pu911rsr

I'm shopping for a race car to run in NASA events. Thinking about a GTS2 or GTS3 class car. There are several Porsche's and BMW's one could run in these classes. I've always raced Porsche 911's but it seems like the various models of E36 BMW's are a good cost effective alternative for NASA racing. Please share your thoughts.

Phil

Chaos

Which ever you can get body work done cheaper...

Frank 993 C4S

I know several people that have tried to make Porsche's work in these classes. It is hard to beat the M3s which seem to be more competitive.

KaiB

I can tell you that my car (NASA GTS4 build) will outrun the current crop of Central states BMWs at two of the tracks where I can make comparisons.

Remember also that Viking had a GTS4 996 driven by Jay M. which outran everything around.

Frank 993 C4S

He was looking for GTS2 or 3 and M3s rule those classes.

jrgordonsenior

Jay won the GTS3 Nationals in 2010 at Miller in his 996. Also that year Vali Predescu won the GTS2 Nationals in his 3.4 996 in full 996 Spec trim. Had I not blown my motor in the ST2 finals I would most likely have won GTS4 that year giving 996's the hat trick....

Beemers are great cars but I think the 996's or Boxsters offer a better racing platform...

Horus2000

I just ran my SP996 with NASA for the first time 2 weeks ago. I ran in GTS3. I didn't need ballast, but did need to start every race with a full tank.

It was a small field - my 996 vs. 4 or 5 M3's. The BMW's were fast, but I came away with two 2nd place (rain) and two 1st place (one due to a disqualification). Again, it was a small field, but I felt that the competition didn't stack up to PCA. I typically run mid-pack with PCA, so I'm certainly not setting any track records. But, I suspect the competition is much better at more populated races.

It was a lot of fun running against different breeds and with other cars in the run group. There was a 14 year old driving a 500hp stock car in my run group. Even with the rain, the contact incidents were extremely minor and received penalties (disqualified). So it wasn't the pinball that I had been warned about.

John H

Don't try to run a 993 in G and GTS3 or an SC in D or E and GTS2, just sayin'. The rule is don't plan to go back and forth between PCA and NASA unless you really do some research and plan on running GT in PCA. A stock class car in PCA cannot run competitively in GTS unless your into changing mucho body parts between events.

Oh and back to the original question. A few years ago, at least in the Great Lakes Region, BMW's ruled GTS3 and Porsche ruled GTS4 with very few exceptions.

pu911rsr

Thanks everyone- I know the NASA GTS cars run a lot of aero that you can't use in PCA stock classes. I race primarily at MMP in UT, there is only one PCA a year there so it's really not a big deal for me. I also should state I probably don't have the resources and/or desire to go out and win championships. I'd like to go out and have some fun with constantly breaking the car or my piggy bank. Keep the posts coming, this is good food for thought.
Phil

Max1865

I run a cayman in gts2 in the se. The e36's rule, but I'm having fun chasing them with my 2.7L.

Surfbum

I just finished building a 2003 E46 with the same thoughts, end of the day I am over $120,000 into the build, I have won 5 of the seven races I have entered. That class has the second largest field of cars, unfortunately, no one runs GTS4 or GTS5 in AZ, and NASA just changed the rules to penalize the newer Porsche cars.

Quite honestly I was shocked it cost so much to build the car, but it seems like the consumables are a lot less than my cup (mainly due to slick addiction).

The car is incredibly forgiving and I wished I would have stayed with the Porsche platform. I will finish out the season and then grab my ankles and take an incredible loss on the sale, so whatever you do, don't build one yourself!!!!! Let someone else take the hit.

Best of luck, hope to see you at Nationals.

bobt993

The current build of M3's in the Mid Atlantic area are poster faster times than the Porsche GTS3/4 cars. If you look at the track records a GTS3 M3 is putting down a 2:03/04 at Watkins Glen. I think Summit GTS3 times are down to 1:18 now. For GTS NASA I would opt for the M3 chassis.

pu911rsr

I have no intention of building a car from scratch- I understand why folks do this- I myself prefer the 50 % off plan.

Phil

stuttgart46

I love Porsches and have for years but the E46 M3 is a great way to get into NASA. Our track E46 M3 has over 50K of all track miles. It's a tank.

AtlJimK

+993 on the E36 route. Pennies on the dollar and easier to make go faster.