CharlottesBest

I’d like the Rennlist administration team to check out some of the extremely disrespectful comments before I delete this thread.

GiuseppeM

Knows everything about cars, Euro Delivery and Sam’s future 488 but asks how many years a Porsche warranty last....

FrenchToast

Think of this the same way. You said that you would not let your child run your company with only a highschool diploma, as "he won't be in the best position."

The recession is exceeding the limits of a GT3 - he won't be in the best position to correct it.

A Pro team would not let someone drive a race car - even if they grew up surrounded by nothing but racing cars. It requires practice and experience.
_

There's nothing wrong with wanting to do something special for your child.

The GT3 RS is a car with extremely high limits. Extremely high. This can be evident from the fact that the sister car GT2 holds Nurburgring record for a production car. It is essentially a race car with an interior.

If he has done karting, that is respectable. But a kart - even a racing shifter kart - is not a GT3 by any stretch. It does not prepare one to be driving around in a GT3 RS on the street. If your child is actually a driver for in the Porsche Cup car series or drives a GT3 in IMSA, VLN, FIA, etc. then maybe you could make an argument. The only way a GT3 RS makes sense is if you instruct the dealer to leave the ECU in shipping mode, which restricts the car to 25mph or something.

If you are an outsider to the motorsport industry, it may seem to you that your child is very good. That may be true, but driving a GT3 takes experience that can only be accumulated from years and years of experience.

I can use the comparison of alpine skiing since it is what comes into my head at this time. Your child might be ranked number 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 in the country. They could sweep the podium at the Junior Olympics. That doesn't automatically make them good enough to join the US (or whatever country) ski team. In fact, most top-ranked junior skiers rarely make it to the team. Most Junior Olympic champions - and I am not exaggerating - rarely qualify for a professional FIS race, let alone place in the top half of the competition. In fact, a majority quit in highschool because to be competitive is essentially a full-time job of training.

All this to say that just because someone seems good, doesn't mean they are capable of the best equipment. If you put a novice skier on racing skis they would crash in ten seconds - I guarantee it. I am not at all saying your child is inadequate, I am only saying that certain things, such as a GT3, demand experience that is simply not possible as a novice.

At the end of the day, its a forum and everyone has an opinion. I urge you to speak to a professional race driver. Talk to Leh Keen - he grew up driving GT3 Cups at the pro level. Or any other professional race driver. Please.

With the price of a GT3, you can buy a lot of driving school - rally school, performance, racing, etc. etc. If you must have a new Porsche, then consider a base Cayman. If you want to make it special, get a custom color. Porsche will paint and upholster it in whatever you want (and more) for the price that otherwise gets you a GT3 RS. If he wants to modify it years later he can.

That said, even a stock Cayman has very high limits and I would never recommend one to a novice driver.

One problem with modern cars, especially fast ones, is that the electronic systems can lull you into a false sense of security. They make the limits seem higher than they actually are (which are already quite high in this case). These systems do not change physics, and when the car's limits are exceeded, electronic systems cannot save it.

I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said. Even if your child is being recruitted for Le Mans, the best car is a safe, slow, manual-trans car. Spend the balance on rally and performance driving schools you can both do together and bond. Rally schools especially will allow you to exceed the car's limits in a controlled and slow environment (they are usually on dirt or snow depending on region). And rally schools have their own cars - you won't ruin your own.

I am in no way trying to diminish anyone else's opinion, but I would recommend you talk to a professional race driver. Or multiple. They are going to have an opinion that might be worth more than an average forum user.

CharlottesBest

I’ve done European delivery multiple times.
I DON’T know everything about cars.
Sam had his “incoming cars” list under his account picture.
I’ve never owned a Porsche, but I do not recall asking how long the warranty is, I might have, but again, I’ve never had any Porsche.

ExMB

GiuseppeM

Enough.

Waxer

If I had $230k to burn for my kids I would put it away for their future not blow it on a car.

Enough with this nonsense.

OP: You started this nonsensical thread now you want to close it because you got responses you deserved? That’s rich.

CharlottesBest

Thank you for this information, FrenchToast! My rationale is that I can kill two birds with one stone if he can track his road car if he ever decides to track the car in a GT3 class. He has already done multiple stock car and Indy-Style racing schools, and those are the only race schools close to us. We don’t want to take him out of school just to go to racing schools, and during the summer we are almost never in America. He will be enrolled in the Yas Racing School this summer, so we will talk to the instructors there! Thank you so much!

CharlottesBest

I was asking about the expenses of a car, and the responses I got were attacking me and my family. If this is what the Porsche community is like, I’d rather not be a part of it.

Jzips

No disrespect to the OP, and everyone’s gotta make their own choices in raising kids, but maybe the positive service this thread is serving is to foreshadow the greater social reaction to your teenager driving a GT3RS around. Buying him such a car could be a disservice to the kid in the long run.

<3mph

There's lots of young students driving up to half a million dollar cars here in Vancouver (hard to believe, but true). Most don't end up with serious accidents and most don't race their cars or even drive near the limit from what I can tell. It's just a status thing. Either way, it's still not the best idea to get your son such an expensive car as his first ever, from both the risk point of view and as a life lesson. Also, fwiw, if you insist on getting the GT3RS, the car is specced with some pretty crazy options (WP, Mag wheels!!?) if it's mostly for street use, so this doesn't seem like the best car to get him. Find a sporty-driving used car instead, is my opinion. Maybe even a manual transmission, so he can learn to drive that. If he drives responsibly, then consider something else a couple years on.

FrenchToast

To be clear: while the GT3 RS is essentially a racing car with an interior, it will not be allowed to compete in any sanctioned racing series. You can only use it for 'track days.' Racing requires a number of safety systems, including a full rollcage, fire suppression, hardback seat, FIA-approved harnesses, racing fuel cell, window net, emergency shut-off switches, etc. To make a road-going GT3 RS racing compliant would cost you tens of thousands of dollars, and, ultimately cost more than the GT3 Cup Car you could have ordered from Porsche Motorsport (I think they go for 250k?).

If your kid wants to step into semi-pro racing, I would continue with the racing schools and use the money to get a racing car. Or, instead of making the investment, you can sometimes find teams that rent out seats for an event. The whole arena of sponsoring drivers in North America is however quite complex. It is very different than in Europe, which has its own complexities.

Again - talk to the instructors and other pro drivers on what car might suit him, as they know more than any of us.

I won't lie, there are usually one or two kids driving in the Porsche Cup series that aren't even old enough to vote. Sometimes you get kids who aren't even old enough to legally drive on the street. However, they've all been to countless racing schools and have thousands of hours of experience. Leh Keen was one of these kids back in the day (he is older now).

Without knowing much of your specific situation however, I can only provide general comments. Again, talk to the coaches/instructors/pro drivers for the best advice. A car such as a GT4 Clubsport or GT3 Cup, are good value. Used ones, so long as they haven't been crashed or badly maintained, can be great value. The build quality is the same as you'd expect from Porsche, parts are readily available, etc. (981/991s can still suffer from the infamous weak cast strut towers). In fact, some of the best values are a TCR-class car, such as the Audi RS3 LMS. For 100k you get a car with full motorsport development, safety systems, FIA-approved, etc. Then you have plenty leftover for maintenance, a trailer, and a nice street car as well.

A racing car requires a lot more service. The sequential transmission and engine in a Cup car require expensive servicing. I forget what Porsche Motorsport advertises, but I think they can go for 50k racing kilometers now before needing major service? Smaller items such as wheel hubs still need servicing before that. The GT4 Clubsport is a little less costly to run. But for both cars a new set of Pirelli slicks is still going to cost 2-3k. Servicing the front axle (pads, rotors, hubs, bearings, etc.) is probably going to cost 5k. Engine and trans are going to vary, but can be 100k to replace the pair on a GT3 Cup. You can call Porsche Motorsport North America and they can give you a breakdown of recommended service intervals and general costs. Same with Audi Motorsport, or most any factory motorsport division. Or call any team that professionally fields the car in question. They can all tell you the costs per unit time/distance to run it.

But again, please don't just call up Motorsport and order a Cup Car, a GT4 CS, an RS3-LMS, etc. Really discuss it with your kid's instructors/coaches, other pro drivers, etc.

fast1

My reading of the posts is that everyone is having some fun with the OP. It's a nice departure from the ADM threads.

Waxer

If I had $230k to burn for my kids I would put it away for their future not blow it on a car.

Enough with this nonsense.

OP: You started this nonsensical thread now you want to close it because you got responses you deserved? That’s rich.

mooty

bravo,OP
my dead father was an a**hole
bought me used scirocco and not even a 16v

buy my an RS too