onelove

I drove mine daily for a number of years and didn't have much problem doing so, yeah it was rough and sucked in traffic, but I managed to find a "route" to the office through some less traveled roads with more curves (even in the city) that made it a bit more enjoyable. Flash forward to last year when I purchased an Allroad to daily drive and haul my 2yo to daycare and I've realized that I enjoy the GT3 much more as a weekend casual car, while it was amazing before it's now much more fun as a "special car". My gameplay now is to use the car more as a weekend driver and start doing short road trips with the wife to areas where the driving will be much more suited to the car and continue to build its' legacy as a keeper for the family.

porschedog

I've done a few road trips in mine. Lots of yelling "What'd you say??" to passenger. It is blast every time, but when I get back into the '03 996 it feels like a Bentley Continental.

FWIW I know a doofus down here who did the A/C delete on purpose. "I'm saving 45 pounds..." he would happily explain to all who looked into the cabin and came back mightily perplexed.

Uh Huh. It gets to a bazillion degrees in South Florida. I'll happily deal with the extra 45 pounds rather than die of heat stroke.

NaroEscape

Regarding road trip in a 996 GT3....next year a buddy of mine and I are planning to ship our cars from Charlotte to San Fran, fly in with the wives, do a few days in Napa/Sonoma, then on to Rennsport Reunion. Then he and I (wives aren't warmed up to it yet but we're working on them) will drive our cars back across the country - taking a week to do the trip and hitting fun places along the way. By the time we start the trip, our GT3 will have over 100k miles on it. He has a 2003 996 C2 with over 150k on it. His may be more comfortable, but mine will be more fun!

Backmarker

I drove my GT3 from Portland to SF when I bought in 08. I am 6 and a half feet tall. Carbon buckets, motons.

The road trip was great, a lifelong memory and I would do it again.

rebrewer

Backmarker, did you take Hwy 1?

Marv

I can confirm that a cellphone is just about useless in a GT3 (thankfully). For pretty much the same reason you can't talk to your passenger.

Although, we have done number of long road rallies with the car (Sunrise to Sunset) that go from the east coast to the west coast of Florida. As long as you are not "on the pipes", we have no trouble communicating. I can always hear her saying, "Slow down! Slow down!."

sp0da

I originally bought my car as a dual-purpose DD and DE. That lasted for about a year with Los Angeles traffic. It is now a dedicated weekend/canyon/DE car - however, I have to say from a "comfort" perspective, putting in the Euro GT3 buckets (IMO the stock sport seats are really uncomfortable after 2+ hours) and swapping to a more modern coil-over setup (I went with Ohlins R&T) completely transformed the driving experience for me. It makes me want to take it on road trips now.

Stephen Tinker

sp0da, did you fit the "standard" Ohlins GT3 kit out of the box or did you specify different springs / damping for your setup?
I'd be interested in your experience with the R&T's compared with the standard GT3 suspension.....

LuisGT3

Comfort and convenience are both relative, really. Back in 06, I was 30 and had just accepted a position in AZ and my wife and I had to move. At the time we had a Land Rover (my dd) a 993 that I'll always regret selling and Boxster which was my wife's car. I decided to give her the LR, sell the 993 and trade in her Boxster in on a close to new 05 GT3 which would be my new dd. (I didn't want to "punish" the 993 with AZ heat was excuse that I used) I drove it from Tampa to Scottsdale (The car had regular sport seats at the time) and it was perfect to drive across country. I daily drove it in a suit for a couple of years (even after installing GT3 seats) and it was just fine. The only thing that I would say is that it took away that special feeling you get when you don't drive your Porsche very often that I always like.
Prior to that I always had a daily driver and used a Porsche on the weekends for events etc.

My GT3 now has lots of track goodies and not really conducive to daily driving in MN, plus I'm 12 years older so the comfort and convenience thing being relative is very true. If you have the room and can afford an inexpensive VW Golf (or any other car) as a dd, I would say that would be the best of both worlds. With that said, I've driven this track prepped car from LA to Monterrey, from Atlanta up to NC and all over the place in MN & WI and don't ever mind driving it. They are just great cars.

(My car has JRZ RS Pro's which are a much better ride than the factory coilovers)

sp0da

Spring rate in the front is the same as what comes with the kit from Ohlins, but my suspension guy swapped out the rear springs to softer 550# vs the 800s that come with the kit.

IMO - the car is a lot more comfortable and controlled with the Ohlins setup vs the standard setup. The front and rear feel more connected now.