All That Glitters: Beware of Buying a Show Car
Few car companies enjoy as loyal a following as Porsche.
Stuttgart’s penchant for craftsmanship, design, and performance has created devotees on every continent. And while many fans prefer to keep their babies factory, plenty of folks modify them. Sometimes that’s for the better, and sometimes, it’s for much, much, worse. So Porsche purists should prepare themselves, because this story is an instance of the latter.
“This GT3 was apparently the victim of a quick buck build. While it appears to be a wide-body 997 designed to tear up the the track, this poor Porsche is nothing more than a styling exercise. How do you say ‘buyer beware’ in German?”
This is what can happen if you buy a show car.
Rennlist member iapgt3 recently posted about his newly acquired GT3, which was apparently the victim of a, shoddy, quick buck build. Never mind a road test, we’d bet the paint was barely dry before it was being pushed into a convention center.
While it appears to be a wide-body 997 designed to tear up the the track, this poor Porsche is nothing more than a styling exercise. Because unfortunately, the shop that built it paid far more attention to how it would look parked on carpet than how it would handle a double apex corner. It’s basically a sculpture.
Under that snazzy-looking body is acres over-spray, dangerously broken components, and evidence of general laziness.
The pictures below say it all. The paint looks amateur at best, with over-spray all over the engine bay, calipers that are only half painted, and bumpers which, upon inspection, show a clear lack of quality. If the aesthetic problems aren’t bad enough, the sway bar links are sheared clean off, and there are almost too many unsafe suspension components to list. Even the wheels have been re-drilled to—somewhat—fit.
This same shop who built this s is now turning their attention to a 993 RWB style build, so be warned. Fortunately, iapgt3’s Porsche is now in the care of specialists. Read the full story here.
