I'm considering trading my 2003 C4S for a GT3 but I'm kind of unsure how suitable/practical a GT3 might be for a street-use only Sunday driver.

Can the GT3 owners give me some feedback of the pros vs. cons of the C4S vs. GT3 for street use?

Thanks!

John

 

Can you live with the lower ride height, stiffer suspension, decreased ground clearance, less sound insulation, no PSM, no PCM, no AWD, no sunroof, and no back seats? The C4s is no slouch, but the GT3 is certainly more focused as a performance car. For a weekend warrior the GT3 is fine on the street, though it begs for the track too.

 

I love my GT3, but I find it almost useless as a daily driver in LA. In my area the city streets are rough and badly potholed, there are way too many speedbumps and nasty drainage dips at cross street intersections that all have to be taken at odd angles very slowly. In general it rides like an angry wheelbarrow around Hollywood, it hates to be trapped in traffic, the stereo is mediocre, the cabin noise is very present, and it isn't a car I want to give to any valet.

All that aside it is the most exciting, thrilling and involving road car I've ever had the pleasure to drive, and that pleasure really gets exstatic on the track, where we go at every opportunity. If you are not buying this car to drive fast and hard don't buy it, you'll be frustrated, uncomfortable and miss all the refinements you current car has. Maybe get a 997?

 

Given that you said "Sunday" driver, I'd say it's hard to find a more perfect car than the GT3. The fun factor is IMO many times that of a C4S. It makes you think 100% about driving while you are driving.

 

i personally found the GT3 suspension and road feel to be not as raw as i expected them to be. i think it's eminently capable as a daily driver - even over less than perfect roads.

but i'm WAY in the minority on this opinion, and a couple board members have hypothesized that my car had some setup problem of some sort.

as has been said elsewhere, it IS a road car first and foremost. that's its goal and was clearly (CLEARLY) key in its design process and criteria.

get some seat time and let your butt decide

while it will scream to visit the track, you can still have a lot of fun with it on the highway and ramps and back-road twisties. i never tracked my 355, but i had a LOT of fun in it!

the GT3 is a very different car than an AWD "regular" 996, imo. that's a tough comparison. if you're making that comparison, i might (might) argue that you shoudl stick with the C4S - but obviously i don't have any real data on your situation. just one boy's uneducated opinion.

doody.

 

John - I had a 2002 C4S before I got my GT-3. Here is something I wrote to someone who was faced with the same decision:

Ok - why I switched.... You have to know what I use the car for - when I first got my C4S I thought I would be using it for weekend drives and out to dinner and occasional road trips - that kind of thing. And indeed, this is what I did. But over the two years I owned it I began to drive it less and less casually and more just for agressive canyon/mountain drives and I started to take it to the track. I had such fun at the track I began to consider getting a cheap used car to drive only at the track. But in truth anything less then a Porsche would have been a disapointment.

I found out that what I really wanted was more of a "drivers" car - I wanted all the performance of the C4S without the weight and frills of the C4S. I had been musing about a GT-3 for months as I had been reading the tests on it but my concerns were:
1. Rear wheel drive only (I'm a believer of AWD systems for safety)
2. No PSM - again because my Porsche experience was limited
3. Comfort - do I really want a low, stiff suspended car?

Then it happened - I was at Willow Springs Raceway (local track) with some friends and I met a guy who had just bought a white GT-3. Big Porsche guy - this was his 12th Porsche and the guy has a Carrera GT on order! We get to talking and I explain my thoughts to him - he says he actually ordered two GT-3 from two different dealers and he really wanted the black one that had just arrived - why don't you buy my white one (it had only 1,100 miles on it)? He offered to switch cars with me for one session so I could try the car! Well, I thought about that for 2 seconds and jumped at the chance.

I swear - by the time I was halfway around the first lap I knew I wanted that car. We made the deal two days later and I traded in my C4s.

You need to evaluate what you want to do with the car - sometimes I really miss the C4S as I don't really have a nice Porsche to just go to dinner in or drive to work. The GT-3 now has a roll bar, Euro seats and 6-point harness and Michelin Cup tires so it's not comfortable to drive around town. My wife much prefered the C4S so if we go to dinner now we take her Audi TT. The GT-3 is loud inside - the radio is about useless. On hot days you sweat a lot (even with AC) because the seats wrap around so much you don't get any ventilation on your back. And most importantly - the RWD and no PSM means that if you make a mistake at speed only your driving skill will get you out of it.

The C4S was the perfect Porsche for my first Porsche - it's incredibly fast and incredibly smooth and quiet. It's easy to drive and very forgiving because of the AWD - especially in the rain. It doesn't rain much here in SoCal so I can get away with Cup tires and no PSM. I imagine in rains a bit more in Holland.

Evaluate what you want to do with the car. If you already own a nice car to commute in or go to dinner or drive when the weather is bad and you want the Porsche for weekend drives and track days then go with the GT-3. Otherwise you can't go wrong with the C4S.

 

Hahaha - Andrew this quote cracks me up - except that it is so true:

Good one!

 

If you can handle rough handling and angling it on every driveway then yea