Shark Werks 3.9 liter engine conversion for the 997 GT3 - First impressions

Hi guys, this is my first post here on Teamspeed, so this will act as an introduction as well. Just a quick profile; I owned my first Porsche in 1962, a red 356A cab. I worked for Vasek Polak at his original location in Manhattan Beach Ca. every afternoon after school and went racing with him every chance I had. I have been around Porsches my entire life and currently am the owner of a 2005 997s and a 2007 GT3 which I have just received back from Sharkwerks after they completed their 3.9 conversion on my car. So here is my impression of the conversion after just over a week and 1000 miles driving the car!

Please keep in mind I build custom houses for a living and am not a journalist! That being said I will attempt to give you my humble impression of what it’s like to own and drive a Sharkwerks 3.9 GT3. As many of you know I am one of the very first 3.9 conversions done by Sharkwerks and probably the first to experience their creation as Alex and James drove up the coast to my house the morning after they got Kermit running back in July, even before the final tuning. I knew instantly that this was something I had to have done to my car and as soon as possible. I have always been somewhat annoyed with myself for not being patient enough to wait for an RS back in 2006 when I took delivery of my GT3 and was seriously considering the purchase of a 2010 RS. That was until I drove Kermit with the 3.9.



This conversion my friends is truly a work of perfection, it is easier to drive in traffic or on the open road and so much quicker than the stock motor from the factory. The revs are instant and the power band is just so linear. I think the thing that impresses me the most is the availability of the low-end torque and again how smooth it is. It’s almost like it came from the factory like this and now that I think about it, it probably should have.

I took delivery of my car this last Tuesday. The initial break-in miles were done by Alex and James, so the car already had almost 400 miles on it and had its break-in oil changed out with some fresh Moble-1. James gave me very strict orders not to exceed 6500 rpms until I reached at least 1000 miles. I had my 1000 miles last night by the time I got home from a visit to Sharkwerks to have James give the car a once over and his blessing.

I do the majority of my driving on northern California and southern Oregon back roads and this motor shines in this environment. With the 3.6 stocker there were turns when I was in-between gears, when 2nd or 3rd were a just a tad too high or 1st and 2nd a tad too low, with the added torque and extra 400 rpm’s this eliminates a lot of the indecision of which gear to use. I really love the 400 extra rpm’s!!

There was a small learning curve when I first got the car back from SW as the added HP and Torque gave me a couple anxious moments on some of my favorite stretches of road when I would apply throttle on exit. (Never exceeding 6500 rpms, honest James) So, for the first couple days I ended driving as if there was an egg under the right peddle upon exit. I had already installed a pair of 325 MPSC’s on the rear in anticipation of the extra power and boy was I glad I did. Unfortunately I almost had them worn out by the time I got the car to SW so things were a little sketchy until I ended up changing the MPSC’s out for a set of Pirelli Corsa system 325/30 -235/35’s. For the first 37,000 miles I had only used the MPSC’s, (12 sets in all) however after driving Kermit with the Pirelli’s a few weeks earlier I was very impressed and made the change from the MPSC’s for two reasons, first being the rainy season here I wanted to try the Pirellis as I had heard they are preferred in the wet and secondly I was hoping to get more miles out of them then the 3000 miles average I had been getting with the MPSC’s. The grip is equal in my opinion and I will have to wait on the miles report. I can say that after driving Kermit with the 305’s that the larger rears make a huge difference!! A must for anyone thinking about this conversion.

So today was the first time out that I was able to tap into the full power of my own 3.9 and it did not disappoint!! Having driven Kermit hard on several occasions I pretty much knew what to expect but there is nothing like driving your own car set up by you on roads you drive almost on a daily basis and without the fear of damaging someone else’s car.
This motor is just superb! It was cold this morning and the road I chose meandered along the river for several miles so things were damp and even a few places had frost. The Pirellis were perfect. I wish I had changed over earlier; they really give me a lot of confidence on the damp roads and have equal if not more grip then the MPSC’s. As stated earlier the mileage will be a deciding factor for me to continue using them as they do run about $400 a set more then the MPSC’s.

All in all the 3.9 experience is something I really don’t think I have the vocabulary to describe properly. It’s one of those things that people can tell you about and describe, but as an old friend of mine used to say, “The truth of the pudding is in the testing”. You really need to either ride in one of these cars or if you are lucky enough to drive one in order to understand how special this motor is. For me the one word to describe it is “perfect”.

Today's drive was about as good as it gets in my Porsche world. One thing I discovered which I hadn’t noticed before was between 5200-5400 rpms the motor has a huge surge of power, almost like driving an old 930 when the turbo spools up but not nearly as violent, and this motor just pulls and pulls. Can’t wait to put some more miles on this and really loosen it up. More reports later.

I love this motor!!

 

Great writeup and an awesome car you've got there! Welcome to the Team and I hope you grow to love it here as so many of the members here do.

 

Welcome I remember you from 6speed, enjoy the new forum!

 

Welcome and thanks for the review. Sounds like you are going to really enjoy that car!

 

Read this from rennlist earlier today. This caused me to watch all of sharkwerks youtube vids (its been a very slow day). Great writeup and I'm glad to see you posting here.

 

+1 lets get some photos!

 

Big Welcome!

 

Pal, very nice write-up for a guy that says he doesn't do well writing!!

 

Thank you all for a warm welcome too Teamspeed. It's a pleasure being here. Just to clarify one thing, I purchased this GT3 new in Dec. of 2006 and have logged over 37,000 miles before sending it to Sharkwerks for their 3.9 conversion.

I have been attempting to post some photos but seem to be having a problem, I will try to have some up shortly!!

 

man! Thanks for sharing your experience with the SW 3.9 conversion. Sounds like a winner in all aspects.

Would love to see some pics and videos of some spirited driving.