Go KMP or Holinger and you can make tranny and motor last way longer. I just stepped to a 997 and put the KMP in. What a blast I had this past weekend at Sebring testing. Woohoo. Can't wait to get it in a race.

The upshifts and downshifts are super smooth with no clutch. Rev zings are a thing of the past for me.

Stu

 

But I really like the visceral sensation of "shifting"!! Yes I know it's a sequential but I like jamming it in gear...makes me feel very connected to the car.

Not sure I'm ready to go to paddles...although my buddy just did the KMP and loves it.

 

My shifter is still there. Just use it around the paddock as a reminder and at starts. You just jam it in first and go. Paddles after that. Shifter moves too so use your imagination. Kind of fun.

Stu

 

Cup cars are particularly expensive to run, but I hadn't understood why until recently.

Porsche is one of the only manufacturers where motorsports is a profit center. Nearly every other car company treats motorsports as a marketing expense, but Porsche has figured out how to do that rarest of things: make money on racing. With customer cars their strategy for doing this is straightforward: make money on parts and maintenance. A Cup car a good deal for what you get- as pointed out rolling your own will cost significantly more. However Porsche can afford to sell it cheap, because once sold they know they'll be getting a guaranteed multi-year revenue stream, and it's a highly profitable one.

PCNA does their utmost to protect this future profit. They won't sell motorsports engine parts separately to insure as much as possible you rebuild through them. When you get that rebuild you may be shocked at the bill- there are instances where customer teams received bills for engine rebuilds for more than they could have purchased the same motor for new. They also unnecessarily design in a relatively short fatigue life on many parts, engine and otherwise.

The result is that Cup cars are expensive to run, and intentionally so.

As far as I can see one of the best deals in Porsche track cars at the moment is the 2014 GT3, the lack of cage and stop drive issues asside. With a 100k mile warranty that's valid if you track it, I wouldn't be surprised if running costs are nearly an order of magnitude lower than Cup cars. In fact some might suggest that slicks have been banned on the new GT3 to prevent it from competing with Cup cars too directly. I'm not sure I'm that cynical...?

Of course the flip side is that slicks, toys and speed are expensive, but also a lot of fun. I'm not sure I can really fault Porsche for giving us the opportunity- money still makes the world go 'round. However it's still a little hard to swallow when you can't quite afford to pay to play as much as you'd like to.

 

Well here is my .02 cents worth. I am now into my car for 1 1/2 years and will say that everything I read is correct with many variables. Since you may not need to brake every record at DEs you can count on your tire and break budget to be similar to the street car. A race weekend will change all that as you will want fresh rubber for the sprints and enduro. That said, they can be reused for DE if you can store and change them inexpensively. There are two ways to look at the ongoing maintenance, You can be proactive and spend money after each event, ( the way I have chosen) or wait to see how far you can go with parts. Not sure which is less expensive but the latter typically causes a loss of weekend or event which always sucks. I will change all fluids after each weekend and nut and bolt the whole car. Figure between $400 to $900. Gear box is dependent on your skill set and how abusive you are. After 20 hours on mine I had it pulled and it looked great. Refreshed some pieces for about $3000. Could have gone longer but didn't want to chance it. I guess there are signs of wear that you should become familiar with and go with that. Motor is tough call! I have 50hrs on mine with NO signs of wear and leakdown. Runs as strong as at zero hours. Have heard people go as high as 125-150 hrs before a rebuild and there are shops that can rebuild them as good as PMNA but cannot seal the motor or reset ECU. Also PMNA dynos the motor but that is all a premium price. Probably as much as $10,000 premium. Other than that, I will say you will be addicted to driving that car and will never look back. I drove my friends GT3RS and could not believe the difference in the cars. Take your time to learn the car with a coach that KNOWS cup cars and it will lessen the burden and abuse you will give the car. Once you learn the car and understand it better your costs will become more stable and predictable. Never less though!!

Have a blast with it. I am, and would bet that anyone that owns one will say the same. We all bitch but still drive them because they are the pinnacle of cars you can track!!

 

It depends on how much you stretch maintenance intervals, tires, etc along with intensity of running. To run competitively in IMSA and comply with PMNA based overhaul intervals you will spend a solid 3 grand an hour.

I believe this can be reduced by a third, perhaps a bit more, if you are able to wring as much as possible out of the engine and gearbox between overhauls, tolerate marginal rubber, stretch pad and rotor life, etc.

Any assumption below this is a case of hiding the asset depreciation from a prospective future buyer (unlikely) or hiding it from yourself (very likely) until the final accounting is done.

As previously mentioned, avoidance of the final accounting appears to be the best strategy at hand. This exercise is unavoidably expensive.

 

<<

 

^^^^^
well said

 

If you PM me, I will send you a spreadsheet that calculates cost for a race weekend, however I advise you just to ignore all costs and go have fun while you can.

 

From what I have seen with my 997.1RS compared to 997.1Cup would be the preventative maintenance schedule. Replacing parts before they time out.
Race cars are under strict maintenance programs given the speed and stress they are under to ensure their saftey and reliability.
Pre and Post inspections are neccessary when driving either a street or race car to the limit at the track.

If you were to take a street car and use it solely for racing then you would encounter the same maintenance and broken parts+ unless you were non competitive or neglect the car....

If only using a race car for only open lapping and D.E the costs would be more comparable to a street car under the same use.
Opening lapping is non competitive and not 10/10th driving. Therefore consumables such as brakes and slicks can be used for longer durations along with the ability to use aftermarket parts etc. Wear items also last longer.

Competition cars require race fuel, logistics and typically a technician onsite so there is no way around that.

A responsible owner of a either a street car or race car will encounter the same maintenance schedules although the race car owner will pay a premium for factory race parts especially Cup parts.... But the Cup car is generally a more competitive car and should be regarded as such.

 

Remember that for many of the parts the life vs load curves are very non-linear.

Short fatigue life for components is not inevitable with a race car, but rather a conscious choice by the designers. Beefing up Cup suspension components by roughly 25% would likely result in ~10x longer life before they timed out, meaning they would last essentially the life of the car. In a spec series some amount of extra weight probably wouldn't be a significant issue, which goes back to Porsche's business strategy.

The maintenance cycle for street cars is similarly tied to loads. Put on slicks and bump cornering loads up by 50% and suddenly the parts might wear out ~20x faster, bringing something designed for 200k hard miles with street tires down into the range where you need to inspect and replace them regularly. Go with a streetable track tire instead, however, and you'd likely get an order of magnitude more life out of the same components. Thus I generally agree it's largely usage that will determine life, but with focus on what the usage does to the loading.

The caveat must be made, of course, that within the engine and gearbox things are clearly rather different, and the different designs will result in different running costs and issues even with the same use.

 

996 would be less when rebuild time comes!

 

Especially with a H pattern vs sequential! And 996 cups are pretty damned fast....they don't get nearly enough respect.

 

I have recently made the jump from a street 996 GT3 to a 996 Cup literally about 2 weeks ago. I picked up a very nice Cup with a recent PMNA rebuild on both the tranny and motor. I'm a Florida guy and big into DE's but will likely start with "small" races in the near future. I know that the maintenance will be more with the cup but I'm not really too concerned with it. I used to drive my street GT3 very hard on the track and had regular maintenance with it anyhow. I've done the research and at least for me, I'm not anticipating a significant jump in $$ until it comes time for another rebuild. When that time comes (hopefully 120-140 hrs from now) it will be $$ but I've decided to accept that.

Not only is performance something to be gained with the Cup but for me it was a safety thing. Although I'm only doing DE's at this point, I've personally gotten to the point where I was going quick enough where if god forbid I was in a serious accident a "roll bar" wouldn't provide enough safety. I've been running with 6 point harnesses and a Hans device but wanted to have a safer setup. With that I could have stripped my car down and put a full cage in it along with a bunch of other goodies but why? I would have spent upwards of 25K and never had the ability to recoup that $$ down the road. On top of that I still wouldn't have the performance or safety of a Cup. Hence I bought a Cup and sold my street car.

Thought I'd share my reasoning... Good luck!

 

120-140 hours?