Exotic Car Gear’s first and most well known project is our 1 of 1 2002 Forged Carbon wide body Porsche 996. The Porsche 996 is by far our most impressive and extensive project we’ve done to date. From the completely one off wide body kit to the nearly full forged carbon fiber interior, we have done just about all there is to do with this car, down to the little details. We wanted this car to show off what we do at Exotic Car Gear, and the lengths we are willing to go.
The 996 Under All The Carbon
The 996 was stock once, it is nearly unrecognizable from when we first picked it up back in late 2018. This car was left in its stock for over a year, a lot longer than our current project, the Aston, which we wasted no time getting in to. When the Porsche was stock, it was a very clean little car with around 18,000 miles on the clock. It had a black exterior and a grey interior, but what really makes this car a drivers car is the 6 speed manual transmission.
The Interior Stripped down.
As Exotic Car Gear started to grow and expand, we had a vision for the Porsche and planned on building it to something truly unique and unlike anything of its kind. We wanted it to represent what we do here and the lengths we are willing to go for our business and our customers.
The build officially started late in 2019, and we planned on completely restoring and redoing the interior of the car, but before we could do that we had to strip it down. We had GT2 replica race seats with forged carbon fiber trim on the way, a full forged carbon center console, custom forged carbon steering wheel, forged inner door sills, inner door trim, dash cluster, dash vent covers, back seat handles, and so much more.
The Widebody
While we were waiting for part for the interior to arrive, we began designing and molding a custom one off widebody for the Porsche. We wanted our widebody to have a clean and smooth design without any hardware showing. The ultimate goal for the shape of the panels was to make it look like it was designed from factory, we had it designed to follow the body lines and curve around the wheel wells perfectly. Once the molding was finished and we were happy with our design the only thing left was to do our carbon magic.
Engine Bay and Rear Spoiler
We added a few things under the rear decklid to make the car a bit more responsive and exhilarating to drive. The more notable things we added were an IPD intake and a GT3 throttle body conversion. We also had a special forged carbon intake tube and a forged carbon panel cover made so that we could continue the forged carbon theme a little further. Additionally, we added a GT3 Style rear spoiler with a forged carbon bridge and forged carbon engine vents with our own custom grey mesh to really bring the look of the rear end together. Lastly we installed a Fabspeed exhaust to make the car sound a little more throatier and louder.
Wheels
We’ve done just about all one can do to this area of the car. For the wheels we chose, we went with 20 inch Ruger Forged wheels, 11 inches in the back and 9 inches in the front. We then fitted the wheels with Michelin Pilot Sport 4s to really give this car some grip on the roads. To add some custom touches to the wheels, we created forged carbon center wheel caps with our Exotic Car Gear logo embedded in the resin. To finish it off, we added some of our own Titanium wheel bolts as well as refinishing the calipers in a chalk like grey to match the theme of the car.
Exterior Carbon Goodies
We added a lot of Forged Carbon goodies to the exterior of our forged widebody Porsche 996, some big and some small. To start off small, we had the headlight washer nozzles finished in forged along with the triangle trim that the wing mirrors attach to. As we increase in size, we finished our rear window spoiler lip in forged, along with a custom front lip finished in forged. To finish off strong, we had a full forged carbon hood produced to really make it obvious that we like forged carbon fiber.
Non-Carbon Exterior Goodies
A few custom non-carbon touches we added is a custom, dark themed, Porsche hood logo to better fit the dark theme of the car. We replaced and refinished all the mesh grills on the front and rear of the car in a lighter grey color
The Interior
The interior is just as magnificent as the exterior, and we payed just as much attention to detail, if not more. We did just about as much forged carbon on the inside as we could, without it looking too over the top. Starting with our specialty, a carbon fiber steering wheel. we also had the inner door tray and handles finished in forged carbon. For the dash and center console, we did just about all we could do, down to the fine details such as the ignition trim and a thin strip going across the dash. Lastly, we had custom GT2 Style race seats made with forged carbon trim around the head rest specially made for the car.
Conclusion
This Porsche 996 has seen a complete transformation over the course of the 2 years it took us to put her together. Although this is our first of many more projects to come, this one will always hold a special place in our hearts. It is not going to be easy to top this one, but for our next build we plan on topping this one, with a completely different car in every field, and talks for our third project have even begun. It is going to be an eventful next few years, and we cant wait to show you all just what we are capable of, stay tuned!
