equiraptor
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2009
- Messages
- 1,954
- Location
- Houston, Texas, USA
- Car(s)
- Many cars, mostly very vroomy
Nugget and I are planning to do more track days in the coming months and years. As we’re hoping to do more distant tracks, where we won’t be instructing, we’ll both want to run all the advanced run group sessions (not sharing a car, like we have when instructing). And we had only one proper track car (my Miata is still on OEM seats, restraints, still has full exterior, etc. etc.).
So we “needed” another track car. What to get?
Everyone has suggestions. Everyone has ideas, plans, likes, loves, etc. The guy who runs a Spec Racer Ford wanted me in a Spec Racer Ford. The guy who runs ASA Stock Cars wanted me in those (or an Allison car). But for the way Nugget and I do track days a car that can be driven on the street is better.
I love Exiges, but I tear cars to shreds. A friend has a similar driving style to mine and he’s constantly breaking parts on his Exige. Sidebar: This should not be taken as a general reliability perspective on Exiges. This is specifically about how hard I am on track cars and the Exige being built to be as light as possible.
I’ve been thinking for a few years that if something happened to our 997.1 GT3 RS that required a full replacement, a 996 GT3 seems like a good choice. Preferably a track rat one, one that’d already seen some miles, some mods, some good hard track use, so we wouldn’t be “ruining” a pristine example of an older car. A friend of ours has a 996 GT3 that's essentially exactly what I'd choose.
Said friend hadn't been making it out to the track much recently. Other things in his life had gotten in the way. And by "recently" I mean for maybe around five years now (Nugget and I have been away for a time, too). Our friend had talked about maybe selling his GT3. He also has? had? a Spec Boxster and has an R8 Spyder. If the Spec Boxster is his track car and the R8 is his fun street car, what's the GT3 doing for him? But he's owned the car since 2009. He doesn't want to part with it. He knows he should sell it, but doesn't want to part with a car that's so connected to his track life, his car hobby. He was talking with us about this when he came to see the ranch for the first time. Why don't we buy it? This solves both our dilemmas – Friend isn't really parting with his car, he can always come visit it, come drive it, it's not gone from his life (he's in the group of instructors where we trade cars with each other for a few laps regularly). And I get an already-set up GT3, already a track rat, ready to start running and tweaking to my preferences (and this friend is great at car setup, maintenance, care, etc., a meticulous guy).
So this happened:
I now own a 996 GT3, one owned by a friend since 2009, and enthusiast owned for essentially its entire life, as far as I can tell. I look at the car and see an old friend. I drove the car off the trailer once it got to the hangar and immediately felt at home in it, much like I feel in the Miata I've owned since 2007. This car is both extremely familiar to me, and new to me. It's a great feeling.
Our friend had posted a, "I'm thinking about selling," post on another forum that has a list of mods, status, etc. of the car. Quoting from his post:
In addition the coolant pipes are pinned (only 2 were pinned at the time we bought it, but it was stored at our preferred Porsche shop and they pinned the rest of the pipes and performed other needed maintenance before we picked it up).
Photos from the "thinking about selling" post:
Proof pic:
And there's a brief video driving the car into the hangar at the ranch on smugmug.
So what’s next with the car? Well, its harnesses are out of date, so those are being replaced. The fire extinguisher is also out of date, so that’s getting updated. The prior owner always ran it with a wrap on it, and I’d like to continue that tradition. His wrap was typically a carbon fiber look (and said wrap is still on the hood). But I’d like to change to something violet themed. Remember the Fluffy Bunny Type 3? Something vaguely that color, but trimmed in dark purple and maybe blue rather than pink. I’m not very settled on the exact look yet. I’d like to find a good local wrap shop first and get their ideas on what is possible, what’s good for track use, and what would look good on this car.
I also want permanent numbers on it, 2 digits, I don’t know what! I suppose 96 could be a fallback, since it’s a 996 and the engine code does technically start with M96 (it’s a Mezger in enthusiast nomenclature), but that doesn’t really speak to me.
We're now a 2 GT3 family. Vroom.
So we “needed” another track car. What to get?
Everyone has suggestions. Everyone has ideas, plans, likes, loves, etc. The guy who runs a Spec Racer Ford wanted me in a Spec Racer Ford. The guy who runs ASA Stock Cars wanted me in those (or an Allison car). But for the way Nugget and I do track days a car that can be driven on the street is better.
I love Exiges, but I tear cars to shreds. A friend has a similar driving style to mine and he’s constantly breaking parts on his Exige. Sidebar: This should not be taken as a general reliability perspective on Exiges. This is specifically about how hard I am on track cars and the Exige being built to be as light as possible.
I’ve been thinking for a few years that if something happened to our 997.1 GT3 RS that required a full replacement, a 996 GT3 seems like a good choice. Preferably a track rat one, one that’d already seen some miles, some mods, some good hard track use, so we wouldn’t be “ruining” a pristine example of an older car. A friend of ours has a 996 GT3 that's essentially exactly what I'd choose.
Said friend hadn't been making it out to the track much recently. Other things in his life had gotten in the way. And by "recently" I mean for maybe around five years now (Nugget and I have been away for a time, too). Our friend had talked about maybe selling his GT3. He also has? had? a Spec Boxster and has an R8 Spyder. If the Spec Boxster is his track car and the R8 is his fun street car, what's the GT3 doing for him? But he's owned the car since 2009. He doesn't want to part with it. He knows he should sell it, but doesn't want to part with a car that's so connected to his track life, his car hobby. He was talking with us about this when he came to see the ranch for the first time. Why don't we buy it? This solves both our dilemmas – Friend isn't really parting with his car, he can always come visit it, come drive it, it's not gone from his life (he's in the group of instructors where we trade cars with each other for a few laps regularly). And I get an already-set up GT3, already a track rat, ready to start running and tweaking to my preferences (and this friend is great at car setup, maintenance, care, etc., a meticulous guy).
So this happened:
I now own a 996 GT3, one owned by a friend since 2009, and enthusiast owned for essentially its entire life, as far as I can tell. I look at the car and see an old friend. I drove the car off the trailer once it got to the hangar and immediately felt at home in it, much like I feel in the Miata I've owned since 2007. This car is both extremely familiar to me, and new to me. It's a great feeling.
Our friend had posted a, "I'm thinking about selling," post on another forum that has a list of mods, status, etc. of the car. Quoting from his post:
In addition the coolant pipes are pinned (only 2 were pinned at the time we bought it, but it was stored at our preferred Porsche shop and they pinned the rest of the pipes and performed other needed maintenance before we picked it up).
Photos from the "thinking about selling" post:
Proof pic:
And there's a brief video driving the car into the hangar at the ranch on smugmug.
So what’s next with the car? Well, its harnesses are out of date, so those are being replaced. The fire extinguisher is also out of date, so that’s getting updated. The prior owner always ran it with a wrap on it, and I’d like to continue that tradition. His wrap was typically a carbon fiber look (and said wrap is still on the hood). But I’d like to change to something violet themed. Remember the Fluffy Bunny Type 3? Something vaguely that color, but trimmed in dark purple and maybe blue rather than pink. I’m not very settled on the exact look yet. I’d like to find a good local wrap shop first and get their ideas on what is possible, what’s good for track use, and what would look good on this car.
I also want permanent numbers on it, 2 digits, I don’t know what! I suppose 96 could be a fallback, since it’s a 996 and the engine code does technically start with M96 (it’s a Mezger in enthusiast nomenclature), but that doesn’t really speak to me.
We're now a 2 GT3 family. Vroom.
Rick told me to keep being different, he has a soft spot for those cars.
?