txhokie4life

Well in my case -- I've rebuilt several Boxster's on both sides of the firewall. So I'm not entering unchartered waters. I'm well armed with the cost of maintaining --
I had a Boxster S for 4 years as my everyday driver. Just didn't track it. Sold it last spring for 2x the price of this one.

If you DIY, everything you describe can be done for a lot less than $6k. probably +/- ~$2-3k in parts.

Any car you track is going to rack up some bills --

Our Chumps car might have cost $450 to buy -- but costs about $5K a weekend to race (if you don't break too many things).

Which is nothing compared to my RSR expenses :-) If nothing else -- having the Boxster for the track will save me money.....

So I am looking forward to having a semi-reliable drive to the track car.

Mike

perfectlap

I'm not sure about your market but as long as you avoid a trade-in situation you should be able to get $10K easy from an online ad. And don't listen to the IMS bull from the dealer. They're just trying to justify their lowball offer. The IMS is a simple matter of replacing the existing IMS bearing with either the Pelican unit or going with a LNE upgrade, either or, when doing the clutch. Point being its an add on cost to the clutch. 9 in 10 buyers do not even know what an IMS is or that a small % of Boxsters and Carreras have gone down due to the IMS being starved of oil or contaminated. If you're in the market for a Boxster or 996 Carrera replacing the IMS is simply a cost you have to factor into the price. Also, a Boxster or 996 with a serviceable bearing is a plus as you don't have to split the engine open to swap the bearing for a fresh one. All bearings have to be replaced at some interval and your Boxster doesn't need its engine split open to do this, it's simply one day at your trusted Porsche specialist.
The number of Boxsters that have gone down after replacing the original IMS bearing is practically a rounding error. Water pumps that stayed in for too long claim many more engines than the IMS. The Boxster and 996/997 Carrera prices are plumetting simply because there are a metric ton of water-cooled cars on Autotrader every day and not enough buyers willing to roll the dice on an out-of-warranty German sports car requiring specialized labor and over-priced parts. We're talking hundreds of thousands of Carreras and Boxsters, the second hand market can not possibly absorb that many cars. These cars could be sporting bullet proof tank engines and the prices would still sliding downwards. It's about supply and demmand not engine build. If you have a Porsche with a limited production engine, air-cooled or water-cooled, you're holding value or rising (depending on economic factors). If you have mass produced engine like all the Boxsters/Caymans, Cayennes, Panas and nearly all the water-cooled era Carreras but the GT's, you're losing value every day.

perfectlap

Maybe for this particular bill. But the expensive part of owning a Porsche is on the parts side not really the labor. It is rarely the case that the labor was half or more of the bill in my experience. And having the tools, space and time to learn and work on the Porsche yourself comes at a cost. It's certainly not free by any stretch. For some $6K might be the cheaper route. Especially if you don't have a prenup.
So you are indeed paying one way or another. There is no such thing as $7K Porsche.

txhokie4life

Saturday I spent the day at the shop.

Did the BK roll bar extension,
BK deep sump kit (1/2 qt) & EBS baffle kit.
Dumped in some Amsoil and
threw on a set of Cool Carbons I had laying around.

Car already had SS brake lines and Racing Blue brake fluid.

Stole the Direzza's from my 951 and took the family to my track yesterday and had a blast.

First time I got my daughter & wife on track -- and even had the pleasure of having my wife drive.
Car ran great, we all had a blast.

Probably the most enjoyable 2 hours of track time I've ever had.

Worth every penny.

cheers,

Mike

txhokie4life

I agree -- Porsche parts are expensive. For many Porsches -- many parts are cross referenced with other manufacturers.

Just for any lurkers out there -- the best places to get OEM parts
at reasonable costs are

Sunset Porsche (Oregon)
Suncoast Porsche (Florida)
Sonnen Porsche (California)

There maybe others -- but I have found these three to be the best prices if you are going to buy OEM parts.

Basically cost +15% -- or there a bouts. That can save you nearly 1/2 the cost of your stealership. I've spent 10's of 1000's of $ on parts (multiple engine rebuilds and car restorations). I've tried to work with my local dealership -- but they just don't get it.

I've also found CarQuest carries a lot of WorldPac, which has most of the Porsche parts -- so if you need something quick and local.
Great for hoses, gaskets, or oh-crap I broke something and need it asap.

cheers,

Mike

kalyan

What I have also found is the local dealer matching online prices. I usually do an online search for a part and then call my local dealer and ask them if they would match the price. All the times I have called, they have matched and it worked out great.

achildofthesky

Lots of deals out there gut do take previously mantioned advise and get one with a good deal of service history.

Be safe
Patty

txhokie4life

3 track days in 3 weeks

Loving it :-)

Buddy of mine drove it today.
Damn he's quick

Got a few things to work on driving wise
And some buffing to do on front bumper, we both did a little skeet shooting with the track out cones :-)

So far so good!

Cheers,

Mike