Porsche is one of the few manufacturers that run a box stock version of a car that will publish the actual times at the Nürburgring. And most of the top fastest times are Porsches. It seems Ferrari is afraid to post their times.
But I totally agree a new 911 is stupid expensive and drops in value. My old 85 has gone UP in value 5 times over what I paid for it. I have driven it to 41 states and Canada, likely approaching 300 autocrosses and several track days.
I do 90% of the work on it myself. I did have factory trained technician rebuild my transmission, and put in a new 5th gear that dropped my cruise RPM by 800 RPM.
I will never forget that gut punch when I walked into my garage and saw it on jack-stands, with no suspension. And I said out loud, Glen what the F*** did you do! I got it all put back on and corner balanced and aligned and next to the massive AC upgrade
was one of the best thing I have done to it. My wife will ride thousands of miles and no complaints.