The Porsche 911 Turbo (997.1) is an amazing automobile right off the showroom floor. Its 480hp twin-turbo engine coupled to an all-wheel-drive system allowed it to get to 60mph in less than 3.5 seconds and kill the quarter mile in less than 11.5. Cornering and stopping are equally impressive. Along with awesome performance are somewhat understated, by exotic car standards, looks.
But time waits for no one, certainly not cars. The vehicle pictured here came into my friend’s shop, Ace Performance, because at 30,000 miles the clutch was on life support. Like many things on a 911, the clutch job required removal of the engine, so while there you might as well…


Like many German vehicles, the 997 is designed to perform first, and worry about things like long-term reliability, serviceability, maintainability, etcetera, second. As it should, because the original buyer is more concerned with aesthetics and performance more than anything, and it’s not like he/she are going to do anything themselves. There is nothing wrong with that, it is how most cars are built and sold these days.
Since the main reason of all this wrenching was to replace the clutch, a new Sachs heavy duty full disc clutch and new OEM flywheel are being installed. The thing is, the 911 is one really complex vehicle, as you can see in the pictures. There are many thing running between the front and rear of this vehicle; the driveshaft, brake lines, oil cooler lines, coolant lines, and who knows what else. For that reason, the while-you-are-there syndrome hits the 911 pretty hard.

While Ace Performance was there replacing the clutch, they also changed and/or upgraded the following:

• Power steering hoses
• BBi slave cylinder conversion
• BBI Underdrive Crank Pulley
• IPD Plenum and Y-Pipe
• spark plugs
• coolant hoses,
• Shark Werks Coolant Pipes
• GT2 throttle body
• GT2 ignition coils
• Fabspeed Air Intake
• Miscellaneous seals and gaskets
• And finally a COBB AccessPort with a custom pro tune done by Ace Performance.

All this should translate into solid improvements in drivability. When all is said and done, Ace Performance expects over 500 horsepower at the wheel, a significant bump from stock.
Many of us don’t get to see a relatively new Porsche going under the knife, which is the main reason I took these pictures while my own exotic 4Runner was getting worked on (more on that later). Check them out and appreciate the fine German art of putting 10 pounds of engine shit into a 5-pound engine compartment.