Jared - best to you whichever path you choose Have fun.

With that out of the way, have you looked at the cost of a Synergy build on a used 997? Might be cheaper to pick up a used street car & turn over to Synergy. Have you factored in the cost ($$ and time) for dismantling your very nice car in order to sell off the parts whether or not Synergy does it as part of the build? That would have to add a hefty amount to their build bill.

Something else that strikes me ... in the paddock talking cars there is one piece of advice that I hear over & over - that is to pick the class you want to race and then build the car for it. If a race class is going to be your 'target', what's the best way to get you there? Your car? A cup car? Something else? Just throwing out food for thought.

krista

 

Krista,

Hey, it's good to see you on here! I'm kinda new to Rennlist. Anyways, I'm really going to research what different ways I can get out there and race. I think you're 100% right on that.

I'm sketchy on the Cup car thing because of the engine rebuild frequency and cost. I've got a lot of thinking to do. You have some very good thoughts, and thank you for the compliments on the car. I guess I'd consider selling it as is if someone were interested.

Take care,

Jared

 

Instead of quoting all of you guys, I will just say that this is the reason I posted here. I really don't know much about all this. I know I am young and I want to do this to the farthest degree that I can for all my life... and always in a Porsche (that's at least how I feel now, anyways).

I guess another train of thought would be selling my car and getting a Cup. I just don't know what I could get for my car. It's just not ever been a thought on the radar, you know?

Financially, I couldn't keep my car and buy a track car. See, in this instance that I started this thread off with, I would be selling enough spare parts to pay for the full Synergy conversion that remains (again, I'm already roughly halfway there as the car is now).

Thank you all for your help too.

 

Also understand and I think everybody that races will agree, don't race a car you are not willing to ball up and walk away from. It happens and has happened to several friends of mine. They move on and start over.

Just keep that in mind as you go forward.

Jeff

 

Jeff,

This is good. I'm getting this sentiment all over the place it seems. Also thinking about bringing my car back to road car status, keeping it, and getting a 964 or 993 racer.

Thinking.... too much.

 

That's what I would do. 964's are excellent cars, and cheaper on the wallet than a 993!

 

Oh please allow me to second that in spades.....

You should really just step back a second and just listen to thse who have walked down this path before you young grasshopper.....

Let me also add that if you do some research you'll find that cup car motors last well into the 100+ hour range. Even then rebuilds are only $20-25k....

Let me further add that another option in leiu of a Cup would be a Grand Am 997 GS car of which there are many on the market right now.

 

+1.

what you need to do FIRST is assess your overall budget. if you stick with porsches- you can get a used koni car for about 50k and their running costs are a lot less than a cup car. or you can get a spec boxster built for 30-45k depending on the shop, donor vehicle, and how much you want to take apart yourself.

I personally love the cup cars- but decided for my first dozen races or so it would be either in someone else's car or a cheap car I owned. Thank God! I crashed my race car at road atlanta on a saturday (after a thursday and friday of testing) and replaced a few parts, went back out sunday and won the enduro.

you have to look at any car you put on the track with the mindset that it is a TOOL- like a bicycle for lance armstrong or a barbell. if you make it into an emotional possession you will never have the nuts to go all out like real racers do. crashing happens, and sometimes it's not in your control.

racing has a lot to do with the crowd you run, and what your goals are. if you want to really learn race craft- it won't really matter what your in, as long as the competition is stiff and there is a lot of it. that is why miatas are so popular, as are spec racer fords.

I would suggest getting one of those, or if you have to get a porsche- get something like a spec boxster. I personally avoided the aircooled cars because I feel like the newer a car is, the safer it would be. I've walked away and drove the next day!

 

oh well for an '00 car...people still race those?? just kidding.

 

Hey Jared,
It was good to meet you at VIR a couple weeks ago....

Dont' forget to factor in the overall costs of actually RACING. If you go the cup car route, you need to have a team/crew that can set up/service it. Probably Synergy based on your relationship with them, but just keep it in mind.

Also...there's the expense of things like tires and such. From what I see in the cup car group (guys, correct me if I'm wrong here) you need to have TOP NOTCH/NEW tires all the time or you will not be competitive.

I know you love that car. (I would too ) Sit back, evaluate your budget about the car AND racing, decide where and how you'd like to race and go from there. And I disagree, you CAN be attached to a car..... look at my car.

Anyway, just my 2 cents...

 

You guys are all great. Thank you each for your time and thoughts. Some of you have called me. Some have PM' me. It's amazing. I obviously need help figuring this stuff out, and you all are there to help. It's great.

I've come further down the road of conclusion. I realize that thinking that GTB was a good place to be was silly. I've also realized that I have so much to learn about what car I get into. I have to not only make sure that I can GET it, but that I can get logistically to the tracks where the series races... and that the competition is stiff. That's what I'm doing this for anyways.

So, to get there, I do one of these things:

Sell my car as-is for a huge loss (I have $175k+ in receipts... would probably sell for $115k or a bit more). Then, I decide how much of that I want to go into the race car. I already have a truck and trailer, by the way. And I have a really great Datsun for a street car, so that's novocaine for getting rid of this car.

OR, I can sell about $40k-$50k of parts off this car, then sell the car for $70k. Heck. It would still have Motons on it. Get the race car and go on.

OR, I can sell the parts and use it to buy a $40k or so race car and KEEP my car for a driver.

Still trying to figure this stuff out though.

Bob, it was great to get to know you the other weekend. You and your wife are wonderful.

Jared

 

Supercharger sold last night. List on page one is updated.

One thing that I wanted to point out to all of you who are helping me with this though... my car already is quite close to being a race car. It has the entire Synergy suspension under it. I essentially would have to put a cage in it, get rid of the interior, and put the shut off valves and fuel cell into it. I don't think there's much more to do. Does this change any opinions?

 

Jared,

I met you @ VIR a couple weeks ago, I had the black 993 @ The Orton Trailer, You came to drink a beer w/ us on Sat.

IMO I'd keep your car as a DD/Toy It is a wicked car and a goal you've attained as you stated earlier. Sell what you can off of it. Then look at that revenue and your budget. If it is ~$70K I'd get a Koni car. my $.02

 

Jared, go back look over all the race results for this year and last and see where the classes are most populated that would appeal to you. I first started with a car and then realized I had no desire to run in a class that didn't have the competition I was looking for. When I saw that G was consistently one of the larger classes represented, I looked into the cars in that class and decided on a RS America. Absolutely love it and the competition is really good in G. If I had the budget my next choice would have been GTC3 since the fields are really well populated and I know the platform well. Just didn't want to be car poor int his economy. The 964 is considerably cheaper to run!

 

Jered,
I think I can help you with your "problem" seeing how I just bought an ex Koni car and have a GREAT 964 race car for sale. I would love to direct you to the for sale ad for my 964 but for some reason it disapeared from the ad list. Im out of town right now and have very limited web access but will be returning home tomorrow and will re run my for sale ad. In the mean time if you'ld like some more input you're more than welcome to give me a call and we can chat. I can tell you that my first instict would be, like a few others have suggested, sell off enough parts from your current car and with that money buy an already prepaired 964 race car. That way you could keep your current car, which is very sweet I saw it at VIR, and have a dedicated track toy as well.

Tim

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