Been a regular at various tracks in the SE attending several DEs hosted by BMW, PCA, Chin and others. Finally decided to buy a dedicated track car utilizing the 996 platform. As you would expect the prices of these cars are coming down given that the first ones were produced in 1999. That's what I purchased, a 1999 996.

Thought I would document the build, to the best of my ability in hopes of providing some guidance to those who choose to follow this same path.

I was very fortunate in my purchase. The prior owner was well on his way to making this a track car of his own. Circumstances changed for him and he sold me the car. The car is already equipped with the following:

Light Weight Flywheel
New pads and rotors front and back
K&N cold air intake
GMG Harness Bar (now for sale section)
OMP seats (one currently for sale)
OMP harnesses
GT3 OEM body kit (a $10k option, per the sticker!)
Fabspeed exhaust by-pass
Rennline strut braces front and rear
upgraded sway bars front and rear
K-sport coilovers (surprisingly good! we'll see how long they last)

The car is at BeyondOEM in Cumming, GA and they are doing the work. First on the agenda was getting the car ready for a PCA track event at Road Atlanta within two weeks of purchasing the car. I was already registered and wanted to give her a try. Here's what we did just to get her out on the track and have some fun:

Seats: I'm a big guy (6'5" and 275lbs) and found that the OMP driver's seat was simply too small for me. So we purchased an OMP seat that matched those that were already in the car. It was a shame because the seat that was in the car was in perfect condition, barely used-now up for sale. We then fabricated custom mounting brackets that enabled the seat to be lowered and pushed further back, well beyond the constraints of the stock sliders. The end result was perfect, I have never been in any automobile that fits me as well as this one. Only minor negative is that the seat is permanently mounted and can not be adjusted for other drivers. Here's a pick of the bracket:



Steering Wheel/Quick Release: Added an OMP Steering wheel, hub and quick release. This was also part of my "car fitment" process. Since we were planning on replacing the GMG Roll/Harness Bar (did I mention this is currently for sale?) with a full roll cage, we understood that having this particular feature would become a necessity.

Interior-Removal: I wanted to be able to sell some of the parts that were taken off the car in order to offset some of the costs. The interior was carefully removed in order to save as many of the bits as possible for potential resale. This took a lot longer than simply tearing out the entire thing, hopefully the time will be worth the effort.

New Alignment The car was lowered about 1 inch and realigned with much more aggressive settings. Front, is -3.4, rear is -2.8. The K-Sport coilovers are equipped with camber plates and are three way adjustable. The prior owner really liked these coilovers. They seem to be well constructed but have not heard much about them with respect to Porsches.

Unfortunately I did not take any pics of the car at this stage of the game with the exception of one action shot at RATL-looks like somewhere between turn 5 and 6-can't remember if I was passing or being passed.



Car took a lot of getting use to. Had to re-learn most of the track. Brakes were outstanding, power was less than what I was use to (996TT). The turbo was a much heavier car, but it flew, felt very very planted throughout the entire course. This one is more nimble, stops quicker, but didn't have the torque of the turbo so it's less forgiving out of the corners-i.e. you couldn't power out of them, at least not like the turbo. Straddling the gators in Turn 3 was a much different experience in this car. Suspension still needs some work. After talking to the Matt at Beyond OEM we decided to increase the spring rates on the car. He contacted K-Sport and they were very helpful looks like they're going to hook us up right.

Now that we had some fun, it was time to really get to work. We went back into the interior and finished the removal in order to prepare the car for a custom cage installation. Again, it took a bit longer than it would if we had simply torn out the interior because we wanted to save all the parts we could. The GMG roll/harness bar came out and is now available as well. Here are some pics of the car just before we started on the cage.









Now some pics with the cage installed:

Note that on this pic we did not have to relocate the fuse box in order to install the cage. That made things a lot easier.


NASCAR style door bars to give a bit more room in the cabin, only on the driver's side though.







Note the way the shifter was also raised, again the fitment of the car to the driver.



We also decided to change the color of the dash from grey to black. Thought it matched the cage (currently being painted black) and the combination of the two would look great against the silver interior panels. We have some CF panels coming that will help close some of the gaping holes in the dash. Here are some pics of the dash after it was painted:





Now we'll put it all back together again, adding some new parts along the way.

 

Wow, that's a great project! I need to point this out to my wife, she's wanting a 996 C2 for a street/track car, but she won't want it nearly stripped out like yours is. Same power/suspension mods though. Nice work! Looking forward to more track pics.

 

Sick project ! Looking forward to seeing this evolve !

 

Very cool! Any engine mods in store?

 

All we have at this point is the K&N cold air intake and Fabspeed exhaust. I guss the LWFW can be included in this category as well. Will likely go for an ECU upgrade shortly. Ultimately we are looking to minimize cost and I think we'll get more bang for the buck in other areas, suspension for example.

When we ultimately get into the engine I think the best way to effectively increase power/reliability will be to drop in a 3.6L or possibly an X51. I haven't really looked into these options deeply enough to be sure of the cost effectiveness, but we'll see. The best way to cheaply "increase" HP is to lose weight-we're still working on that.

 

awesome build, thanks for sharing, make sure you post the final product.

 

Cage has been painted and the dash is about 80% installed. Before we can finish it up we need to do some pre-wiring for the Fire Suppression System, the Electrical Cut-off switches and the AC. Yes, we did decide to keep the AC. I know weight is a bit of an issue, but it gets pretty hot in ATL while in the pits and when it rains it will be nice to be able to defog the windows.

A CF panel will be installed to cover the big hole in the center of the dash. It will also accommodate the additional control buttons and switches for the various systems.

Here are some more pics of the car in it's current state.









More updates to come...

 

Progress is being made on the 996 project. We've installed the electric cut-off system. Simply disconnecting the battery will not ensure that the engine will shut down during an emergency situation. A properly installed system will also isolate the alternator when the disconnection is applied. this requires running a cable from the switch to the engine compartment. The disconnection can be applied in two places; from within the cockpit (by the driver) or by a push button found on the cowl (presumably by a track worker). Disconnection of the entire system is accomplished when either one or both of the switches is thrown. Here are a few pics:







The fire system was also installed. We decided to go with the Halon based system. I've heard of many instances where systems are inadvertently discharged and could not imagine the clean-up associated with an AFFF system, not to mention the residual damage to electrical and mechanical components. The system came with three nozzles and we've chosen to place one in the main cabin and pointing toward the driver. The second is in the engine compartment and the third in the trunk. The guys at BeyondOEM also painted the tubing red so it can be easily identified-nice touch and it looks pretty good. Here are some shots:









The car came equipped with K-Sport coilovers. However, the spring rates were a bit light so Matt at BeyondOEM got together with the engineers at K-Sport and selected an optimal spring rate for the application. Many make the mistake of going with springs that are simply too stiff and that will overwhelm the shocks on the coilover system. The guys at K-Sport assured us that we would be okay-we'll see. Here's a pic:




We're getting close to sending it out for paint. But we need to finish up some loose ends: X51 oil pan, data logging system (more than likely a Traqmate), still considering RMS/IMS preventative fixes, CF Floor plate, light weight battery and an LSD. Also, for those interested here's the paint scheme we are going to use-perhaps with some slight mods.

 

Got the car back late this week and I think it looks great

Also had time to put in the much smaller Braille battery with bracket and fit the CF footplate. This week the guys at BeyondOEM are going to install the adjustable drop links, complete a corner balance & allignment, get the seats back in, add vinyl, install the X51 oil pan and finish up sme of the smaller details that will complete the car. Weight wise, I hope the car comes in below 2,900 lbs.

Finally begining to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm registered for the DE at Road Atlanta this weekend and we're looking to really start dialing the car in.

 

that looks crazy!!!