Racer's Group Cars For Sale

[bryanearll]

It's interesting to me that "the business" of racing includes selling the race car. The Racer's Group has 2 cars racing at Daytona next weekend that can be had (presumably after the race and assuming in ??? condition) for the price of a stock GT3+.

Now this sounds like a pretty darn good deal. Wanna drive the GT winner of LeMans from '02, sure buddy, enjoy the nice hand me down. I would like to think that it is REASONABLE to assume that these cars are in great shape. Twelve even HARD hours on an engine doesn't sound to stressful, does it? After all they were driven by pro's.

Finally, can anyone help me here on sustained after market value? Do "race cars" depreciate a great deal faster than stock vehicles? Sail boats do, and howdy. You can get a world class, America's Cup race boat for a song, if it's OK with you that you can't win... Not to mention needing a world class crew to sail the thing.

I was at Ruznak today eyeing a new GT3. The dealerships certainly make a fair amount of swag on cute fashion bits, don't they. I guess I'm a bit old school but a carbon fiber dash means a whole lot less to me than a new appreciation for a dry sump oil system. Maybe that's what intreagues me about the race cars, get the car, the trailer (and a darn good mechanic), and enjoy. You know, I'd just rather hang with the mechanics and watch the work done, maybe learn something, rather than get free coffee, donuts, and my a** kissed. Hell, get the mechanic a coffee and donuts, and kiss his a** because talent is hard to find. Being able to appreciate talent is a gift.
Bryan

[RickK]

First off Daytona is a 24 hour race, not 12. Also you need to include the practice sessions that weekend and then realize that a GT3R,RS or RSR engine needs to be rebuilt after every 60 (I think, but I could be off by a few hours) for a cost of around $20k.

Not necessarily a smokin' deal comapred to a street GT3.

[bryanearll]

Of course, I do understand the meaning of 24 hours. The cars shown and offered have 12 hours on the engine. Check it out.

Why do the engines need to be rebuilt after 60 hours? (at a cost of $20 large)

A club racer who wants a greyhound might consider the opportunity cheap, but then again someone who knows what they are talking about might understand the cost and implication. I'll grant you the latter and I'll be the fool warned.

Still.....
b

[MikeD]

Actually, as I understand it the RSR engine needs to get rebuilt at 35 hours for $45K. Whereas a Cup motor is 80hours and $25K. But of course YMMV. I know a guy that runs a 993 Cup (also a 80hr motor) and has been racing full season for 2+ years (100+ hours) on the motor AFTER whatever was on it when he bought the car. And the leak-down test show no significant wear.

The reason it's so much $$ is because ONLY Porsche Motorsport can do the rebuild.

[MikeD]

BTW, a 2004 Cup car that TRG has prepared for $115K seems like a smokin deal to me.

[Jad]

Don't forget, the 997 GT3 will be out soon and a ton of 996 GT3's will be dumped into the used market by all the serious teams.

[David J Marguglio]

Okay, there is a bit of truth in all of these posts, but here is the real skinny: The R/RS/RSR motor is on a 30 hour rotation. The approximate costs are $25k at 30 hrs, $30k at 60, $40k at 90 then it repeats. These are PMS pricing and as Mikie indicated, YRMV. Generally, budget $1k hour just for basic engine maint. I am not sure of the exact pricing on the Cup car, but I have heard that it is approximately half that of the RS variant. Now, Mike is half-right that you have to have your rebuilds at PMS. You sign a contract with Porsche to have them do ALL of your engine work for the first year or two, but once this car is sold to another owner, that contact is null and void. I know Mind Over does rebuilds on factory cars and I think that Vision does too. This, however, is only the beginning.

Other wear items include many, many sets of tires, brake pads, rotors, half-shafts, etc. etc. etc. Figure about $10k a weekend for a club race and double that for a GA outing.

Adds up quick, eh?

[David J Marguglio]

You are definately correct on the idea of factory race cars holding their value better than non-factory, but I forgot to mention a bit of sage advice that I received when I was thinking of buying a race car: "Buying the car is the cheapest part of racing"

[bryanearll]

So then the most reasonable way to pay for your fun is to find a sponsor who charges the expense off to advertising.

"As President and CEO I'm proud to support our Cup Racing efforts by allowing us to directly target the automotive market share that could be a real boon to our future prospects." Bryan Earll, President

Now I just need a good product to sell to the market.
b

[RickK]

It's interesting to me that "the business" of racing includes selling the race car. The Racer's Group has 2 cars racing at Daytona next weekend that can be had (presumably after the race and assuming in ??? condition) for the price of a stock GT3+.

...... Twelve even HARD hours on an engine doesn't sound to stressful, does it? After all they were driven by pro's.

Bryan

Bryan,
I did not mean to offend you adn I hope that you did not take it that way. Nor did I check out TRGs web site. But how can a car that completes the 24 at Daytona be for sale with just 12 hours on the motor?

Rick....

[bryanearll]

Rick, my friend, I have pretty thick skin. You have a valid point, I had to look back at the site and, of course, specifically only one of the cars has 12 hours on the engine. It isn't in fact racing at Daytona. It just happened to be a car I saw on the website. Since I was mindlessly sitting at the computer, saw several cars, mind melded the whole picture and ended up with a confused description.

That said, the point was "wow, look how inexpensive these cars are." Stated like a boy looking in the candy store window and with about that much thought. I'm sure you'll forgive the inaccurate description and hope you enjoy the link.
Enjoy! Bryan

http://www.theracersgroup.com/cars/cars ... r_sale.htm

[bryanearll]

One more link to check out:

http://content3.eu.porsche.com/prod/mot ... lish/sales

[TheStig]

I can see some of TRG's cars as great candidates for Vintage Racing years from now! The GT3R, RS and RSR variants are amazing cars

[MVZ944T]

As I was helping grid up the last red run group at Fontana yesterday, I was talking with Mark Anderson and another long time POC member that owned a '99 cup car. (The first year they were out apparently.) He stated that it was the most economical race car that he had ever owned, and he has been in the POC for 30 years. He also mentioned that the durability of the early cup cars does carry over into the newer cars. So maybe if you are looking for a cup car, an early one would be the way to go.