Track prepped 996.2 - pricing help

I have an opportunity to buy a 996.2 C2 that has been prepped for the track. Its run of the mill silver over black. It seems that it has been well maintained with regular servicing. Some highlights: - About 120,000 miles, - Recent PSS10 suspension, - Upgraded larger front calipers, - 5 point harness/harness bar, - Euro GT3 seats, - FSI 3.6 Track performer engine (about 15,000 miles on it). I know a lot of owners just add up all the money they put into the car and try to make it back in the selling price which is not quite realistic. However, I also realize the FSI engine is a huge plus and I understand that this will command a premium versus a regular M96 engine. What's a fair purchase price for this vehicle? I'm looking for guidance here.

It's only worth a little more than a stock 996.2 with 120k miles and a reasonably fresh quality-built engine. One never gets back the money they sink into a race/track car. What's the asking price?

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Agree...especially a high mileage car with a new engine....its probably spent a lot of time on the track...so things will be tired

The owner is asking $35,000, but is negotiable.

That engine build is 25k not including the time it takes and transport of the car. I think based on the overall condition or the car 28-33k would be a really nice buy

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$35K ?! He better be very negotiable. That's at least $12-13K too high IMHO. Although a FSI motor costs a pretty penny to build, with 15k miles on it, the seller simply isn't going to recoup his money. Wait a while. When it doesn't sell anywhere near his asking price in a couple of months, make him a realistic offer.

The old adage: it�s worth what the buyer is willing to pay. Is the engine the 3.8 stage II engine rebuild? If so I would pay mid 30�s if it had all the track goodies. This is assuming you are interested in a track car. The high mileage wouldn�t bother me as wear parts are easy to come by and the biggest wear part is taken care of.

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Yep. Racecars usually will only return 50-60% of the build cost at sale. Unfortunately, I have built a few myself so I know. If you offered him the cost of the FSI motor it would be a fair deal.

Or maybe he promised his wife he'd sell the track car. "Sorry, honey. I'm trying to sell it, honest, but no one is buying. Guess I'll just have to keep it".

I‘ve built several racecars and I’ve always lost big when I sold them! One of them, my SCCA GT3 VW Scirocco had a professionally built, and expensive Bertil Roos engine. The two racecars that I bought used taught me that was a better financial deal. I agree that mid-to-high $20s is what I would expect to spend.

I'm with texsquirrel

Appreciate your input guys, I'll see where we end up... maybe it really is a case of where he's trying to sell it to keep his wife happy. My wife is encouraging me to find a track car... I'm lucky!

My professionally built VW engine cost me about $9000 back in 1988. (That would be $19,000 in 2018 dollars) My car had a dual weber carburetors, full cage, Koni adjustable shocks(best at that time) and every suspension mod available at the time. The car had the best of the best for that time period. I probably spent $15,000 total. (32,000 in 2018 dollars) I sold the car in 1991 for $5000. (Under $11,000 in 2018 dollars) (old picture from an autocross just before the cage was put in to start building it to GT3 specs) I did better when I sold my SCCA ITC Scirocco. It was closer to a track car than a full out racecar. It was street legal, and I enjoyed driving it on the street too. But the suspension was harsh, the roll cage made getting in and out more difficult. My wife hated riding it in, so it was a 1-person vehicle most of the time. I probably had $5000 in it and sold it for about $3000 in 1996. I built the engine in it. It had fully adjustable Tokico shocks, full roll cage, 2 racing seats, fully adjustable suspension. I had it for sale for months before anyone even looked at it. My best deal was when I sold the Lola SCCA Sports 2000. I paid $4000 ($6K in 2018 dollars) for it in 1995. I spent about $1000 repainting and updating it. I raced it for a couple of seasons and sold it in 1999 for $16,000.($24,000 in 2018 dollars) I had it for sale online for a couple of months and sold it to someone in Denmark. I had to deliver it to Houston (11 hours drive from where I lived back then) to be shipped to Denmark. It was chassis #27 out of 46 that were built. Selling a racecar is pretty hard to do. Potential buyers are few and far between. You usually have to find someone who wants to buy it that has cash. You typically can't get a loan for a racecar from your credit union. You have to find someone who has a truck and trailer, or sell your trailer with it for cheap and hope they have a truck. Selling a Porsche track car might be easier, but I doubt it.

Apples and oranges. From what I can tell the car in question is NOT a race car but a track prepared DE car.

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This is correct, it's a nicely track prepped car. Still street legal, full interior, AC etc etc. My impression is that the owner does a handful of DE events a year.

How many of those 15K miles were on the track and did he follow proper protocol for switching between street and track usage? I believe you're supposed to use different oils for each application. ​​​​​I'd pay $25K - $30K for it personally. There's not many examples. But with FSI cars, I've generally seen the cars sell for the price of the motor and you get the roller for free. Here I'd pay a bit extra for the brakes, suspension, and seats. Alternately, if I was looking for a 996 track car, I'd be looking for a roller and then commission FSI for an engine. Add on suspension and brakes, that's at least 30K.

Is it gutted or stockish interior?

In my opinion, there's "track-prepped" and then there's "road car with some nice mods." A "track-prepped" car has had serious mods done for the track, but still remains street legal. If it just had some nice shocks, springs, and tires installed and the owner took it to a track a few times, that's not really "track-prepped" in my opinion. Can it still be taken to a track? Sure, but so can a bone stock 911. If it still has stock seats, belts, bushings, wheels, brakes, sump, cooling system, motor mounts, shocks, springs, etc...then it's not really track prepped. If it has had most things replaced/upgraded, then yeah I'd call it track-prepped. The closer in the spectrum towards racecar (and toward track-prepped) that you get, the harder they are to sell.

I think this fits the track-prepped category. Not at all towards the race car spectrum. I think the owner won't go below $30k, I'm not bashing him he's been a great guy to communicate with over email. Not sure this is going to pan out... the hunt continues.

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Agree! If it's beyond "point of return" then the price is something like 25-50% of what the car cost to build. Specially if it's not legal for any racing series An exception might be a specific car that has podium a lot spec Miata, spec boxster etc. Seems to be some voodoo surrounding certain builds. But if you are the midpack guy then your car is not worth much. Seems like an awesome car, I would definitly want one! Could be worth $25k imho.

Low 30's is a good deal. Just realize if you have issues with the engine, it's going to be a lot more expensive than a factory short block and head work on a 3.4l.