So, You want Boxster Calipers, under 15" wheels..., and you say you have 3" M struts eh? Options

[Aaron Cox]

hmm... lots of people in that boat.

going to later 3.5" struts means, you A ) have to pony up for them (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) B ) use inserts for a heavier 911, or have your 911 units revalved for 914 weight characteristics.

So myself and craig downs sat down and did some thinking.
We wanted to achieve the sleeper look of 15" wheels, but something more modern than M calipers, A calipers, and less expensive than S calipers, AND something you can get parts for (tried getting 951/944 turbo caliper parts lately????)

so we came up with boxsters.... (NON S)
*Fairly Cost effective
*light weight
*pads are double the size
*use readily available 911 carrera rotors
*parts are cheap and available.
*the calipers can be as new as 2003....

So how do you achieve this?

pretty simple. Several mockup sessions behind our favorite mexican food place on lunch breaks.... having the parts... and having a mill.

unlike 3.5" struts, a bolt on solution could not be made to fit under 15" wheels. The 3" ears interfere with the brake pads on the calipers, and spacing them out to clear would require a bigger rotor (951?) and makes 16" wheels mandatory.

Here is what we came up with


The unsuspecting victims.... (fronts and rears.... (rears are going on soon))
Cheap. Light. Newer. Gooder



one of the jigs, ready to put a step into the strut.


making a level 'step' for the adapter to lock into and a nice level/true support.


The finished products, after removing a certain amount of material. Nice and flat and true, lots of surface area (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)


The corresponding step about to be cut into the adapter blocks. 6061 T6 Aluminum.




fast forward a few to the final products

[Aaron Cox]

to answer a few questions...
-914 struts do NOT fit into 3.5" struts to my knowledge. You could use any koni or bilstein or boge designed to fit the later 3.5" housings, BUT they are valved for 911's (heavier). Thus the revalve or???

-Bigger rotor than stock. Its vented and 4mm thicker than standard 911 vented. Should deal with heat fairly well. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) you can engineer a solution to use larger rotors if you wish (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (bigger rotor = 16" wheel.)

-specs. That is up to craig downs. He may be up for sharing the engineering, or maybe even mill your struts and blocks for you? In his hands (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

-shoes. Yes, those are my sexy legs, and beater shoes. OSHA sent me a letter requesting that i use closed toed shoes when working with metal shavings.