And the next natural step.....we need some sweet music to listen to while driving...
You may have heard one of the guests / visitors here who stopped by the shop this past weekend to see the progress on the car and talk about the nice sound.....and as someone said today, this sound is a "Man" sound....there is nothing secret about its intentions. But, the fun is that you can sit and play w the valving and change the sound note from aggressive (loud, but not out of control), to MEAN (we wanted it to sound just like a Cup car at the track....we LOVE the sound of the Cup car...and we think we have it, but Saturday will be the true test).
Here are some pics of the 2010 997.2 GT3 OEM headers, cats and exhaust.

 

So, pay attention to the OEM bends, from the output pipes of the exhaust manifold to the cat....a pretty sharp bend all at once. So, what's one to do?

Improve it....and replace the cats w high flow 200 cell sport cats, better tubing flow, using as much room as possible to improve the piping and angles....

The result is pretty...nice, tight, great fitment, and a sound that you can't mistake in any way...yet, fully streetable or trackable...your choice, nice or mean.
Now, how does it really compare w the OEM set...here's a pic of the two sets on the car side by side....OEM on the left, GMG Sport headers and Cats on the right

Here's how they look fully installed....

And, the quick eye will pick up that we needed a full system, not just the awesome sport headers and cats....we needed a new center section. But, rather than just be another set of pipes and crossovers, w a set of tips that look hung on, or a wart on the whole solution, a great solution is truly an engineering piece of work, to integrate completely, and produce a flow and expansion to allow that wonderful sound to escape...

the tips look awesome...and fully align w the character of the car.

So, only one more step to go in the build before this weekend.
We now have -
Carbon Fiber sport seats
GMG harness bar/roll bar/shock tower brace
Willans dual 6-point harness sets
BRracing graphics
GMG suspension pieces, bushings, links, sway bars
GT3 Cup front splitter
GT3 Cup alignment (just finished a new alignment today)
Chase Cam video and data acq system
Go PRO HD video system
GMG sport headers and sport cats
GMG exhaust center section and tips
Stoptech STR60 braking system
PFC combo pad setup (O1 and 97 together)

We haven't decided yet on tires for this weekend (could be Toyo R888, Hoosiers, Mich, or Pirelli's)....full race slicks will come later when we complete the race suspension.

And...if you wonder if these little suspension pieces make any difference, even just for street usage, just wait for another post to come on another customer car (997 TT) that we complete today, and the transformation that the customer witnessed......he was truly amazed....but more on that in another post

One more piece to go before this weekend.
But, we want this to be a DEVELOPMENT car...we're here to test and prove what you want on your own cars, and we want to push the envelope. So, if you see or think there is another piece that is needed that is consistent w the build philosophy for this project....post here and let us know. We're not building a full CUP car, you can buy one of those. But, we want to see if we can refine the complete package into something more, so let us know.

Such FUN...

 

yikes

looks like you`re building your own Cup Car

that`s amazing!

 

OK....here is the last step in the build before tomorrow's track day exercise. And, in driving the car around the street, this car really needs to get out and stretch it's legs, but, boy, what fun when you get on this thing, the sound is incredibly intoxicating.

So, to have some fun with this next step in the build process, we have taken the first photo of what we are adding to the car today.
Want to see if anyone can guess what this non-standard, special part is that we are adding to the GT3.....
What could this be?????



Let us know...this is one of the non-std pieces, but w big impact. Thanks for all the support...will post the rest of the pics later today to show the end result after installation.

 

Awesome build! Can't wait to see more. I'd love to hear a sound clip of this thing as well!

 

GMG headers are piece of art, i don't understand why they don't advertise them on their website.

 

pretty cool though everycar we've put bigger brakes on goes slower

 

Well, two updates due. The first is the result of the addition and the answer to the teaser of what that last pic was and the piece that we were adding.

The answer is a new rear decklid and rear wing.
We took the current 2010 997.2 GT3 rear deck lid, the inside portion, and mated it to a 2009 997.1 GT3 Cup Car top deck lid, Cup Car uprights, and then a Cup Car rear wing. To this, we then added new CF air scoops on top, and had them fully molded in to the top cover. The new scoops increase airflow by 30%, and these are currently available items (but not a straight bolt on piece for the 997.2......yet).
The result is the package we've been working towards.....we had the guests guessing at TH as to what this car was...but the current wing on the car is the giveaway...as the new 2010 Cup Car has a much bigger wing than this.

The first pic is the new decklid, fully molded scoops into the top (which are CF, and we left a portion of the scoops exposed so that you can see the CF element).


The next pic is the full kit installed...the new rear decklid, the rear Cup Car uprights, and the Cup car rear wing (we are missing a new CF wicker...to be added soon).




The car was willing, the crew prepared, the driver anxious to see what we had created (Robb and Bruce would be the team drivers for the test).....

 

Track test update - BRracing GT3
I can't begin to explain the excitement we felt after we unloaded the car, and had participated in the normal track day preparations...we were ready.

We had just heard of a horror story about another new 2010 GT3 and a braking issue...will post that question here in just a sec, so we were going to start at about 90% just to make sure all was good.
But, on the very first track session, one of the cars in the group had done two things...first, had spun and kicked a lot of dirt back onto the track, and a car had obviously had some mechanical issue, as there was a piece of metal on the track as well. We don't know if they were connected, but the combination made for some quick reactions, and in trying to drive thru the stuff, we hit the metal piece on the rear tire, and immediately punctured the right rear tire...not a small leak, but a complete BANG.

We knew what it was as soon as it happened, and we were able to get the car back to the pits without any body damage in any way.
But...what a disappointment. First session, beautiful weather, great group, great track conditions, and no right rear tire.
With the new wheels and tires, and the new wheels being produced, we did not purchase spares yet (we will have two full sets of spares...but did not for this first track outing). In over 16 years of racing, we have never had this happen, but there is always a first...and this was a first for us.


So, we used the rest of the day to test the BRracing BMW 135i that also had some new parts to evaluate.....oh well

 

man that sucks about the tire, but wow does she look great!