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Why 'only' 480 BHP in the 997 Turbo

Ishay

Well-known member
Joined
28 Aug 2015
Messages
252
I've read a bit about the 997.1 Turbo being easy to upgrade. I think I've read that 600+ is possible with little more than an extreme exhaust and remap, 700+ with bigger turbos, intercoolers, etc.

My question is whether
A) this is wrong and it's much harder to ring these numbers out of the car
B) it is that easy but Porsche didn't for reliability and emissions reasons, only
Or C) it is that easy, but for marketing reasons they left that much on the table for S and GT2 variants

Or some of all of the above...
 
Nine Excellence do the 9e28 package which includes new turbos and intercoolers and that makes around 640PS if I remember correctly on the Gen 1 cars.
With the Gen 2 I think you get more power but of course you pay more for a Gen 2. The 9e28 is also supposed to be reliable (and runs on pump fuel) which has been confirmed by two people I know who have had it done, i'll be doing this next year :)

I think for 700PS on a Gen 1 car it is possible but for it to be reliable you need to start changing engine internals.
 
I suspect that in simple terms the marketing department decided that it was enough, it left plenty of headroom to subsequently offer more powerful variations with minimal significant changes (i.e. development costs) and possibly that there was more profit to be made that way (they make a lot of Turbos, so what to an owner would equate to a marginal spend for a tangible upgrade equates to millions in the bank for free at the manufacturers end).
 
I'm certainly more inclined to believe the marketing department angle than that 480 was a lot 10 years ago. There are remappers claiming 590 from a software only mod (softronics) so the platform was clearly not limited by the engineering available at the time.

My friend has a V8 Espirit and we've talked a lot about how that was detuned from 500+ because the gearbox couldn't handle it. I think as wondering if there were any similar weak links? Perhaps not
 
Tuners inventing figures is quite/very common. With a manual car, the standard clutch won't take more than about 540BHP/530ftlb (720Nm) and this I can confirm personally with my map. My mild map around this figure resulted in the clutch slipping on occasions, when the exhaust was fitted and freed up a few more, the clutch would slip a lot of the time. An uprated clutch was fitted and now it's perfect.

So any tuner offering >540 for a manual car with standard clutch is 'aving you on. Pretty sure member 'Isysman' has a standard clutch with a DMS '630BHP' map, that just confirms the tuners exaggeration.

Tiptronics are obviously different though.
 
Also people keep saying these cars are 10 years old, when in actual fact they're probably 15 years old in that they were on the drawing board being developed then put into production.
15 years ago 500 bhp was pretty impressive, now we are talking about cars with 1000 bhp as if it's what we 'expect' from a Supercar.
Also I think a gen 1 997, with 480 bhp was considered to be at the top end of what standard road cars would be running to keep them reasonably safe and not have people picking them selves out of the scenery every time they floor it!
I think it's testament to Porsche that they put such a good engine, the mezger, into their top end flagship car.
I drove the 997 gen 2 turbo that was for sale in March at Redline, that was running at I think, 670 bhp and whilst it did go really well, it certainly had an appetite for V power, I had the readout showing 9 mpg and I wasn't going nuts in it, not brave enough in a car I didn't know!
 
Thanks that's a much more helpful answer to be fair. So the clutch is the first weak link once one starts tuning a manual 997.1tt.

Clutch replacements are much more expensive on turbos anyway right? I think I've seen £2k at an Indy.

Is the manual gearbox itself up to it? What about the turbos?
 
I think the gen 1 will also need turbo and intercooler upgrade in conjunction with a remap.
The gen 2 is pretty well lined up in this regard with 997GT2RS intercoolers and turbos as OE. That was my thought train when I beefed mine up to GT2RS figures. And believe me, it's enough!
 
I would be interested to hear some 1st hand feedback on the 997.1 manual clutch in stock form with bigger power.

Mine is supposedly running somewhere between 550-600bhp with re-map & exhaust and I have experienced clutch slip 4 times in the last year. Each time has been months apart and only for a second or two, I assumed that the clutch was on the way out then it will go months with no issue?

Needless to say each time it happened the car was being "pushed" for example a track day at Goodwood, a V-max event and a high speed European motorway run.

Is it time for an uprated clutch, if so which one?
 
My clutch (10k miles use) slipped every now and again with a 530ish remap. When the exhaust was fitted and freed up a little bit more, it was slipping quite a lot. Replaced with an OEM Sachs 890Nm one, all fine ever since. They are a bit more on/off though but you soon get used to it.
 
Cheers for that, it's in at dove house on tuesday for a sevice and MOT. I'll get them to price me one up.
 
Norfolk & Idea said:
I think the gen 1 will also need turbo and intercooler upgrade in conjunction with a remap.
The gen 2 is pretty well lined up in this regard with 997GT2RS intercoolers and turbos as OE. That was my thought train when I beefed mine up to GT2RS figures. And believe me, it's enough!

Yes i believe if you want to make GT2RS power I do not think the Gen1 turbos and intercoolers will cut it.
 
RJW1881 said:
I would be interested to hear some 1st hand feedback on the 997.1 manual clutch in stock form with bigger power.

Mine is supposedly running somewhere between 550-600bhp with re-map & exhaust and I have experienced clutch slip 4 times in the last year. Each time has been months apart and only for a second or two, I assumed that the clutch was on the way out then it will go months with no issue?

Needless to say each time it happened the car was being "pushed" for example a track day at Goodwood, a V-max event and a high speed European motorway run.

Is it time for an uprated clutch, if so which one?

After being mapped, I changed mine to a GT2 clutch. No issues since just a very sharp biting point.
 

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