Keep Or Sell? 3RS/Spyder vs Cup

[hughp3]

Appropriate thread and glad I found the forum, anyway I was right here where TrackRat is 5 weeks ago.

Sold GT3.1 for 2004 Cup. Did it for safety mainly but also was not gonna make the mistake, again, of taking a perfectly good street car, waste all kinds of money trying to make it half as fast as a true race car. Then spend money putting it back to stock hopefully without shunting it somewhere along the way. I have also found that the rush of track driving just cannot be found safely with street driving anymore, at least not around here (Atlanta). I bought this car with the expectations that I can do it all myself (I do have my own backyard shop with lift which does help a tad). I must be able to load, unload, run and maintain the car within reason, alone. Frankly its not a big deal. I just did it at Roebling and it was no different, albeit louder, than the street car.

Now the Goodie: Let me say and maybe say again. I cannot go back to a street car. The experience is soooo addictive, so visceral. I get it now. You need to experience this too. Yea I know its just DE's but really its much more than that. A clear track and a Cup Car is what makes me not sleep at night. The car is good, really good. About 7 seconds PL good first weekend out. So take the plunge, sell your street fighters, get a big turbo diesel and tow that baby to your next fix. Just put the sold car money away for tires, 1 set per weekend. Yea those new Michelin's were gone, time to try Yokohama's.

Hughp3 -
AMP member, lets get her done.

[FTS]

Nice first post Hugh Welcome!

[Festina Lente]

Originally Posted by hughp3

Appropriate thread and glad I found the forum, anyway I was right here where TrackRat is 5 weeks ago.

Sold GT3.1 for 2004 Cup. Did it for safety mainly but also was not gonna make the mistake, again, of taking a perfectly good street car, waste all kinds of money trying to make it half as fast as a true race car. Then spend money putting it back to stock hopefully without shunting it somewhere along the way. I have also found that the rush of track driving just cannot be found safely with street driving anymore, at least not around here (Atlanta). I bought this car with the expectations that I can do it all myself (I do have my own backyard shop with lift which does help a tad). I must be able to load, unload, run and maintain the car within reason, alone. Frankly its not a big deal. I just did it at Roebling and it was no different, albeit louder, than the street car.

Now the Goodie: Let me say and maybe say again. I cannot go back to a street car. The experience is soooo addictive, so visceral. I get it now. You need to experience this too. Yea I know its just DE's but really its much more than that. A clear track and a Cup Car is what makes me not sleep at night. The car is good, really good. About 7 seconds PL good first weekend out. So take the plunge, sell your street fighters, get a big turbo diesel and tow that baby to your next fix. Just put the sold car money away for tires, 1 set per weekend. Yea those new Michelin's were gone, time to try Yokohama's.

Hughp3 -
AMP member, lets get her done.

Somebody gets it!

[CWS]

Originally Posted by hughp3

Appropriate thread and glad I found the forum, anyway I was right here where TrackRat is 5 weeks ago.

Sold GT3.1 for 2004 Cup. Did it for safety mainly but also was not gonna make the mistake, again, of taking a perfectly good street car, waste all kinds of money trying to make it half as fast as a true race car. Then spend money putting it back to stock hopefully without shunting it somewhere along the way. I have also found that the rush of track driving just cannot be found safely with street driving anymore, at least not around here (Atlanta). I bought this car with the expectations that I can do it all myself (I do have my own backyard shop with lift which does help a tad). I must be able to load, unload, run and maintain the car within reason, alone. Frankly its not a big deal. I just did it at Roebling and it was no different, albeit louder, than the street car.

Now the Goodie: Let me say and maybe say again. I cannot go back to a street car. The experience is soooo addictive, so visceral. I get it now. You need to experience this too. Yea I know its just DE's but really its much more than that. A clear track and a Cup Car is what makes me not sleep at night. The car is good, really good. About 7 seconds PL good first weekend out. Just put the sold car money away for tires, 1 set per weekend. Yea those new Michelin's were gone, time to try Yokohama's.

Hughp3 -
AMP member, lets get her done.

This!

[FFaust]

Anything else is just a compromise.

[pranqster]

I have done this.

I sold my 6GT3 and RUF RGT to buy my 6 cup. I was not really in the market to buy the cup, but it came to me at a time that I was going to have to do major suspension changes to my 6GT3 if I were to keep it as a track car. The 6 cup is around 2600 pounds and has an RSR sprint engine in it, and it came to me at a price I thought was reasonable based upon condition, the RSR Sprint engine, carbon fiber, wankel axles, etc.

I am lucky, in that I have a membership at Spring Mountain and can go and drive on member days, sometimes on Thursdays or Fridays and can exploit the cup to my driving level. Even though I had quite a bit of track time in my 6 GT3, I am still accumulating Cup seat time and need to get better. I like the manual transmission and do not see myself going to a sequential any time in the future. We now have a group at Spring Mountain that is gravitating back to cups (and RSRS) so soon I expect I will have 5 or 6 people to play with on the track, each time I go.

I kept my 997.1 RS, but never really came to terms with it on the track because once you have a cup, you never want to drive a street car on the track again. I did not like the suspension on the 997.1 RS. I was not driving it that much on the street so I sold it.

I came full circle and bought my 6 GT3 back in April. It happened to come up for sale and I gladly repurchased it. I had both cars at Spring Mountain in May. My 6 cup car was 11 seconds a lap faster than the 6 GT3 on a 3.1 mile track. Same driver, Same day. I keep my cup car at Premier Sports Car Service in Las Vegas, and repurchased the GT3 to use around some of the smaller local tracks in NM and Colorado. I kept reminding myself that day at the track that the 6 GT3 was now my momentum car. And what a momentum car it is. So now I will once again do my own DE's in the GT3, and fly out to Vegas to drive the Cup at Spring Mountain.

It is absolutely true that each time I drive the cup car that I try to maximize my track time because I am paying for support. The only DE's I have taken the car to is Miller Motorsports. I would like to go to Road America with it, and to Daytona some time. Also a few tracks out West under the right circumstances. Is it a PIA to have support? Sometimes. Is it a damn nice luxury to have support? Yes it is. Is it nice to have someone look over the car each time it comes in? Yes it is. Would I buy the cup again? Yes I would.

So far, I am still accumulating seat time and have not raced my Cup. I am reluctant to do so because of the costs fixing items on any resultant offs, spins, or other acts of getting pushed off, doing the pushing off, etc. I currently do not have the disposable income to fix a 20k or 30k off.

[mooty]

pranq, right on.
once driven a race car, no street car, however good/fast they are, just not the same.
though stripper is not a cup, but those who really know my stripper knows it's a cup. that's all i can disclose. like you i never liked my .1RS or .1gt3. i can't say why. the 6 was more fun to drive. .2RS was as good as 6gt3, faster but no better. i still like dancing with the 6 more. but i would like a cup next. i have to find a way to hide all these things from the mrs. btw, if you go off in a street car, a big off, it will be 10-20k easy. my little "smoke/fire" incident at regular shop rate would be close to 7,000. and i didn't go off anywhere.

come out to thunderhill with PCA GGR or NCRC july 9-10 and july 16-17
lots of GT3's will be there.

[pranqster]

Mooty

If I go off because it is my fault I can live with that. That is the risk I take when I go out on the track. What I would not like, is if I get pushed off from behind by someone that has more money than brains.

I definately want to come and run in Cali with all the .org guys and rennlist guys. I just have to figure out when. Maybe I will just have to come out for a road trip soon in the GT3. There are a lot of tracks in Cali I have not been to.

[24Chromium]

Let's see... Cup v. Spyder, or 3 RS (3.8), or 2 RS, or 3 RS (4.0)?

My answer? None of the above. If you're not going to race (and I can't for the life of me figure out why the hell not!), and you're going to continue in DE, then for me the answer is crystal clear.

GET A SPEC MIATA!!!!

You wanna prove your mettle as a driver? Pass me in my high-horsepower, latest, greatest supercar in your dinky little Miata! That will get my attention!!!

PS: Teach your wify how to drive and give her the Spyder.

[Trackrat]

Originally Posted by 24Chromium

Let's see... Cup v. Spyder, or 3 RS (3.8), or 2 RS, or 3 RS (4.0)?

My answer? None of the above. If you're not going to race (and I can't for the life of me figure out why the hell not!), and you're going to continue in DE, then for me the answer is crystal clear.

GET A SPEC MIATA!!!!

You wanna prove your mettle as a driver? Pass me in my high-horsepower, latest, greatest supercar in your dinky little Miata! That will get my attention!!!

PS: Teach your wify how to drive and give her the Spyder.

The woman driving the Miata last weekend was driving it very well, but there is no substitute for hp But I hear you and understand your point. Wify is scared enough just street driving, no way in a billion years would she venture out on track unless it was closed to other cars! lol

[mooty]

Originally Posted by Trackrat

The woman driving the Miata last weekend was driving it very well, but there is no substitute for hp But I hear you and understand your point. Wify is scared enough just street driving, no way in a billion years would she venture out on track unless it was closed to other cars! lol

if that woman is chinese and driving a pale yellow miata, her name is margaret. she was my coach.. well still is. she's the only driver that impressed JVoB when he coached a bunch of drivers...

JVoB was chatting with a bunch of us....
then he goes, this woman took me in miata without braking into T1 at TH. i thought we are going to die. she turned in and kept on going..... smooth as butta. if you ever see her again, get a ride. she double clutches up and down each gear. yes, you dont need it, but she does it so fast and so smooth it's really amazing.

[mooty]

Originally Posted by 24Chromium

Let's see... Cup v. Spyder, or 3 RS (3.8), or 2 RS, or 3 RS (4.0)?

My answer? None of the above. If you're not going to race (and I can't for the life of me figure out why the hell not!), and you're going to continue in DE, then for me the answer is crystal clear.

GET A SPEC MIATA!!!!

You wanna prove your mettle as a driver? Pass me in my high-horsepower, latest, greatest supercar in your dinky little Miata! That will get my attention!!!

PS: Teach your wify how to drive and give her the Spyder.

i htink justin hall did 2:08 or was it 2:06 in a spec miata OVER THE TOP at TH years ago, before the repaving (which is a much slower track)

[FTS]

For driving on track to be fun, it has to be difficult to do so for me, I have to be challenged. A Miata is only challenging in terms of maximizing landscape use to keep the momentum; otherwise there is no challenge IMHO in how you use the throttle or brakes in that car. I felt that way in the Cayman as well, and that was one of the reasons I changed it out.

[24Chromium]

Pete, I didn't mean to imply that the Spyder was for the wify to track. I simply meant for her to have it as a daily driver. It's a chick car! LOL

[Trackrat]

Originally Posted by 24Chromium

Pete, I didn't mean to imply that the Spyder was for the wify to track. I simply meant for her to have it as a daily driver. It's a chick car! LOL

Lol!