Ok. Sounds good!!!

 

BMC air filters

This is a mod that probably brings +0.5 hp and +0.5 dB only but I wanted to try, let alone for the curiosity of taking the back of the car apart.

There is no DIY required, just remove all the screws around the rear bumper and the backlights. You will need to remove the wheels to access some of the screws. Pay attention to the license plate lighting connector when you remove the bumper.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60293300@N06/7322781604/
Here are the BMC filters in place:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60293300@N06/7322782934/
I was surprised to find out that the stock air filters were already relatively dirty after only 7,000 miles (or at least more than I expected and had observed on my previous cars):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60293300@N06/7322782212/

 

i just feel that the wing at that angle would act more like an air brake than a "spoiler" or "wing"..

notice that functional wings are not angled as much as your's when up... just a thought...

 

Due to my work (and other hobbies) I'm involved in aerodynamics. Judging purely from the pictures posted I believe the wing will produce near maximum down force at the angle shown, based on the incidence angle of the airflow to the wing cord line.
The Spoiler will not affect this at all - this will continue to work as before, detroying lift (but at a significant drag penalty).
Wings are better than spoilers as you get less drag for the useful work they do. Spoilers produce immense drag but are great lift destroyers (they are often used with high performance gliders to help get rid of excessive lift during landing).

Even better, I believe the Speedart wing will be particulary good as it has a very high aspect ratio - this helps to improve downforce without undue increase in drag.

Everything else is down to the actual profile used - that I cannot see from the pics posted. Would need some close-ups to make a call on that.

Rainier

 

The profile is close to a 'reversed' plane wing profile so it should be OK from a downforce with limited drag standpoint. This being said, I do not know how turbulent the flow is when it gets that far at the back of the car and hence how effective the wing will be. Conceptually, the design is OK though.
Many thanks for this technical opinion! (btw, I graduated in engineering 20 years ago and fluid dynamics was one of my major topics... but I almost forgot everything Nice to see a few people still do!)

 

Yes, it should be "upside down" with respect to and aircraft wing. That is good. The only thing difficult to determine finally without wind tunnel testing (or the equivalent on a virtual wind tunnel) is if the wing is going to get into the high speed stall regime due to too high an angle of attack. Idealy the wings incidence angle would be adjusted with speed to keep things in check but that is probably not necessary here. No, I think its just fine and more than just something to make the back look good (which it does BTW, in fact I think I might get one for my own toy when it arrives).

Rainier

 

Floor Jack

For those of you who are looking for a good quality floor jack that can deal with lowered cars, I can recommend the "Low Boy / Lightweight Aluminum Floor Jack" that I bought from 6speed's sponsor ECS Tuning for just $299.
I used it extensively yesterday and it works just fine and looks solid and very well finished. Like it!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60293300@N06/7323418750/

 

Just wanted to say thanks again for being willing to do all of the experimenting and sharing with us. What a fantastic thread! Thanks!

 

Solution to the buffeting problem?

Thanks, the pleasure is all mine!

Here's something that could of (even) more interest a patent attorney

While I was on the track (Road Atlanta) today, we spent some time experimenting with my instructor in the hope of finding a solution to the buffeting issue (you easily go above 130 mph in the backstraight). Popping up the sunroof is a perfect fix, but of course we got black flagged immediately

David, my instructor, then tried to create a 'deflector' with his hand placed at different positions. From what he found out, it looks like the new position of the rear view mirror on the door contributes significantly to the buffeting. With certain hand positions, the buffeting completely disappeared.

Porsche should with no doubt find a fix for this in the wind tunnel and maybe come out with a new rear few mirror shape (or with some kind of aerodynamic feature), but in the meantime, someone who would be willing to fabricate a clip-on deflector as shown on the next picture would solve the problem.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60293300@N06/7154636249/
This would of course require some true design and experimenting, but this was an interesting finding.

The weather was very bad this morning, so I'll also post a few pics and impressions of the 991S on a wet track

 

Thank you for your update..great pics and story line.

 

How about plugs in the doors and 997 wing mirrors as 'deflectors'?

J/k, this is interesting info.

I thought the point of the door mount (other than easthetics) was to reduce turbulence off the mirrors. But of course that is windows up.

Black mirrors still looking great.

 

You are probably right and the new mirrors maybe generate less overall drag by creating less turbulences around the car. What happens after that is way beyond my understanding... But remains a design flaw for this otherwise great car.

 

991S on wet track

I was attending a HPDE at Road Atlanta with Chin Motorsports yesterday and had pretty bad weather in the morning -heavy rain a couple of times-. The event went on as planned, we just were extra careful on the wet. When I say 'we', I should have excluded muscle cars that seem to have engaged is some kind of strange ballet and I found myself face to face with a Viper at turn 5 during the first warm up lap...

This was my first high speed experience with the 991 under the rain and, once again, the car exceeded expectations. It may only be RWD, but it was easily catching up with a 997 C4S and a 997TT, probably with a little more attention required from the driver, but without taking big risks.

Here's a pic of the 991S following (and later passing) a 997TT with the track starting to dry up:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60293300@N06/7339799230/
I nevertheless experienced the superiority of AWD during heavy shower having to let a Lancer Evo X (probably a bit souped up) pass me after turn 12:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60293300@N06/7339798716/
Overall, the car was perfectly safe and fast :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60293300@N06/7154594023/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60293300@N06/7339797678/
...and it returned to the pit in showroom condition:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60293300@N06/7154597407/
As far as tires are concerned, i was running on the last leg of a set of Michelin PSS and they did OK. Not a ton of grip on the wet track, but they were pretty worn out from the previous DE and they'll be replaced later this week.

My conclusion is that unless you are going to see a lot of ice & snow, a 991 C2S will do, even under very 'humid' weather.
As as far as Vipers are concerned, please stay on drag strips

 

Bucket Seats for the 991S

Looking for better lateral support and the possibility to integrate a harness in a later stage, I am checking options for the 991S. I like the Porsche 'GT2' seats and enquired at my dealership about fitting the GT2 seats in the 991.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60293300@N06/7344883954/
They had to ask Germany and it took 3 days to get a negative answer: 'compatibility' issues... wait until next year when the new 'cup' version comes out! This response did not seem overly convincing and looked more like Porsche wants you to buy the new stuff (that will probably be way more expensive) or does not want any liabilities relating to the side airbags.

I got the car to my usual shop and we checked the 991 and 997 side by side. Except for the upholstery, everything seems to be extremely similar between the 991 and 997: seats dimensions, spacing of the rails, position of the anchoring points, etc. Maybe the airbag connector is different, but after this preliminary check I see no reason why the 997 GT2 seats would not fit in a 991.

We'll talk with Vividracing who is selling these seats as well and see if we can find a way to make it work...

If any of you have some kind of experience in this or fitting different seats in the 991, please chime in!

 

Suncoast has them too and I would ask them. Certainly they would know more being a dealer.