Larry Herman

The GT3 again, or only racing it?

J richard

IMHO....

Is you're goal to race, Time Trial or DE/track events?

Each answer would have you going a different way. If you want to race, find the group and class you want to run with, buy/build the car and learn it and work on mastering that chassis and racecraft...don't screw around.

If it's DE moving into maybe TT...it requires some assessment, when you go out in a your GT3 (or any car you're considering) how far off the pace are you from the fastest guys in simarly set up cars ( or tt times)? If it's just a few seconds then you are probably driving in the range where you have more work to do on your skills and the car is still challenging. I think it's important to have a car that makes you work for it. If you go from a gt3 to a miata or the other way around, if you've mastered the car, time to move on to something more challenging, moving on can be to additional mods, setup, tires, different tracks etc...

Stepping into a slower platform is a good idea if you're working on the basics, but unless you're going wheel to wheel, I'd make sure it has some payback for driving it well...for me that's speed and pace...

Mark Dreyer

I was in your exact situation a couple yrs ago. The 3 was way beyond my abilities to explore it's limits. I now have a Boxster S and while it's not the same car performance wise, it is no less fun, and as a matter of fact I'd say it's the most fun Porsche I've owned (and I've had 6 of them over the years). I think I'd like to have a GT3 or Cup car some day, but for now am enjoying exploring the limits of the Boxster.

multi21

No, why the Boxster would be more fun than the GT3 on the street.

DM993tt

Ahhh the age old question. This is always a tough call, changing your platform to a rear from a mid is not that big of an adjustment, but then getting back into a big HP 911 afterwards may be more of a challenge. That said I think the learning curve in a slower car is generally steeper, bc you don't have HP to mask your mistakes. if you miss an apex in a slower car your exit speeds will be compromised significantly. You will know right away if you were early or late. That's a big one right there, in a car like the GT3 everything happens much faster as your speeds are much higher. Your braking points, turn in points, & apexes are easier to find at slower speeds and easier to get consistent with. At a track like watkins glen there might be 20-25 seconds/lap difference between a GT3 and a Boxster, that means throughout the course of 3.4 miles means you have that much less time to react and think about your next turn in the faster car.
Also t he risks are much higher in a GT3, cost of reparing damage, cost of consumables, brakes rotors and tires are much more. It is definitely easier for instructors to teach you in slower car. That said a dedicated track car may be overkill at an intermediate DE stage as well (esp if you like to have a p-car to toy around in on the weekends). I might consider something like a 964 RSA that is mildly track prepped that you can still throw some plates on and drive on the street. Its always fun to have the older slower car and learn to be faster than the newer faster iron, than to be the guy in the newest flashiest iron and have the guy in the 1986 NA 944 as a fixture in your rearview mirrors.

Larry Herman

Firstly where can you go that fast? If I could wind out the GT3 once in 3rd during a drive it was a lot. Secondly it was too low and I was always worried about bashing it over a dip. Thirdly it was stiff and the motor didn't like trundling around; it just wants to run.

The Boxster S is a great street car. Nice close little 6 speed with enough power for 95% of the time. 25~28 mpg on the highway. The optional seats are really comfortable. Top goes down in 20 seconds and with the optional windbreaker screen you can actually run at 75 and have a conversation . You can play games not slowing for ANY corner, and no one else knows but you.

Finally, the GT3 was such a head-turner that I really couldn't leave it anywhere and everyone and their brother wanted to race me; even one nut job in his Ford Bronco. Sheesh, it was stupid.

Veloce Raptor

https://rennlist.com/forums/8020751-post5.html

dougdep

i faced the same exact situation a couple of years ago. I had a beautiful 997 GT3 that was not a whole lot of fun to drive on the street ( I live in NYC) and I ended up using it only for DE days. I knew I wanted to get into Club Racing so I sold it and bought a 2003 Boxster S and made it into a dedicated track car (F Class in PCA). The Boxster is soooo much more fun to drive on the track then a $130,000 car that was just too nice to turn into a dedicated track car (plus if you crash it it's not as costly hopefully). The biggest thing was getting over giving up the beauty of the GT3 and going to the "chickster" platform, but now I just smile everytime I win a race and beat up on all of the 911's. Also, my lap times are faster now in a well prepared Boxster than they ever were in my GT3, sub 1 minute at Lime Rock, 2:11's at WGI, etc...

So my vote is get rid of the GT3 and go with the Boxster, and if you want to get into racing, the class that the Boxster fits into usually has the most entrants, whether its "F" class or now the ever more popular Spec Boxster.

mooty

u r so fk'g right on.
thus, someone pls take the RS off my hands.


btw, for intermediate drivers. get a box or box s and really prep it "safety" wise. as you get faster, shi*t happens. you will hit things, tires, walls, coolant, oil and stuff...... dont lie to yourself. safety first. will you cage your GT3? probably not. so get a boxster or a cheaper machine and have at it.

it took me a LOOOOOOOOOOONG time to see the light. i hope you are smarter than i.

mhm993

I have years of perfecting driving slowly in the 993, and try as I will, can't seem unlearn that muscle memory and take my foot off the brake.
So I started to drive the miata. Can't express how much fun I had at thunderbolt last week,foot down through turns where I had to lift or brake in the pcar. I learned more in two days in the miata than I had in two years in the 993.
And if I ball it up, oh well, the most it can set me back is $7k.
I'm a convert to well balanced, lower hp cars. I voted boxster.

Potomac-Greg

The safety issue is important too. A lower HP car is no less likely to hit stuff, but chances are it's going to be going slower when it does.

Larry Herman

Yeah, I was doing close to 170 at the end of the back straight at VIR in my GT3. If the brakes failed there, it would probably fly all the way to Hog Pen.

VERBOTN

@Kush07
struggled with this concept earlier and at the end of the day I relied on a frend and 24-hr. champ that suggested it is better to learn to drive a slow (relatively speeking) car fast than a fast car........ Regarding the potential budget savings I would submit racing tends to toss that one out the window especially when you build the car instead of buying a completed one. If you indend to race the relatively slow pace of the car does not matter due to your clasification with like cars. If by contrast you only do DE's your friustration will be epic as you will not have the HP to take out the 3's on the straits and if they are not aware of you on their @ss in the twistys you will never get around them. I dont worry too much about the "look-at-me" factor as I prefer to roll on the DL

I think a safety equiped (cage + all the yada/yada) boxster is a great platform but then again thats what I currently race. Enjoy the twisting, once you make your decision it only gets better.

jrgordonsenior

Another thought for the Spec Boxster platform, if after a year you feel the need, you can always drop in a 3.4. They're a plug-n-play addition that will give you another 100 ponies to play with. There's several of them built or in the process out West and will be competing next year....

M758

About 10 years ago I chose to move from a Stock 944 Turbo S to a stripped out 944 NA. I lost 100 hp in the process, but gained a few things.

1) the 944 was junk to start with so trashing at the track was not a concern. If fender was dented no big deal. Of course that was not license to drive unsafe, but it took the weight off my shoulder of dent or damaging my nice street car. That make track driving alot more liberating and fun.

2) Track only mean no compromises. Since I had been tracking a stock car on street tires the performance was good, but not ideal. It would have been better with a track prep, but worse on the street. A cheap dedicated track car could a no compromises car. From the start I ditched the interior and just about everything that did not make the car go. Even with stock suspension the car was alot more tossable. I then modded the suspension for the track limited only by my megar budget.

3) budget - Because I was going down in hp and to a cheaper platform I could possible afford to operate a "track car" Tires were smaller and cheaper, so were brake parts, etc. Less hp meant less stress on engine so less chance of breaking stuff. That meant more money to spent on entry fees and driving vs keeping it going.

4) learning - with 150 hp at the crank you are not a fast car. I was giving up almost 50% of my hp from the 250 944 Turbo so the difference was very noticeable. However that forced me to really learn to drive as in the late 90's a 250 hp 944 Turbo was reasonably fast at the track. The new 993 and 996's only had 30-50 more hp in those days. So the turbo could keep up. However the driver was lacking. Going down in HP forced me to have to drive through the corners well to keep up with DE traffic and lacking hp I could not hid my flaws.

5) growth - becuase I had low value car that was dedicated to track with full safety gear racing became a great growth path. It was even cost effective for my to race my cheap car as it cost less to race low hp small tire 944 than DE a 944 Turbo on R-tires. The racing gave me alot more interest that just lapping and also forced me to develop even further.

Today I am still driving and racing that 944 NA. Power is still the same, but lap times are much better. Fun is still there not due to overall speed, but due to close racing on budget I can just mantain.