As I'm sitting here watching the Rolex this question came to me. Are they pretty much shipped the same(from Porsche) or can you option them out to skies the limit?

 

I don't know how many options you could really put on a cup car as they have to follow whatever regulations for the series you plan on racing them in, but there are plenty of used ones for sale. I've seen 997's for sale between high 80's up to 160. I've seen 996 cups in the 50's. I once had a thought of selling my car and just getting a 996 3 cup until i found out it cost 25-40k to rebuild everything after you've driven it like 40 hours!

 

Been offered a zero mile car for $175k. That's not the cost. Rebuilds all the time will kill you.

 

... CRAZY!

-Alex

 

Rebuilds every 40 hours is a myth... several Cup Cars have been used more than 100 hours before they were done. The issue after 30 to 40 hours is most of the time the transmission, when the driver can't get used to downshifting it properly. You have to push the lever pretty hard with NO hesitation and match the revolutions with a well timed blip.

 

Porsche MS recs 40 hrs... The season that we won Daytona we had done more than that. In '04 when we won the GT championship we went for more than that. And that is racing, not DEs.

 

The cost of the car is just the price of admission.

 

Casey, when you guys won Daytona how often were your rebuilds?

GT3techno, have you had your trans or motor rebuilt yet? Do they replace all internals? what exactly is "included" in the full rebuilds?

 

We campaigned 3 cars... so it was different from car to car. #36(car that won) didnt have its engine rebuilt until recently, so it finished that season on that engine iirc. This was also right before me at TPC so if you want exact specifics you would want to talk with Tom(crew chief) or Mike(owner/driver). I also know that every single centimeter of that car was documented and blueprinted. I sat with mike this morning and he gave me a whole dissertation as to how the cars and the race worked... from pit strategy to racing strategy. He should write a book really, incredibly interesting.

Casey

 

The Grand-Am spec cars are different from the standard (IMSA GT3 cup) cars. And quite a bit more expensive. The engines, brakes, fenders, rear bumper, wheels, rear spoiler, and more are different. But to be competitive in Grand Am you still need to do quite a few mods (fuel cell alone is $15K) to be competitive. I have one of each, the brakes and top-end engine power on the Grand Am are the biggest differences in driving them. The Grand-Am engine feels like it's at 7K and wants to go much higher when it's at 8400RPM, it's still pulling strong.

 

Can't help you since I'm new into this... got my Cup in November and didn't track it yet ! My comments were actually based on what other owners told me and which I took into account before making this commitment.

Hopefully they were right !

My goal is to start doing PCA Club Races this summer and racers unanimously told that the best way to get involved was to get a real race car (new or used with low hours). Cheaper on the long run and more reliable. Anyway, I can't wait to get back on the track as soon as our winter is gone up here...

In the meantime, I watch videos of Cup cars all the time ! Look at this one at Homestead:

http://web.me.com/belzile/Wildschwei...Homestead.html