With only two weeks until my first race I was faced with a lot of parts that needed to be installed. It's all hands on deck, my colleague Boelo and I start by stripping the interior of the car, and I mean stripping it to bare metal: We removed the seats, carpets, centre console, gearshift, handbrake and accelerator pedal among other parts. I am trying to get a mental picture of all the different screws as we remove them one by one - and then I started to panic: They all look the same, some slightly longer, some slightly thinner, and there are dozens of the suckers; I place them all in a little blue box and pretend I don't have to deal with them later.

The 6-point rollcage goes in first. Four steel plates are welded onto the chassis, two in front of the seats and another two, just behind. The two remaining anchor points are attached to the top of the rear suspension mounts. The steel plates were then drilled and the cage was finally secured with three nuts and bolts at each anchor point.

Next in was the fire extinguisher unit: bolted transversely just in front of the passenger seat and attached to the flexible aluminium hose that is connected to the engine bay and to the interior cabin. The battery kill switch followed. The carpet was then put back in place, along with the centre console, harnesses and all. We then fitted the fire extinguisher control unit into the central console compartment, while a custom-made aluminium plate now takes the place of the CD storage unit - to which we installed the fire extinguisher activation button and the battery kill switch button. I reluctantly took a look at the blue box with all the screws and to my relief it's empty, every screw finding a home. The beauty of the conversion I must say is that it seems to be completely reversible, so far. I left the permanent scarring until the end: The hood pins! The regulation requires the hood and bonnet pins, which are relatively straightforward to install, although it took me forever to find the courage to bring a drill anywhere near my 911! So, 100 man-hours of preparation later and my Porsche is now ready to race.

Fully prepared, the GT3 weighs 1427kg with an eighth of a fuel tank, and no driver. Adding the weight of the 17kg rollcage and the 6kg fire extinguisher and removing the heavy original sports seats (less 35kg) and replacing them with lightweight 12kg race seats the GT3 weighs approximately the same. Weight is the enemy in a race car: it affects acceleration, braking, cornering - essentially everything. We are limited to what can be done by the rules. We are not allowed to replace the steel body panels with carbon fibre (which would lighten up the 911 a further 100kg), or to change the glass to Lexan (another 30kg lighter). What I could do though is add a lightweight sports exhaust, which would improve performance and weigh 15kg less. Another possible improvement is the installation of the single mass flywheel from a GT3 RS, which weighs 10kg less and will improve acceleration and another 100rpm to the redline.

I am a little anxious, as I am not able to test the car on the track before the race weekend. I also have to get used to wearing the HANS device. There really is an awful lot to take in prior to my first race. I just hope there aren't any bits left lurking in that blue box!