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CAlexio - do not cancel that car. Any Engineer/Carpenter can rig a cheap, but safe, solution with 2X4s ect. Do not deprive that beautiful lady a chance to sit on your lap in that GT3. This forum will not allow this to happen.
Take a deep breath and get this figured out. Some of the suggested solutions are good.
Afiter the discouragement wears off, the desire regroups....
Then try a combination of Mike's and rockitman's ideas, done in an experimental way, to get the right upward angle (start with too much, then reduce).
You may, along with the plywood wedge, try backing it in.
Since the problem actually occurs once the nose of the car is in the garage, what about something like this. I don't know how deep your garage is, but even if a commercial solution didn't work you could build something similar or have it built. The ramped section would keep the front end going up so the car didn't high center at the entrance . The break point of the ramp could be minimized by having the whole affair slightly sloped inside the garage; the car doesn't have to be parked completely level. The car is so low, garage height shouldn't be an issue. Just brainstorming....
Something along the lines of this geometrically could very well work. My driveway/garage was much like Alex's--but with more room to swing in at an angle. When we put on a second story a number of years ago, we had the driveway/garage re-graded along the lines in Mike's pic, limited somewhat by not wanting to screw around with the foundation or baring walls. I currently am able to easily swing in from an angle a C5 Corvette which has a 3.5 inch ground clearance and a significantly longer wheelbase than the GT3. I suspect I could come pretty close to not scraping without the swing move. I'm not anticipating a problem with the GT3, but I must admit this thread has really caught my attention!
There is a reason this is a 1%r group lol.. You Guys don't give up! So, I share a tandem garage with a neighbor.. It's so tight in there you wouldn't believe, just having a garage in this hilly little place is a luxury I guess. All these amazing ramp contraptions require a single use garage with some level of storage, or access. As mike correctly stated; it's not a lip issue, the whole left side of the car would get totally stuck in the center to get over the hump. No swinging in as there these little cement structures on the sides which some genius added for no apparent reason which limit entry to just 2.5in on each side of the Max width of a gt3.. Garage opens slightly once inside. I actually saw a boxster get into an underground garage recently whereby the rear tire came of the ground a whole foot as the front went in.. I probably would put up with that. But when you're coming in off an off-camber incline into a flat surface almost a foot off the street.. And Only on one side... It gets pretty complex. Trust me, I sat and stared at that car with 1/16th of an inch left before it touched with a sense of panic and despair. My buddy just laughed and laughed.. He said you'd think a family member had just died.. I think he was just jealous he had a lowly 911 and not a gt3. My sweet girlfriend said "look on the bright side, you'll have more mOney to spare for jewelry for me, and you'll spend less time on that damn phone texting strangers"... I resented that last part but had to remind myself women are built differently than guys. I'm sure Brett at Sonnen has already contacted another lucky soul to let him know his spot just magically opened up... It's outta my hands now... I'm sure we'll meet the lucky guy at any moment starting an oh so cheery thread with a title like "last minute spot for ED.. Weeeee... Lucky meeee!"... ***.
Alex, you must have known deep inside that this was going to be an issue all along, especially given the size of the space margins by which the car wouldn't fit. No other reason to have been postponing the fit-test (facing reality) since Dec of last year. You've been leaving a dream for a year.
EDIT: As for having sports cars AND living in cities, that's why god created country houses.
There is a reason this is a 1%r group lol.. You Guys don't give up! So, I share a tandem garage with a neighbor.. It's so tight in there you wouldn't believe, just having a garage in this hilly little place is a luxury I guess. All these amazing ramp contraptions require a single use garage with some level of storage, or access. As mike correctly stated; it's not a lip issue, the whole left side of the car would get totally stuck in the center to get over the hump. No swinging in as there these little cement structures on the sides which some genius added for no apparent reason which limit entry to just 2.5in on each side of the Max width of a gt3.. Garage opens slightly once inside. I actually saw a boxster get into an underground garage recently whereby the rear tire came of the ground a whole foot as the front went in.. I probably would put up with that. But when you're coming in off an off-camber incline into a flat surface almost a foot off the street.. And Only on one side... It gets pretty complex. Trust me, I sat and stared at that car with 1/16th of an inch left before it touched with a sense of panic and despair. My buddy just laughed and laughed.. He said you'd think a family member had just died.. I think he was just jealous he had a lowly 911 and not a gt3. My sweet girlfriend said "look on the bright side, you'll have more mOney to spare for jewelry for me, and you'll spend less time on that damn phone texting strangers"... I resented that last part but had to remind myself women are built differently than guys. I'm sure Brett at Sonnen has already contacted another lucky soul to let him know his spot just magically opened up... It's outta my hands now... I'm sure we'll meet the lucky guy at any moment starting an oh so cheery thread with a title like "last minute spot for ED.. Weeeee... Lucky meeee!"... ***.
If you built a false floor in the garage so that it had a rising slope from the entrance to the rear of the garage you wouldn't have to pull ramps in and out. It would stay in place semi-permanently on your side of the garage and your entrance would be straight and without a major break-over point. A few hundred dollars worth of wood and a little carpentry work would do it.
At least it works in my head, not having seen your garage in person. Dammit Alex, I want you to have the house, the view, the girl, and the car.....have it all!
Last edited by Mike in CA; 10-06-2014 at 07:40 PM.
Although unfortunately it looks like this will not bail Alex out--the GT3 is actually a very narrow car compared to its competitors and was one of the very few cars I was considering, due to the very narrow garage space I have. (The swing maneuver I'm able to do is because of a driveway area that's wider than the garage itself)
What would happen if you drive the car into the garage? Scratch the lip? Or damage the bottom of the car? I scratch the lip everyday when I go to my gym. I come to a full stop and crawl in as slow as I can and also at an angle, and it still scratches. And that is while its lifted!
BTW, beautiful views you have there.
Last edited by Terrence; 10-06-2014 at 08:49 PM.
Reason: Add something
Hi Alex. Very sorry to hear your dilemma. I have been here once before also. I bought a house with a very steep drive and tight turn. I loved the house so much I refused to try the 911 as I knew it would throw my decision and the house was more important than the car. As it turned out the GT3 I had at the time would not make it into the garage so thus had to live outside in the uncovered guest space which was luckily off the road. I sold the car not so long after. The 993 would make it into the garage (just - it lifted a front wheel doing it too!) but at that time was no where as low as it its today (the 993 also had a shorter wheel base than the 996).
I must confess having a car which is not easy to get in or out of the garage significantly reduced my enjoyment of that car. I rarely got it out to go for a drive as it was so much mucking around to do so. So I sympathise with you completely and infact believe you are making the right decision no matter how painful it is. To be perfectly honest looking at that garage it seems to me you would not feasibly be able to put any decent sports car in there. Even if height wasn't the issue width would be. There is nothing to give you grey hair like worrying constantly if you will touch the side of the garage when you park up. also the garage is your neighbours and you may loose use of it suddenly. It honestly looks like you need a new hobby in performance SUV or crossovers! Or else a mini or something with a short wheelbase (old classic 911?).
Although the pictures are not clear to me, my only suggestion and one a friend of mine has successful achieved would be to have an engineer draft up a quick proposal on how much elevation is needed between drive,pavement and road and submit it to the council with a letter saying you will pay for the "improvement" if they will agree to make the alteration. A friend did this and it solved his problem, took 6 months and $4000 to achieve all through legit channels.
Anyway. I'm really sorry. Im gutted for you because I know what its like and how it can easily eat you up. Thing is the decision is made now. You probably feel a weight lifting in a sense already. One less thing to be precious about or worry about looking after. More money for your Portfolio (although the last 4 weeks suggest might be better off in a 991 GT3!). Thats the bright side. Chin up. Bet you can get a 1972 2.4S in there no probs even a hot rod one ;-)
thanks Macca. yes, in back of my head i thought it might be an issue.. but it was a "i'll figure it out, least of my worries" kind of thought. I admitted to feeling kind of sheepish in the first sentence of this post actually... I could go on but trust me, I feel dumb enough.
dear friends, While I appreciate all the ideas, and don't want to be dismissive of honest assistance, just know that I live in a city with Draconian laws (just parking your car with the wheel turned the wrong way = a $500 parking ticket), and getting any modification to a curb which is walked by tourists and residents almost all day long, would take... an act of God... or maybe more. Lastly, the internal modifications would require some serious negotiation and acceptance from my neighbor and landloard, who is already upset that I'm breaking the "1 motor - 1 garage spot rule"... i have three ducatis I jam in next to my car. again, maybe I was naive, but seeing so many sports cars around town I was sure that it wouldn't be "that tough"... it was, and I'm glad I had someone who was nice enough to come over to do this test before I had locked my car... hopefully somebody is speccing the car of their dreams as we speak. The whole reason i originally got on this gt3 track was to get rid of my motorcycles and danger element associated with them both during track days and on the stree... I may still do that, but for now, I will still need a machine to satiate my inner gearhead.
at least my sweetie is ok with riding behind me on two wheels.. (she's being REALLY REALLY nice to me today... )
10-06-2014, 05:50 PM
