The Porsche Mods That Actually Matter (Best Bang for Your Buck)

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Welcome to Renthusiast Radio, the podcast where Will and Derek navigate the winding roads

of Porsche Obsession, exploring the good and the bad of Porsche ownership. Grab your

favorite beverage, pull up a chair, and join us, Renthusiast Radio, because life's too

short not to talk about Porsches.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Renthusiast Radio. I'm Derek. And I'm Derek. This past

week, unfortunately, Will had to have some minor shoulder surgery, and that takes him

out of the game for a few days. So what we're going to do is we're going to head into the

archives and pull out a fantastic episode. It's possibly one of the most well-received episodes

that we've done. And what it's really about are what are the essential mods that you

can make to your Porsche that will bring about the best return in drivability, performance,

and maybe even resale. So this actually leads me to encourage all of you to check

out Will's latest video that he has up on Renthusiast this week in which he replaces

his exhaust on the new to him 997.2, the guard's red car that has been sitting in his grudge

for some time, and he's starting to do some great content on. He's changing that exhaust

out for the Darren Fister exhaust from FD Motorsports. So I know that you've heard

he and I talking in the past about the 997.2 and how we're just not thrilled

with how it sounds. I think Will actually called it kind of a vacuum cleaner. I'm not

really sure why it is. It might be up to the direct fuel injection on the motor, maybe emission

controls, but it's just very quiet. And to be honest with you, not very fulfilling when

you're driving. So what Will did is he swapped out the exhaust for a Darren Fister exhaust.

And what that did was bring out the sound and the tone that was very unique to that

997.2 generation. Having done it to my own 997 in the past, I can speak first

hand that it brought out a much more guttural, more aggressive tone. When I did it to my car,

I actually paired it with a crossover pipe. And so essentially what that means is not

only did I replace the mufflers, but also the piping or the tubing that went to it,

which made it extremely loud, maybe even a little too much so in my case. I remember

getting a call from the shop that did the work and they said, Hey, Derek, before we

let this off the lift, why don't you come by and take a listen to it to make

sure you like it. And so I drove over there and they had it up on the lift and

they started running it. And the guy that was in the car flipped the throttle a few

times and it was loud. It was right on the border being obnoxious. So the gentleman

who owned the shop turned to me and goes, So, you know, do you want to keep it?

Because we can pull it off now. And I said, I don't know, deep down, I'm

kind of trash. I kind of love it. Leave it on there. And I think it was the

right decision. I do not believe Will did that, but he did change out the exhaust

itself. And so I think it might be a nice halfway measure to making the car sound

a little bit more aggressive while still keeping your neighbors happy. So speaking

of updating and changing your car, I encourage all of you to also check out

the new video that I dropped on my YouTube channel 11 After 9. That's

all spelled out 11 After 9. This past week, I released a video that I'm

excited to share with all of you because it's in regard to the demand GT4. So what

is a demand GT4? Well, I'm glad you asked. It's when you take an already amazing

car, the base Cayman, which is a hard top boxer, and you make it into a racing

car for the street and you call it a GT4. And that comes straight from the

factory. But as with everything, maybe you have that for a while and you

say, I just want a little bit more. I want it to shift a little bit faster. I

want it to rev a little bit higher. I want more power. Well, then you go see

Rick DeMan at Demand Motorsports. So what Rick does is he takes the motor out

and punches it to 4.5 liters, which I think gives you roughly about 100

horsepower more. He shortens the gearing. As some of you might know, those

generations of Caymans and Boxters had very long gearing. I think you

can do maybe 70, 80 miles an hour in second gear. And so he brings

those gear ratios down so you can really shift through the gears and stay in

the power band that much better. And what's amazing to me is he somehow gives

this water cooled car, this water cooled mid-engine car a little bit of an

air cooled feel. It feels more visceral. It feels more analog. In a weird

kind of way, I'd almost say it feels more of like an American muscle car. It

has this rumble that you can feel through the whole car as you're

shifting, as you're revving out. The steering remains German precise, but you

lose some of that perfect synchronicity of the motor revving and shifting

everything in perfect beat. And what you get a little bit more of is an angry,

powerful motor that really just wants to punch you in the back when you hit

the throttle. And it's very addicting. I'll have to admit. I'm sure most

of you listening are familiar with what Singer does to 911s. They take

them, they reimagine them. Singer looks back at the generations of 911 and

takes what they feel are the best things from each generation. The power,

the looks, the handling, and puts it together into one package. Up until

today, I don't know of too many companies that are doing that for the

mid-engine cars. And Rick Demand of Demand Motorsports certainly is. And

it's a very special car for you all to check out. So to give you folks

a little peek under the hood of what's coming up in the next couple

weeks, I know that Will has, gosh, I think he's bought probably at least

two new cars in the last four weeks. And so I know we're going to be getting

into that. I know he shared in the last podcast that he picked up a racing

yellow Porsche GT4. And in the last week, his GTS was delivered. So I

know that we're going to be chatting about that a little bit over the

next few weeks. Also, I think we're going to be talking about his

experience with a Demand car as well as mine for those of you that

might be interested in making that upgrade to a car that you already

own or potentially buying a car at a substantial discount for what it

costs to do it yourself that are out there maybe being sold in the

secondhand market. The car that I reviewed on my YouTube channel is

actually still for sale today. I also had the opportunity in the last

week or so to drive a 992.1 generation Carrera T. Now, those of

you who have listened to us for quite some time, remember that Will

is not a big fan of that car. He specced one new, ordered it from

dealership. And when it was delivered, he didn't keep it that

long. He wasn't thrilled with it. I think you felt like it was

bloated and technologically too reliant on all of the bells and

whistles that took him away from what he loved about the air

cooled world. And after driving it, I can't say that I agree

with him. I actually enjoyed my drive, maybe for slightly

different reasons, but I'm excited to share that with you

when he and I talk about his experience versus mine. For now,

especially for you more recent listeners that have joined us

in the last six or eight months. This is a fantastic episode

where we run through some of the things that we think make sense

when you are owning a car and maybe making it your own,

whether it's for looks for drivability, to make it a little

bit more analog, to make it a little bit more visceral,

to make it a little bit more engaging. So I'm excited for

you all to delve back in and please enjoy this episode of

Renthousias Radio and we'll see you next week. Welcome to

Renthousias Radio. I'm Derek. I'm Will. This is going to be an

episode that is personal by the very definition because when it

comes to Porsche, the question once you own it is do you mod

your car or do you not mod your car? Are you a purist and you

keep it in its state as it rolled off the factory line? Or

do you make it a little bit more yourself? And this is

something I think we all have personal experience with. But

before I get into that, what I'd love to do is just

encourage all of you to like and subscribe to the podcast.

Will and I get together weekly and we take a lot of feedback

from the audience about what you guys would like to hear and

try to formulate our podcast schedule based on that. And we

find that out because you guys leave us comments and or

reviews on Apple podcasts or Spotify or whatever streaming

platform you use. So if you could get on there,

subscribe as we continue to grow the audience. So Will,

listen, I think that Porsche is probably of the of the of the

sports car brands, one of the most personal brands where you're

allowed to change your car and you're not really beat up by it

by the general public and or by values. And so the question

is, what do you think about modding? And do you think

that you can take this? Can you take a car and make it

completely different? Or are there certain things that you

willing to overlook when it comes to modding?

Man, I wish I would just like have taken a bunch of notes as

I'm listening to you talk is I have a lot of opinions and a

lot of experience with modding or modifying my cars. So, you

know, what what is modding? What is modifying? It could be as

simple as like upgrading the exhaust on your car, putting

on a short shift kit, you know, welding new new flares

on the back end of your G body. I mean, there's no end to what

you can do. Making changes to your interior, doing seats, that's

a huge thing for people changing out wheels. And from what I've

seen, and in my experience, what you're really doing is

you're taking a stock car stock Porsche, and you are making

changes to it to express yourself. And you know, maybe

it's just because you really like a certain look, and it

just kind of moves you, or you want to be funky, and you

want to put a meatball on the door, what's a meatball? You

know, it's a it's a big decal with a number on it. So, I mean,

there's just endless ways that people do this. But I think, for

me, I mean, the question is to mod or not to mod. So I, I

my first Porsche was a 1995 Porsche 993. And, you know, when

I bought it, it was sitting up high on stilts. That is the

factory, the factory suspension. I mean, the thing

looked like a frickin four wheel drive. And at the time, I

didn't really know, like I didn't love the look, but I didn't

realize just how far I would go in dialing that car in. So then

I went to a rally in that car, and I'm looking around, and I

see all of the other changes that people had made to their

cars. And all of a sudden, I was on fire for it. And I went

pretty deep pretty fast. And it was like, frankly, in

hindsight, I went too far in modifying that car. Some of the

performance mods that I did to it, like suspension and exhaust

and short shift kit, they made sense. Some of the other

cosmetic changes just were kind of like, Hey, I can do it.

Let's do it. So that brings a couple of other things to mind.

And I want to, you know, I want to get your opinion on this.

But the question is just because you can, should you?

Yes. You know, just because you can do some funky

seats, you know, should you do that? And for me, like I

was inexperienced with the brand. And like, no, this

really matters. You know, we're not deciding the

fate of mankind. But for the sake of this episode, you're

just, you know, you want to think through this. So I

think as you have experience with the brand, with the

community, you learn about different generations, you

know, there are certain modifications that would be

appropriate for certain generations. And there are

certain modifications that don't make a lot of sense. So

you know, there's that. And then something that I

learned. And, you know, I was told this early on, but

I had to, you know, learn the hard way. You buy a

Porsche. Maybe it's your first one, for example, this

generally happens with newcomers to the hobby. And

they don't own the car for long at all. Or maybe even

when they're buying the car or hunting for the car,

they already think they know, they know what

they're going to modify. And I've heard it

called the rentless checklist. So some guy is

looking for a car. And alongside his, his

hunt, his obsessive hunt on the ads. He's also

researching, like, what can I do to it to change it? And

so he goes on like, you know, 993 rent listers and he

sees what all these other people are doing. He has

zero experience driving the car, but he's going to

throw another 15 or 20 grand at the new to him

car without really putting miles on it. So that's

a lot of words to say, hey, in my experience, buy

your Porsche, go out, experience it, I don't

know, own it for six months before you start

dialing it in so you don't make mistakes or do

something that you're only going to have to

reverse later because you realize you don't like

it. Well, so many great points there. Okay, so do

you keep it stock? And I think with Porsche, you

know, from a value standpoint, there are a lot of

people that value a stock car, you know, completely

as it rolled off the factory, and that is how

they should stay. Like I said earlier, unlike

maybe a Ferrari, where modifications might not

be favorably looked at, you can still mod your

car within reason and have it keep its value to

the broader market, and it's in its level of

attractiveness to the broader market. I do think

you can go too far. I think that we can probably

let's do this, let's talk about some modifications

we think are generally good for Porsche, whether

it's because it is value protective, or you

think it might actually change the drivability

of a car to the positive. Maybe we'll talk

about a couple that might not be so good. But

I agree with you that when you are early on

owning Porsche, or your first mods, you don't

know when to stop. And I experienced this

myself with my 993, where I started one with

wheels, and then exhaust, and then shifting,

and then I was trying to change the bushings

because I was reading on Rennlist that these

are all the things you had to do. I went

through that Rennlist checklist. And so I

think I learned a valuable lesson there. So I

think that there are certain things you can

do to your Porsche that will absolutely

improve. And I think the first thing is

suspension. I think generally suspension

changes are looked at favorably in the

market, whether it's because when you get

the car, it has 50, 60, 80,000 miles, maybe

150,000 miles. And the suspension is just

tired and or old, or you just want to kind

of lower it. So that space between the

wheel and the wheel arch is a lot of

people call it the dead cat space. And

when Porsche because of their, you know,

they had to adhere to US safety rules, they

had to have a certain ride height in the

US. And so the car is set up high and

there's a lot of space between the wheel

and the arch. And it doesn't look right.

In the European market, it was a lot

lower. And so moving your car to what

they call a rest of world height, ROW,

is considered to be something you should

do, really. And putting suspension on,

you can accomplish that. Would you agree

well?

Wholeheartedly. And I would make two

points. You know, I think you're going

to be looking at 3500 to 5k or slightly

more to do that work, depending on what

car you have and, you know, what

product you're looking for. But, you

know, the big picture recommendation I

would have is, you know, don't rely

on what you're reading. I mean,

the reading online on rent list, which

is a very large, established site,

user driven with opinions and posts

and all that. Just for those of you who

don't know, you know, rent list has some

valuable information where you can read

it and take it with a grain of salt.

But I would say this, like if you're

looking at doing suspension, you need to

call a vendor who sells the

suspension, but also specializes in

Porsches, preferably the one that you

own and understand, like, which one is

going to behave in which way. So here's

here's an example on a 993 you may

want to do, Bilstein PSS-10s or KWV-3s,

those are two different coilovers. And,

you know, I've owned both that you can

dial them in. I think the PSS-10s have

10 positions where the KWV-3 has five

positions. And so those are damper

adjustments. And yeah, I'm getting

super, super nerdy. But if you're a

newcomer to the hobby and you're dead

set on doing suspension, which I think

is big for a performance purpose as

well as a cosmetic purpose, I think

you got to talk to somebody who

actually knows, talk to a live human,

don't rely on what you read online.

The most important thing when it comes

to suspension isn't just buying it and

installing it, it's getting it set up

correctly at your points. Yes, yes.

Driveability is everything when it

comes to setup. The other thing is I

had a good friend who had a base

Boxster from the late 90s, and he

went to my local shop and said, I

want to get PSS-10s. I want it,

you know, these sick setup. This

car is going to handle great. And my

shop said, listen, that's going to be

say $5,000 or $6,000. You could get

this $2,200 set of non-adjustable

shocks. We can set it up right. It

will do just as well for you. Are

you going to take it to the track

every weekend? No. Are you going to

get under your car and adjust the

suspension height yourself? No. Well

then don't spend the money on that

because you're not going to use it.

You're going to use 20% of what the

suspension can do. So I think

that's a great point, Will. Next

mod I think is generally accepted is

to do a modification to the exhaust.

We're not talking about cat delete

necessarily. We're talking about just

the sound of the motor. So you can

kind of hear it wake up. I have a

very solid opinion on this, Will. I

think that you should do it for six

cylinder cars and eight cylinder

cars. You should not do it for four

cylinder cars. Interesting.

Interesting. Yeah. Because in the

718s the newer four cylinder cars I

don't have as much experience with and

I know that Porsche had worked really

hard to try to make those sound cool

out of the factory. But I'm talking

about like 944s. My first 944, my

brother and I went down to AutoZone

and bought like the sweet black

muffler and we installed it

ourselves with the hangers and it was

sticking out way too far behind the

car. And that's when I found out

something called drone is. 3500.

You and I are aligned. We

haven't practiced this. We didn't

even talk about our scripts. But

everything you're saying is exactly

where I was going to go. Dude, that's

because you and I make a lot of the

same mistakes. That's the whole

purpose of this podcast. Drone

sucks. Oh, it's so Derek tell me

tell me about drone and then I'm

going to, you know, I have

experience with this and it sucks

for a couple of reasons. But you

know, let's tell them what drone

is with regards to an exhaust.

Yeah. When it comes to Porsche in

all makers they work very hard to

make sure that the engine sounds

good, but that it doesn't have a

resonance. And so what a drone is

is that a certain RPM, the

resonance of the exhaust makes the

whole cabin of the car hum. And

it's like this buzzing. It's

almost like it's almost like

having a tinnitus, you know, like

a ringing in your ear. And it's

only at that in generally I find

that drone always happens at your

cruising speed. Oh, yeah, you're

at all the time, right? Because

it sounds good up top, but it's

not. So four cylinder cars are

very hard when it comes to Porsche

to make sound awesome. And so just

keep it stock. Six cylinder cars

get a Darren Fister exhaust if you

have an older Porsche and get a

stage two or stage three and it

will make your life. And the eight

cylinder cars when it comes to the

nine to eights, they have some

great exhaust options for those

two to make them sound pretty

sick. That's my take on that.

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Well, the reason drone sucks is

you you okay go buy an exhaust

setup and you pay to have it

installed and depending on what

you're buying it is going to

cost you whatever.

And you get in and you're all

stoked. And you're going to

go for a quick cruise around

town, then you're going to

rip in the in the countryside

and as you're driving around

town, it begins to drive you

crazy. And you're like, oh,

shit. And you're like, OK, how

can I live with this? Oh, I

know, I'll keep the revs higher

than it really I should, which

won't hurt the car, but it just

is not ideal around town. So

that you do that for a while

because really you're trying

to avoid the inevitable outcome

of having to reverse the damn

thing. And then you're going

to have to sell it because you

want to recover some of your

money. And so drone sucks

not only because it hurts

your ears and it's just a

pain to live with. But also

now you've got to reverse

it. You've wasted your money.

And so do your research. I

think that I am not an exhaust

expert. I have a friend of mine,

Eric Land, who is a guest on

this show periodically, by the

way, he's our ask our ask your

mechanic segment star. But

anyway, he's really, really

good with the older cars and

exhaust. And so he could,

you know, somebody like Eric

could could steer you in the

right direction. But for me,

like the best aftermarket

exhaust, if you have a 993,

which is a 1995 to 1998, you

know, Porsche 911, is

Darren Fister's stage two or

stage three muffler insane

sounds so good and zero drone.

And so, you know, Darren's a

friend of mine. He's been good

to me. But I'm giving you this

plug not because I'm being

compensated, but because I

really believe in that product.

So I don't want to go too

far down that rabbit hole, but

it's just in my experience,

it's been difficult to find a

really good exhaust solution for

these cars. I will say this.

Porsche knows what they're

doing with regards to PSE and

PSE is Porsche Sport Exhaust.

So a factory feature that they

can include on some of the

newer cars is this it's a

vacuum actuated, I think, valve

system where you can tone the

car up or tone the car down.

And man, they just do a

hell of a job on the cars

that have PSE. It just

sounds so good. So there's

that too. So that would be my

two cents on exhaust, very, very

strong mod. And when I say

strong, what I mean is is

acceptable, desirable. But it's

something you got to be careful

with too.

Yep. Yep. 70s and 80s.

There's a couple of

different choices you can look

at. I think Darren Fister for

the 90s and 2000 knots because

he does 996 and 997, 911

exhaust as well for what he

does. Fantastic. You took the

words out of my mouth. When

you're looking for a

recently used car from the

2000 teens up until now,

hold out for poor sport exhaust

because it's very expensive to

try to retrofit that after the

fact. And while there are

probably some decent after

market options out there,

you're starting to get into

the five, six, seven grand,

you know, range. And it's a

lot of money or more seven

and eight grand. It's like,

are you kidding me? And so I

mean, you know, I think

we've beaten this horse to

death. But the point is exhaust

good idea. But go try to find

like the exhaust system that

you're considering, you know,

on a car, go to a show or

whatever and ask the owner to

fire up the motor so you can

understand what you're

getting into.

All right, well, moving on. So

listen, I think that another

acceptable mod to the the

Porsche community is dealing

with your shifter. Many

different transmissions over the

years. So when I say dealing

with your shifter, it might

just be something as simple as

changing the shifter handle,

you know, your the actual

stick itself in terms of

modifying that. But I'm really

more talking about changing

the action on the shifter. A

big thing for older cars is

to move from the long throw

shifter, where you're

stretching your arm out

sometimes on the older

transmissions and 915

transmissions are the 901s. I

mean, almost to the dashboard

on some of those throws to a

short shifter where it will

cut down that throw by 15 20

percent, sometimes more if

it's really aggressive. And

it helps make the car feel

sportier. It does increase

some of the effort to kind of

push it into gear. But

generally, you kind of feel

like you can shift a little

faster because your arm isn't

flying all over the cabin.

Have you ever put a short

shifter in one of your

cars?

Not only yes, but hell yes.

All right, so there has been,

I don't know, I've been in this

hobby, call it, let's see, four,

five, six, seven, seven years,

you know, really deep nerd.

And I have it at first,

I'm like, man, I want to

change everything. And of

course, a short shifter kit is

in there. And so I've done

that. And I, and I think

that from a performance

perspective, from a

confidence perspective, putting

in a different shifter setup

can can bring the car forward

and make it feel like more of a

modern, you know, shifting

car. Over the course of my

enjoyment of the hobby, my

ownership of these cars, I've

really come to appreciate a

period correct throw. So I

don't know, about a year and

a half ago, I picked up my

second 993, I modded the hell

out of my first one, and I

ended up selling it to a good

friend of mine, which side

sidebar he, you know, he

rolls with me at rallies.

And so it's really bizarre to

see him driving my old car.

Well, is that weird? It's like

seeing someone date an old

girlfriend. Yeah. And I'm like,

I'm always breaking breaking

his balls a little bit. I'm

like, man, whoever set that

car up knew what they were

doing, because I'm telling

you on the road, it looks

sick. And I mean that, like,

you know, not to give myself

too many, too many kudos, but

the car looks good. But

anyway, I had modded that.

And then I came across a

Grand Prix white 1995 car

that was very, very stocked.

There were a couple of

like kind of plus one mods,

the suspension had been

done, the bushings had

been done, but it had a, you

know, a from the factory

mostly shifter setup. And I

enjoyed that for about a

year. Because there's just as

I've matured in this hobby,

there's just something very

charming about the way the

cars came from the factory. I

think they require more

effort, they require more

skill and better timing,

especially the earlier stuff

like the night, the 915 is

the 901. So, you know, when

it comes to short shift

kits, I think that, you know,

depending on where you are

on your journey, you might

want to do it right out of

the gate. But for me, I buy

a car, I experience it, maybe

I get a little itchy and then

I'm going to mod it. So I

think that's a good mod. But

I think you got to be like

where you're at in your

journey to appreciate it.

Yeah, that's a great point.

I think that is a great

point, because you come to

I remember with my SC, which

is an early 80s, 911, it

had a longer throw, and it

didn't feel the short shifter

didn't feel right with it. I

think mainly because just of

the length of the actual

shifter rod, I didn't I didn't

like how it felt. And so I

kept it stock. And so I

agree with that. But when it

comes to a 993, a 90s, 911, I

think a short shifter makes a

ton of sense, getting a

golden rod, something where it

kind of snaps in, I think

with the newer G 50 boxes,

transmissions that came was

like 1986, well, I think maybe

was the first one somewhere

around there. I think a

short shift 87 87 87. Yeah, and

later.

I think a short shift really

makes that box feel like a

little bit sharper.

And it does. And the

generation, I mean, we're

going to get nerdy again. But

like the 915, which is the

transmission code number or

whatever that that preceded

the G 50 is an interesting

experience to shift to work as

you're driving because there's

no what they call detent. So

detent will pull the stick

back into the middle when you

let go of it. It's it's a

very modern feel. It's what I

think everybody is familiar

with. The 915 doesn't have

that. And so I've heard it

described as shifting that

that transmission is like

having a wooden spoon and a

bowl of mush. And so it

doesn't really you've got to

know like how about this? It's

very easy to miss shift, put the

car in the wrong gear. And you

know, so you do that like no

good. But there are products

that clean that up and make it

feel more modern. And I was

into that and I've done that.

I've tried two different

ones. And they're cool for

what they are. But like, man,

I'm like, damn, you know, if

you're going to have a 915,

leave it alone and learn how

to work it, you know, I

think people confuse a poor

shifting car with perhaps

the actual original Porsche

shifter and just needs to be

rehabbed, you know, at the

bottom of those, you know, it's

not the transmission. But at

the bottom of the shifter

rod, you have like a plastic

cup. And you have a lot of

wear items that if you go in

and you can just swap those

out for brand new, you might

be so pleasantly surprised

that it actually not only

shifts shorter than it did,

but it's tighter and feels

more sporty. And then you've

kind of it's almost like a

freebie for under 100 bucks.

Yeah, I would say if you're

picking up an earlier car, have

somebody look at that right out

of the gate. I mean, I've had

I've had cars show up and they

felt so solid that I just kind

of, you know, yeah, I do PPI as

we talked about that on ad

nauseam on other episodes,

you know, pre-purchase

inspections. But anyway, I've

also had them let loose on

drives. And thankfully, I've

not been stranded, but you

get into this place where

you've got to start to like

pay even more attention to

shifting. And so to your

point, I mean, you portion

knows what they're doing. And

if you're looking for a

period correct experience, like

that's the direction to go.

Have everything in there, the

rubber and the plastic

replaced and it'll clean it

right up for you.

All right, let's talk about

power when it comes to cars.

Two things in your existing

car, without changing the

motor or changing the

displacement, a lot of 80s

cars, 90s cars, you have

the ability to put a chip in

it's usually by Steve Wong

it's a chip you can do to

unleash a little bit more

power in those air cooled

motors. And then when you get

into the 2000s, and the cars

are computer controlled, you

can like flash the ECU and

actually tune them

electronically. And then when

you get into the teens, when

they're turbocharged, you can

really put a lot more power

into an existing car just

with a flash on the tune.

What's your take on that?

Well, I think in my

experience, I've done a

bunch of Steve Wong chips on

different generations,

absolutely worth it. That's

what that's the company

that makes it guy by name

of Steve Wong, is kind of the

default choice for the

earlier cars. And, you know,

they go all the way from the

G bodies or, you know, the

traditional upright

headlight cars, for those of

you who don't know what I'm

talking about, all the way

through the last of the

air cooled cars, the 993,

which they stopped

manufacturing in 98. So I

think as Steve Wong chip is

a no brainer, it sharpens

up the throttle response. I

can't tell you if it

really enhances the top end

like pulling power of the

motor. But I do know that

it makes the feel car,

excuse me, it makes the car

feel spry, it feels like

it's more eager to jump off

the line. And so that's a

that's a no brainer. I will

say this, with regards to

your comments around like

tuning the middle stage

cars, not the not the later

turbo cars, but the middle

stage cars, I don't I

don't love a tune. I it

just there there seem to

be in my experience, like

it enhances the power.

The car is quicker, but

there's just there's always

some area of your driving

experience that doesn't

feel exactly right in the

rev range.

It's like off balance. It's

like to take from one area

and put it in another. It's

not quite balanced.

Yeah, you're it's it feels

like you're sacrificing

where whereas Porsche spent

God knows how many hours

and effort and millions of

dollars, whatever the hell

it is, getting that tune

out of the box just right

so that it feels as it

should, as you're driving

the car. And so maybe

that's something that

doesn't bother you. Like

that's cool. Maybe you're a

power chaser and that's fine.

That's for you. I will say

this, I don't have

experience with again, to go

back to my friend Eric

Lynn, the mechanic that we

feature on this this

podcast, he has the ability

like his car, he's got some

crazy tune on it, some

shit, I don't really

understand it's over my

head. But this dude will

have a laptop sitting on his

passenger seat. And he's

dialing in his tune in

real time, right? So he'll

go rip for a little bit and

then he pulls off the side

of the road and you're like

you walk over to his window

and you think you're going to

shoot the breeze with them

about hey, how good were

those roads? And meanwhile,

the dude has a laptop up

and he's just making

changes. So I mean, I

think if you've got that

capability or that

understanding, maybe you can

dial out some of those

weird flat spots or

whatever is coming from

that tune. But if you

don't have that skill,

maybe that's just

something to think about.

The last comment I'll

make is about the later

turbo cars. I have not

driven one that has a

tune on it. But I will

say this, when you start

to look at the numbers,

like the increase in horsepower,

I'm going to make this up

and somebody might want to

make fun, I shouldn't say

make fun of me, correct me

and if it's fine, you can

take like a 991.2

Carrera T and you can take

it from like, I'll make it

up like, you know, 385

horsepower to 525

horsepower, just with a

tune and maybe a little

bit of a larger turbo. But

the motor is set up to

accommodate that. So you're

not really running a risk

of causing any damage. So

like that's a very impressive

performance gain. If you have

one of those cars in your

power chaser, doubtless, you

already know about this. And

so that's a lot of words.

Again, just to kind of give

you what my thought process

is on what we're talking

about here, I think it's

something you gotta pluses

and minuses, I guess is

what I'm saying.

Yeah, two things when it

comes to the turbocharged

cars. The first is

regarding your 911 T

example, you know, you

have to realize that when you

increase the horsepower of your

car by a third, that you are

going to probably have to

upgrade the brakes and the

suspension and everything

else can measure it with it

because, you know, that's

that that's the same mass

moving a lot faster. And

maybe it wasn't designed to go

that fast. So you got to

take those things into

account. You know, there is

something to be said about

trying to enjoy a car

within a certain performance

envelope. You know, the 22

year old in me says, yeah,

550 horsepower. Heck,

yeah. But you know, I

think as you own more and

more cars, you realize, again,

it comes to the slow car

fast thing, right? Fast car

slow. So yeah, I we can wrap

it up after this, but I'll

give an example there. There

is and this might not be as

widely known, but there's a

company called DeMon or

Damon D E M A N. And they

will tune it. For example, I

maybe they'll tune a number

of different cars, but they

will dial in a 981

spider. For example, I mean

the motor goes to four

liters, maybe more four and

a half. I don't know. But they

do that. And then they tune

it, they do all sorts of

stuff. And then they change

out the gears and the

transmission. So the ratios

lend themselves to faster

acceleration. And like, it's

a crazy power gain. And I

had the opportunity to

drive a DeMon spider. And

like, I don't want to slam

the company, maybe some of

these people like this dude

put 60 grand into this

build. Because I saw the

paperwork and

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Like the power, the power

balance to the chassis and the

weight of the car was way out

of whack.

No, really? Yeah, man, it was

too much. I mean, was it

cool? Sure. Did it did it

seem like a bullet bike?

Like you could shift, you

know, you like that's what

it would do. Mm hmm. But

like the beauty of a

spider is you can get in

the gas out of the out of

the box getting the gas made

curve and it feels right and

it feels balanced and it

feels good. But with that

particular build, it was

overpowering the car. And so

it was understeering if you

got in the throttle made

curve. And so like, it's a

good experience what I ever

want one. No, I really,

really wouldn't. Interesting.

Yeah.

A man by the name of Nathan

Murs, a friend of mine, he's

really well known in the

Porsche community as an expert

PCA features him as an

expert in their in their

thought leadership. But he

did a he did a really cool

YouTube video going through

generations of the G body and

looking at, you know, hot

rods versus stock and he made

it and it's been a while

since I've seen this, but he

made the point of of

matching the motor that

you're putting in one of

these cars with what the

car is capable of what the

weight is. And so it's

easy to overbuild the

power side of things. And

you lose this balance that

Porsche has come up with. I

think maybe he called it

cohesion. So when you get

the tires hot, the oil is

hot, you're driving the car,

you're pushing it. Everything

feels like it's in harm,

harmony, excuse me. And when

you fiddle around with that

balance, you may be losing

something. And so it just

goes back to drive the car

before you get into all that.

You know, because you could

I'm not going to say ruin,

but you could harm your

enjoyment of it without even

realizing you're doing it and

you're paying for that

pain.

You know, those 80s cars

when we talk about the Steve

Long chip, I mean, you're

talking about like 8%

power increase or 5%

Totally in balance. I would

say this. That's a no brainer

and I'll conflict with what I

said earlier. Like you buy

one of those cars, order up a

Steve Long chip. It will not

disappoint.

The best part about those, I

don't know if you've ever

put one in yourself, but the

actual chip itself, when you

like look at it, it looks like

it's from an 80s movie. It's

just like, you know, the

chip's like an inch and a

half long with like all the

like teeth. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. One chip, you just

like put it in. It's, it's

pretty cool. It makes you

feel like an old school, you

know, scientist. So anyway, so

we, we, we've talked a lot

about the the mods that make

sense. You know, what we'll do

will is let's talk on the

next episode about maybe some

mods that don't make sense,

whether it's to the

community or maybe just to us

because we have an opinion

on everything, whether it's

right or wrong. And what we

might do now is kick it over

to mechanics corner with Eric

Lind and he can answer one

of the questions coming from

the Porsche community.

Amen. And the last little

sales pitch I want to make

is if you're still with us

listeners, please, you know,

subscribe to this podcast,

give us a five star review.

You know, if you feel like

putting some commentary in

the review, that'd be awesome

too, because what's going to

happen is all of that helps

us to spread the word and

get more visibility into the

world of Porsche. So I

appreciate you listening

out there, Derek. I'm

looking forward to seeing you

next time to talk about the

bad mods. Always my friend.

Hey, everyone, welcome to

our mechanics corner with

Eric Lind of Sports Purpose

Garage, our home mechanic who

is here to answer the burning

Porsche questions out there.

And today the burning question

is coming from me because I

have Eric, I have in my garage

a 1972 911T. It is the apple

of my eye, but it is also the

bane of my garage floor

because I'm finding more and

more oil under it. Yeah. And

and so Eric, my my my

mechanics here in town, who I

trust are telling me that I

have a leak from the cam tower

and I have a couple other leaks

that are now popping up that

the cylinder base, one of the

cylinder bases. So I need I

need an engineering belt,

whether it's a top end or a

bottom end. And maybe you

can explain briefly the

difference between those two

things for our audience. We

know they're expensive. We

know that it runs anywhere

from 10 to 35 or $40,000

depending on your motor. So

we'll talk a little bit about

the rebuild, but I want to

concentrate more on the

decision that I have in front

of me because, you know, on

Facebook Marketplace or on the

Porsche Club of America

website, I see people selling

you know, quote unquote

rebuild motors that are

separate. Now, I have my

original motor in my

basement, but I have a

Frankenstein motor in my car

now. So let's talk a little

bit about rebuild first. And

then I'd like to talk to you

about does it make sense to

maybe look at a different

motor entirely?

Sure. So it's cool that you

have your original motor and

it's already in the basement.

So your your your level of

purity has already been

sullied. So we're good. You

know, a great running two

seven with the right cams in

it and carbs or MFI or EFI.

That's a great motor. I

love two sevens. They

sound right. They have good

power. They've got a nice

extended power man and you

can read the hell out of them.

They're great. And lots of

folks love their good

motors, but they have their

Achilles heels. They are

going to need time search

put in them for the studs and

good studs and you're going

to have to go through the

heads. And if it has any

kind of mileage on it,

probably ought to go through

the bottom end because

it's leaking. So they have

case leak issues. So you

got to split the case and

have it machine that have it

done properly and put it all

back together and sealed up by

somebody that knows what

they're doing. And once

that's all done, you can

have a leak free or a mostly

leak free, you know, bad case

motor. And it's certainly the

right character for a 72,

which is my favorite year, by

the way. So so that being

said, 10 years ago, the

answer was by a three liter

put it in there, throw

some carbs on it rock roll

because three liters were

7810 grand and they had 80 90

thousand miles on them and

they'll go 150 160 and you

could pick them up and put

them in the car and be good.

But as I've had to explain

to customers recently, like the

days of buying those motors

or, you know, good running

three twos or three sixes,

they're all old. You know,

they're all TMU unless

unless it's coming from someone

who's got a documented

rebuild on it and you can, you

know what's in it and it's

been gone true. Just assume

that motor is just as screwed

up as yours. Right. So so we

get into these discussions

and I got a guy with a 914

that he wants to do like a

six cylinder conversion on now.

And I've got a killer 2 2S

motor that's coming out of

this 68 super powerful

took him for a drive was really

impressed. Oh, but I'm going to

buy this used three liter and

put it in there. Cool. Have you

seen it run? Well, no, it's

been on a pallet for like five

years. Cool. Right. So, you

know, and the Delta the Delta

in price was like 10 grand

less for this this three

liter that what I wanted for

this to two. And so that's

what he was kind of fixated

on. I'm like, cool, man,

you put that thing in and it

smokes or it's got a pulled

stud or it's just worn the

hell out or it's got low

work or whatever. Now you're

rebuilding the three liter. And

we know that's 25 or 30 grand

just like every other motor is

25 or 30 grand. So what would

you rather buy? And that's

the problem, you know, I

bought a three six for my

car ran great, paid 12 grand

for it eight years ago. And

but it was running and driving

in a car. And I knew everything

about it. And it was cheap. But

now that same motor on a

pallet TMU is 2025 grand. And

it might need everything. So

so the cost effectiveness of

just picking up a motor and

sticking in the car just

doesn't exist unless you know

the engine already or whatever

like I said, it's already

got some some sort of

documentation. So in your

case, I just build what you

have. You're going to spend

roughly the same amount of

money and at least you'll have

a fresh, fresh motor that you

can leave in the car forever.

Until it starts leaking again.

Well, if you get it, if you

get it done by the right guys,

it won't leak or very little.

I'm going to put it on a

truck down south, you can

you can direct it. Will, did

you have anything?

I don't. I just I think that

maybe I don't have any

experience trying to source a

used motor, but I would

imagine it's kind of a time

thing to like somebody

doesn't want to go through a

the expense would be the

forget six to 12 months it's

going to take so they said

their toy is out of

commission. But to me, it

sounds like it's just a bad

idea all around, because of

all the unknowns. So if it

were me, and I'm going to

knock on wood and hope to

God it isn't me, I would

not try to do what you're

talking about, I would just

have it rebuilt right and

I would probably drive my

other Porsche around fall

that thing is stuck on a

lift. Or in your case, you

take the original motor and

you build like a two nine out

of it or something and stick

it back in the car and sell

the other motor because it

runs, it drives, it's a two

seven, somebody will pay you

for running, you know, working

to seven that still leaks,

but it's there. You know,

because there's not really

there's not really any

compelling reason not to use

the original motor, the case

and everything else, send it

out, get it done, have it

built, build it over the next

year and a half, two years,

whatever, and stick in the

car.

You know, that's something I

never considered, you know,

thinking like, Oh, well, you

want to keep that 2.4

liter, 2.4 because it came

from the car and stays with

the car. But at the end of

the day that, you know,

you're right, like why not

drive the car and enjoy it

while you're working on

this other motor and you

just throw it in? Yeah,

especially if you can take a

2.4 to a 2.9, which I

didn't know that you could

do.

I believe you can make all

of those things happen. I

know you can make it like a

255 or a 26 short stroke type

motor, but that sounds

dangerous. I like that.

You could do something fun

with it. And the beauty of

these cars is like, Hey, you

have your numbers matching

motor and the fact that

you've increased the

displacement, put cams and

stuff in it does not

decrease its value.

I would pay more for it.

Well, yeah, they're good.

But yeah, and there may be

some curiosity. Oh, no, no,

I want the spoke. But

whatever. Hey, I don't want to

I don't want to roll with

those guys. Okay. They're not

our roll with the rippers.

They're not our people.

Thank you. Thank you for

that, Eric. I have more

questions than answers. And

so you and I can talk off

line on that. Thank you

for filling me in. And

and thanks for always being

around to, you know,

enlighten us. We'll catch you

on the next next episode.

Sounds good, guys. Take care

later.

And that's a wrap for this

episode of Renthousias Radio.

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The Porsche Mods That Actually Matter (Best Bang for Your Buck)

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