Finally I had the chance to put my 996 powered Boxster in a accelerating side by side test with my "new" friend Tiago, that owns a beautiful black Boxster S equipped with TTP headers, TTP intake, reprogramed ECU, B&M shift (great upgrade, will have to put this shift on my car) and stock exhaust but no cats.

Let me start by saying all the updates that my friend made on his car. Inspired by PPBB but manely for Robert Agoura Hills, my friend started to put TTP headers and intake, some months after he removed the cats and some weeks after he reprogramed the ECU,

The results shown here were made on the same Dino always in the morning during the winter
1* Run with ttp headers and intake - 264HP
2* Run with no cats----------------- 279Hp
3* Run with reprogramed ECU -------- 295Hp

My car has the 996 engine, 5 speed gearbox and stock intake and filter(put a BMC filter and had a MAF fault, so decided to put back the stock filter). I always read Robert Agoura posts stating that he had smoked several 996 Carreras, and that his car with this same mods was making round about 280 or 290Hp I really don't remember the right number. Well, as I was saying, I had some doubts on those high Hp numbers just with those modification, and my friend, before our side by side, also told me about the amount of power that his car was making which, again, I had to see to believe it. Tonight I had my doubts clear.

Before going to the side by side history let me tell you the specs of each car apart from those already mention.
I was running with my 18" Turbo wheels with Contis 225 front tires and 265 rear tires.
He was running Brigstone 215/45-17, 245/40-17 .
I was with soft-top, he was with hardtop. His car has sport suspension and lower springs. His car, is clearly lower than mine.

We went at 0h45 to a three lane traffic free highway, some 40 Kilometers from my house. We meet in a gas station, talked about the cars and upgrades and took some pictures, then the adrenaline started to become obvious in both of us, so off we went to the highway. First run started at 130kph with my friend in third gear and me in fourth (didn't know he was in third). So he started to gain some ground(the front lights of my car were side by side with his rear lights) and then I started to gain some ground and my car was one door in front of the S at more than 250Kph. We back up to pay the highway ticket and then we started the second run in second gear at 40Kph. My car started to pull strong and I gained two cars distance, but than at 120Kph he didn't went away, and stayed there at two or three cars distance, I was bummed, to be sincere, I was hopping to leave him little by little as the speed grown, but to my surprise we stayed there until we reach 255Kph, then he started to gain on me and passed me at 260Kph. His car was right in my cone so he took the chance and passed me. I then entered in his cone and we remain both at 270/275Kph but I could see that his car was just a tiny bit faster that mine, maybe 5Kph, and this was due to 6 speed gearbox Vs my 5 speed, but I was bummed anyway. We stopped in another gas station and talked about the results for a bit. He agree that my car was faster in low gears, and if we had started the runs at 5 or 10Kph in first gear, the difference would be bigger, but for some reason he didn't want to start in first gear. And it was obvious that his car had more top speed than mine.

He told me that his going to reprogram again the ECU, don't really know the reason for this, but we will be together again to make a new side by side after the upgrade.

From my part, well, I wil have to put a 6 speed gearbox on my car and also a new intake is a must to match the 996 engine power, but now I can say that Robert was right, the S in stock form is restrict, and for all of you S owners, if you are planning to drop a 996 engine in your car, forget it, because with this kind of mods, the S his almost as fast as a 996 powered Boxster, and for the money required to make the transplant, is simply not worth it. In the next year, I plan to put a 6 speed gearbox and TTP intake( they have a system to prevent MAF faults) and headers, this way I will leave the upgraded S a bit far that I left today

For those of you who are already smashing your heads against the wall because of our adventure i will have to say that during all the side by side test, we didn't passed any car, th ehighway was completely empty, so save your comments to yourself.

J.Seven

Here's the two cars standing side by side before test.