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For German car fans who love racing, it doesn’t get much more exciting than Porsche’s long history of endurance racing. Indeed, Porsche’s venerable 911 seems intrinsically linked with racing – undoubtedly, part of its mystique. However, true factory racing Porsches have always been pretty expensive when new and still are so. Watching yesterday’s coverage of the 24 Hours of Daytona had me cringing as the multi-hundred thousand dollar Le Mans class 991 Porsches took each other out, attacked Opossums and exploded crankcases. It wasn’t a great day for Porsche at a track where the company has had an impressive string of successes. So, today I decided to take a look at two racing Porsches as an homage to their first rate engineering, their enduring appeal and incredible performance:
I’ve certainly been a big fan of the Porsche 911 Cup; today, it strikes me as not only one of the best deals going in racing Porsches, but perhaps the best all-around deal in the Motorsports world. The success of the 996 and 997 Cup chassis has to come close to the E30 M3 as one of the most raced and most winning German designs in history. They were so successful that they built a lot of them, making them today slightly devalued in the world of track cars. We’ve even seen full-blood, turn key factory race 911s up for auction below $50,000; simply staggering when you consider the original purchase price. Of course, also staggering are the running costs of the Cup cars; 40 hour engines are the max, and Porsche Motorsports recommends transmission refreshes as 20 hours. The costs add up; rebuilding your 996 or 997 Cup running gear will cost you between $15,000 and $30,000 – presuming nothing big is broken. Okay, so the purchase price is only the tip of the iceberg. But what if you took some of the aspects of the Cup design and incorporated them into the even faster and cheaper to run Turbo model?
The fall from grace of the 996 has resulted in some stunning deals on pretty incredible cars. They’re not without their problems; the 996 isn’t the most attractive Porsche produced and there are known engine issues to combat. But if you’re looking for an inexpensive track weapon with and impressive amount of speed, it’s pretty hard to best the 996 package. While you can get a very nice example of a GT3 – Porsche’s then pinnacle of dual-purpose street and track package – for around $50,000 and drive it to the track, if you’re willing to spend just a bit more you can look at leaping into another level of performance with the “Cup” car. Stripped down and stiffened up, these factory racers are simply stunning with their speed and were cutting edge less than a decade ago, yet today you can find an excellent example like this 2005 model for less than $80,000 – only a third of what a new one would cost you.
While copying factory cars such as earlier’s RSR Tribute has become a popular pastime for Porsche race enthusiasts, the reality is that those cars have a semi-limited market because they’re not authentic. However, about 16 or so years ago buying real factory race cars became a lot easier as Porsche began to officially sell the then new 996 GT3 Cup version of the venerable 911. With an upgraded 3.6 race motor, full cage and race suspension, air jacks and center-lock BBS wheels, this was as close to the big leagues as you could get from the factory. Additionally, Porsche continued to run a single marque race series, call the Supercup, that is had run with previous generations of race 911s. The Supercup was a feeder series for more popular forms of endurance racing and still is, but the car has remained the same; outside it looks a lot like the 911s you can drop down to the showroom to buy; underneath, it’s pure race car. As with previous generations, every few years there are upgrades that effectively render the older cars obsolete and they become much easier to purchase; today’s 1998 is an example of just such a car. Though they may not be as fast as the current generation, usually these cars are still quite competitive in club racing and are considerably more affordable than new options. Additionally, factory race Porsches, especially ones with significant racing history, have proven to be a good investment long term. If you can gamble on the right one and stomach the high running costs, you’ll have an impressive and capable machine that will probably come out the other side worth more than you paid:
Ever since the release of the iconic Carrera RS in 1973, Porsche has periodically introduced production cars so as to fulfill homologation standards for road racing series in which they planned to race the 911. Not surprisingly, these cars are highly regarded and sought after. While the GT3 RS takes buyers a little closer to a RSR, the GT3 remains an excellent alternative for most drivers and possesses probably 95% of the GT3 RS’s performance for a bit less cost. For all but the most devoted racer or collector the GT3 probably even represents better overall value. The car featured here, a 2010 Porsche 911 GT3, comes from the 2nd generation of the 997 and features a 3.8 liter flat-six delivering 435 hp to the rear wheels via a 6-speed manual transmission. Like many of these cars this one has seen very few miles.