Number54

I've been mostly lurking since late last year.

Well clearly there aren't that many 996 GT3s out there to start with.

I live in San Francisco and have been monitoring craigslist, but have seen few examples I'd be interested in.

Ebay seems to have a lot of auctions, but when I search for "completed auctions", it appears almost none of them sell.

Autotrader is weak.

I found a dealer or two that have one, but meh, I don't want to go the dealer route.

And I've read so many stories of people neglecting to mention salvage titles, accidents, etc. I plan on having any potential car inspected by two separate shops. But I'm quite picky, and am starting to get concerned about how long it will take to find a car I'd be willing to buy.

Anyone have advice for me?

TurboCup87

Mine just happened to show up at a small Porsche-Audi dealer 45 miles from me 2 weeks after I sold my Turbo Cup car. 3500 miles and in excellent shape. This was in Aug 2007

mooty

well it depends on how serious you are and how much you want to spend.
i always have leads on GT3. but all my leads are significantly ABOVE mkt.
so i rarely disclose them. they just trade amongst friends.

sometimes, 6speedonline.com has nice cars too.

a gent on rennlist in texas has a gorgeous red GT3 for sale. if it was white, i would have bought it.
another red car was sold in OR recently from one rennlister to another. that was one hell of a car.

post your requirements on the car you are looking for and how much you want to pay, i am sure other enthusiasts will PM you.

Serge944

Rennlist. Be patient and the right car will come up for sale.

Number54

Thanks all.

@mooty: I've only started to look seriously for a couple weeks. I wish I could afford a really nice example at significantly above market prices but I cant! Just curious, what makes a GT3 significantly above market price? Mods? Care?

Like you, my ideal car is white. Black or yellow are okay too, no red for me. I'd rather not go with gray, but would take it if I can't find anything else. I definitely want the street leather seats, not the clubsport ones. Roll cage is fine, with or without is fine for me. I can always add/remove one. I definitely do not want PCCB. I've heard too many complaints from Porsche guys at track events about them. Although I'd back off that if someone tells me I can easily trade my PCCBs for regular GT3 brakes+cash. Also, it seems like many change the stock coilovers and that's fine assuming the car isn't unmanageable on street settings (like my Ohlins which make my car lift a wheel on even moderate driveways). I'm fairly flexible with mileage, depending on the owner/past. As for cost, looking out there, seems like 2003ish years are in the $45K-60K range. Does that sound about right? I'd like to keep it in that ballpark, probably at the higher end since in the lower range they seem to all have some issue or another. I think that's about it, am I missing something?

@Serge944: I set one of my browser tabs to the rennlist classifieds, so I see those every day.

Thanks.

Serge944

Do not sweat about PCCB. Yellow brake calipers look way cooler, and direct replacement steel cup rotors will set you back ~$1500 for all 4. You'll make a buck selling the PCCB rotors... Oh, and you will be three-wheeling the car over uneven driveways with the stock suspension too.

Crazy Canuck

Autotrader.com in the summer of '07.

mooty

mods are tough. i like my cars stock b/c i dont trust anyone else's mods regardless of famous the shop is. i will do my own mods.

price goes up if ownership history can be established. for example one of my used GT3 was owned successively by two of my very **** friends. i paid more than what they paid for b/c i know they most likely made the car better than new, and they did.

those are merely MY preferences.

i know of a local silver car for about 55-60, pretty stock.

oh sometimes very low mileage commands a premium. i am not saying that's right, but they do cost more. there's a white with red accent (strange looking accent i might add) for 65 with sub 10k miles.

most cars are around 50-55. a car more than that usually have very good history. for example a friend of mine has a prestine 997RS, if i was in the market, i would pay him msrp for it bc i know how the car was cared for since day one.

on the other hand there are NO 45k GT3 without history. and if ANYONE finds a reasonably mileaged 6gt3 at 45 or less with no negative history, pls do not think, borrow, beg, steal, just buy the damn car. it's a bargain.

Steve B in SD

I've always wondered....

Mine was custom ordered from Champion Motorsport in Florida. (I have the "Certificate of Authenticity", for whatever that's worth) There was a rumor at one time that cars (especially GT2's & GT3's) ordered by that dealership somehow received "better" treatment by the factory than most. ie: the engines that went in were the ones at the top end of specs in tests, build quality was supposedly watched after more closely, etc., since they were at one time the largest US dealership (may still be, I'm not sure). Could there be any truth to those rumors? Or, is it simply wishful thinking? Knowing how political Porsche is, (was in 2004) it wouldn't surprise me.

Either way, my GT3 certainly seems better put together than my previous C2 was. Maybe that applies to all of the GTx variants, who knows?

cfjan

Found mine through Rennlist.. !

P.J.S.

recently sold mine to another rl'er
it was not for sale but he pm'd me and we came to an agreement...

Fanatic

November 2009. Originally found mine on Autotrader, but just missed the boat when someone beat me to it, then got a second crack a couple weeks later on Cars.com. Luck!

You just have to be patient and quick to react , especially if you're looking for a white one. I was looking for a low milleage prestine example (white as well) for over a year before I found mine. Plenty of silvers out there but white is hard to come by.

LVDell

This forum is very incestual and for a very good reason. There are very few places where you can come across a GT3 that is taken care of better than a GT3 you will find here.

If....wait a sec....WHEN....I buy another one it will come straight from here or through somebody here since it is a very small community and collectively we know just about every GT3 on the road and know which ones to stay clear of.

Stick around this forum and you will find the perfect one. Trust me.

swbatte

[QUOTE=Steve B in SD;7306096]I've always wondered....

Mine was custom ordered from Champion Motorsport in Florida. (I have the "Certificate of Authenticity", for whatever that's worth) There was a rumor at one time that cars (especially GT2's & GT3's) ordered by that dealership somehow received "better" treatment by the factory than most. ie: the engines that went in were the ones at the top end of specs in tests, build quality was supposedly watched after more closely, etc., since they were at one time the largest US dealership (may still be, I'm not sure). Could there be any truth to those rumors? Or, is it simply wishful thinking? Knowing how political Porsche is, (was in 2004) it wouldn't surprise me.

QUOTE]

Neat story - but I would lean to wishfull thinking. All the engines were handbuilt, and I can't see Porsche building a lower quality car intentionally for any reason.

I found mine on ebay - and contacted the seller directly. We did the deal in person, offline.

CWay27

Keep in mind that the guys who assembled your car are allowed beer on their break time. I highly doubt that the day they had a future champion car in front of them on the assembly line, they decided to pay extra attention and drink kool aid. Not implying they are drunk the rest of the time!!

Did we actually find a new myth to replace the seam welded tub on RSAs??