Fabspeed's Performance Package

[Big Bird GT3]

I have come across a Fabspeed Performance Package including headers, cats, mufflers, air intake and tips for a really good price. Does anyone know anything about this package. Dyno results show an increase of 23hp and 20ft/lbs torque with 12lb weight reduction. Will this make a significant difference in my car?

[clord]

Hi Big Bird..... My personal experience with Joe Fabiano's (Fabspeed) products is about 10 years old. I installed his mufflers on a '99 C4 and also parts of his intake system of that time. The mufflers made additional noise, most of it good, but with some bad droning around 2K-2.5K revs. They fit well and saved some weight. I am pretty sure that they provided no additional horsepower. In '03 I upgraded to my current '04 GT3 and have been much more careful/skeptical about what hardware I mod with. I think that the stuff that Joe has for our GT3s is the exact same products that he sells for the standard 996/997/flat bottom engines. They have the same port spacing and hanger locations. I don't know anything about the cats that Joe uses. I was skeptical that the same tube sizes, etc would be best for the GT3 motor. I did some research and exchanged emails with the brothers Stef and Herman at Europipe. http://www.europipe.be/stages.html They build racing Porsche exhausts of great quality for various race series and have researched what makes power on our cars. For instance: After building and testing many different headers on the 996 GT3, they concluded that the factory, non-equal length headers can't be beat for HP and low end torque. So, now their kits include only mufflers and 100 cell race cats. And they are one of the few kits that actually make a bit more power without losing low end torque.

Before popping for Joe's kit, I would do some searches to see others experience with his current products.

Let us know what you decide.

[jmla]

I agree with Craig on the Europipe, it's one of the best systems available. If price isn't a concern, I would also look into the manthey & cargraphic units. I have a set of the fabspeed max flow mufflers on mine (installed by the previous owner) and they're fine, if you're looking for some added sound on a budget. That said; when I'm ready to upgrade, I will most likely go with this BBI custom built system http://www.6speedonl...st-project.html

Edited February 13, 2011 by jmla

[slbates]

I have Cargraphic (muffler p/n CARP996ETS)

They do not drone on the highway, but sound very aggressive otherwise (a little loud IMHO).

[jimlwest]

Below is a video of 2-2001 Carrera C2's.

Here's the dyno figures on my car from last weekends PCA (Porsche Club of America) Cars and Coffee June 2011 in Sanford Florida using a Mustang Dyno!

The Fcatory Horsepower Claims at the Flywheel is rated at 300HP at the flywheel & 258lbs/TQ and with about a 15% loss from the flywheel to the wheels I should have 255HP at the wheels, but first car came up with 265.5HP & 223TQ at the wheels. The only modification is a Porsche Sport Exhaust which the factory says adds no power to the car?

I think PSE might add some power as I believe the Fabspeed exhaust on the second car in the video adds a little more than the numbers below on Michaels car.

Michael Colon had the same car with a Full Fabspeed Header & Exhaust and Cat bypass Y pipes and he had 13 more horsepower and 19 more TQ at 4800 RPMs. The Fabspeed Exhaust is around $3000 + installation.

Another friend, Greg Barrows had the same car dyno'd earlier that same day and he had a Suncoast Racing header & Fabspeed cat bypass pipes and no mufflers and had 257HP (8 less horsepowe)r, however it's possible he would have had a better dyno, but the guy driving Greg's car did not rev it as high as mine and Mike's car. it's also possible Greg's car may not have enough backpressure since it has no mufflers or cats. Sounds really awesome. Greg has 74000 miles on his car and 24000 miles are racing miles and the motor has not been rebuilt. Pretty amazing cars!!!! Check out video of the dyno runs

[RR GT3]

I installed a the Fabspeed mufflers, cats with cross pipe a year ago last November 2010. The Fabspeed dyno showed 367hp at the wheels with torque of 305. I'm generally happy but they obviously never saw a GT3 before mine. The cats had to be custom fitted.

The only problem I've had involves the O2 sensors. On the track - no problem. Two days on the street and the CEL is on. Always the O2. Replaced the sensors with new OEM and the same thing. Funny how it's always OK on the track and OK on the street for a day or so.

A year or so before the install the car was on another dyno from PowerTech at Pocono and showed 327hp at the wheels. (Dyno was maxed out at something like 6500-7000 rpm.) Only upgrade at that time as a B&M filter.

[phillipj]

RR GT3,

Although I have a different car I may have a solution for your CEL. I installed a Tech Art exhaust with 100 cell cats on my 997 turbo.. Shortly after driving I got a CEL. I reset it and I got another CEL. After doing some research and talking to some tuners the answer was an extension from the O2 sensor bung to the O2 sensor. The extensions are about an inch and a half long. The extension changes the perameters to the ECU so it doesn't throw a CEL. After installation of the extensions...Voila... No more CEL.

Just thought this may interest you....

^:cheers:

[RR GT3]

Thanks for the input. I will definitely try that. If I understand you correctly, the extension just mounts the sensor an inch or so further away from the center of the exhaust pipe. Right? Sounds like a simple stainless steel pipe threaded male to fit the original sensor mounting point and threaded female to accept the sensor itself should do. Are there any pre made parts for this that you know of?

[dan212]

I have used Fabspeed headers and Mufflers on my 996/GT3 for years. The build quality gets better and better and I have been thrilled with the results. I also gutted the Cats to relieve back pressure and pick up a few more HP. (Keep in mind that all of this does make the car much louder).. The trick to gutting the cats is to relocate the O2 sensors properly. The Stock standoffs will work, but you will end up with CEL's from time to time. There is an "extended" L shaped standoff that will take care of this.

The combination of Fabspeed headers, mufflers and gutted cats returned a remarkable improvement in power according to before and after Dyno runs. The car is not flashed.

I've been running this configuration for 4-5 years. 52K miles and at least 140+ track days. At some point last spring, one of the headers developed a crack. Fabspeed offered to pay for repair (fastest turnaround solution and would have been fine) by my local shop or replacement. Instead, I asked for BOTH headers to be replaced. They did that instantly with no questions asked. I can't ask for more from Joe at Fabspeed.

About the headers: These are somewhat custom made e.g.. They do change over the years. I always repair items like this in pairs. In the case of the cracked header, I felt if one cracked, the other might as well and I didn't want to replace with a new one that might have a slightly different form (changed over years) than the right side header. Again - things do break and this track car has seen HARD use. Fabspeed customer service could not have been better and replacing both of the three year old headers that had seen heavy track use - no questions asked speaks volumes for their customer service.

Another comment. My car actually came in 2007 with Fabspeed mufflers and some goofy aftermarket ZTEK headers that "looked" like fabspeed's. An accident 4 years later destroyed one of the mufflers and I replaced them as a pair with new Fabspeed mufflers. The build quality and design of the newer mufflers is an order of magnitude better. At that time I also put Fabspeed headers. The point is that they are continuing to tweak and enhance their products. They get better and better.

By the way.. I stay away from the aftermarket high flow oiled style air filters. Yes you can maintain and clean them, but if you don't they will actually impede airflow and the paper air filters are cheap enough to replace from time to time.