3K ? that's up to u.

 

By definition, what I already got is worth it to me. I'm getting the tune, so no CEL issues. I'm getting cats, and not going cat less. I doubt that my carbon footprint is going to go up appreciably just because they're higher flow than OEM. The sound is one of the things I like, and which I dislike about the turbo. I like the sound of a good exhaust note, even more than I enjoy intake sound.

Maybe my next car will be another Bimmer, where I can just enjoy the exhaust note electronically serenading me in the cabin, but not in a Porsche. Going this route seems to make a lot more sense than PSE, at >$3K, as well. It's real sound produced by a component that's also producing more torque and hp. It should push me back in the seat plenty. I've had bad luck with turbos in the past. Before porsche migrates to an all-turbo product line to meet CAFE standards, I want to have as much NA fun as I can.

 

Keep your eye on the used marketplace here, lately I've seen aftermarket cats, headers, exhaust all in the last month or so..any of these will do something once it all comes together...air intake for the cool noise is relatively cheap too =)

 

I'm a step ahead of you, but that's still welcome advice. I bought some cats here last week.

 

buy a Viper

seriously, register for Winterfest at Sebring (PBOC) in early January. I have a good group going. Since you will be a novice, you need to register soon otherwise it will be sold out.

 

I might just do that. I doubt I'll see any Vipers, but out in the Everglades I stand a better chance of seeing a python. Actually I've been considering Sebring. If you're heading up, and are able to talk to mere mortals in non-turbos, I just might. Thx!

 

Update:
Plenum installed-- check
200 cell cats installed-- check
VR Tuned flash installed-- Houston, we have a problem

Just got the IPD plenum and Fabspeed X-pipe cats installed today. Wow. Power and a great exhaust note, especially with my Gundo hack. I know the ECU needs to relearn, so I just went out to teach it a thing or two. My initial impression is very favorable. It pulled strong from idle right up to 7K. The sound is beautiful, with the right combination of rumble, gurgle, roar, snarl, and pop. It's all very smooth, and not too loud (at least for my taste).

Not so much luck with my new flash. It's been one headache after another. My old windows xp laptop is incompatible, so I had to load windows 8.1 onto my MacBook. That was quite challenging, and took me many hours with the Mumbai offices of Windows and Apple, pointing fingers at each other for hours. I eventually got it working and sent my old file to VR yesterday morning. To their credit, I got it back modified at 12:30 am their time. Unfortunately, there's nobody to call on the weekend, and despite my best efforts, the software would not identify my car. It's killing me.

I was looking forward to posting a glowing review. One of the reasons I went with VR is that I didn't need an Internet connection. I park in a concrete cave of a high rise condo garage. I also didn't want the down time of shipping out my ECU. The trade off seems to have been for an extraordinarily frustrating odyssey. I'm no mechanic, but I'm rather computer savvy. This has been a daunting task that I would never repeat. Unfortunately, it's not over yet. I should be very close, but almost two weeks into this, and hours of headaches, I still have my OEM tune. :-(

 

Very frustrating to hear. Hang in there.

 

Sorry to vent, but thank you. Patience isn't one on my virtues.