sin911

A car can still be abused on the street. Buying a tracked car is not a big deal for me (as I have bought Izzone's car) as long as the previous owner took good care of it. For me the car has to be perfect in mechanical condition and mint on exterior/interior to be a good value.

I paid extra for the Clubsport bar in my current car, for me the right mods are worth more. If the next buyer is a 60 yo retired guy who is looking for his first Porsche to only drive on the street then you may scare him away But for any guy who tracks/planning to track his car it will add value.

savyboy

1. I have had a GMG RSR bar and currently have a Clubsport full cage with two side bars. The factory Clubsport cage is FIA approved, fits perfectly and bolts in. You do need to have the front mounting plates welded in and to me it is not big deal. As far as resale, some of the trackrats in here will pay you MORE for a car with already welded in plates and clubsport rear half.

2. TCD comes very well recommended from many people, but (correct me if wrong) that is going to be welded in at mount points. Permanant. So great option for a stripper, not so great for a street car destined to be resold/traded.

Abused= driven hard before engine fully warmed up. No heel/toe on track. Lugging the engine. To me if I knew car was driven like that, it would hurt value.

Now- my GT3RS was broken in on track, with approx 200 miles on it at first track day (it was a 180 mile drive to track, lol). Currently has 12,000+ miles, 70% track. Clutch looks great, spark plugs look great, doesn't use oil, out drag races other GT3RS's (sorry Jeff ), runs like a sewing machine. No engine tranny/clutch problems.

mr_fizz

If you are serious get a fully-prepped car and plan to trailer it to the track (and moer importantly, to your mechanic). It will only take one break-down at the track to learn the hard way.

I wouldnt let headlight design stand in the way of what appears to be the best bang for your buck. There is the yellow GT3->cup car available in another thread, which would fit your bill nicely. You said it has to be euro, but a well-prepped S2000 would be a good car to learn in, same with any club-racer BMW. FWD touring cars (eg, Integra Type R) can be a LOT of fun and very economical, but they aren't everyone's bag. Sometimes it is more fun chasing down higher HP cars than having your salad tossed by a miata with 200 less HP. YMMV.

oldskews4

How about a RS America? Talk about good steering. Great track car, looks good, and keeps its value.

race911

I still go back to pace. Let's just talk Thunderhill. If you're sub-2:05 with a stock car, then you're driving briskly, and some risk enters the equation. If you've not cracked 2:10, then you can comfortably, without worry, get yourself below that by polishing your skills. That's 8/10 driving, and a pace that I can comfortably carry on a conversation (probably on a cell phone, or even text) with a car like yours. You get the braking, turn in, on-throttle, and track out points dialed in for that pace, and you can enjoy your car immensely without fear of damage. Yeah, the 1-in-a-million thing can happen, but at that point you've just got to figure your number was up. And the likelihood is about 1-in-a-million.

race911

Manual steering sucks. Unless you're running Hoosiers + really light wheels. When I had RSA #2, running back to back with my faux 993RS it wasn't even funny how much less tiring the 993 was. Only thing worse is the 910 with the bias ply slicks you have to run on a slip angle. But you've got the semi truck sized steering wheel to slightly compensate.

As I said above, a 964 is an excellent choice, but an RSA is just a C2 you have to modify (and are somewhat hostage to a digit in a serial number). The guy who bought mine do so because he was afraid of devaluing his 30K example. No matter what he spends, in say five years, he'll have spent less in buying/running mine v. the depreciation hit with using his low miler.

vf430

So for 6k you can have full coverage and peace of mind. 35k buys you 6 years of Gt3 fun minus insurance and expenses on a out of warranty track car.

I am in the same boat , taking the same risks. In fact i have a track day on Monday ....I have been thinking about getting a E36 M3

savyboy

Signed up for HOD at TH this weekend? We can talk realtime and i will introduce you to some other gt3 guys?

race911

I'll try to stop by and say hi on Saturday. Not driving, just making the rounds with the Porsche (and BMW) racer friends. Will have my non-Porsche owning friend along, trying to expose her to our side racing. (She did some Grand Am Koni a few years ago when she got out of college; trying to get her back into racing cars again.)

Anyway, there are plenty of us willing to help out. It's not all about the lap time, more of a benchmark to see where you are in the big picture. Biggest thing is to get to where you're pretty much able to run by rote, no matter what your time actually is. Then you can work on certain turns to pick up the pace. Before you know it, you've upped your game everywhere.

At risk of completely boring everyone with repeatedly spamming these videos, take a look at this one from a week ago Friday. The owner of this GT3RS (Andy?) is very new to the car, and he hopped in for a ride with me 15 minutes prior to this video. I'm an "exploit the edges" driver, and he was shocked to see how much track I use. Then we come back in, his son hops in with me (he's the passenger + the camera got moved, but it's a good enough angle). Pay attention to his exit of T2 (~25 second mark). Ultimately, he went over 3 seconds a lap (mid-2:04) quicker after the ride, than earlier in the day wandering around on his own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxWB49cmtVc

K964

What is your eventual plan with the car? Just DEs? Or racing? Both? Consider buying a fully set up car that will cost you pennies on the dollar. If you want to stay in the Porsche end of the pool, go with a well set up 964 or 993. Wait until late Fall/early Winter as guys are done with the season and are looking to change cars or get out of the sport.

If you want to race, there is a PCA E class 911 that is available right now---look on the Racing forum for Fred C's car. Unbelieveable value and set up perfectly by a top shop. Driving that car well will make you a better driver in your GT3. Good luck.

K964

Fred C's car:

https://rennlist.com/forums/racing-a...k-euro-sc.html

prg

One more voice in the woods for a spec miata. Cost is trivial. Under $10k for a mid pack runner. Maximum safety with a full cage, seat, harnesses, fire system already installed in any SCCA legal car. You won't be afraid to use the right pedal and stay away from the middle one because of fears of a $125K mistake (only fears of death or injury).

Consumables are cheap. Body work is cheap if you make a mistake. The cars are tough. I rolled one in a tire wall and was back racing the next session. Definitely no kick in the back on accelleration, but they handle great. If you are really hustling a spec miata, I promise you wont be bored. Do a few DE's in one, then get a race license and have at it. I haven't met a soul who hasn't had a great time in a spec miata.

NJ-GT

SCCA T1-C5 Vette. Affordable, reliable and cheap consumables.

Polarcharger

Get an E46 M3, drop some weight (no sunroof, pull rear seats, race seats to offset rollbar, lightweight battery, etc), add coilovers, camber plates and arms (+3 deg. front, +2 rear, slight toe-in), stiff sway bars, good pads/fluid (Competition Package brakes are fine for your use), 245/275 tires, and you're good to go.

You'll have a fun car that handles great, is easy to work on, and will run highly competitive times.

TRAKCAR

+1 on C5 Corvette Z06 or regular C6.