I'm not a fan of projects involving someone else's mods. You just don't know what they did right and what they did wrong. You may end up spending $20K and thinking you made a big mistake. I'd rather be wishing I bought the car than wishing I didn't. This car is not one I'd lust after.

I'd much rather find something that was more of a known quantity and had something more positive going for it.

 

Thanks, that's a really good point...this one has nothing but question marks going for it.
I guess the whole 'Barn Find' fever had me in it's grips.

Well, I'm in it already for the inspection so I'll ride it that far and see what's what inside a 911 anyway.

 

Stupid question, but you do have a written contract that you can refuse the car upon a poor PPI and receive your $ 10,000 back if the car is a POS, right? It does sound exciting, but there are many turbos out there for what your shelling out once your done.

 

So many assumptions wrong about the 'deal' in this thread.
We paid NO money down. We will pay to tow it and inspect it only.

At that time we have the option to buy it outright or put 10,000 down, be named on the bill of sale and title as owners with the seller named as first lien holder on the title....no different than buying a car at any dealer and financing it....in addition to that the seller agrees to pay 50% of any repairs to make the car marketable if we choose to pursue that agreement. The price to make the car whole to be agreed upon or we walk away. Of course if we do that deal it will require a contract but as of right now we are simply trying to get the car inspected on our dime.

 

Make it a clean purchase. Talk to your partner and tell him you would like to buy the car outright and offer him a $1000 finders fee. As for the real owner, ask him his bottom line, not splitting repair costs at that gets way too messy.

In my experience, project cars that you think will make you money will cost you more in the end.

 

I don't get it. We're asked for advice, but the tow to the inspection, and the inspection are still on?

Sounds like you made up your mind-my guess is you're going to feel obligated after spending money on a useless inspection. Again, with those mods, no mechanic in their right mind will give you a clean bill of health short of a compression and leakdown. Do you know that it costs over $10,000 to rebuild a 3.2, and that is if you do it yourself? This motor will be no cheaper if something is bad.

Why was it parked for the last couple of years.....in the woods?

 

That car might be a huge money pit. Here is the problem I see already...stored outside on dirt!! Rust issues will be brought to the surface over time because of this..plus field mice making a nice home for themselves over the winter months. I dont know..like others say here bring it to a Porsche shop and have a ppi done on it. If a florida porsche specialist worked on it..I hope it was promotive they where/are one of the better shops in south florida.

 

This whole story gets more and more convoluted. Quite frankly the whole thing just stinks and sounds like a load of crap. Why didn’t you just call the shop in Florida? Why don’t you make a real deal on the car for a price after you get the PPI done? You open yourself up to all kinds of ridiculous risk on these shared deals I pay for this you pay for that BS. Why would a seller who has shown no interest in the car or in selling the car even bother with a deal which is going to take so much time and effort and risk on his part.

 

Not at all, I've paid for home inspections on a house we made an offer on and walked away from it when the inspection showed trouble.
I do feel obligated to my partner/friend to go through with the tow and inspection because we agreed to get to that level before deciding anything more.
Also I have had this car and the whole 'barn find' killer turbo fantasy on my mind for over a year now so being on the verge of finally getting to have it inspected and then not doing it will give me no closure. At this point in the adventure it's worth a couple hundred to do that much.

Does part of me still hope the car will turn out to be so great I end up with it....sure. But now thanks to this thread that dream is back in the perspective it belongs, right there with the dream I win tonights Powerball grand prize. I'm going to buy a ticket but I'm not going to break the bank trying to win.

I understand that but if it passes leakdown/compression and it starts up after a simple refresh of fuel, plugs, oil and battery change and I get to drive it....well that's well worth the price of inspection and then I'll have to make that hard decision of do the mods scare me away? I guess I want to keep the fantasy alive at least until then.

It seems to me any car you have inspected that runs well and shows no major problems still has the possibility of catastrophic failure right after you buy it. So it all comes down to the integrity of the mods and how this 3.0 liter endured the addition of that power. Maybe the mods were done well but it's been thrashed to the edge of failure.

No, I would have guessed lower, that isn't encouraging at all, but then it doesn't make me feel good about any 911 so really it comes back to the mods and cars history again....
I will be speakig to the shop owner who did the build but it has to wait until Monday since I wasn't aware of who the shop was until too late Friday to get to speak to him myself. I'm trying to make a list of questions for him now so any input toward that is most welcome!

The property it is parked on is a large track of commercial property the owners family has for sale, back in the woods on that property is a house that was empty, he parked the car there after his wife was killed by two cars racing in the street, she was checking the mail at the street when one of the cars went out of control and killed her. Daddy driving around in his race car wasn't something he wanted the kids to see I guess. Tragic at the least.
The car was supposedly running fine when it was parked.

 

If it's any consolation, I know a fantastic Porsche engine builder that worked/s for Prototech. His projects were rightious. A 930 is a slippery slope - hope you have a good shop in mind.

 

Ok, I got to visit the car today and get a look in the engine compartment. not too impressed and wonder about the Motronic fuel injection system. I don't know what to expect actually but here are some pics I took of the module (sorry flash failed me) and a sampling of everything else.
I'm thinking even if it runs I'd only give 10,000 for it and strip it out to track with or just be my hooligan car. My bubble has been officially burst...my 928 sure is looking sweet right now along with that beautiful grey 993 someone just posted for sale in the classifieds here.

I tried to capture every bad thing I could...there was a lot:

 

more pics...
Even the Speedlines aren't looking so good anymore

 

Dude, this car is going to be a lot of work. Have you started it up? or turned the motor with a wrench? Get it checked out by a good shop. You should pay a lot less for it if you still want it and then have the repairs done yourself.

 

Might want to call prototech and pull the file.

 

Yea I'll call them Monday and see if they will. I'd like to know what the internals of the engine are but even if what they tell me sounds like a good platform to work with...and assuming it starts up with little service required (a big if) the most I'd pay for this is going to be much less than the owner thinks it's worth. My understanding is he thinks he's giving away a bargain at the $20,000 mark.
This car has really taken a turn for the worse in the last year. A real shame because you can tell it was something special at one time.