Would you buy ex Porsche GB Press Car? - Page 2 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

Porsche owning Pistonhead chums. A friend of mine is looking at buying a 2019 718 Boxster that has 10k on it and 2 year OPC warranty. One owner which was Porsche GB. Car is mint but it's an ex press car. Does ex press car carry any kudos or is that not until 50 years from now? Should he be worried that it's had the arse end hung out and the tyres smoked around every circuit in Britain. Genuinely asking for a friend who is too social media shy to put his own post up.

Similar topic discussed a few weeks back. Ultimately, yes why not if the history and price is right. Was is a press car or was it a PEC car… WOULD YOU BUY AN EX-PRESS GT CAR?

Thanks for the link, def ex press as it is shown in several mags such as Autocar and TG mags etc. Read the link, passed info back.

No

I’d have no problem. Press cars are hugely over maintained and are kept at an extremely high standard. You’ve all seen what happens to reviews if the press car is flawed. Yes, they’ve been ragged, but properly maintained and that’s what these cars are designed to do. Edited by Bincenzo on Saturday 24th April 18:48

Yes. Would actively go looking for one actually

I've had a really good experience with it. Bought an ex Press 981 Spyder last year. I've put 8k miles on it including a fabulous Euro road trip between lockdowns last year. It's been perfect.

Make sure Troy Queef hasn't driven it

They will usually be of an excellent spec. But would you want something that’s been thrashed constantly during the early stages of its life?

I definitely wouldn’t. It will have been trashed mercilessly. The ‘maintenance’ that everyone talks about is irrelevant in this context.

Billy_Whizzzz said: I definitely wouldn’t. It will have been trashed mercilessly. The ‘maintenance’ that everyone talks about is irrelevant in this context. Most car journalist know how to warm up an engine and will treat a car with much respect. The car will have been driven properly, i.e. to the limits, but more often than not, an engine that has been used across the whole rev range (after having been run in and warmed up properly) from the begining is a better engine than one that has been pampered and only been driven in city centers at Diesel revs. Usually only senior car journalists get to review a new Porsche and you usually have mechanical sympathy and now how to drive a car to become one. I would certainly consider a Porsche that has been used as a press car.

Filibuster said: Billy_Whizzzz said: I definitely wouldn’t. It will have been trashed mercilessly. The ‘maintenance’ that everyone talks about is irrelevant in this context. Most car journalist know how to warm up an engine and will treat a car with much respect. The car will have been driven properly, i.e. to the limits, but more often than not, an engine that has been used across the whole rev range (after having been run in and warmed up properly) from the begining is a better engine than one that has been pampered and only been driven in city centers at Diesel revs. Usually only senior car journalists get to review a new Porsche and you usually have mechanical sympathy and now how to drive a car to become one. I would certainly consider a Porsche that has been used as a press car. I'd say it just needs to be priced accordingly. It's just like ex-rental cars, they are driven by a lot of drivers who probably don't care much about the car. That said they are probably fine, but the reputation of having been thrashed as a rental should lead to a lower price as most buyers favour one owner private cars that have barely been used and left in a garage somewhere (irrespective of how that owner may have treated it!). Two cars, same spec, same price. Do you choose the one that is ex rental or ex press, or the 1 owner privately owned garage queen, everything else being equal...?

Newton472 said: Filibuster said: Most car journalist know how to warm up an engine and will treat a car with much respect. The car will have been driven properly, i.e. to the limits, but more often than not, an engine that has been used across the whole rev range (after having been run in and warmed up properly) from the begining is a better engine than one that has been pampered and only been driven in city centers at Diesel revs. Usually only senior car journalists get to review a new Porsche and you usually have mechanical sympathy and now how to drive a car to become one. I would certainly consider a Porsche that has been used as a press car. It's just like ex-rental cars, they are driven by a lot of drivers who probably don't care much about the car. That said they are probably fine, but the reputation of having been thrashed as a rental should lead to a lower price as most buyers favour one owner private cars that have barely been used and left in a garage somewhere (irrespective of how that owner may have treated it!). Have you read my Post? We are not talking about an airport rental car, we are talking about an official press car. Those are two completely different things.

Interesting and coincidentally only the other week Monkey Harris had the privilege of 'running in' the new Shark blue 992 GT3 Press car incorrectly. Thread closed.

Avoid. Irrespective of how well a car has been "maintained" none of that maintenance will have addressed any accelerated wear of crankshaft/bearings, pistons/bores or gearbox/driveline internals. I wouldn't be surprised if airport rentals spend less of their lives ragged than cars that are passed from journo to journo.

rockin said: Avoid. Irrespective of how well a car has been "maintained" none of that maintenance will have addressed any accelerated wear of crankshaft/bearings, pistons/bores or gearbox/driveline internals. Spot on. Stuff you can't see will bite you later on.

Filibuster said: Most car journalist know how to warm up an engine and will treat a car with much respect. The car will have been driven properly, i.e. to the limits, but more often than not, an engine that has been used across the whole rev range (after having been run in and warmed up properly) from the begining is a better engine than one that has been pampered and only been driven in city centers at Diesel revs. Usually only senior car journalists get to review a new Porsche and you usually have mechanical sympathy and now how to drive a car to become one. are you from the Porsche Press Office

av185 said: Interesting and coincidentally only the other week Monkey Harris had the privilege of 'running in' the new Shark blue 992 GT3 Press car incorrectly. Thread closed. I'm sorry, have we seen the same clip? When is he running in the car incorrectly? SFO said: are you from the Porsche Press Office shhhh...... don't tell anyone

Filibuster said: av185 said: Interesting and coincidentally only the other week Monkey Harris had the privilege of 'running in' the new Shark blue 992 GT3 Press car incorrectly. Thread closed. I'm sorry, have we seen the same clip? When is he running in the car incorrectly? Dave is referring to the miles... Chris says he was told he needs to do about 1k miles to run in... not exceeding 7k RPM, he says it at the start of the vid and say he can give full throttle at a few points in the video. The owners manual for previous versions and advise from AP varied from 1000miles to 2500miles over the years. Edited by TDT on Tuesday 27th April 12:56

TDT said: Filibuster said: av185 said: Interesting and coincidentally only the other week Monkey Harris had the privilege of 'running in' the new Shark blue 992 GT3 Press car incorrectly. Thread closed. I'm sorry, have we seen the same clip? When is he running in the car incorrectly? Dave is referring to the miles... Chris says he was told he needs to do about 1k miles to run in... not exceeding 7k RPM, he says it at the start of the vid and say he can give full throttle at a few points in the video. The owners manual for previous versions and advise from AP varied from 1000miles to 2500miles over the years. Edited by TDT on Tuesday 27th April 12:56 And given the engine in the 992 is identical to the 991.2 GT3 (apart from itbs and gpf) for running in purposes I would take what Porsche say in the 991.2 manual as being gospel re the running in mileage of 1865 miles also for the 992 during which time revs should be kept under 4000.

Newton472 said: I see you do have a history of being rude around here. Therefore I will no longer be replying to you. Have a nice day

TDT said: Dave is referring to the miles... Chris says he was told he needs to do about 1k miles to run in... not exceeding 7k RPM, he says it at the start of the vid and say he can give full throttle at a few points in the video. The owners manual for previous versions and advise from AP varied from 1000miles to 2500miles over the years. Edited by TDT on Tuesday 27th April 12:56 I see.... 1'000 miles seem to be what Porsche say. I can't imagine them giving the wrong advice and CH, he will know this, having had numerous new Porsche GTs in the past. Initially I thought 7k was quite high. But then again, it is 80% of the max. rev! But does he exceed this in the video? He did the full 1'000 miles breaking it in and only went to the track afterwards. Also they highlighted that usually someone from Porsche breaks them in before handing them out to the press. I don't think they let the apprentice break in a new GT3. The chances that the car has been properly run in are far greater with someone from Porsche doing it than Joe Everyday. Sure, many cars go to anal enthusiasts like us me who do it properly too, but there are people out there either thrashing them from cold from day 1 or pampering them until eternity. Both is not advised. I would gladly buy the car Chris Harris drove in the video! And because the issue of price has been brought up: This would have to be decided in each case. I would not discard a car on the basis it used to be an ex Press car. And from what I read, they usually come with a bit of discount anyway. To demonstrate how anal I am, I always follow these rules for breaking in a new engine: - 500 - 1'500 miles - doing these miles on 1-2 long trips (reducing the heat cycles, so not doing it in in 100 commutes à 10 miles) - avoiding doing the same rpm longer than a couple of minutes - first 300 miles 60% max rev. no full throttle - giving it full throttle up to about 80% max rev. after some hundred miles - doing an oil and filter change after break in period (skipped this on the Mini Cooper S I have to admit ....)

No I wouldn't. Spec way too high for what I'd need, but the expectation it has been driven hard throughout the early part of it's life would, to me, restrict future buyers when I came to sell. Sure some may not be bothered, but when you have two identical cars as mentioned earlier, the non-press car / airport loaner would be favoured, the market for these is quite small enough as it is without restricting it further.

Filibuster, Chris Harris says at the start that the car shows 18 miles ? To be fair I don't know many people who would run a car in to 2500 miles or that keeping the engine below 4000rpm for the running in period could possibly be good for it ... Heat cycles are probably also a part of the running in process, ... what I can't understand is why Porsche don't supply the cars with running in oil which should be changed with the filter after 1000 gradually more demanding and varied usage short of full beans ... Running the micro swarf that has bypassed the filter (or restricted the flow rate) for 24 months is to me, bonkers.

Running in on the 991.2GT3 RS WP and Speedster, both with ITBs and GPFs same as the new 992GT3 is limit revs to 7K for first 1k miles and full beans after. On previous 991.2GT3, GT4 etc it was advised to not exceed 4k revs for the first 3k KM or 1865miles.

Taffy66 said: Running in on the 991.2GT3 RS WP and Speedster, both with ITBs and GPFs same as the new 992GT3 is limit revs to 7K for first 1k miles and full beans after. On previous 991.2GT3, GT4 etc it was advised to not exceed 4k revs for the first 3k KM or 1865miles. So in other words... CH did it exactly correctly, and as advised. Now we can say case/thread closed...

Has there ever been a thread where the OP reports their Porsche engine failed or has serious issue and people have challenged how the car was run in? This is a genuine question - a lot is made of running in an engine, but first off I don't recall many Porsche engine issues threads that weren't stuff like borescore or IMS on older ones, and secondly I am extremely doubtful many get run in by the book and yet I'm not seeing lots of documented failures. To be clear, I am not suggesting that running in a new car by thrashing it is a good plan, but is there any evidence that not following manufacturer guidance to the letter makes much or any difference? Oh and I would buy an ex press car. There is a 176,000 miles 997 GT3 kicking around, a lot more than most will ever do, and even if a car had a hard life to start, I bet the car would still have enough life left it it to do more miles than most will ever get the chance to actually do. And if you're that bothered, you can have a warranty on your car until 125,000 or 14 years old so I can't say I'd be too worried about buying one.

Taffy66 said: Running in on the 991.2GT3 RS WP and Speedster, both with ITBs and GPFs same as the new 992GT3 is limit revs to 7K for first 1k miles and full beans after. On previous 991.2GT3, GT4 etc it was advised to not exceed 4k revs for the first 3k KM or 1865miles. Does it categorically state this in the Porsche manual Taffy? Seems odd bearing in mind it is the same engine as the 991 2. Just checked my 718 GT4 manual which also states the same running in procedure as previous Porsche GTs i.e. 4k revs max for the first 3k KM or 1865 miles.

I’m not a big believer that engines are fragile things. I warm my oil through before piling on the revs, but let’s be honest; the odd anomalous faulty design aside, cars don’t perish by engine failure. They become uneconomic to maintain and its usually a combo of rust, suspension wear and electrical gremlins. To that end, I’d be less worried about the engine on a press car, but make sure I had someone thoroughly check the suspension arms and bushes. That’s where a few thousand miles of thrashing is going to manifest long before the engine. ETA a couple of years ago I did go to look at an ex-press 981 BS for a friend. It was very well specced, obviously, and at this point 50k on the clock so was in a fairly urgent need of some suspension refreshment - certainly moreso than other similar mileage cars he saw. The PPI chap mentioned a fairly stiff estimate to replace/refresh and that was the sticking point that lost the sale in the end. Edited by Royal Jelly on Thursday 29th April 08:52

Royal Jelly said: I’m not a big believer that engines are fragile things. I warm my oil through before piling on the revs, but let’s be honest; the odd anomalous faulty design aside, cars don’t perish by engine failure. They become uneconomic to maintain and its usually a combo of rust, suspension wear and electrical gremlins. To that end, I’d be less worried about the engine on a press car, but make sure I had someone thoroughly check the suspension arms and bushes. That’s where a few thousand miles of thrashing is going to manifest long before the engine. Yep I would be more concerned about the much higher loadings regularly inflicted on the vehicles transmissions etc than engine wear on an ex PEC car. The mere fact that PEC cars such as the ex 991.1 GT3s RS and TTS have each had literally thousands of launch starts from day one over just a few months and a few thousand miles is bound to manifest itself during the cars medium to long term life even despite Porsche transmissions being more durable and better engineered than most.

PaulD86 said: ... To be clear, I am not suggesting that running in a new car by thrashing it is a good plan, but is there any evidence that not following manufacturer guidance to the letter makes much or any difference? ... Nissan R35 GT-Rs are smashed round a circuit for a bit (a few miles) before they are released and that after the engines are run at well about redline revs (on an engine dyno) before installing into the vehicle. The running-in period for a GT-R is more about the suspension than the engine ... I seem to remember reading somewhere that GT Porsches may get the same treatment (or, at least, that someone was advised that they could go straight to a track day if they wished). I ran my GT4 in per the instruction manual (some will say that was a mistake) but I don't think it would have been a huge problem if I hadn't. My GT-R's engine was fine (until I forged it anyway) ... While there will be different spec. components, a petrol engine is pretty much a petrol engine so if it is fine as above I cannot see why it would not be fine for a GT Porsche too.

One thing that is really nice about the GT3 is how quickly the engine oil heats up ...

ChrisW. said: One thing that is really nice about the GT3 is how quickly the engine oil heats up ... I noticed how hot the engine in the GT4 (and my Golf R too, so maybe a VAG thing) the engine runs compared to the GT-R and Evo. Waiting for oil to warm to WOT level seems to take the same amount of time (similar point on the journey) pretty much, regardless of which car I am using, even if that temperature is different: - 60 degrees in the Evo - 70 degrees engine / 60 degrees trans (normally the slower of the two) in the GT-R - 80 degrees in the GT4 - 85 degrees in the R (80 is probably fine) Does the oil in the GT3 warm appeciably quicker than the GT4?

Evo9lution said: ChrisW. said: One thing that is really nice about the GT3 is how quickly the engine oil heats up ... I noticed how hot the engine in the GT4 (and my Golf R too, so maybe a VAG thing) the engine runs compared to the GT-R and Evo. Waiting for oil to warm to WOT level seems to take the same amount of time (similar point on the journey) pretty much, regardless of which car I am using, even if that temperature is different: - 60 degrees in the Evo - 70 degrees engine / 60 degrees trans (normally the slower of the two) in the GT-R - 80 degrees in the GT4 - 85 degrees in the R (80 is probably fine) Does the oil in the GT3 warm appeciably quicker than the GT4? 991.2 GT3/718GT4 about the same. Noticeable difference though between the 981 GT4/981 Spyder and 718 GT4/Spyder the 981s took an eternity to warm up.

How about HEBE?

g7jhp said: How about HEBE? I refer to it this thread... from earlier in the month. WOULD YOU BUY AN EX-PRESS GT CAR?