THSCC Forums

Even the 997 GT3RS comes with a shitty LSD apparently: http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/gt3-gt2-gt/192286-lsd-buster.html

At least Guard Transmission makes a great upgrade/replacement LSD unit for a very reasonable price.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

That was a good read Chuck! Thanks for the link. I have to echo that one person's sentiment....it's good to see someone own a $100k and actually wrench on it them self .

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2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B

Yeah, it's a good thread, and the posts by Matt at Guard Transmission are really good -- great info in there. I think Michael is a doctor by day and self-wrenching GT3RS by night.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

Donnie,

Here's an example for sale. It has aftermarket wheels unfortunately.

http://tinyurl.com/2g4mvzw

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

Looks like a decent deal. I'm not buying it, though. I had a borrowed car that was an autocross contender for most of the season and made it out to ONE event. *sigh*


--Donnie

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Oh, and here's the OTHER thing to think about....

For starters, it is at LEAST a $45k investment in that car (shocks, FSB, wheels, etc) to just SEE if it's competitive in AS. If it's not, well, you better hope you didn't scuff up the front end enough to hurt the resale, which will be lower by $5k or more in another year, plus you lose on those parts at least a decent chunk, usually. And you've wasted a year figuring that out.

Or it *is* the car to have. Then you've maybe done well for at least part of the year, but you're gonna get hosed by the SEB anyway. No way they let a car THAT rare dominate that class...you'll get stuff moved in and moved in quickly. Why? Because you simply won't see people buying them in droves to autocross. Prove the point and you might see one or two more showing up, and that's it. It doesn't "help" the class significantly at all.

Plus you have to own a 996. They're dropping in attractiveness like a rock to Pcar people thanks to how much better the 997 looks and how many of those are on the used market...

So consider that line a blank in the rulebook, IMHO.


--Donnie

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Good points!

Of course the even better option is to let someone else do it and co-drive the car. Ash has just put Konis on his, but I'm don't think he has the time (Navy) to be truly serious with the car right now, so I doubt he's planning on a full stock class prep (i.e. FSB, wheels with A6s, etc). I believe he's thinking of just having fun (AD08s so street tires at an autox).

He was so damn lucky to stumble across the car that the dealer didn't know was different from a 996 (and even then bought the thing for a lot less than one would think).

Anyway, I'll get a chance to co-drive the car at some point which will be very interesting. I drove the car from Atlanta to Raleigh and had it here for a couple of months last Spring, but I never pushed it at all. Other than that experience, the only other time I've driven a 911 was in 1977 in a 1976 911S. The only autox experience I have in anything other than front engine, rear drive cars is from a 914 circa 1975 or so.

It should be interesting. Jackie co-drove it a couple of weeks ago at a BMW autox down in Atlanta, and she did really well, surprisingly well. I think her progress as a driver would have been even faster to date with a dialed-in suspension STX car or whatever as opposed to dealing with a pushing stock class pig E46.

Since there are only 1964 of these cars, I would assume at best it would be good for a one-time success as you point out.

Switching gears, if you were going to pick one car to simply have a heck of a lot of fun with for the next 5-10 years...street driving on rare occasions, autocross whenever you can (no pretense of nationals), throw in an HPDE every now and then, etc, and you want an SS-class car -- what would you think?

996 GT3? Z06? Elise?

Alternatively, if you were thinking AS, how uncompetitive do you think the E90 M3 would be in that class? I love the S65 V8 (wish it had the torque of the E39 M5 S62 though), and it will be the LAST of the high-revving, rip your a##, M-engines from BMW. With the pins out, you can get about -1.7 degrees camber up front (I know, not enough), but the other aspects of the car (4 doors, fold down seats, etc) make it extremely practical. (here I'm thinking how Tia wouldn't mind an E90 swap as her car approaches 80k miles, and I'd just steal her car to autox).

I'm blabbering here, but I'm trying to put my finger on an autox/fun car for the rest of my 50s.

Chuck

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

I don't care for any of those SS cars, personally. The 996GT3 would be my choice is I had to pick one, but honestly if I didn't care about Nationals I'd probably get the E90 M3 for the reasons you mentioned. But that's just me. Mullet types should go for the Z06. Buckley is going to get an Elise, apparently.

I just sort of hate the 996 front end is why I'm not bigger on *that* car. Those headlights suck to me, and hell, I owned a 996TT for a couple years. The 997 just killed the 996 for me.


--Donnie

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Ditto. In Subaru world, they name the chassis based on the headlights: bugeye, blobeye, hawkeye etc.

The 996 is the bugger eye in my book .

_________________
2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B

Due to the silly Sti badges I think of them all more like pink eye.

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2012 Boss 302
2003 BMW 330i

This the reason why I won't get a C6Z06:

Jeremy Foley's C6Z06 vs Ryan Johnson's Elise

I know I can find a low mileage Elise in perfect shape (no cracked front clam) for $26k - $30k. For a full setup it's probably $8k with Double Adjustable Ohlins (brand new), two sets of SSR's and a FSB.

The other plus is that for every 20 C6 Corvettes I see on the road, I *might* see one Elise/Exige. - AB

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What's this cracked clam nonsense? I haven't heard about that...


--Donnie

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They call the nose of the Elise the "clam". It's a single piece of fiberglass. To get a new one and have it painted is around $6k. That's why Salerno refuses to replace his until he sells the car.

Ryan Johnson's car has a crack on the bottom passenger side of the clam. - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

But it's just bodywork, right? Why can't you just repair it?


--Donnie

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I don't know. Everyone acts as if it's a tough repair. I need to do a little reading on it.

Aside from that, there is a common problem with the A/C resistor that is apparently expensive, but most of the 2005-2007 cars have it already done under warranty or was done by the owner. Otherwise, the car is supposed to be dead nuts reliable. I am surprised how many people I have seen on LotusTalk using them as their DD. The good thing is that they put a baffled oil pan in the car stock, so taking it on track is no problem... versus what happened to me with my 2ZZGE Celica - AB

_________________
'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S