zedcat

A 2014 E just means it was swapped or updated for the con rod bolt issue. E, F engines can fail due to the FF issue. IMO a car that just had a engine replacement would be ideal. If not the best advise is use the car heavily. If it's going to fail you want it to happen within the engine warranty of course. Also, be aware that for 2014s there are no LWBs and the sport chrono doesn't have the track app if those are important to you.

darth g-f

Thank you.

LAPorsche3

I have one with a 09/2014 production date and a clean title. I was told it actually sat at the factory for a month or so waiting for the update before shipping out. Tracked a few times. Fingers crossed no drama so far.

obbob

All the 3.8 GT3 engines had issues up until the end of 2016. Each year had some improvements that reduces the chance of engine failure, but it was not until the variant that came out in the 2nd half of 2016 that it was consistently reliable. Porsche produced very few GT3 in 2016 as the production line was devoted mostly to GT3 RS. This means very few cars came out of the factory with the most recent engine.

If the car you are looking at has had an engine replacement in late 2016 or later, it will have the latest engine, which is the most desirable. Most people call this engine the "G engine", although do be careful that early 2016 engines are also "G engines" but still have reported failures (my old G engine from this time period failed for example).

itrsteve

^ correct. There were a series of iterative updates even within the E, F, G lines as well. Serial # 5372 and onward of the G-series is the last of the updates (DLC coated cams). These improvements rolled into the .1 RS and 911R which is why they didn’t get the same warranty.

@Jeremy Hazeltine - personally, I would favor one with a recent G-series replacement if you can find one. I know @dgoldenz had one up recently. It seems like getting the replacement engine out of the way doesn’t really impact market value, positive or negative. As a .1 owner, I’m absolutely infatuated with the car; however, that event still looms over your head a bit and would be nice to have it out of the way... But it also gives you that incentive to go out and drive it too.

Dougr743

As you look at general car costs todoy, not gt cars, they are all increasing and honestly crazy, a loaded pickup is 70k. So a CPO gt car for 100k is a no brainer, its going to depreciate. How cares, and with the warranty, you cant fail. my first gen 997.1 had a motor failure, rod and crank bearing. Was replaced at 40k miles. no concern as it was a 2nd car, and taken care of. Buy the least expensive CPO you like! I bought a .2 for a manual and manual only. If you want an automatic, why not save 30 or 40k

parkerfe

Not at all. I raced motocross in the early 70s and have been an active participate in HPDE track events since the late 80s....from a 924, 993, Mustang, 991S, Turbo-S, GT4, Vette, M3, M5, 328,348, TR...even a 330GTC, to my current GT3 and can get a good lap time too. But I acknowledge that I am an amateur and there are a lot of drivers who could get in my car and do a better lap time at the same track.

dgoldenz

Mine had the G engine replacement done in 2018, didn't seem to have any impact on resale either way. As a buyer, I was happy to get a new updated engine with 3k miles on it when I bought the car (body had 40k miles) at the same market price as a 40k mile engine. Some buyers don't like the idea of an engine replacement for whatever reason because it's not original to the car, but I think those are few and far between. Most people would rather have the newer updated engine.

BergGt3

It’s the best value with the engine warranty! Buckets, PCCB and Fal are typically preferred options but buy the best one you can find!

3Series

Looks like you are missing the point.

to summarize

1.) hundreds and maybe thousands of amateurs are extracting 90-100% of if there car capabilities each weekend
2.) you don’t have to be Lewis Hamilton to extract all the performance from a GT3 Or Accord So buy whatever you want and use and abuse it.
3.) any track guy can learn to drive the limits of a gt3
4.) just because you can turn a fast lap In a gt3 doesn’t mean you can win races like Lewis

stating that only pros can come close to extracting all the performance out of a gt3 or an accord is not accurate.

On a 2:00 track, 12s is the 90% margin. Not hard to do for an amateur.

UGADawgFan

OP - I literally just went through the exact same process you are describing about a month ago. I sold my F80 M3 and wanted to buy my first Porsche- and I was torn between GT3 and 911 Turbo/Turbo S. At the end, I decided I wanted to have the naturally aspirated screaming engine over the turbo thrust.

My budget was around $100-$105K and that limited my search dramatically. I came across several GT cars that were high mileage or had accident histories on carfax/autocheck.

However, I came across a few of the buyback cars that were sub $100K. I looked at 3 of them and each of these were literally perfect outside of the lemon title due to the Porsche buyback. I had the same questions (will a bank finance them, are they worth it, etc). The car I ended up buying is a late production 2014 GT3, $162K build, 11K miles and has a lemon/buyback title. The carfax history shows this was one of the first ones that had the motor swapped back in 2014 under the recall and Porsche bought it back because the original owner didn't want to wait the 5-6 months it took to repair the car. The second owner bought the car in mid 2015 and owned it until earlier this year. No accidents, full maintenance records.

I had an indy Porsche shop do a pre-purchase inspection which came out perfect. I inquired with several banks due to the buyback (lemon) title and came across varying answers: some said they wouldn't finance a lemon, but several had no issues with it and treated it like any other loan. I ended up with a great rate as well (3.49% on a 60 month).

The warranty expires in January of 2024, but I figure that gives me 2 years to drive the car as hard as I like (and hope for a G engine). Shouldn't be too hard to sell if I decide to move on when it has 12-15 months left on the warranty. I figure a buyback car with all maintenance records will be an easier sell than a GT3 that has a "clean" title but with a collision (or two) on the carfax.

I ended up purchasing the car for $98K and feel like I got a good deal. Nearly all of the "clean title" GT3's I was looking at with similar builds were listed between $110K-$120K.