cmarkovits

I'm trying to price out (and eventually order) a lot of parts for a repair. My search results keep bringing up a website called https://store.51GT3.Com.... Personally, I'd had never heard about them or ordered from them before. I was looking into them and apparently you submit an order (really more a request), and a couple days later they get back to you to let you know if they can source it or have it in stock. Not much different than PMNA I guess, but different enough from the typical 'shopping cart' experience that it has me giving pause...

Anyone out there ordered from them before? If so, what was your experience? Would you feel comfortable placing a large order with them? Thanks in advance for the feedback!

Oddjob

Hadn't come across their website before. I guess I'd question if price and delivery to North America would be better than PMNA.


From the site:
51GT3 Store is the No.1 Motorsport website in Asia. You won't be buying expensive motorsport parts from an unknown seller if you shop with us.

All products carried by 51GT3 Store are sourced from legitimate manufacturers/official customer racing teams. Our professional ops specialists cross-check each part's serial number with their factory parts catalog accordingly, take HD photos of them, then upload them to our website for sale.

Tech support-wise, our online store is powered by Shopify which is the most advanced and secure e-commerce platform in the world. All online connections and transactions are encrypted by 256-bit SSL technology.

Most of our store items are sourced from either official customer racing team surplus or the manufacturer directly, thus our prices are unbeatable.

38D

They are the retail arm of Silver Rocket, a RL sponsor. I just ordered a whole bunch of stuff from them for the first time. So far, the transaction has been smooth, but as I just placed the order I dont have more to offer.

Ksdaoski

I think they have a distribution point out of California. I ordered a GT4 RS part and it came very fast from California. And they were very quick to respond to questions that I had. I doubt they have every part out of California. As mentioned it's connected to Silver Rocket and they also have a connection to Porsche Motorsports, in Asia (China). It seems less clear on what they're able to ship or sell when the parts are originating from Porsche Motorsports.


Based on my previous experience I would not hesitate purchasing from them again. And I would definitely contact them if you had any concerns about specific parts availability.


kevin.j@51gt3.com was the contact I had

cmarkovits

So just a follow-up to my original post and sharing what I learned...
I submitted a request for about $6K worth of parts earlier this week... this represented just a portion of what could be a much larger order. Essentially this was really just a 'test' to see what they came back with before I decided to do with PMNA or not. In full transparency, I was hoping that they were going to be able to out-price PMNA. All of the items submitted were for a repair to a 991.1 GT3 Cup I'm working on. I submitted the request via the web site and the next day a customer service rep replied with a quote. I went back and compared the quoted price on their web site with what they sent back, as well as the price that PMNA recently quoted me (~ 2 -3 weeks ago). Sometimes the unit cost of an item was considerably different from what was quoted on their web site (sometimes it was a couple bucks, sometimes it was several hundred dollars higher). The quote also indicated that depending upon availability, some parts could be a couple weeks, and some could be as long as 2 months. That certainly raised an eyebrow...

I replied to the quote asking why there was such a price discrepancy, and the customer service rep replied that this was due to two things. First, they updated their pricing about a year ago (give or take), and that since then apparently Porsche had updated their prices (reported a 6% increase, or so I am told). Secondly, because they are ordering from Germany, they tack on a percentage to cover their warehouse costs, etc. All perfectly understandable. For those of us here in the US though, there are customs fees as well (or so that is what I understand to be the case - pls verify for yourselves).

In the end, not knowing in advance what the total cost was going to be (Customs and shipping could add hundreds), plus not knowing if I was going to be waiting 2 weeks or 8 weeks was too much of a detractor (in my opinion). I will say that the customer service rep I was going back and forth with over email did seem to be courteous and professional and depending upon the circumstances I would consider going through them if PMNA couldn't source something quicker. Just sharing my experience so others act accordingly.

Thanks.

Daytona4RS

@cmarkovits I've been working with 51GT3 well over a year now. I would say things can vary which you saw. PMNA has had a lot of price increases so you of course need to compare current pricing. Parts availability can also vary greatly ordering direct from PMNA. I have had a lot of situations where parts were not in stock so was just easier for me to get it from Germany. When something isn't in stock with PMNA it can take a month plus. Generally it makes sense to order from Germany for higher cost stuff. For example, the cost of wheels are much more from PMNA than in Germany. You can PM me if you have some specific large item stuff you are looking to order. I have a pending order that I can probably add too to reduce shipping etc for both of us. I'm in MD so pretty local to you.

Ecosse911

I just got approved and placed my first order with PMNA. The parts will be coming out of Germany so I am intrigued by "Generally it makes sense to order from Germany for higher cost stuff".. how does that this work? Do you have to have a separate account to buy direct from Germany?