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Do you want want a Porsche 911 R but can’t swing the $300,000 price tag? Well, I may have a solution for you. Back when the 911 R fever was at an all-time high and people were playing truly insane prices for them, someone had the idea to option a standard 991.1 GT3 exactly how a 911 R looks. Notice I said looks, because the 911 R had a lot of very special pieces like a magnesium roof, carbon-fiber decklids front and rear, and carbon-fiber front fenders. While that doesn’t seem like a big deal, the lack of the 4.0-liter and six-speed manual is a much bigger deal given that wasn’t available yet on the GT3. Imagine the day the person who owns this car was having when Porsche announced the GT3 Touring.
For a much love as I give all the Porsche GT and Turbo cars, very rarely do I look at the standard 911 Carrera. Rightfully so as those headline-capturing GT and Turbo cars can basically go toe-to-toe with any car in the world and hold their own, but that certainly doesn’t make the base 911 any less good. This is especially true on the 991 chassis. The lowly base 911 is hardly that. It came in at a respectable 350 horsepower and a choice between the 7-speed PDK gearbox or a 7-speed traditional manual transaxle that was a world-first at the time. A 0-60 run needed just 4.4 seconds and this all could be done in a package tame enough to drive 365 days a year with no fuss. The price wasn’t cheap however as the base 991 started at $83,000. I wish I could put “started” in size 84 font as stuff you think would be standard can easily tack on another $10,000 without even realizing it. Got to have those 14-way sport seats, after all.
Would you believe me if I told you that the 991.1 Porsche 911 GT3 had an engine warranty for 10 years or 120,000 miles? Well, it’s true. In one of Porsche’s rare screw-ups (in addition to that whole IMS thing), the engines in the 991.1 GT3 had a metallurgical defect in certain batches of pivoting rocker arms in the valvetrain. This led to misfires at high RPMs and thus, very unhappy customers who spent $135,000 plus another $40,000 in options. If for some reason your engine does fail, Porsche will drop in a new updated engine, no questions asked. You can probably put two and two together and figure out why I am bringing this up. This 2014 up for sale in Colorado just happens to have a fresh updated engine installed in it with just 2,300 miles despite the car having almost 18,000 miles. Not only that, this car has something else that makes it probably the cheapest 991 GT3 out there for sale on the market right now. Let me explain:
Legendary fashion designer Ralph Lauren is no small time car collector. In fact, his collection ranks up there with the very best in terms of quality and his stunning way to showcase some of them. He doesn’t show them off all that frequently, but when he goes, he usually goes big. His Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic is nearly priceless, but some have estimated it to be worth north of $40mil. Even with his extreme wealth, he isn’t taking it out for a drive on a Tuesday afternoon. He has other cars for that. Some of those cars are Porsches, and more specifically, Porsche GT cars. He has been spotted in a 997 GT3 RS and GT3 RS 4.0, so it shouldn’t surprise you at what we are looking at today.
This 2014 991 GT3 was reportedly purchased new by Lauren and enjoyed before being traded in on a 991 GT3 RS Weissach Package. An understandable upgrade to say the least. The normally silver or black wheels were painted white to give the car an exceedingly clean look when finished off with the clear taillights. Now the car is for sale Porsche Atlanta Perimeter and kudos to them for not trying to cash in on the celebrity ownership. Heck, they don’t even mention that it was his car.
