penguinking

and another seat, interior, put an exhaust on that sucker, airbags, and you're done! sortof...but considering how used cup cars are around 100k and thats where the used gt3's are, it just seems like you'd get alot more fun out of buying a cup car and occasionally driving that around (hoping you don't get caught). i understand that the motor is running on edge but get a conservative tune done and you're pretty set, right? or no....

JLJ

no point really...street car and cup car are close in many ways.

Karl S

Without EPA and DOT approvals, you can't get a title for a Cup car, so you can't get plates for it. Even if you could, it wouldn't pass emissions testing with the racing DME in it, so you'd have to swap that out along with the wiring harness. Now you're talking some big bucks. By the time you finished modifying it, you'd have something very close to a GT3 and have spent a lot more money.

Karl

Bill - Chicago

Engines are the same between the 03-05 cup and street GT3. Only difference is the the exhaust and air filter.

penguinking

i was just thinking it would be a better value(?) i guess because with the cup car you'd get a kick *** suspension, better wheels, brakes, a car thats 500lbs lighter... it fascinates me how the race version of the GT3 is pretty similiar in cost (used) to a used street version.

Karl S

I don't think you would want to live with 1500 lbs springs on the street for very long. Nor would you like the ride height - your spoiler lip and brake ducts wouldn't last long. I tore off an exhaust pipe just driving over a raised manhole cover in the paddock in my Cup car.

Most of the other suspension parts are the same, except the shocks, which are 2-way adjustable Sachs. It would be easy to add a set of JRZ's to the street car and get the same or better results.

I also don't think you'd find crawling over the X frame of the roll cage too much fun to get in and out of the car. Certainly your significant other wouldn't like to do it in a skirt. Nor would she probably care to share the passenger footwell with the fire bottle. The lack of heat or defrost would make the car uncomfortable to drive in cold or humid weather. Need I go on?

Brakes are identical, except the pads and you probably wouldn't like the squeal of race pads on the street when they are cold. And by the time you brought the safety standards up to compliance, you wouldn't be 500 lbs lighter.

Stick with a used street car, it's much more practical.

ZBlue996Kam

It make a lot of sense to buy a used cup car than the street gt3 if you buy it for track use.

Karl S

As long as it is only for track use. BTW the thread was started to discuss buying a used Cup car and coverting it for use on the street.

Karl

mooty

cup car is for the track, you DON'T want to drive that loud stiff machine on street. GT3 is about as stiff as you want or need for street.

PatK-Mpls

There are a ton of differences between the GT3 and the Cup. Anyone who says they are similar is plain wrong. Put the two on a lift next to each other and you'd be better off listing what is the same. Some diffs:

-Even the brakes ARE IN FACT different. The rotors on the Cup are thinner.
-The suspension is different.
-The motor is different.
-Even the gearbox is different.
-The computer is different

ngoldrich

Bill,

are you sure the engines are the same? I find that hard to believe. From all the research I did when I was considering buying a cup car, racing it very hard (as I would have done), the engine would have been freshened every 40 hours. Yeah, I know if you DE it or dont push it as hard you can get more hours out of them.

But my point being, is that it is not likely Porsche would build a street car with tolerances that require that kind of service.

I am just guessing since I do not know for sure.

Norm

JLJ

they are very similar except for minor things you are pointing out. yes the rotors are different, no the engine isnt ( exhaust and dme is)
no the gearbox isnt different, both are G50 ( ratios might be and would be swapped if raced)
street cars and cup cars are very close except what you swap or remove to go racing. its not a "different " car. comparing a 996 to a GT3 would be comparing different cars. cup to street GT3 is not that far apart as far as the hard guts of the machine go

FixedWing

Softie.

Stephen

Pat K

I have both - they're different

ldw

The engine is not only different between the GT3 street car and GT3 Cup race car with respect to internals and power, but the engine in the 03 GT3 Cup car is rather different from that within the 04 and 05 GT3 Cup car models. The gear box has various internal differences and the differential is radically different.