Snetterton Track Day

Our 2nd track day was at the fast Snetterton circuit on Norfolk.  The car performed well achieving a max speed fo 120mph on the long straight and 60-70mph through the faster corners.

 

The car was evenly matched with some Lotus Elise's on track.  The Lotus's having better cornering handling, but the Porsche with superior power and braking.  

 

Bumper repairs

The inner bumper mounts and bars have been replaced. The front bumper was resprayed, but the rear bumper had to be re-shaped under heat and filled to repair the damage.  

Both bumpers have been re-fitted, and we just have the rear spoiler to re-align and re-fit before we can go back out on the track.

Damage Assessment

The front and rear bumpers have been removed to assess the damage inside the bumper covers.

The front bumper bar shows the deformity where the tow-bar took the impact. 

The rear bumper bar mounts have deformed at the top pushing the bumper bar into towards the body at at angle.

The bar is at such an angle that there is no clearance to remove the bolts.  These will need to be cut to allow removal and replacement of the mounts behind it.

Track Day

Our first track day was at Brands Hatch, on the short but challenging Indy circuit.
The car performed and ran very well.  We did struggle with tyres and a little understeer in the corners, especially round Clark curve.  

The weather was great for the time of year.

Towards the end of the afternoon we were involved in an incident in the pit garage of all places!  A new FocusRS accidentally went into the back of the car and then pushed it into the pit wall. 

Both rear and front bumpers are damaged and the rear spoiler are even more distorted than before.

• The front tow-bar took the brunt of the impact against the wall and is pushed backwards into the bumper.
• The car still drives fine and we managed to get out for the last session of the day.

So after 5 weeks it's back to square-one, with another search for used replacement bumpers and a trip back to the the body shop.....

Stage 1 - Completed!

After 8 weeks elapsed time, the car is fully repaired and road legal, allowing us to consider our first track day, albeit in stock specification.  Stage 1 'Buy a damaged Porsche Boxster S and repair it' is complete.

Re-fitting

This weekend, we re-fitted the fully repaired front and rear bumpers, rear boot lid and spoiler section.

Previous owner has replaced the stock 17" Boxster Twist alloys with 18" Cayman replicas and spacers to fix the offset.  We found the spacers were bodged together using tape and glue, and only two long bolts per wheel fitted!! 

New spacers were fitted on the rear with genuine Porsche longer bolts, and the brake fluid flushed with ATE super racing blue to cope with the higher temps expect on track.

The car just requires an oil change now before our first track day.

Front radiator clean-up

Clean-up of the inner front bumpers to remove more dead leaves and check for any damage. Plastic air ducting has to be removed first.

The air-con condensers are located in front of the radiators on each side.  These will be removed, as they not needed anymore. Less weight and more airflow to the radiators.

Because the car is a Boxster 'S', it already has the extra central radiator fitted to aid engine cooling.

Repairing the rear-end damage

A lot of work was done this weekend to resolve the rear-end damage to the car.  Replacement parts were purchased (mostly off ebay) in anticipation.

• Rear bumper cover
• Inner bumper bar, heat shielding and mounts
• Rear boot lid with hinges and struts
• Rear light unit (RHS)

The rear spoiler had to be removed to allow removal of the bumper outer.  Once removed, we found the majority of the impact had been borne by the inner bumper bar (broken in half) and mounts (deformed). The used replacements were straightforward to bolt on.

There is some deformation of the rear boot panel, but this appears to be purely cosmetic, so will be left. 

The rear spoiler mounting had to be adjusted to stop it fouling rear boot lid, and the light mounting had to be pushed back into the correct position.  Once this was achieved, the new panels all align well.

 Both front and rear bumpers have been fully rubbed down and are ready for painting.

Front Bumper Repair

Work has started on repairing the front bumper.  Removal was time consuming as Porsche use 4 different bolt types, and the last one was inaccessible.

Behind the bumper were a lot of old leaves.  

• The plastic cowling will need to be removed further to remove all of it (pic 1).  
• The underside of the bumper has some more scrapes on it, which were not visible on the car (pic 2). The will be easily sanded out.  T
• The larger scratches are sanded out and prepared ready for filling (pic 3).

The car

After searching seriously for a couple of month's we've bought what we think is the right car for the the right money.  It's a damaged repairable 2001 Porsche Boxster 3.2 S in metallic blue with grey leather interior. The damage is quite light and mainly centred around a new rear bumper and boot lid.  The front bumper has some scratches to repair too.  It should be easily repairable ourselves.

More Boxter Purchase Pictures 

Whilst we are waiting for the car to arrive, the search for used parts to repair starts.  First objective is to get the car road worthy and test it via track days before we strip it to full race specification.

The idea

Welcome to our Blog.  What's it all bout?  Well, the idea is simple really.

• Buy a damaged Porsche Boxster S and repair it
  
• Use it for track-days, whilst converting it to full MSA racing spec
• Progress to club racing
  

Sounds easy?