At least this hobby is cheaper than aviation...
09-04-2009, 12:22 PM
#17
Burning Brakes
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
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09-04-2009, 01:07 PM
#18
Drifting
Oh Man!! Congrats!
09-04-2009, 11:31 PM
#19
Nordschleife Master
I randomly surfed into this thread. Having spent a LOT of time trying to avoid spending money to upgrade my Targa 4S, I was intrigued. I clicked through Nugget's link to the RS he had looked at in Houston and was shocked to find out that he looked that exact same RS I bought 2 weeks ago.
I had been looking at some track-modded GT3s, but I am pretty tall and I couldn't fit in the car with my helmet on in sport seats because of the sunroof. As I was pondering what to do, my dad became obsessed with finding me an RS, and he found #2582 at a dealer about 20 miles from my house at a pretty good price. I too looked through the history on the registry and was concerned that the car had bounced around to a lot of dealers, but it looks like that was primarily b/c the car was overpriced (or at least became overpriced as prices for RSs appear to be falling in anticipation of the 2010 RS).
Long story short, I pulled the trigger two weeks ago. I haven't had my RS on the track yet (soon, very soon), but I can't wait.
My Father is buying my Targa 4S, so I have to help him drive to Houston. Maybe I should do the Natchez Trace Parkway on way down. My dad is recently retired, so I'm trying to get him to join PCA and take his new (to him) Targa 4s out to a track. Any suggestion on how I can convince him?
Nugget, good luck with the RS, and thanks for the post.
I had been looking at some track-modded GT3s, but I am pretty tall and I couldn't fit in the car with my helmet on in sport seats because of the sunroof. As I was pondering what to do, my dad became obsessed with finding me an RS, and he found #2582 at a dealer about 20 miles from my house at a pretty good price. I too looked through the history on the registry and was concerned that the car had bounced around to a lot of dealers, but it looks like that was primarily b/c the car was overpriced (or at least became overpriced as prices for RSs appear to be falling in anticipation of the 2010 RS).
Long story short, I pulled the trigger two weeks ago. I haven't had my RS on the track yet (soon, very soon), but I can't wait.
My Father is buying my Targa 4S, so I have to help him drive to Houston. Maybe I should do the Natchez Trace Parkway on way down. My dad is recently retired, so I'm trying to get him to join PCA and take his new (to him) Targa 4s out to a track. Any suggestion on how I can convince him?
Nugget, good luck with the RS, and thanks for the post.
09-05-2009, 05:52 PM
#21
I randomly surfed into this thread. Having spent a LOT of time trying to avoid spending money to upgrade my Targa 4S, I was intrigued. I clicked through Nugget's link to the RS he had looked at in Houston and was shocked to find out that he looked that exact same RS I bought 2 weeks ago.
I had been looking at some track-modded GT3s, but I am pretty tall and I couldn't fit in the car with my helmet on in sport seats because of the sunroof. As I was pondering what to do, my dad became obsessed with finding me an RS, and he found #2582 at a dealer about 20 miles from my house at a pretty good price. I too looked through the history on the registry and was concerned that the car had bounced around to a lot of dealers, but it looks like that was primarily b/c the car was overpriced (or at least became overpriced as prices for RSs appear to be falling in anticipation of the 2010 RS).
Long story short, I pulled the trigger two weeks ago. I haven't had my RS on the track yet (soon, very soon), but I can't wait.
My Father is buying my Targa 4S, so I have to help him drive to Houston. Maybe I should do the Natchez Trace Parkway on way down. My dad is recently retired, so I'm trying to get him to join PCA and take his new (to him) Targa 4s out to a track. Any suggestion on how I can convince him?
Nugget, good luck with the RS, and thanks for the post.
I had been looking at some track-modded GT3s, but I am pretty tall and I couldn't fit in the car with my helmet on in sport seats because of the sunroof. As I was pondering what to do, my dad became obsessed with finding me an RS, and he found #2582 at a dealer about 20 miles from my house at a pretty good price. I too looked through the history on the registry and was concerned that the car had bounced around to a lot of dealers, but it looks like that was primarily b/c the car was overpriced (or at least became overpriced as prices for RSs appear to be falling in anticipation of the 2010 RS).
Long story short, I pulled the trigger two weeks ago. I haven't had my RS on the track yet (soon, very soon), but I can't wait.
My Father is buying my Targa 4S, so I have to help him drive to Houston. Maybe I should do the Natchez Trace Parkway on way down. My dad is recently retired, so I'm trying to get him to join PCA and take his new (to him) Targa 4s out to a track. Any suggestion on how I can convince him?
Nugget, good luck with the RS, and thanks for the post.
I think you just bought a Cayman with an RS body kit ...
09-06-2009, 12:33 AM
#22
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Just a quick update, I'll post a much more details trip report when we get back to Houston...
We're about halfway home (staying the night tonight in Jackson, MS) and everything's gone just great. The guys at JPA Nashville had the car all ready to go for us and the Natchez Trace Parkway has been a really fun drive. It's slow going (50mph speed limit, enforced) but we've had fun stopping at the various sites and historical monuments. We've got about 100 more miles of the Parkway to go tomorrow and then we'll be on 'real' roads for the rest of the trip.
Pics up at http://macnugget.org/photos/2007gt3rs and http://macnugget.org/photos/gt3_natchez
Great to hear you bought #2582, Allen. Definitely drop me a note when you're in Houston.
We're about halfway home (staying the night tonight in Jackson, MS) and everything's gone just great. The guys at JPA Nashville had the car all ready to go for us and the Natchez Trace Parkway has been a really fun drive. It's slow going (50mph speed limit, enforced) but we've had fun stopping at the various sites and historical monuments. We've got about 100 more miles of the Parkway to go tomorrow and then we'll be on 'real' roads for the rest of the trip.
Pics up at http://macnugget.org/photos/2007gt3rs and http://macnugget.org/photos/gt3_natchez
Great to hear you bought #2582, Allen. Definitely drop me a note when you're in Houston.
09-08-2009, 12:18 PM
#24
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Make a little mental list in your head of all the things that could possibly go wrong when buying a car you've never seen from a guy you've never met from 1,000 miles away. It's a staggering and sobering list, especially at three in the morning the night before you're supposed to pick up the car. Believe me, at three in the morning it seems totally reasonable to worry that perhaps the car doesn't really have an engine (a fault which was missed during the PPI, of course) and that you might end up having to push it the whole way home. It was a fitful night last Thursday and the alarm clock was a welcome relief.
The reality of the pickup was the complete opposite of my ulcerous worries. We hopped on a Continental Express ERJ for a quick, direct flight up to Nashville. The dealership picked us up at the airport and drove us across town to their location. I considered it a good omen when we passed a race track en route (Nashville Superspeedway) and by noon on Friday I was at the wheel of my new GT3 RS. Since we'd wrapped up all the paperwork on Monday there really wasn't much to do other than take delivery. The dealer had installed my Cargraphic grill screens (thanks again, Sharky, they're awesome!) and the "real" alcantara RS steering wheel. I also had them toss a quart of oil in just in case we needed to top off the car on the drive home. The car was pretty much perfect, and to my relief did in fact have an engine in it. Whew. In a slightly surreal moment, the flatbed carrying my old C2S (traded in last Monday in Houston) rolled up while we were packing our bags into the GT3. For a few minutes they were both parked side by side.
Soon we were on the road. Monica suggested we try to find that race track we'd passed on the ride in to look for a good backdrop for pictures. We blindly navigated (no PCM or Nav in the GT3) around the unfamiliar Nashville streets and managed to find the entrance to the track. There was a guy watching the gate but I guess he just assumed that the car belonged there because he just smiled and waved us on in. I didn't argue. We passed three or four other people and nobody questioned us or wondered what we were doing there. I guess there is an upside to the vulgar styling of the car. two or three wrong turns later and, yikes, that's a blend line. We were on the track itself. Some long-haired guy with no helmet on was zooming around on a shifter kart (ahh the south). We positioned the car and snapped some nice track photos. I can honestly say that we had the GT3 out on a track within the first five minutes of ownership. A record?
From there we grabbed lunch and checked in to our hotel only to discover that this weekend was the 2009 National Corvette Caravan get-together. I parked in a sea of Corvettes and felt simultaneously out of place and at home among thousands of other car enthusiasts. I'm just a car guy at heart but it did sort of feel like enemy territory at times.
Saturday morning we hit the road. The bulk of our route back was the Natchez Trace Parkway, which is a national park. The speed limit for the entire 444 mile road was 50mph and it's heavily enforced (we saw more bicycles than cars). It's not the route you'd want to take if you were looking for a spirited drive or to make good time. I put my head in "I'm on holiday" mode, settled back and relaxed, and it was great. There was no cellphone or data coverage for most of the drive, which enhanced the sense of being disconnected from the world. Eight hours of enforced quiet and bonding with the new car -- it was GREAT. We stopped every 10-20 miles to look at an interesting historical landmark, or crawl around in hills and waterfalls, and generally just check things out. I highly recommend Natchez Trace if you want a relaxing and scenic drive.
Looking for lunch in Natchez we came across a GT2 (that was a shock) but it turned out to be a fake built from a 996 TT. We did meet its gregarious owner, though, talked Porsches with him, and left with the name of the best place to eat lunch in Natchez (Magnolia Grill). Win.
For the remaining 300 or so miles to home we managed to stay on back roads and go through small towns. The whole way from Nashville to Houston we spent only about an hour on an actual interstate highway.
By the time the road dumped us off at the Mississipi River I'd grown accustomed to the different shift points and the stiff, notchy GT3 shifter. I'm going to have to start jogging again, though, to build up my thigh muscles for the GT3's clutch pedal -- when you put the car into first gear waiting for the light to turn green it's a committment! There are so many small differences between the GT3 and the C2S I traded in, but since the car overall "feels" so similar it's doubly jarring to my habits and sense of familiarity. I keep wanting to shift where I'm used to shifting and I still haven't broken the habit of looking at the console expecting to see a map of where I am. That'll pass, though, I'm sure.
The original owner of the car loaded up the side and rear windows with dark tint. I don't really care for it -- it's hard to take a tight corner and spot the apex through the blackness of the side window, and I feel sort of like a douche when people pull up next to me and can't see in. I had to roll down the window just to wave back at a child who was excitedly watching from the car next to us. It'll also ruin my rear-facing camera that I use at the track. Gotta get it fixed, I think. How hard is it to remove tint from that rear window? I'm worried about damaging the defroster lines.
This week I'll need to find time to install my Denison iPod gateway thing, and I need to wire up the V1 radar detector in a more permanent manner. First proper track time will be this Saturday, and I expect to come back with a host of brand new revelations about the car. There's only so much you can learn about a GT3 on highway cloverleaf.
Car stats page is up: http://macnugget.org/cars/gt3rs
Photos are up too: http://macnugget.org/photos/2007gt3rs and http://macnugget.org/photos/gt3_natchez
The car's all branded (in true Texas form -- cattle rustlin's a hanging offense) and ready to roll:
Also, as I feared, my driveway is going to need some serious work to accomodate the car. It took some wood planks to avoid having to park in the street. Isn't it nutty what we'll do just for the sake of a car? It's totally worth it.
The reality of the pickup was the complete opposite of my ulcerous worries. We hopped on a Continental Express ERJ for a quick, direct flight up to Nashville. The dealership picked us up at the airport and drove us across town to their location. I considered it a good omen when we passed a race track en route (Nashville Superspeedway) and by noon on Friday I was at the wheel of my new GT3 RS. Since we'd wrapped up all the paperwork on Monday there really wasn't much to do other than take delivery. The dealer had installed my Cargraphic grill screens (thanks again, Sharky, they're awesome!) and the "real" alcantara RS steering wheel. I also had them toss a quart of oil in just in case we needed to top off the car on the drive home. The car was pretty much perfect, and to my relief did in fact have an engine in it. Whew. In a slightly surreal moment, the flatbed carrying my old C2S (traded in last Monday in Houston) rolled up while we were packing our bags into the GT3. For a few minutes they were both parked side by side.
Soon we were on the road. Monica suggested we try to find that race track we'd passed on the ride in to look for a good backdrop for pictures. We blindly navigated (no PCM or Nav in the GT3) around the unfamiliar Nashville streets and managed to find the entrance to the track. There was a guy watching the gate but I guess he just assumed that the car belonged there because he just smiled and waved us on in. I didn't argue.
We passed three or four other people and nobody questioned us or wondered what we were doing there. I guess there is an upside to the vulgar styling of the car. two or three wrong turns later and, yikes, that's a blend line. We were on the track itself. Some long-haired guy with no helmet on was zooming around on a shifter kart (ahh the south). We positioned the car and snapped some nice track photos. I can honestly say that we had the GT3 out on a track within the first five minutes of ownership. A record?From there we grabbed lunch and checked in to our hotel only to discover that this weekend was the 2009 National Corvette Caravan get-together. I parked in a sea of Corvettes and felt simultaneously out of place and at home among thousands of other car enthusiasts. I'm just a car guy at heart but it did sort of feel like enemy territory at times.
Saturday morning we hit the road. The bulk of our route back was the Natchez Trace Parkway, which is a national park. The speed limit for the entire 444 mile road was 50mph and it's heavily enforced (we saw more bicycles than cars). It's not the route you'd want to take if you were looking for a spirited drive or to make good time. I put my head in "I'm on holiday" mode, settled back and relaxed, and it was great. There was no cellphone or data coverage for most of the drive, which enhanced the sense of being disconnected from the world. Eight hours of enforced quiet and bonding with the new car -- it was GREAT. We stopped every 10-20 miles to look at an interesting historical landmark, or crawl around in hills and waterfalls, and generally just check things out. I highly recommend Natchez Trace if you want a relaxing and scenic drive.
Looking for lunch in Natchez we came across a GT2 (that was a shock) but it turned out to be a fake built from a 996 TT. We did meet its gregarious owner, though, talked Porsches with him, and left with the name of the best place to eat lunch in Natchez (Magnolia Grill). Win.
For the remaining 300 or so miles to home we managed to stay on back roads and go through small towns. The whole way from Nashville to Houston we spent only about an hour on an actual interstate highway.
By the time the road dumped us off at the Mississipi River I'd grown accustomed to the different shift points and the stiff, notchy GT3 shifter. I'm going to have to start jogging again, though, to build up my thigh muscles for the GT3's clutch pedal -- when you put the car into first gear waiting for the light to turn green it's a committment! There are so many small differences between the GT3 and the C2S I traded in, but since the car overall "feels" so similar it's doubly jarring to my habits and sense of familiarity. I keep wanting to shift where I'm used to shifting and I still haven't broken the habit of looking at the console expecting to see a map of where I am. That'll pass, though, I'm sure.
The original owner of the car loaded up the side and rear windows with dark tint. I don't really care for it -- it's hard to take a tight corner and spot the apex through the blackness of the side window, and I feel sort of like a douche when people pull up next to me and can't see in. I had to roll down the window just to wave back at a child who was excitedly watching from the car next to us. It'll also ruin my rear-facing camera that I use at the track. Gotta get it fixed, I think. How hard is it to remove tint from that rear window? I'm worried about damaging the defroster lines.
This week I'll need to find time to install my Denison iPod gateway thing, and I need to wire up the V1 radar detector in a more permanent manner. First proper track time will be this Saturday, and I expect to come back with a host of brand new revelations about the car. There's only so much you can learn about a GT3 on highway cloverleaf.
Car stats page is up: http://macnugget.org/cars/gt3rs
Photos are up too: http://macnugget.org/photos/2007gt3rs and http://macnugget.org/photos/gt3_natchez
The car's all branded (in true Texas form -- cattle rustlin's a hanging offense) and ready to roll:
Also, as I feared, my driveway is going to need some serious work to accomodate the car. It took some wood planks to avoid having to park in the street. Isn't it nutty what we'll do just for the sake of a car? It's totally worth it.
Last edited by Nugget; 09-08-2009 at 03:25 PM.
09-08-2009, 12:48 PM
#25
Three Wheelin'
Love the above and could definitely see myself doing the same ..
Car looks fantastic .. Best
04-11-2011, 03:29 AM
#30
1st Gear
Join Date: Apr 2011
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I thoroughly enjoyed this post I love the car!! and I laughed at the wood planks, while I am only a 22 year old "kid" with only a bmw I hope that one day I can lay planks down for my porsche too! (I do have to for my bmw already hah)
I love the car!! and I laughed at the wood planks, while I am only a 22 year old "kid" with only a bmw I hope that one day I can lay planks down for my porsche too! (I do have to for my bmw already hah)