Top 5 Porsche Upgrades to Make Your Porsche GT More Powerful

So you're here to learn about the “Top 5 Ways to Make Your Porsche GT Faster.”

We're glad to have you!

I’ll be giving you insight into ways to add power, increase your emotional connection with the car and have that “Dundon Giggle”. My goal is to give you the knowledge for how and why different mods improve your power gains. Let’s get started...

As you know (or may not know) the GT3 and GT3RS were made to be balanced sports cars—good power, reduced weight, a stiffer suspension and good aerodynamic performance with an emphasis on being able to corner well and turn fast laps on the track. 

Even though Porsche does a remarkable job with the GT3 and GT3RS stock, there are still a number of opportunities to add power, reduce weight, improve aerodynamic downforce, and improve grip and stopping. 

But where do you start? Sometimes it can be hard to know what modification you need to get the result you’re looking for. Porsche did a great job, but accountants make decisions that aren’t always in line with performance. 

There are several ways that Porsche wasn’t able to fully optimize your stock engine for power, some for example are:

  • Leaving exhaust gasses in the cylinder
  • Using a Throttle Body that’s too small
  • Reusing Airboxes that are restrictive
  • Non Optimized pressure wave expansion
  • Missed weight reduction opportunities

Let's get to the knitty gritty.

 

Get More Bang for Your Ponies, Literally

A scenario I hear a lot is, “I want a better sound, but I still want power.” As cliche as it sounds, you can have your cake and eat it too. There are some exhaust systems that really only get you sound but you shouldn’t have to choose.

That’s where headers come in…

To give you a little context, if you want to improve torque and horsepower we first have to get the spent combustion gasses out of the cylinder! Headers help with scavenging the gasses out of the cylinder, this allows room for fresh intake air and gasoline to combine to make more power.

When an exhaust valve opens on a Porsche, it opens with a “pop”.  Many of you have likely seen the slow motion video of a bullet leaving a gun:

 

This is what is happening in your exhaust every time the exhaust valve opens, that little ring of fire is a pressure wave.  When that pressure wave reaches an expansion in the tube of the header (where all the tubes join together into a collector) the wave is reflected back as a negative pressure wave (or a suction wave).  

This is where things start to work in our favor. With our Dundon Motorsports headers, we can time the suction wave to arrive when both the exhaust valve and the intake valve are open (a period called valve overlap) we not only are able to pull more exhaust gasses out of the cylinder, but also help pull in fresh intake air through the intake valve.  

How do we nail this timing?

It takes careful sizing of the tubing, length of the tubing and appropriate volume of the  expansions to get pressure waves to do what we need in the exhaust. This allows us to both scavenge exhaust gasses from the cylinder and create a strong differential pressure between the intake manifold pressure and the cylinder pressure. 

The result? More air gets sucked in than intake manifold pressure would be able to push in alone. 

So what does this mean for your power gains?

By getting more fresh air and fuel into the cylinder we’re able to produce more power. We also get an improvement in sound—more cylinder pressure creates a cleaner, stronger sound wave (so your car sounds cooler!). 


Don’t have turbochargers? What do you do?

Porsche hasn't changed the throttle body size on its GT3 or GT3RS models since 2007. Normally, they do a good job of matching the throttle size with the engine power. In fact, GT3’s have historically been produced with an 82mm throttle body starting all the way back with the 2007 997 GT3. This was the largest size Bosch made and Porsche was stuck with it on the 991.1 and 991.2 GT3’s.

What does this mean for your Porsche? Our 93mm throttle body, center plenum and dual cone air intake kit is another opportunity to release more power for the 991.1 and 991.2 GT’s and Cups. 

While a naturally aspirated engine like the GT3’s 4.0L Flat 6, doesn’t have turbochargers to push air into it, it does have  Atmospheric Pressure (otherwise known as, the weight of the air in the sky) to push air in. With a smaller stock throttle body the engine has to redirect some of its power to be able to pull air into it. 

Here’s a fun analogy:

Think of the throttle body like a straw that the engine sucks air through. If you have a tiny straw it takes energy to suck air in, if you have a large straw it doesn’t take as much energy!  The same with an engine, if the straw is tiny, the engine has to use some of the power it’s producing just to suck air into it. If the “straw” is bigger, then the engine doesn’t have to use engine power to suck air in.  

But, how do you know if the car is struggling to get air in? One way would be to measure the car on a dyno and check before and after the change, or you can measure the air pressure before and after the Throttle body for a more specific measurement.  

By increasing the size of the throttle body it eliminates the “small straw” and allows atmospheric pressure to reach the intake manifold with a minimum of loss.  

With a 93mm throttle body and center plenum (28% larger than stock!) paired with dual cone airboxes you’re guaranteed to see huge power gains.

 

The Right Air Filter Does More than You Think

If you can’t tell, pressure is a huge theme with some of our modifications. So let’s tackle another power-robbing part on your Porsche. 

Think back to the recent example of the throttle body. Your Porsche’s air filter can be a source of lost pressure.  Ideally, we would run no air filter to ensure there are no pressure losses, but then the engine would be damaged by grit and particles in the air and from the road. Right off the bat, that’s a no-go.

A popular upgrade has been to add a BMC or K&N filter in the stock airbox as they have less pressure drop than paper filters.   

Those are good to a point, but the problem we found on the 991.2 GT3RS (which comes with a BMC filter) is the airbox and filter area was too small to support  any additional gains over the standard 520hp the car comes with. 

Think of it this way. The air filter box on the 991.2 GT3 and 991.2 GT3RS is the same as the one that came on the 2013 Carrera. The GT3RS makes 130hp more than a 2013 Carrera and it’s sucking air through the same air filter? We can do better than that!  

The goal is to make the path through the air filter box smoother.  By limiting the bends and turns the air has to take it preserves the pressure the air is entering the engine with, which means? You guessed it, more power.

You also want to increase the air filter size as much as possible. With Dundon’s Dual Cone Airbox on the 991.2 GT3RS we increased the filter area by 380%, slowing the air down going through the filter, preserving precious air pressure allowing the engine to again make more power! 

Let’s recap quickly — create a more direct pathway for airflow and increase the filter size and voila, more power for your Porsche!

You can find the 93mm TB/Intake and Dual Cone Airbox for your GT Cars below!

 

Supercharge Your Porsche, You Know You Want To

Gotcha!  We love Natural Aspiration so adding a supercharger to your GT3, GT3RS or GT4 isn’t something we’d ever recommend, but we can let physics and mother nature do some supercharging for us!

What if we could get some “supercharging” effects using air pressure and “bouncing” air off of the intake valve after it closes to our benefit?  

Did I lose you? That’s okay — here’s a quick breakdown of how to achieve increased power through intake air pressure waves.

Similar to how we manipulate the exhaust header tubes, tailoring the timing and strength of the pressure waves in the exhaust, we can do the same with intake runners and the manifold design in the intake. We move and massage the pressure waves in the intake to increase the amount of air getting into the cylinders at RPM’s we prefer. 

In some instances we can see an 8-12% increase in the power of the engine, sometimes more with intake runners!

Our 9A1 intake runners provide a big boost in high rpm power!  You can see below the gains over stock for a 981 GT4/Spyder and over headers alone!

If you’re interested in Intake Runners, here’s a quick rundown of everything we have in the pipeline.

Resonance Intake Runners for: 

  • 997 GT3’s and RS’ 
  • 997 Cups 
  • 991 GT3 
  • 991 GT3RS
  • 991 Cups

In the meantime, if you’re rolling with a 987.2/981/991.1 3.4L or 3.8L engine your intake runners are here: https://www.dundonmotorsports.com/collections/boxster-cayman/products/intake-runners-981991-3-8l

Want to be notified as soon as we have your parts? Shoot us a message and we’ll be happy to keep you in the loop!

 

Your Muffler Deserves Credit too. Right?

There are plenty of sound modifications you can get that just alter your Porsche’s sound and in most cases don’t do anything for power.

With Dundon’s Lifetime Muffler it is designed both to survive the punishment a GT3 can dish out, and it’s also designed to allow better flow. With 3” lower tubing vs the stock mufflers 2.5” and a carefully designed X-Pipe Merge, the Lifetime Muffler allows the banks pressure waves to merge and expand in a controlled way! What’s better, you’ll still be able to hold a conversation, no shouting matches.

For our Cup car (and streetcar enthusiasts wanting all the power), take a look at the Dundon Inconel Megaphone Center Delete (Crack Pipe).  Most other Center deletes hardly even merge the banks, with no concern for controlling the pressure wave expansion, wanting to have all the power and RSR sound? The Crack Pipe is your answer, my friend. 

The Inconel Megaphone Center Delete (Crack Pipe) solves the expansion issues by using a megaphone at a precise angle to control the expansion of the exhaust pulses and reflect them back to aid in mid-range scavenging… all at only 5 lbs!  

And that Inconel Scream! Listen below to one of our Street Headers and Inconel Megaphone Center Delete:

Originally made for Pro Driver Lehman Keen, the Inconel Megaphone Center Delete (Crack Pipe) gives you the best of both worlds, sound AND power—no promises on being able to hold a conversation in the car… it’s a little loud if you couldn’t tell.

 

What’s the Point? The “Why” of Your Porsche Mods.

There are a number of mods you can make to your Porsche, what makes the mod different from the next is the intent behind it.

Is it to make your car loud and sound cool when you pull on a neighborhood road with your buddies? 

Well that’s fun and all but when you truly understand how these mods alter your Porsche to give you a case of the “Dundon Giggles”, that’s when you know you’re taking control and deciding your path!

Take it from our customers and other Porsche driver’s alike, this is a special family to be a part of. One where we love to have fun and truly appreciate the power of our cars. 

From “social distancing” get togethers:

To cheering each other on at the track:

To sharing each other’s experiences with new installs and toys.

It’s truly a ride that we’re on together and I look forward to being a part of yours. 

 

Which Mod is Right For You?

In stock form your Porsche offers what you need to “have fun”, but if you’re looking to take it up a notch, adding some modifications — Street Headers, a 93mm Throttle body and Dual Cone Air Box, or Inconel Megaphone Crack Pipe — will give you a giant grin with more power than you thought you could have. Hitting the gas pedal will really make you giggle and make you love your GT car even more!

You may be wanting to upgrade with all of the mods we’ve covered. But if you're still not sure which mod is right for you — we’re here to help with that — get started today and give us a call!

 

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