2007 Shark Werks 3.9L 997 GT3, Brembo BBK, RSS Links & HRE C-21 Wheels

The owner of this GT Silver 2007 997 GT3 ended up with one of the first California cars. What started out as a SharkWerks Exhaust, HRE wheels and the RS flywheel project eventually morphed into our 3.9 engine conversion. This car went on to be featured as part of the Excellence Magazine Cover Story in 2009.

Here she is right after pick up:


Back home with her HRE-C21 19 inch wheels, RS clutch/flywheel and SharkWerks Exhaust installed for phase 1:


Back in the shop a couple of years later for the SharkWerks 3.9L engine conversion. Out comes the engine:


Out comes the engine:


There she sits next to another GT3 engine also getting the 3.9 upgrade. This particular car had 36,000 miles on it:


The tear down begins...


Off with those heads! Not bad for 36K?


Right down to the rods (Ti):


So after 36K on this motor you can see that there is indeed some decent wear on the rod bearings, which we replace.



The rod bolts are one-time use only and get replaced:


The steel liners are prepped for our 3.9L piston conversion:


The factory head studs are replaced with the EVOMS upgraded versions:


In go the pistons:


Timing the EVO Exhaust & Intake Camshafts:


Mostly buttoned-up:


And back inside the car:


From underneath you can see the SharkWerks exhaust:


With the car on the lift we also set about improving the suspension components with solid links/bushings. The old ones pressed out:


A before picture:


An after picture:


But the silver one was not yet done... There was a slight smell of coolant in the front and with 36K of unprotected mileage the front radiator was a little worse for wear. So off came the bumper...


With some cleaning look at some of the stuff she'd collected:


Here's the old one vs' the new one... Not a pretty sight


With the new radiator in place we added some protection with the Cargraphic screens:



And now the silver one is ready to go home.... but before you know it in comes another whitey:P


At home again...



And in Excellence Magazine, representing us so well:

This silver 2007 GT3 has lived an incredibly active life around NorCal's loop thanks to SnowBoarder. She's been in a few magazines including Excellence and 9Magazine (more on this soon) so you may have seen her around. She's as good a looking car that's been driven properly as I've seen. It was actually the very first 997 GT3 I ever drove back in late 2006 and some 50,000plus miles later she's back here again for another round of goodies.


She's made the 250mile trip south a few times over the years to get the light weight flywheel conversion, Sharkwerks exhaust and 13,000 miles ago our 3.9L engine too. We've also monitored and/or changed out some of the factory components along the way due to natural wear and tear which included the Bilstein coil overs and RSS suspension links however after all this her factory/original brakes were _finally_ needing some attention. Anyone that knows Snowboarder knows that he has an affinity for the gas pedal, turning, accelerating and yet his right foot rarely touches the brakes I have to say I'm impressed how long they lasted. He's been lusting over PCCB's but in lieu of those factory units a nice set of Brembo GT 380mm x 32 6-piston front and 380mm x 28rear 4-piston brakes should make for a fun test-case scenario. There's some good weight savings (specifically a reduction in rotational mass) to be had along with improved braking performance on offer with these larger/thicker rotors and pistons on the calipers.

In she comes:


Off come the stock calipers, rotors, lines in front etc..



And of course the rear:


Here's the factory 355mm one piece rotor which weighs in at 24.3 pounds:


And the two piece 380mm (15-inch) front rotors at 19.62 pounds:


Side by side there's a nice difference in size:


The factory front caliper comes in at 12.76 pounds:


The larger replacement Brembo caliper, showing that larger can also mean lighter still (11.96 pounds):


And then the calipers off vs going on:


A real-world comparison on the stock rear GT3 one piece rotor vs the two piece 380mm rear rotor. The factory rear is 21.26 pounds per corner:


Here's the replacement Brembo unit coming in at 17.3 pounds:


A good indicator of the difference:


And here's the stock rear caliper which comes in at 8.6pounds:


And now vs the larger Brembo rear caliper 8.9 pounds:


I did say larger...


Fronts installed with Goodrich stainless steel brake lines:


Rears next:


Overall that's a 17.3pound reduction in unsprung rotational mass as far as the rotors go. The larger calipers come in about a pound lighter overall as well. We'll be monitoring Snowboarder's progress in terms of pad combination and performance over the next 50,000 miles. It has to be said the factory brakes are/were indeed world class so these have a lot to live up to. We have actually used this very same set up on other powerful TT's as well that have destroyed their PCCB's (including calipers) over the years and those 700hp cars/owners have been happy with their performance/life at the track thus far.

Finally a set of HRE Competition Series C93 wheels have been added/updated over the previous C21's. These are also considerably lighter than factory but in brushed/clear centers and clear outers I think they look pretty darn sweet!

A close up of the new HRE C93's in front:


And mounted in the rear:


Clearance for the fronts:




And all ready to go:






The only thing left is for SnowBoarder to go with the track exhaust. You can have mine. I'm deaf!