by "MotorAffair" (motoraffair)
Published 02/14/2017 at 16:39
by "MotorAffair" (motoraffair)
Published 02/14/2017 at 16:39
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STARS: 3
The term “
bargain
” and Porsche rarely find themselves in the same sentence. Let alone the title of the story involving a prestigious road rally event of only the latest and greatest offerings from Stuttgart. My chariot for this amazing adventure is a true bargain in terms of performance for the dollar. My journey begins with a phone call about my personal Porsche 911, a 2002 Carrera C2, a car I intended on sneaking into the Targa Trophy Grand Tour under the pretense of “media”. I do mean sneak as the event was limited to only the elite Porsches: GT3, GT3 RS, Turbo, GT4, Carrera GT, and 918. My car is not of the same caliber. As my luck would have it, the call let me know my Porsche was not finished. So here I was, the day before this wondrous three-day event and I was without a Porsche to drive.
The hours counted down, as a flurry of calls and messages left me with just the warmth of an overworked iPhone in my hand. To make matters worse my Co-Pilot for the event had canceled earlier due to a work obligation. “How could work matter at a time like this?!” I said to him “We have a Porsche to drive and miles of winding roads ahead of us”. Defeated and tired I called it a night, I guess this event would be missed. Just as I settled in bed I check my messages one last time before going to sleep. DING! We have a Porsche Turbo!
A 2007 997 Porsche Turbo Sport Chrono Package, black on black on black to be exact. This relatively stock example belongs to a friend, and race car driver, Drake Kemper who happened to be running the Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge 4-hour endurance race in a Porsche Cayman at Daytona that weekend. This is a 997.1 sporting an upgraded exterior to 997.2-spec, as the result of a minor accident which branded the title rebuilt. The car looks glorious. Adding to the looks, the car is sitting on lowered suspension and center-lock BBS wheels with sticky Toyo R888 tires. The car has 102k on the clock but feels like 50k as she is tight as a drum. For those of you who are not Porsche stat encyclopedias, this Turbo has 480 hp and 460 ft/lbs and does 0-60 in 3.6s. The added Sport Chrono pack allows for added boost with the sport button engaged, pushing torque up 45ft/lbs to 505 ft/lbs for up to ten seconds to aid in passing. We ended up using that feature a whole lot. To put things in perspective a 2015 991 GT3 has 475 hp, but only 325 ft/lbs of torque, does 0-60 in 3.5s, and it cost around $150,000. So as you can see our Porsche Turbo is a bargain at around $60,000 and keeping up with this crowd will not be a problem. Or will it?
The start of the Targa Trophy Grand Tour was at the newly finished and brilliant Porsche Experience Center Los Angeles and we were late. I drove up from San Diego and forgot it was a Friday morning, not Saturday. No wonder there were so many cars on the road. We pulled in to a plethora of Porsche-porn. Rows and Rows of 991 GT3s, Turbos, and GT3RSs. This of course was just the parking lot, waiting inside was a 917, a 959 prototype, and a smattering of other race cars.
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My name is Patrick Stevenson, I am a freelance Automotive Journalist who writes and shoots for TheMotorAffair.com, TheDrive.com and any other paying outlet. I have started The Motor Affair to play, podcast, and share my love for art, cars and the love of driving. Please check out my art, podcast, and such on Instagram and The Motor Affair .
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"LeadfootYT" (leadfootyt)
02/14/2017 at 16:55, STARS: 0
Didn’t the Thermal track time for this overlap with the Michelin PS4S launch? I swear I saw some of these cars there, but I feel like you would have mentioned the 919 2nd place Le Mans car and the four 918 Spyders (plus Mark Webber’s presence). When was this?
"MotorAffair" (motoraffair)
02/14/2017 at 18:57, STARS: 0
This was Jan 27-29 and yes it did overlap the Michelin PS4S Launch. In fact I saw Rob Dickinson of Singer Design fame at Thermal when we were there in the afternoon.