Planet 9

Hi,

I am seriously considering the TPC for my RS60.
Just wondering if anyone has done this yet on our side of the pond.
I have had a few discussions regarding the turbo kit with Tom at TPC, it came up that they have sold some kits overseas, including at couple to Hong Kong etc
But i never actually asked if anyone had one in the UK.
Has anyone got one? if so i would be interested in a Brit's perspective on these kits.

Thanks

Mark

It is Unlikely that the TPC will be found in the UK - Fitting /Tuning is a 'Specialist' Black Art, that TPC Are the Sole Masters Of! (Not Many UK Caymans Make it Across the Atlantic, to Their Workshops.)

Even if You Go Down the RUF SuperCharger Kit Route - You Need to take the car to Germany for 2-3 days for RUF to Do the Install..........(A Week in Total with a Day there and a Day Back)

You Are Better to Look Closer to Home with the AutoFarm 3.7 and 3.9 Conversions at a Better Price/Performance Point. (Particluarly with regard to the Horrific Exchange Rate We are Suffering at the Moment)

AUTOFARM | Welcome

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Cheers Karel



'Power is Nothing - Without Control..........'

Karel, I had a look at the website - but it doesn't mention what kind of performance increase can be expected. Would you happen to know?

Steve

If You Look in the April EVO Magazine (Page 54) the 3.7 is Rated as 367 BHP with 295 Lbs/Ft Torque..................

From 'Discussion' The 3.9 Should Put Out Approaching 400 BHP (But Not Built Yet!)

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Cheers Karel



'Power is Nothing - Without Control..........'

Hi,

i think you may have slightly missed the point, my fault as i didn't explain myself properly
you don't need to send the car to the usa
they send you the kit with full fitting instructions. installation takes 2-3 days
fortunately i have a stake/partner in garage business, so have access to ramps equipment etc
the garage has worked on porsches mainly 911's, but also 986/7's in the past.
its not a porsche specialist, but do have experience of them
basically i am planning on fitting it myself using the resources available to me.
software wise, you either send them the ecu to flash it or as in the case of oversea's customers they send you the software to flash the ecu yourself, kind of along the lines of softronic i imagine
the cost of the kit makes this a far, far cheaper option than ruf or autofarm route.
i am wondering though if anyone has done this kit install over hear already, it would be nice to hear from them with their experiences if they had.

thanks

mark

Karel's advice is quite solid, stick local.

Almost every tuner will sell their kit for a "home install" but there's always massive complexities with the NA-Turbo conversions which you may not be aware of. A turbo kit is not like an exhaust, where there's only one thing to do and little to go wrong, it's a very involved job and that's why it's generally avoided. If you do find a garrage that'll do your conversion and they get stuck with trouble, even if it's something idiotic, it may cost much extra time.

Not to mention, garages generally aren't happy to work on a kit they haven't sold, because most of the money is in selling the kit, not installing it. I second Karel's suggestion, I'd never attempt to do such an extensive mod myself, there's too much risk you miss something (not least because the manuals they write aren't exactly fantastic) and end up with a bent con-rod, a broken cooling system, or a lumpy turbo after four weeks of wrenching and much more money than you budgeted.

if NA isn't your cup of tea, I'd rate RUF much higher than TPC any day of the week. Not to mention their guarantee.

If you own a garage, what are you waiting for? The TPC kit bolts on and the flash, as you mention, is as easy as softronics. Conversions are not cheap and don’t add the 185 to 200hp like the turbo. RUF puts out a quick car but imagine how much more performance you will have with double their output.

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Several TPC turbos are being installed across the USA by hi quality local mechanics, as well as some in Asia. In the UK you have the additional advantage of speaking/ reading the same language. It would probably be a very good opportunity for a quality tuner garage to step up and become recognized as the UK distributor and installer of these popular kits.

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Seat of the pants dyno

Do YOU 'Bodhii' - Have This 'Kit' Installed in Your Cayman?

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Cheers Karel



'Power is Nothing - Without Control..........'

Of course. I was one of the first. Tach miami has it installed as well. I have had the TPC Turbo for about 10 months now of hard track and street driving. Tach Miami has had the turbo slightly longer than I.

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Seat of the pants dyno

OK - Did You Have this Kit Installed By A Local Garage who You Know/Have Good Relations (Who Knows a 'bit' about Porsches) With OR Did You Get TPC to Install and De-Bug It?

I Agree - If You Have Good Support and Back Up From the Manufacturer - This Should Be Fine....

But across the Atlantic Ocean, In the UK - If Something Goes Wrong?

The Manufacturer Blames the Installer, The Installer Blames the Manufacturer and the Owner of a Non-Functional Cayman, Has Paid a High Price for Frustration...

And Another Point: I'm a bit worried about Turbos on the Cayman.

While they have been installing kits, I wonder how many have been driven several thousand miles with boost?

The reason being is that the Pistons have Problems even in the normally aspirated cars let alone adding boost to them. The Pistons are Cast , Pressed and Not Forged................

I Wish Everyone Good Luck With Their Turbos.................

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Cheers Karel



'Power is Nothing - Without Control..........'

Hi,

RUF is massively more expensive than the TPC Kit and to be honest i cant really justify spending that sort of money on a boxster when i could buy a 997turbo for what the RUF Kit (best part of £30k fitted) would cost on top of the cost of my RS60. The 997 turbo will retain some of its value where as i am not sure a RUF 987 will be worth much more if anything than a normal S. it may even be worth less and will definately prove harder to sell
The TPC kit is not going to cost a quarter of that to buy and self install and as has been pointed out does generate more power/torque which makes it a really interesting prospect. Plus as i am self installing i could if i choose remove the kit and sell/px the car as a standard RS60. the kit could then be sold on second hand for some intrinsic value.
Also when you consider how much you could spend on a full exhaust and remap etc...
i just had a look at the awesome gti website they want £3,900! for a full APR exhaust (excluding fitting) and they told me on the phone another £900 for a remap. all in these will yield only 321BHP and 289lbft torque! for a cost of approx £5,000 fitted!!!
a net increase of only 26bhp on cayman/boxster S even less on an RS60 rated at 303Bhp.
i would like a bit more return than that for £5,000 thank you very much! thats a cost of £278 per Bhp in my case!
RUF conversion yields £400Bhp for £30,000
for around £7,000 i can have circa 485BHP and approx 400lbft with the TPC which equates to something in the range of £37 per Bhp on a cayman S.
£7,000 is alot of money yes but good value in this company, particularly when you consider you have 997 turbo beating go is chassis that is some 300kg's lighter than a 997 turbo. In what is generally considered to be a better balanced mid engined chassis to the 997.
The TPC definately seems to take a 987 from everyday usable sportscar to everyday usable supercar and as everyone knows there are not many everyday usable supercars out there.
I think for me personally a big part of the inticement of the TPC kit is i relish the challenge of installation projects like this, having done a few track prepared cars with none standard engine builds/installs into cars they were never fitted to in the first place. theres nothing like the feeling of satisfaction when you finish and it all works, although mid project your usually pulling your hair out! Tom at TPC has told me that the Kit is istalled with the engine/gearbox insitu and all that really is need is a ramp and garage tools etc. fortunately i have access to all these so i think i am going to take the plunge. my biggest worry isn't the install, its that i will be throwing away my remaining warranty, so if the engine goes pop i will be gutted. The TPC Kit does run at a relatively low boost of 5lbs or less than 0.5bar, which is low compared to my TT from 4-5 years ago that ran 1.2 bar. testimony's from folks on here that have been running this Kit for a year or so also give you a measure of confidence that its not going to end in tears but i suppose in the end you have to decide to either walk away or bite the bullet and go for it.
All in all Ruf is not an option for me, its too expensive and unjustifable in terms of resale etc. APR etc does not make sense at £5,000 for not a great deal extra. Really the only product in the frame is TPC, its probably that or nothing for me.

thanks

Mark

I would not touch a Turbo kit in the UK without a custom UK map

our Fuel is not the same.
A few people have tried Turbo's on the yota engine Lotus and they just did not work in the UK.

Even the S/C lotus installed needed the maps changing from the USA maps.


So looking at the problems in the Lotus camp I would not touch the kit in the UK unless you have a company in the UK who will have a look at the map and make it work better here.


As for your RS60, I would just get a backbox, plenum and map for about 2k all in.

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Save the cheerleader save the world

You know what would make sense here is to have your shop call TPC and talk to them about it. I know Mike Levitas is willing to fly places and train people if they want to become a reseller of his kit, perhaps the shop would become a UK distributor for TPC. The TPC kit is not complex, and could easily be installed by any competent shop. As for the warranty TPC stands behind their stuff, but again a call to TPC could sort all that out for you. That would be my suggestion, talk to Mike directly, heck he may already be working with someone in the UK for all we know.

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K-Man S

Ditto -- It would be worth the 3K to have Mike fly out and work with the installers -- to keep dyon'ing the car until it is right -- Mike should also want to discount some of this price as an intial investment to have a trained dealer in the UK.... I am forwarding this post to see if he responds

Peter

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TPC ATP 2 Turbo Stage 2 Package, Fabspeed Headers, ECU, TPC Lightweight Flywheel, 997 X51 Clutch, TPC Sway Bars, LSD, Custom Manufactured Drop Links, Front Pads/GT3 Pagid 19's, GT3 Spark Plugs, 3M Clear Bra, Tinted Side and Rear Windows, Smoke Tinted Tail Lights, Premium Package, Ipod/Aux Input.

Hey, I am certainly not trying to push sales of the TPC Turbo to UK. And NOT trying to push it to people who don't want it. The OP wanted info about installing in the UK. I have no connection to TPC other than being a satisfied customer.

Here is a link to someone doing his own install of the TPC Turbo.

http://www.planetporsche.net/cayman-...tml#post352093

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Seat of the pants dyno

[QUOTE=kareldeeley;351710]OK - Did You Have this Kit Installed By A Local Garage who You Know/Have Good Relations (Who Knows a 'bit' about Porsches) With OR Did You Get TPC to Install and De-Bug It?

I Agree - If You Have Good Support and Back Up From the Manufacturer - This Should Be Fine....

But across the Atlantic Ocean, In the UK - If Something Goes Wrong?

The Manufacturer Blames the Installer, The Installer Blames the Manufacturer and the Owner of a Non-Functional Cayman, Has Paid a High Price for Frustration...

This thread has taken on a life of its own since i started it!
I agree its one thing using our facility to fit it myself to my own car, at my own risk.
Its another to be fitting it to customers cars as, if things go wrong i dont want the business exposed to a £10k engine claim. Currently if a part supplied and fitted by the garage fails or as part of that failure, causes another component fail the garage picks up the tab for both and puts in a claim for the parts from the supplier but generally has to swallow the labour involved. I am not saying anything this drastic will happen as if it did i wouldn't be thinking of fitting the TPC kit to my car. But you could have a situation where a bad engine fails that would have failed without a TPC kit fitted but its proving that fact
i would not want my business as the imported/dealer and installer exposed as if things go wrong under UK law the dealer will be held responsible as the customers contract is with the dealer (ME) not the manufacturer, in this case TPC.
Its one thing selling me a kit to fit myself at our shop, its also another someone approaching me who has bought the kit from TPC and realising i have installed one, asking us to fit it, as then its customer supplied parts and therefore fitted at their risk. However its a different thing again being TPC approved agent.
Theres no doubt that agreements can be put in place to get around these issues. For example, if a part on the Kit fails its covered under the 12 month TPC warranty and i am sure that if its damages something on the car as part of that failure TPC would see the car put right. But if the car engine decides to pack up after say the kits been on 6 months, with no failure of a component of the kit then its the owners risk as its probably fair to say the engine may have failed anyway without a TPC.



As its my garage and i have been talking to Tom at TPC about it i have kind of covered this, but initially i would like to just stick the kit on my own car and see how things go and make sure i would be comfortable supplying and fitting these.
As our business is a general garage rather than a Porsche specialist i am not sure if TPC would even be interested in using us as an offical installer, they may prefer a specialist working on Porsches everyday.

[QUOTE=peter f cummiskey;351917]Ditto -- It would be worth the 3K to have Mike fly out and work with the installers -- to keep dyon'ing the car until it is right -- Mike should also want to discount some of this price as an intial investment to have a trained dealer in the UK.... I am forwarding this post to see if he respond

I was under the impression the DME was flashed in a similar way to revo/apr etc and tweaking on a dyno was not neccessary. If a dyno is needed then my garage does not have one as its a general repair shop. That said there's not really any porsche specialist in the UK that do have a dyno, they are more the forte of non manufacturer specific performance part retailers.

Thanks

Mark

Mos, I agree that a Porsche or some hi performance, sports car, specialty garage would be required to provide for a regular market with this turbo kit.

The risks as to Porsche warranties would be the same as we face here,... no more, no less.

I do get kinda confused at the often used reference as to distance. TPC is on the East coast of the USA. Many TPC customers, like me, are several thousands of miles away on the distant West coast, or worse yet, maybe living in a dreadful place like Texas or Kansas. This is not a distance where you just take the car to TPC when it is convenient. Trans continental truck transport of a fancy sports car is probably more expense than shipping the same car from the USA to the UK. Especially at the current shipping rates!

And Tess ( Alan) and his business don't seem to be too inconvenienced by the Big Pond.

My biggest concerns would be where to drive a 485 HP TPC Cayman in the UK without getting stopped way too often.

Fitting any thing is easy

The ECU and map is the problem, this is where you need the backup.

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Save the cheerleader save the world

I see your point however i suspect its true in the big population bases in any country.

Interestly and suprisingly (or not you decide) only 6% of the UK land mass in actually a built up area leaving plenty of rural fast roads to play on.
once you forget the southeast where the most pepole seem to be and think about the southwest, rural england, england north of manchester/leeds, east anglia, wales and scotland theres still some room to drive

In fact these days with the advent of speed cameras on mass in the UK you see less and less proper traffic cops. So as long as you know where the cameras are you can still have fun on our rather overcrowded little island.

Anyway all those 996/997 turbos Porsche has sold in the UK ( apparently somewhere in the rgion of 15-20% of all 996/7 sold here are turbos) manage to have there fun so a 987 with 997 turbo grunt should also.

mark