Stacy is weaksauce... and he knows it.

ilias, cant see the picture you referenced, i will look again later.

 

LOL.....GOOD-one!

Casey,Casey,Casey........
I know what you are trying to do here,LOL....NOT WORKING!

Send me a turbo for free and I will install,document,and run the crap out of it...
Then after I am done I promise to return it....

Whatcha say to that BUDDY!
BUT remember it is going to take me a very LONG time to test the longevity of it,LOL!

Stacy

P.S.....I bet MarathonBob is going to have a sleepless night tonight!

 

i mean the pic with the back of 997.2 in the top of this page

 

The red turbo is running a new bridgestone we are trying out. The tires on the wall behind the car are Hoosier R6s and Toyo 888s.

 

thanks casey,i was looking the bridgestone!!looks great!

 

Hello, Bob tell us how you like it.

 

I think he is tired after his LONG drive home! I did manage to have a conversation with Bob earlier and he sounded ecstatic with the whole TPC deal.......
Congrats Bob,on what MUST be a very quick car with all the handling you could ask for!
Way to go TPC.....


Stacy

 

Hi guys,

Saturday was my big day. A few months after dropping the car and several delays due mostly to my waffling on suspension upgrades and a few on turbo development issues, and my car was ready.

First off, a big thank you to Tom Chen and Mike Levitas. As I tried to coordinate a pickup date, it was going to be hard to get down to Maryland on a weekday. So Mike Levitas said we will accommodate you on the weekend. Shop Manager Tom Chen was gracious enough to pick me up at the airport on Saturday morning and return me to the shop where we met Mike Levitas. Tom brought me for an extensive test drive and then Mike did the same. Earlier I had told Tom I wanted to hold onto my stock parts just in case I needed to reinstall them at some point in the future. I was planning on stuffing them into my car for the ride home! Tom said not to worry and that he would ship them to me later saving me from riding home with muffler pipes sticking out the window!!! It was also a nice touch that Casey, Josh and others at TPC had arranged for a thorough external cleaning of the car prior to my pickup.

In the first drive with Tom, I drove the car and several times he told me I could drive more aggressively. Must be my age because I thought I was!! Then I went out with Mike and he drove. At that point, I also felt my age as I had to focus on holding down the donuts I just consumed! And Tom whispered to me later that Mike was older than me!

The 400+ mile drive home went fine. In fact it went a little faster due to the increased horsepower! Here's some observations:

- I love the sound of the car. At idle it's different than stock but not objectionable. It has a deeper sound than my stock muffler. Once you get on the gas and get the RPMs at 4,5 and 6 thousand RPM it sounds like a race car with a furious evil sound. I love it! And if you haven't followed the thread closely it's a very cool thing that the exhaust system is included with the turbo purchase. If you've priced out an aftermarket exhaust lately you know that it can easily into the thousands so this makes the turbo package all the more attractive.

- The driveability around town. Under 2500 RPM, the car isn't dramatically different except for the improved exhaust sounds. That's a good thing when driving around town and in most non-aggressive situations.

- Aggressive driving. OK, this is what most of us are interested in. First off, beyond the performance is the sound again. That exhaust system and the sound of the wastegate is intoxicating. But it's the throttle response that's the key and where best ROI is. It's freakin crazy! Mash the throttle and it's as if rocket boosters were lit. Driving home in a pack of cars, going 80ish, and then a stretch of road opens up. Mash the throttle and in just a handful of seconds you're going 120+!. Similarly on side roads, when you step on the gas, the thing just explodes forward with seemingly no point where it levels off. It takes your breath away and gives me a huge grin every time I think about it.

- The handling. I opted for TPC's stage 3 package with swaybars, coilovers, toe links and 4 corner realignment. This has created a huge difference in the handling of the car. As an aside, I've long had a BMW coupe with coilovers and swaybars and frankly thought my little old BMW handled better than my Porsche. Yes, the Porsche looked better and was faster but the BMW was just a sweet daily driver with the very neutral handling and go kart suspension. I think with the suspension mods my Porsche is now at that level which makes me very happy. As I explore the handling over the next few weeks I might even say it handles heaps better but with mostly highway driving on the drive home, I can certainly confirm the car doesn't swing as much side to side or front to back as it did when stock (remember I had a C4 not a C4s). And the coilovers and lowered suspension didn't seem noticeably harsher than what I had before - the ride through the cratered highway sections in New York City proved that!

- In terms of specific turbo components I purchased it included the basic turbo setup, the front radiator and the exhaust. I purchased the optional boost controller so you can select boost/horsepower combinations and that worked just fine. I highly recommend that option. I also selected new GT3 cup spark plugs based on Mike's recommendations that they would be more durable and better handle heat issues. That was a small dollar purchase. I didn't purchase the TPC/Revo program switcher that allows you to upload different ECU settings based on fuel availability, e.g. 100 octane track fuel. I may purchase that in the future but for daily driving it didn't seem as necessary and I was running out of money!

- I also didn't upgrade my clutch or add a LWFW. The principle reason was cost and I had only about 8k miles on my stock clutch. When the clutch does go, I'll upgrade but I didn't want/have the need to spend more money at this time. Before I got the car, I had some angst about my stock clutch with the added horsepower but once I got in the car, I completely forgot about it and didn't notice any issues even with some jack rabbit starts.

So, 1 day and 400+ miles after receiving my car I'm very happy. While not cheap, I think this is very focused set of non cosmetic mods that creates giant leaps in performance, handling and sound. And it is relatively cheap when you consider the performance gains!

I'm very thankful to the TPC team, both the ones that you normally interact with (Casey, Josh, Tom, Mike) but also the mechanics who are doing a lot of the work behind the scenes. They remain a highly enthusiastic, professional and customer support focused organization that merits our business.

For those folks in the Boston area, I'd welcome you checking out the car and will offer rides to those interested. The next two weeks are a little crazy with business travel and running the Boston Marathon (i.e. "MarathonBob"), but after that I should have more free cycles.


Bob

 

Thanks for the great review. Hope to see you soon, auto-x season at Devens opens May 1st.

 

WOW Bob, congrats!

now thats a very descriptive detailed review.

i totally agree with your words, and i can not wait to get my car back in soon future!

 

Congratulations on your new Beast! Your write up was awesome and I'd bet you were grinning all the way home.

Some day, I'll run 26.2 miles marathon but as right now, I've been running between 5-9 mile runs (slow 11 min pace).

Darren

 

Congratulations MarathonBob. It sounds like you're very happy with this kit thus far. Your experience has just pushed me closer to obtaining this kit. Thank you for the review.

 

Congratulations MarathonBob....
Im really thinking of this kit for my x51.

 

Glad you are enjoying it bob, Just finished the video!

 

Congratulations Bob. Enjoy your car.