Hello All,

I have a 987.1 that I am planning on tracking a few times this year. I took it to one event last year, got the Cayman R pads and some motul fluid put in and stainless lines installed before the track day. That all has served me well. Other than the pads and lines it is a stock Boxster S.

This year I am looking for a budget set of track wheels, rubber, and maybe some other minor mods. I am familiar with tracking cars, ran a 04 VW R32 for 3 years and about 20 events, I have done 10+ races with a Lemons team and, I have tracked my daily B8 S4 a few times. But, the boxster seems like the best bet going forward. Miata handling (Kinda) with more power!

Anyways, any suggestions for mods?
Anyone selling a set of track rims and tires or have a budget set I can find new? (Planning on NT01s as they seem like a popular choice.)
What is a good size rim and tire? Offset? Going wider than stock on rims? Stick with 18s for diameter?

Thanks for your input!

 

Not to rain too hard on your parade but while these cars are super on the street on the track while of course the features that make them super on the street make them -- on paper -- super on the track bring out the car's weak points. Primarily the engine oiling system. With street tires which of course have good grip but not as much as dedicated track tires, the oiling system is ok. But fit track tires and with the increase in grip with a higher track speed, higher cornering speeds, more g-forces, the stock oil system is not up to it.

Too much aeration of the oil (courtesy of all that cam chain/cam machinery), insufficient oil scavenging. Oil defoaming pots that are unable to remove all the air from the oil before it is routed back to the oil sump. Under some conditions g-forces can cause oil to "puddle" under one of the camshaft covers which can lower the oil level in the sump to a dangerously low level. This combined with still aerated oil can have the oil pump supplying aerated oil to the engine with probably catastrophic results.

Run a high quality oil. For my street only Boxster and 996 Turbo I ran Mobil 1 5w-50 oil (not a typo for 15w-50 oil!). The 5w-50 oil has a better HTHS number than 0w-40 oil.

'course, you can't use, should not use, this oil in extreme cold temperatures, but unless you engage in winter ice racing with your car 5w-50 oil is ok.
Regardless of which oil you use, show up at the track with fresh oil. And show up at the track with the oil level at the max level when measured with the oil up to operating temperature.


For some MYs and some models, there is a deeper oil sump, the cover is deeper, with an extended oil pick up pipe available. The deeper oil sump can come with better baffling -- metal vs. the factory's rubber like material baffling. The deeper sump provides more oil capacity -- with a slight loss of ground clearance at the oil sump -- with better baffling.

Hard running especially at the track can have the engine emit a "scary" cloud of oil smoke under some circumstances. This almost certainly is just the AOS being overwhelmed by the volume of oil vapor that the high revving/hard working engine produces. There is a Motorsports AOS -- which may or may not -- you have to research this -- be a bolt on/in replacement for the factory AOS. However, my 2nd hand info is the engine will still smoke with the Motorsports AOS it is just the Motorsports AOS is of a more robust design/construction and supposedly can withstand the rigors of tracking better, but it can still fail, so if you track long enough it will not be the last AOS you buy.

If the car is equipped with a hydraulic power steering system explore fitting a power steering fluid cooler. Do not fit a smaller crank pulley to spin the power steering pump slower. This slows down the water pump and that is exactly what you don't want to do with a hard/hot running engine. The water pump is intended to circulate coolant at a very high velocity. This is to ensure no steam pockets form at the hottest spots in the engine's cooling system. While steam pockets probably won't form at higher revs, when you bring the revs down for a cool down the tremendous heat load can put enough heat into the now slower flowing coolant to generate stream pockets. This is not good no matter when it happens. It must never happen.

 

You may also want to check out planet-9, where you'll find lots of discussion on this topic.

 

Thanks Guys!