In recent months, I constantly see a Honda Civic Type R parked on my block. They guy who drives it – not that I’ve ever seen the person driving it, but let’s be honest it’s 100% a dude who owns the car – must be in the area for work, because that Type R is nowhere to be seen come the night hours. What a privilege to have arguably the finest hot-hatch on sale as your daily-driver; it almost makes me miss driving my ND MX-5 Miata to and from work. These days – since I’ve sold the Mazda – I commute by bus.
Can I daily-drive the GT3? Tricky logistics aside (think parking), I haven’t got the money for those hefty fuel-bills.
Back to that Type R. In seeing that car almost every day, I have a front-row seat to its progression in modification. On the exterior alone – the only portion I can see, really - the list of changes is quite intensive. Seemingly not satisfied with the factory color options, the owner wrapped the entire car in a searing shade of yellow, though he oddly left uncovered the aftermarket carbon-fiber fenders, which is a rather ugly combination if you ask me. There’s the prerequisite change of wheels, and finally, a slew of aerodynamic appendages attached to bottom portion on all four sides.
I think I’ve reached that age where instead of admiring the creativity of vehicle personalization, I merely shake my head at dumping money towards making a car look and perform differently (note that I’m deliberately not using the word ‘better’.) In this particular example, the Civic Type R is one of the fastest front-wheel drive production cars on the planet, and it costs nearly $40,000. Where’s the need to modify it? It’s interesting: the sheer insatiability of an enthusiast’s desire to improve a car and stand-out amongst a crowd, even when the car in question is already tops of its kind, and relatively rare within the sea of common sports-utility vehicles.
Honestly, I’m merely projecting my jealously here: I’d dearly love to modify my GT3, to have it personify a bit of my owl style. I’m in a similar scenario to the person with the Civic Type R: the GT3 is tops within the 911 range (please ignore the RS models that I can’t imagine to afford), the best sporting expression of the Porsche sports car; so why would I possibly think to add to or modify it? I am human, after all, and it’s an innate characteristic that our species never achieve lasting satisfaction with the status quo. It largely explains why I’m on my third car in the span of six years, a bit of a waste from a personal finance point-of-view.
So I understand the rationalizations of the guy performing modifications to his Civic Type R, and I only wish I have the financial capabilities to do the same to the GT3. Indeed, money is the key reason that I am not putting on new wheels or changing out the exhaust on the 911: the car itself costed a lot of money, and aftermarkets parts for a Porsche is enormously expensive. The reality is, my hands are effectively tied.
I do take my own advice seriously, though. My philosophy towards car modification is if I want to go faster, I’d simply buy a faster car, instead of dumping money needlessly towards making whatever vehicle I currently own go quicker. As much fun as it is to make a car perform better than what’s prescribed from the factory, there’s a definite barrier of diminishing returns, in terms of possibility (an economy sedan can only go so quick) and reliability. In the past I could’ve tuned my WRX STI to have around 500 horsepower, but the consequent increase in maintenance and potential for headaches makes it not worth the exercise.
Instead, I bought a car - the 911 - with (nearly) 500 horsepower, though the cost was exponentially bigger than anything that could’ve been done to the Subaru.
Perhaps that’s the antidote to wasting additional money on modifications: blow your entire budget on the car itself! The GT3 costs the equivalent of a down-payment on a house (elsewhere far away from San Francisco, obviously), and even with me fronting half the price, the monthly payments are still relatively substantial when compared to the average motor vehicle. Therefore, I simply don’t have the cash to buy another set of wheels, or wrap the car a different color. Besides, running expenses for the GT3 is high enough as-is, so whatever spare change I can muster goes towards that, and not KW suspension parts - which would be irresponsible.
A set of KW Clubsports for the 911 GT3 is well over $6,000 dollars; the infamous Porsche-tax on aftermarket parts serves as a secondary hurdle towards me modifying the GT3. Other examples: a proper set of replacement wheels – thanks to the unique and frustrating centerlock hubs – costs nearly 10 thousand; a simple titanium exhaust is five thousand. Want better brakes? That’ll be over $11,000 dollars for all four corners. None of it is cheap (no Chinese knockoffs here.)
I grew up on a class of cars – Japanese sports compact - where a set of wheels can be bought for around
a thousand, and suspension kits aren’t much dearer than that. Now with the GT3, it appears I’ve graduated to a stratosphere where the costs for aftermarket parts can cumulatively reach a level comparable to a brand-new car. The absurdity rings loud and clear when you put it in such a perspective, and for my monetary position, I’d rather buy the whole other car.
Good thing I don’t have money for any of that anyways!
And that is why I will never alter or modify the GT3. Not that I need to – it’s a superbly brilliant car - but I do miss the type of fun the owner of that Civic Type R gets to enjoy: the wrenching and tinkering. Modifications do keep things fresh and exciting as you accumulate parts month by month, keeping to the cadence of your paychecks (the struggle, as they say, is real.) Then again, it’s equally exciting when taking the GT3’s tach-needle towards the number 9 on the rev-counter; that effervescence, is perpetual.
As predicted, mileage in October is depressed compared to the Spring and Summer months. I did the bare minimum each weekend to get the car warm and recharge the battery (no such luxury as a battery-tender at the parking structure.) I didn’t once fill up for gas this month, owing to the optional 23.8-gallon extended range fuel-tank that I had fully brimmed at the end of September. It allows the GT3 to go quite a ways longer on one tank than the less than 300 I was used to in my previous cars, even with the piss-poor gas mileage. I’ve yet to test this out, but there’s no doubt I can get down to Los Angeles from San Francisco on one fill, with plenty to spare.
That is, not taking the scenic coastal route.
Surely one can make an argument against the extended range tank on the rationale of additional weight at the expense of speed and handling. For me, the extra cushion provided by the option and the decrease in stress is worth the tradeoff. At the places I tend to drive on, it can be troublesome to locate a gas station in a hurry. I hardly frequent racetracks, and don’t possess enough driving skill to explain the difference felt in the extra weight of 7.8 gallons of fuel. Unless you’re an intense track-rat, I highly recommend potential buyers of future GT3s to tick the box for extended-range fuel tank.
The latter part of December is when an oil-change service is due, so a week ago I made an appointment with Porsche Fremont. In additional to the fluid change, I also opted for an alignment, as lately I’ve been noticing the steering wheel is canted to the left a few degrees. It could very well be just me being overly sensitive about the wheel acquiescing to road-crown, but nevertheless I’d like to have some concrete alignment numbers to confirm it either way.
It’ll be my first time getting scheduled maintenance done at a Porsche dealer, so let’s see exactly how the reputably good service is, and how eye-wateringly expensive simple maintenance can cost. For sure there’s a myriad of Porsche specialists in my area that can do the job cheaper (relatively, anyways), but I’m keeping care to maintain the validity of the certified preowned warranty for the next two years. Getting service done at an official dealership should limit the amount of friction to a minimum if problems arise with the GT3. I shall wait until the warranty expires to seek out specialists to perform the car’s annual service.
Besides, because I bought the GT3 there, Porsche Fremont offers 10% of labor. I look at that as saving on sales tax, and as with anything Porsche-related, every bit of savings help.
In November I think there’ll be increased miles on the car than October, thanks to the two holidays of Veterans Day and Thanksgiving - perfect opportunity to go driving. Gas prices have also gone down a bit, though here in California we are unfortunately in the season of winter blend gas. Let’s see how the high-strung 9A1 engine handles the slightly less energy-dense petrol.
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Date acquired: January 2019
Total mileage: 28,171
Mileage this month: 180
Costs this month: $234.55
MPG this month: 17.2 mpg