I have been lurking here for a while and searching all the usual sites for a reasonably priced car for the track. I did a fair amount of autocrossing back in the day and live pretty close to VIR, so I wanted to get back on the track for fun. DE's and private track days with a bunch of guys from work is the goal. Also I wanted the flexibility of driving the car to the track so it needed to be street legal (but not my DD.)

I looked at high mileage track oriented cars ($22-30k) where you can get a fairly well sorted platform plus the necessary track goodies (roll bar, control arms, etc) at a good price but the miles will punish me on resale.

Then I looked at 996 GT3's. beautiful cars and a great platform for the track. I know that they will hold their value better than other 996's, but the initial price was still higher than I wanted to pay.

I finally settled on a great 2002 996 with low miles, two owners, 10 years of service records. The car was special ordered originally. Sunroof delete, sport suspension, and a few other options. IMS retrofit and RMS are being done right now by the Porsche dealer. I paid a bit of a premium for the peace of mind with this car but in the long run I think it will be a good starter car for the track.

My plan is to enjoy the car immediately. Get it on the track as it is now and get used to it. Put a GMG roll cage in, maybe OMG seats, and harnesses as I want to feel safe and "tied" to the car. Do a lot of private track days and as many DE's S I can with instructors and improve my skills as I go. No desire to win LeMans, just want to enjoy the process and the people. If I feel like I am getting almost everything out of the current platform then I will start thinking about additional engine and suspension upgrades. After that, if I am still hooked then I can think about trading up to a GT3 (997?).

Am I crazy with this train of thought? What am I missing? Is this 996 too nice to turn into a track platform? Thanks for any thoughts or advice. Hope to see you out there at a PCA or track event sometime.

Chip

PS - how do I post multiple pictures?

 

Don't know how to post multiple pictures at once, sorry.

 

Interior

 

Option list

 

Interior

 

Congrats,
I track mine and you will love yours!!!! If you are really into tracking her, then invest in safety equipment! As for VIR, it is on my bucket list, maybe next year............enjoy!!

 

Definitely good track platforms but sometimes a cheaper car is more fun since you don't have to worry as much if you damage it.

I do recommend getting an X51 oil baffle kit or some other sort of oiling upgrade (look to LN Engineering for this) as well as some brake upgrades. I am dealing with some braking limitations on mine currently.

If it is a primarily track car consider some muffler bypass; if that is too loud definitely go for the "fister D" mod on the mufflers.

As far as suspension x74 is an easy plug and play unless you want the fully adjustability of coilovers.

Let me know if you want to offload those sport seats. I run stock class autocross and unfortunately I am stuck with the stock seats and I don't even have the sport ones so I've been looking for a set.

 

Thanks. I am having the LN IMS put in now. Will do the baffle kit in the near future. On the exhaust front is the goal to remove weight or to add HP? X74 makes sense. I do want to get some racing seats so I will let you know if/when I let go of the originals. Thanks again for the advice.

 

Maybe add limited slip.

 

It sounds like you've got a fair bit of track experience. Enjoy the car and congrats on the purchase.

Definitely remove weight instead of chasing power. Not many ways to add power that are cost effective on a non-turbo car.
For what it's worth, I've done just about everything possible to one of these for a dual purpose daily driven street/track car that one would want to do and my favorite items were:

- Weight reduction. The big, somewhat cost effective items were:

-lighter mufflers.
-GT3 recaro seats (still more than comfortable enough for a 1000km straight shot road trip...unless you're really fat.),
-lightweight wheels which have gotten shockingly cheap over the last few years. Reducing unsprung weight (wheels, tyres) are some of the best mods you can do and help acceleration, braking, cornering and improve fuel economy. You should consider keeping a set of tyres for the track so extra rims would make sense here. That way if you spin out/flat spot/heat cycle your tyres to hell at the track you don't have to live with them every day.
-Remove the spare tyre and toolkit if you have one. It's also about 50lbs of dead weight.
- Battery. No need to spend a jabillion dollars on lithium, there's plenty of dry batteries that are significantly lighter than stock.

There's a couple of great threads around the 996GT3 forum with measured weight savings


Regarding suspension: I think the X74 might be discontinued and thus prohibitively expensive (like the X73's) but I might be wrong on that. PSS10's are a fairly attractive option, I've got PSS9's and find them to be great all-rounders but when I got them, they were 1200$ brand new, now I think they're closer to $3000 so I would check in with some of the people running newer coilover kits like KW Variant 3's as well. Another option is a good spring/strut combo and if you're really picky you can send the struts out to be dynode and matched.

Edit: Imo0000 is right, LSD makes a great addition as well, but it's a fair chunk of change. Check in with Guard Transmission on that one.

 

Looks great! Clear bra the front of the car!

 

great looking car, i like the looks of a clean white 996.
Thoese sport seats are nice and comfy, but I replaced mine with a set of rottec carbon seats.

as for the oiling on these cars, well lets just say they arent perfect and if you are going to track it hard and have long banked turns you need to add some safety items to the oiling system.
Look into the TRS accusump kit that has the external cooler and there 2qt Deep Sump Kit. Probably about $2k in all for parts but it will prevent oil starvation.

LN/Flat6 also has a dual scavange pumps but its about 3k and requires professional instalation (about 15hrs) But it seems like this is there best oil scavange setup if this is a dedicated track car.

this is what the TRS kit comes with : (ive been looking into it to keep constant oil pressure and lower oil temp on my build)

 

Love the sport seats, very rare to find, I think the difference in support is fairly substancial compared to the comfort seats. Hopefully they will last you a little while before you feel the need to upgrade

 

If I am staying on street tires I am thinking that the LN 1/2 quart deep sump would be sufficient. True?

 

I would go with the X51 over the deep sump. The problem with adding to the bottom of the oil pan is that it lowers it, and opens you up to the possibility of breaking your oil pan should you go over curbing in just the wrong way. I've seen it happen. The X51 pan pretty well takes care of oiling issues. I know a lot of folks racing 996's, and oil starvation is just not an issue.

Don't do a thing wrt power. The 996 has plenty of power for the track. I can run at the back end of the 996 cup cars in my 3.4l car, and the engine is stock. As far as brakes, you will eventually end up putting in track pads, but even those are overkill if you are on street tires. The best brake upgrades are stainless steel lines, and good brake fluid (Motul 600, SRF, Prospeed 683...)

The aero front bumper on your car is great. Don't replace it! The Getty stuff is good, but it won't give you a significant performance increase, and like all fiberglass stuff, it will break easily. The Porsche bumpers are terrific. Racers will snap it up from you if you decide to sell it. Don't!

Have fun!