First Look: 2025 Porsche 911 GT3

[XutvJet]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Why not? If there's a market and it stops buyers going elsewhere, why not?

It is getting out of control but I get it. The company is in it to make money, but they are also doing it at the expense of who can actually afford the Porsche sportscar models now.

Porsche used to make some somewhat afford 911 variants back in 70s through early 2000s. Then the Boxster/Cayman came out to fill that void, but now even those are pushing the limit. Porsche seems to want to put itself just a notch below the supercar brands now. 911 sales are starting to slide. Lots of Cayman/Boxsters got snatched up because of Porsche's ridiculous decision to go EV only with that model. AND NOW, Porsche has admitted that was a mistake and is trying to reverse engineer that model, which isn't even out yet (!) to handle an ICE drivertain. I'm hopeful that there will be more standard and cheaper 911s that will come out of this...especially with what VW is going through at the moment and getting ready to lay off 26,000 workers this week. That will certainly trickle down to Porsche to up their sales across all models. You just keep making a handful of $200-400K specialty 911s to keep things going.

[XutvJet]

Originally Posted by BlkGS

The real answer is all these different trim levels give all these rich guys an excuse to make themselves feel more special.

The Carrera T for example is a "lightweight" version that is marginally lighter than a regular one, but it gives buyers the option to pay a premium to say how they can feel the barely existent difference and how it's "so much more direct and focused". Or you can buy a GTS and talk about how "it's like a race car for the street because it has monoblock wheels".

They sell all these different trims so that the mostly older buyers of these cars can sit around at Porsches and Pancakes and talk at length about how they're different and toot their own horns.

I've been there. My father had a 997.2 S and a 993, both were great cars, but the PCA crowd even then was getting overrun with big bank accounts losers. The sad part was a lot of the older PCA crowd was just enthusiasts. Porsche didn't really start to attract these owners until the very end of the 997 run.

^Excellent post! My thoughts exactly about the majority in this crowd. The Porsche crowd has definitely changed, that is for sure. It is largely a group of ultra wealthy dudes showing off their flashy "rare" cars, talking about their "journey" of buying the car (makes me want to punch babies), how their overweight 911 weighs 40lbs less because of some select de-contenting Porsche did to upcharge and make the car special. There is a subset of us that modify and work on our cars, drive them hard, and don't give a rat's ass about rarity or the like. These guys are unrelatable.

[x622]

Originally Posted by XutvJet

^Excellent post! My thoughts exactly about the majority in this crowd. The Porsche crowd has definitely changed, that is for sure. It is largely a group of ultra wealthy dudes showing off their flashy "rare" cars, talking about their "journey" of buying the car (makes me want to punch babies), how their overweight 911 weighs 40lbs less because of some select de-contenting Porsche did to upcharge and make the car special. There is a subset of us that modify and work on our cars, drive them hard, and don't give a rat's ass about rarity or the like. These guys are unrelatable.

Wow that word gave me flashbacks to standing around the first time I went to a C&C and met all the pretentious douchebags associated with my TTS and listening to them hem and haw about my "spec". Oh what a "Journey" I had choosing what my build was. I loved getting charged that extra few hundred bucks for the porsche crest on the arm rest and seats. What an experience.


Don't forget the craftsmanship guys. The CRAFTSMANSHIP.

[BlkGS]

Originally Posted by x622

Wow that word gave me flashbacks to standing around the first time I went to a C&C and met all the pretentious douchebags associated with my TTS and listening to them hem and haw about my "spec". Oh what a "Journey" I had choosing what my build was. I loved getting charged that extra few hundred bucks for the porsche crest on the arm rest and seats. What an experience.


Don't forget the craftsmanship guys. The CRAFTSMANSHIP.

Lol, so true.

They're the same as the "1 of 57 red on tan automatic convertible Corvettes built on a Wednesday" guys, just with more money.

Prior to buying my first Corvette I was looking at 996 Turbos (because in 2012 you could get a 20-30k mile 996 turbo manual for like 30-35k, which was the same price range as a low mile narrow body LS3 Corvette). They all said the same thing "buy the car, not the color". Found one but you hate the color? Too bad, buy it and ignore your preferences. Silver on brown with yellow seat belts not for you? Too bad, buy the car not the color. I ended up buying a Corvette instead dma I stead of making a like 40k profit had I kept it until now I ended up going through a series of Corvettes and have only like a $10k profit.

When my dad bought his current 996 with a blown motor untried so.hard.to convince him to just stuff an LS motor in it. He was overall on board until he talked to a few of his "Porsche Owner" friends who derided him for the idea and talked him out of it because somehow a 3.4L sub 300hp flat 6 was better than having 400+ HP that would need basically no upkeep. We ended up swapping in a super low mile 3.4L, which ran great, but that car would have been better and cheaper to build with an LS.

[Donatello.]

For that money? I'd be looking at something else

[XutvJet]

Originally Posted by BlkGS

......talked to a few of his "Porsche Owner" friends who derided him for the idea and talked him out of it because somehow a 3.4L sub 300hp flat 6 was better than having 400+ HP that would need basically no upkeep.

I've been basically told I'm a poser because I painted the black faded out brake calipers on my Cayman yellow. On two occasions, they have smugly asked me, damn well knowing the answer, if I had the ceramic brakes (which only use yellow calipers)? When I say no, on both occasions I was told "Ya know, ONLY Porsches with PCCBs get yellow calipers". I just slowly nod with an unamused face and dead-Russian eyes while thinking "I've succeeded".

[Donatello.]

Originally Posted by XutvJet

I've been basically told I'm a poser because I painted the black faded out brake calipers on my Cayman yellow. On two occasions, they have smugly asked me, damn well knowing the answer, if I had the ceramic brakes (which only use yellow calipers)? When I say no, on both occasions I was told "Ya know, ONLY Porsches with PCCBs get yellow calipers". I just slowly nod with an unamused face and dead-Russian eyes while thinking "I've succeeded".

Who knew yellow was sacred to these snobs smh

[Alfisti]

I dunno what crowds you guys hang with but I meet every so often with my whattsapp chat guys (Greater Toronto 997 group) and tbh most are very decent blokes. Every so often we go to a broader meet and people seem ok, the odd poser but not too bad.

Lotsa guys in my chat are wife/2 kids/stretch to buy a sportscar types.

[dgoldenz]

I’ve literally never seen someone talk down to someone else about their car at any of these meets/C&C type events. Don’t know where you guys are hanging out. That only happens on the internet, like in this very thread.

I see people see the same things about Ferrari owners and yet all of them I’ve ever met or talked to are die-hard car guys that just made some money and moved up. You don’t have to be “rich” to finance a car when you’re making decent money. I’m nowhere close to rich, I just spend my money on cars instead of other things.

The people who don’t want to be associated with these “snob” Porsche and Ferrari crowds are either broke and jealous, don’t realize the great networking opportunities they’re missing out on, or both.

[BlkGS]

Porsche Club of America events in South Florida.

Some of them are cool. Some of them are dbags. The cool ones typically do some of their own work. The dbags ones pay someone to change their air filters.

To be fair, we never had anyone come up and insult one of our cars. They just condemned non-Porsche parts, and especially putting in a domestic motor.

The yellow calipers thing is like putting an M3 basdge on a 328i to them. To be fair, red would have been off limits too to them. And probably green. Porsche gets weird about caliper colors meaning stuff.

My biggest struggle right now is contrasting my preference for a manual 997.2 with the absurdly easy power of a 991.2, and if you get a 4 you get mega traction too. It's super expensive to get extra power out of an NA 911. It's just a tune to get 500-600hp out of a base 991.2, or you spend a few grand for GTS turbos and make 600+ HP.