Porsche Roof Transport System (RTS)

by Trygve Isaacson, copyright c1999

July 17, 1999.

The day finally came when I needed to use the Boxster roof rack. With the amount of riding I currently do now, it's rare that I can't figure out some alternate way of getting where I need to go, but sometimes there's no substitute for being able to just take off in the Boxster with a bike on top. So I installed the rack, put the bike on, and drove to Healdsburg and back for the annual Healdsburg Harvest Century Bicycle Tour -- a 100 KM ride along the easy rolling terrain of the Napa Valley.

OK, let's get right to the roof rack information. There's only one difficult part of the installation (the A-pillar brackets). The wind noise the rack generates is extremely loud at highway speeds. Other than that, it's a great piece of hardware. It's probably about a 15-minute job to install or remove, assuming you've done it before and you've left the A-pillar brackets in place. Get some ear plugs before hitting the highway.

Sorry, did you say something? This thing is loud. Huh? You need to talk louder.

And did I mention the loud wind noise? At 20MPH there's a little whistle. At 70MPH it really howls with the convertible top up. Fortunately, I've found that the hard top nearly eliminates the noise. So if you have a hard top, you may find that it makes sense to throw the hard top on whenever you put the RTS on, depending on the length of the trip. The noise is not a problem if you're doing a short trip at moderate speeds to get to your cycling spot. But if you're going to drive for an hour on the freeway to get there, you'll be glad you put the hard top on.

This is the most difficult part of installing the rack, simply because it is difficult to get the weatherstripping out of the way, and then back in place correctly, without scratching the paint. First, you peek between the two pieces of weatherstripping, about 1 to 3 inches down from the roofline on the A-pillar. There are two screws that hold a plastic spacer there. Remove the screws, then push the spacer out in the "up" direction, not "down" towards where the screws came out. Put the screws and spacer away. Next, take the A-pillar bracket and insert the flat edge right back where the spacer came out. You'll have to pull the weatherstripping back as you insert the bracket, and I found this difficult to do. I wrapped a small flat-head screwdriver with electrical tape to avoid any harsh contact with the paint, but it was still difficult as the weatherstripping did not want to go back in place around the bracket easily. But eventually I got it. Finally, use two of the "oval-head" screws to mount the bracket in place. In this photo you can see the bracket and screws in place. I'm pulling the weather stripping back to reveal the screws. It's the other edge of the weatherstripping -- the top edge around the bracket -- that was the tough part.

You will notice that I have painted the A-pillar bracket with my Arena Red touch-up paint! The brackets are normally black. But I've seen the brackets on an Arctic Silver Boxster, and they are just a little too noticeable to leave on like that. Although the black on the dark Arena Red would be less noticeable than on silver, I figured it would blend in nicely if painted. And from reading "Martin"'s posts on PPBB, it sounded like leaving the A-pillar brackets on permanently would be a smart thing to do (to avoid harming the weatherstripping and the bolt threads with repeated installation and removal, not to mention the convenience). I did two separate layers of Arena Red touch-up paint, plus a layer of clear acrylic touch-up paint. It's not as smooth as the actual paint on the car, but it's fine. You don't need to paint the thin flat part of the bracket around the bolt holes: that part is under the weatherstripping and out of sight. I think it blends in well.

Well, of course, the Boxster has no "B-pillar" since it's a convertible. I am referring to the bracket that mounts just behind the door. This one is very easy to install (or remove).

First, take the A-pillar spacer that you removed, and use it to gently pry the cover plate off the mounting plate, inserting the spacer in the bottom crack. Be careful to catch the cover when it pops off; otherwise it may bounce off your door on the way down the ground where it may itself get chipped. The easiest thing is probably to put a rag over it as you pry it off.

The mounting plate has two black plastic screws that you must unscrew with a phillips screwdriver. (You'll be able to screw them back in by hand later when you uninstall the roof rack.) Put the plastic screws and cover plate away in the tool case.

Take two long torx bolts and use them to mount the B-pillar bracket. Very easy.

Now that both brackets are in place you can mount the rack side piece. Definitely use the supplied cardboard protector pieces. Hang them around the brackets while you put the side piece on, so that if you slip you don't scratch your paint. If you don't have them, you can just take a couple of small pieces of cardboard and cut them into U-shapes so that they can hang over the brackets.

Get the A-pillar bolt -- the stubby countersunk one, contrary to the printed instructions I had, which stated "pan-head screw" -- partly threaded, then get the B-pillar thing started. Once the side piece is secure, tighten the B-pillar thing, then the A-pillar bolt. The B-pillar mount seems to have more play as you tighten it, so I think it's better to leave the A-pillar bolt for last.

The cross pieces are easy once you've managed to get the bolts snuck into the locking mechanism. Tighten them and you're set. The way the locking mechanism works is that you can't access the bolts if the rack is locked. So you must unlock the endpieces and pull them out slightly to put the bolts in and screw them into the ears of the side pieces.

With the rack unlocked, slide your (bike, in my case) carriers into the cross pieces and secure them. It looks to me like you could even fit three bike carriers if necessary. I have the ski carrier but haven't played with it yet.

Here's the final result with one bike mounted.

You can see that the A-pillar brackets are barely noticeable when painted to match the color of the car. Since they are a pain to install, I'm going to leave them on.