Spyerx

I wouldn't sweat it. Have a shop look at the car. Track use is easy to see and find (I challenge anyone to remove every little hiding place for rubber bits!), extensive track use even easier, but frankly it's not a concern on these things. If the engine has been out thats indication of a judicious owner.

If price is right, you like the cosmetics, and a tech gives it a thumbs up, go for it.

Colorado964turbo

If you are going to drive it, I would rather have a tracked car than one that has sat around its whole life.

flat6fan18

100% agree here. More than likely too, if it was tracked, it was maintained.

PPI with a good shop and if that checks out, buy it. Don’t get caught up in ‘paralysis by analysis’. These cars are solid.

haripin

Found some history:

A month after purchase in 2007:
* Muffler replaced
* Catalytic converter replaced

Three years after purchase in 2010:
* No-start/hard start condition checked
* Airbag system checked


Hmmm . . . .

Vocan

The cats on these cars are somewhat of a weak point (ask me how I know), especially with any track use. Generally sound advice to put in cat delete headers for serious track use just to save the factory cats. One month is obviously pretty quick to need to replace a cat but there have been plenty of reported cat failures without any serious reported track time.

A prior reported hard start wouldn't really scare me away either and likely not indicative of anything serious. I just replaced the starter on my car and you can get OEM starters (just without the Porsche stamp, same Bosch part) for $300ish.

Bxstr

Those records that you found wouldn't concern me.

1) I'm extremely risk adverse in most areas in my life. Our family had a 986 Boxster, IMS failed. I had a B8 S4, transmission failed on that. I had a 997.2 C2S, it had a strange issue thats some have reported where the ABS engages like 10% of the time when you're braking and my car had well over $10k in CPO dealer bills to try and correct that with no resolution. Any other car I've owned, I've experienced the large weak point on it. Point here is that the reason I picked the 997 GT3 to buy is because they're relatively solid. I understand your concern coming from a Cayman that just had a spun bearing, but the 997 GT3 is a relatively stout platform.
2) these cars are all 10-15+ years old at this point. Every single one is going to have history of something being replaced. The 2007 service record was probably an owner that was hearing a rattle and insisted a part be replaced. Or actually had one defective component. What was happening with a car when it was new vs how it is today are likely going to be completely different. Regarding the hard start condition, that could be so many different things and the airbag system could have been part of routine service or it could have had an error light due to low voltage and they put that in the system. My best advice would be to call up your local dealer. They can pull all warranty work for your car that was submitted to Porsche. So they may have slightly more insight into it. Or, that may have been where you're getting that info from. Also, if you look at many 997 GT3's, mine included, the engine will have been removed early on in life. This is because they had leaky rear main seals and many owners like the first owner of my car, didn't put a ton of miles on it, they sat and the rear main seals leaked. Porsche actually released a bulletin saying if you're not driving the car every couple of days, it's going to leak.

Spyerx

you’re over thinking it. No concerns.

if you want a zero mile garage queen go find one of those… but these cars have shown use is better, but they need maintenance like any car. They are coming up on 20 years old.

haripin

Probably. But only because this is what my 987s looks like currently.

Wonderdan

First inspection could happen anytime messed with the headers and side mufflers to impact the cat efficiency… plus time is a common killer of the O2 sensors.

Second inspection could happen anytime someone swapped the seats or let the battery die.

Spyerx

ims or bore scoring?

the 997gt3 doesn’t have these issues. If you search here you’ll find very litttle catastrophic type events. Most are self inflicted overruns.

haripin

Currently at dealership checking out the car. Here are some paint readings. Any issues?

RAudi Driver

Seems like a pretty thick paint job for a 997. Not too well versed on the subject though.

jason95R

I thought factory paint was somewhere between 4-6 mils. Those seem really high unless the whole car is coverd in PPF. Which could be the case but those pictures look like it's only covered on the nose from that line across the hood.

Vocan

4 to 7 or so from what I've read. My own Arctic Silver car has a couple of spots in the low 7 range but most fall in the 4.5-6 range.

haripin

Would wax on the car affect this?