We had the pleasure of working on this beautiful 997.1 Turbo owned by a local client. The owner wanted something a bit different from the other 911’s he has seen on the road, but not too over-the-top. Performance and handling were the main focus on this street turbo build up followed by some exterior enhancements.
Options installed on this build:
- Bilstein PSS10 Coil over suspension (w/PASM)
- Cargraphic Airlift Kit
- TuneRS rear adjustable toe control arms
- Powerflex front & rear camber bushing upgrade
- Powerflex front caster bushing upgrade
- Powerflex rear upper links bushing upgrade
- Eibach front adjustable sway bar
- Eibach rear adjustable sway bar
- 45mm header set
- Clubsport “GT2” Intercooler kit
- GFB Diverter Valve Kit
- IPD Competition Plenum & GT3 throttle body
- IPD Y-Pipe Upgrade
- BMC High Flow Air Filter Element
- Custom ECU flash tune
- Techart 20″ wheels custom painted with new Michelin rubber
- Werks carbon fiber difuser
- Werks carbon fiber rear spoiler
All of these items are available for purchase through our online store. You can also send us an email or give us a call at 954-345-7877.
We started with the suspension work first. Out with the old shocks & springs and in with the new Bilstein PSS10 coil over kit. This kit is a direct bolt on but requires corner-balancing and alignment once everything is all set and done.
The cargraphic airlift kit was installed to the front coilover set. This air lift kit allows the driver to raise their vehicle 55mm (from axle) to clear speed bumps or dips in the road.
Once the coil over kit was finally installed, we moved on to the front lower and rear lower control arms. After 50,000 street miles the bushings were tired. Instead of replacing the entire control arm, we remove the old bushings and replace them with upgraded polyurethane ones from Powerflex. Powerflex bushings are made using a proprietary urethane material, which unlike many common “urethanes” in the market, overcome the common noise and harshness problems associated with harder bushings. By correctly engineering the polyurethane compound, bushings can be made 25-30% stiffer than new rubber items with the same noise absorbing properties.
The front lower control arms received the upgraded Powerflex bushings with Camber eccentric and Caster eccentric upgrades allowing us to have a much larger range of caster / camber adjustments while aligning. The rear lower arms received the upgraded Camber eccentric bushings as well as the black series center bushings.
The rear upper links “dog bones” were removed from the vehicle and had the original factory bushings removed to be replaced with the upgraded Powerflex bushings.
The last components of the suspension installed are our TRS rear toe control arms followed by front and rear adjustable Eibach sway bars.
Next up: Performance work.
The best performance modification (besides ECU tuning) on the Turbo’s is the IPD plenum and Y-pipe combination. We decided to go with the competition plenum with the upgraded GT3 82mm throttle body as this offers the best performance and will compliment future upgrades.
Once the plenum work was done, we moved on to the intercoolers upgrade. The intercoolers we installed are based off of the GT2 upgrade ones offered by Porsche. They are a straight forward install and require very minimal trimming to get the fitment perfect.
Nothing was to be done with the Turbochargers this round, but we decided to install a set of billet Diverter Valves. This is possibly one of the best performance modifications for a 997 turbo that replaces the factory plastic valves that tend to crack and loose boost pressure. The billet diverter valve upgrades will restore lost power and will hold more boost pressure than the stock units for added performance. In addition, they recover quicker than the OEM valves which allows for better spool after shifts.
Last but not least is the exhaust system. The vehicle was already equipped with an aftermarket muffler and HJS 200 cell catalytic set which we decided to leave in place. The sound was already perfect and the performance was there. To finish the exhaust we installed a set of 45mm headers.
To bring out the most in all of the upgrades we had a custom ECU flash tune made for the vehicle.
Now that this turbo has everything bolted up, an alignment was due for it. We provide four wheel alignments in house via the string-method which is a tried and true method for aligning vehicles.
After all of the performance & suspension upgrades were done, we moved on to the exterior. The exterior doesn’t really need much help to make the car look great, but with a few exterior enhancements it gives it a unique touch for the client. The vehicle was first completely detailed, polished and paint protection applied. A full front end 3M clear film bra was installed to protect the still like-new paint from potential rock chips and damage.
A Werks1 carbon fiber rear spoiler and carbon fiber rear diffuser was installed to give some carbon accent to the exterior.
A set of 20″ techart wheels was sourced and sent out to be painted gloss black with a yellow accent stripe. A new set of Michelin Pilot rubber was installed and finally placed on the vehicle.
This is the final result:
Interested in customizing your Porsche? Send us a message or give us a call!
