Your thoughts on VERY expensive performance cars.
 

I may never understand what drives someone to buy a Bentley or even an Enzo, but I have a question regarding the "somewhat affordable" performance cars.

For example, say you had enough money to be able to drop 100-150K (or even 200K I guess) on a performance car. Let's throw some models out there:

-Porsche 996 TT
-Porshce 996 GT3 (or even a GT2)
-Ferrari 360
-Ford GT

I guess there are also the performance/luxury cars like aston martins, MB SL AMG's etc, but we know who buys those.

So if you could afford to buy one of these (pick your favorite toy), how would you use it? Would you track it? Drive it daily? Drive it on the weekends? A little of everything?

We are, of course assuming that you have at least one other car (probably many) to go along with this car.

In the "I'm worth dozens of millions and I don't have to move a finger again for the rest of my life" world I can see the question is irrelevant. But lets say you are just wealthy enough that you have no issues at all in paying for a car like that, but at the same time you are not wealthy enough to buy two.

How would you use it?

Re: Your thoughts on VERY expensive performance cars.
 

If I couldn't comfortably afford to buy two, I wouldn't buy one.

Without being a smart ass, Clyde is right.

You just don't buy cars in this range unless you just have LOTS of money. These cars are cars that are paid for in cash (if they are not leased for business purposes) and that cash outlay doesn't really impact any account balances.

I'd only pay that much for a car if I drove it daily.

Re: Your thoughts on VERY expensive performance cars.
 

now, Snyde. don't be so quick to unsuspend disbelief.

for sure it wouldn't be a ferrari. as much as i have come to appreciate them, their sound, and their ability at the track, i'd buy.......a corvette and have it shipped to mallett for them to perform some magic but keep the look bonestock.

or a roock 650 turbo.

but for OEM cars, i think it'd have to be the ford GT. the enzo is too ugly (to me) and they missed their weight target, which for that amount of money, should not be rewarded. the carrera GT seems decent, but visually, it does not do it for me. it is a looker, but still plain at the same time. if it does well in racing, that might change my humble, small-minded opinion about it, though. the SLR is just plain stupid.

I know what you mean. And if I had hit the 200M jackpot I probably still would not own a car that ran to more than 120K.

But it depends on what you consider comfortable. To some, having a net worth of 2M may be enough to "comfortably own" 2 of these cars. To others (and I would hope most), it would take a whole heck of a lot more than that two comfortably buy two of these cars when they perform the same function.

Regardless, these cars are sold in the 1000's every year. Some people just have them to show off, others actually drive them as they are meant to be driven.

I understand the show-offs. But do all those who can buy a 150K car and track them have enough money to not really care if one gets totalled? (I'm assuming they are not insured).

I would have to be crazy-wealthy to have a GT3 as a track car, have a misshap, and simply say "well that sucked," and write a check for another one.

I'm sure I am just too "un-rich" to even bother thinking about this stuff.

Well, I interpret the question a bit differently. Being able to afford two, in my opinion, includes being able to purchase the car and pay for all maintenance/mods/repairs required for the way you plan to drive it. So, for a $150,000 car, I would say that you should be willing to spend about $250,000 over the coruse of a few years on something as obviously non-essential as one of these things.

Anyway...if/when I'm fortunate enough to own one, I would drive it HARD but with respect. I wouldn't buy one if it was meant to be an image accessory; I'd only want one that was sturdy enough for continued hard use. I would adhere to the maintenance schedules to the letter, but I would meanwhile test the rev limiter at least once per drive, and I'd purposefully take the extra-long way home with every trip. I would take it to the track and/or autocross, and I'd probably show up to the random car meets/shows when I can. In between, I'd keep the sucker clean, shiny, and under a cover.

That would be awesome.

Re: Your thoughts on VERY expensive performance cars.
 

Yep. If you're buying an expensive performance car, it's a waste to not track it. And as we are constantly reminded, you don't take a car to the track that you wouldn't be able to walk away from.

Oh, as to which car....at this point, I'd say 355 or 360. But I wouldn't mind checking out a GT sometime.

I guess my point is that I would not let its cost get in the way of my driving pleasure. I wouldn't want to buy a car, even a historic one, and tippytoe through town because I was worried about getting a scratch on the paint. These cars, above all others, are designed to be driven, and I feel like most of their owners don't even try to test their limits. I would certainly be heartbroken if I were to total a Ferrari...but I would be much less heartbroken if I had memories of screaming down the main straight at WOT and braking for turn 1 before losing control.

Re: Your thoughts on VERY expensive performance cars.
 

I agree. I was just wondering if there were people in the middle ground. :? I was wondering if there were people between the ones who buy it for show and those who don't even shudder at totalling a $100K+ car.

According to all of us here so far, there aren't many out there, or at least shouldn't be.