Buying a serious track/race car vs upgrading to a TT.

I've made my decision, I'm curious what others think. I was at a clients house that has raced Porsche's for 20 years. I told him I was thinking of upgrading to a TT. He had a different opinion that I now agree with. Mark does not understand why everyone is doing all these performance upgrades(except muffler for the sound), when 99% of 993/996 owners can't handle the power, handling and braking of their car, as is, let alone a TT. He said the real excitement is in not doing upgrades that you only use in a 1/4 mile, not day to day driving, but in really racing a car. Mark said you'll have more excitement in one serious track session/race, then in a lifetime of taking your $60-150,000 car on a track where your scared of getting your car hit or scratched. I love the look of my car. In Denver, cars have almost stopped at intersections to look, and the stairs I get are unbelievable. I don't think a TT is any better looking. Sure a TT performs better, but in day to day driving, except for a short burst of speed before you have to brake, the power is not useable. I've decided to save some money, spend $10-15,000 on a serious track/race car and find out about the feeling that Mark says almost all Porsche owners at one time or another really want to do. Race a car. Ken

so get a sports 2k or spec racer or formula ford and go that route, better yet why don't you spend the money on driving schools and then apply that to everything, I find that much better. I would rather do the schools and have a modded tt then a dedicated car because of the utility it provides all the time, plus you can make them nice for both the track and street-

I would agree with going the track car route. My ex-wife until recently had a Radical as her track car and a modified WRX STi as her road car. If you want to drive on the track "like you stole it" it makes more sense to have a dedicated car that was designed to be fixed relatively inexpensively, and is not subject to punitive insurance. In the States I would love to see what an Exige could do against 911's somewhere like Road America or the Glen...

I agree with your buddy, get a track car. Roy ps. Until 3 weeks ago, I had an Exige, it eats 996's for lunch (GT3 and Turbo are a different story unless you are on a very small track

roy, you HAD an exige. so what do you track now ?

John, I ordered a GT3... Roy

Yes, your friend seems to be a very reasonable gentleman. Why throw a $100,000+ turbo around a track when a $10-$30K dedicated track car will give you as much, if not more, satisfaction without the negative economic impact if you happen to be in an accident? That's why I just purchased a '93 Caterham Super 7. Great car for the track and I can also tool around in it on occassion around town.

Ken, Your friend is right for a lot of reasons but don't expect it to be that cheap. First, you're not going to buy much for $10k-15K. At least not a Porsche. Plan on $20 for a 944, $30k for an early 911 and on up from there. Then, if it's a serious track car, you will need a trailer and a tow rig. You will also find maintainance to be significantly greater. Having said that, there nothing better than owning a race car. Jim

Ken, I'm curious what you consider to be some options for your track/race car?

It's a complicated question. A track car and a race car may not be one and the same, as a track car need not be competitive with anything else, but should be reliable above all else. The car you race is generally more highly stressed, and more maintenance-intensive. JimB is right about the extra rig(tow car and trailer) but possibly could have added the extra concern about parking the trailer. My wife won't tolerate it at our home, and I can't blame her. Compared to dedicated track cars, a streetable 996 or tt isn't that great. Almost any 1600-2000 cc single seater with slicks and a wing will be much quicker. But, you need only throw your helmet into the Porsche to have an enjoyable day at the track. In contrast, the track car requires loading the trailer with car, tools, and race gas, a slower drive to the track (my average tow speed is 10-15 mph slower than my Porsche cruise speed), extra fussing with unloading, then reloading and tie down, then dropping off the rig at some point other than home. In the end, the ideal answer is all 3. I have the tt for street and occasional track, an Elise for track days and practice sessions, and a few vintage racers since I generally need to have more than one to be sure that one is ready on a given day. So, Mark is technically correct. But, you can get 80% of the satisfaction with your street Porsche at the track with only 25% of the hassle of the track car plus rig. Are you practical or are you obsessed? I guess you can tell which side I'm on. AS

Why haven't you considered a GT3 instead of a TT for track and road use ? It seems that this is why the GT3 has been made for !

hmmm how about a track car that is street legal?? i was thinking of getting an older 911sc and making it a dedicated track care e.g.: 1)race tires 2)big sway bars 3)stiffer suspension 4)role cage 5)race seats 6)race harness then just driving it back and fourth to the track only! anybody doing this?

Hi Guys: I'm starting a business with a friend of mine to provide track tires transportation and storage service targeted for my local PCA Region. I wonder if you guys can give me some feed back on the pricing. We are going to charge $100 per track event. We will store the wheel/tires for the season for all clients that do 5 or more events. We will check and inflat tires before we load the tires to the trailer and check again after the event. Optional tire cleaning service is available at a small fee. Our clients will just show up at track, pick up and change their wheel/tires, enjoy driving, change back to street tires and head home. All wheel/tires will be carried by a special hand truck. What do you think of the $100 price per weekend?

you have to ask yourself what sort of commitment you're willing to make for a dedicated track car, and if wheel-to-wheel racing is what you want or just high performance driving. personally, i'd take the tt. it's more versitle and it'll serve you for both purposes. 'arrive-and-drive' is also appealing, you pay as you go and someone else houses and maintains the car for you. there are a few people offering this with the radical sr3.

Ken I am going through the same thing, and agree with you and your friend's assesment. I've had my '03 C4-S for a year now (my first Porsche). I ran all my local PCA auto-x events last year and had a blast. During that time I thought about doing some DE events but soon started to think otherwise. To begin with, I heard too many stories of guys totalling their cars and secondly I knew I wouldn't be driving on the edge enough to satisfy me due to fear of damage. Then I bought a kart. I'm not sure if you know much about kart racing but I have to tell you it's much more fun and intense than a DE event at a fraction of the cost. Not only are you driving on the edge and testing your driving skills but you're tuning the chassis and gaining this knowledge. Also you get the thrill of going wheel to wheel with other drivers and to me there is nothing like it....nothing. I can't afford to go club racing so my only option for wheel to wheel racing is karting. You'll never get the prestige of racing a "regular" car but the thrills and extra driving time are invaluable IMHO. When I drive the kart I NEVER think about damage to the kart. I'm just totally focused on driving. Also as someone mentioned here you don't need a trailer & tow rig. Yes many karters have small enclosed trailers. But if this is an issue for you karts fit in many SUV's, pickups etc. I've even seen people with them in Volvo wagons, trunks, and homemade trailers. Eventually I plan on getting a dedicated track car. But for the time being the kart is satisfying the racing urge just fine...

What kind of Kart do you race, where, and what clubs are available? I know nothing about them other than what I've seen at places like Andretti's or Malibu.

Tony Karts are fairly representative of some top of the line karts; 6 speed shifter karts: http://www.tonykart.com/bin/index.php?id=1&lng=EN Rotax is another option that a lot of people like: http://www.rm1-kart.com/index.html

I run the Rotax class myself. One downside of karting is there are numerous classes and it's very difficult to figure things out for a new guy. In summary most chassis' are similar. Most classes are defined by engine type and whether they have gears (shifter) or not. There's just way too much to go into here. My advice would be to visit your local track on a race day and ask tons of questions. You can also try www.ekartingnews.com

Hey Grandma (Lance), come out to Pocono in 3 weeks and I'll show you how much fun a 996 can be on the track! DE is the beginning, wait till you club race it!

Grandma?!... I definately need to check out a DE. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knockin' DE's or Club Racing. I just don't think I would be able to drive my car hard enough without worrying about the consequences. I'm looking at Pocono, but not sure if I can make those dates.

The thought of buying a separate track car is something I wish I had considered sooner... Most of my track work has been in BMWs (nearly all actually) so I've come to believe that certain BMWs make terrific track cars that actually have enough space for the track wheels/tires in the back seat so you can drive to the events and swap out the rubber. If I were getting into this again, I'd buy an e30 M3 (as I've now done) and learn to drive in a less-anesthetized, lower-power track car. Believe me, I have just as much fun on track in that car as I have had in an '03 M3 or '02 C4S. If you want to stay with a Porsche, then an older equivalent 911 of some sort would work well...but the key to learning seems to be being in a car with less nannies to save you and less power. Good luck

I tracked my Turbo once at Willow Springs and got so addicted that I decided i wanted to do it more often. The thought of wrecking my Turbo as well as the wear and tear was just too much so I ended up picking up a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 8 to track with. I had trailered track only cars before for a season doing SCCA events but it sure became a pain in the A$$. The Evo is great. Similar handling charicteristics with the 4 wheel drive and no more trailering. Back seats can hold a set of race tires and the trunk holds everything else. Granted I don't have the same thrill as racing the Turbo but I also won't lose any sleep if I wreck either.