Too often car fans 'mourn' the day when a member of the richest 1% purchases an ultra-rare or ultra-expensive car with the thinking being that the car in question will never see the light of day again being tucked away in a garage where the temperature is strictly controlled. Such cars are meant to be driven, is the argument that's being made again and again, so here we have a story that's ought to bring a smile to the faces of many car fans. Behold a 911 with over 180,000 miles on the odometer.

A 911 deserves to live on the race track just like this one does

The Germans could well have used the standard 996 but decided that a sporty, track-oriented version would give them a tad more freedom when it came to turning it into an all-out race car (which was called the 911 GT3-R before being replaced by the GT3-RS and then the RSR).

While fans left fuming upon seeing Pinky Lai's take on a 911, complete with the so-called 'fried egg' headlights, nobody complained when the first 911 GT3 dropped. With its empty, no-nonsense cabin that could've been filled by proper, racing-grade bucket seats with six-point harnesses, a bolt-in half-roll cage, and a fire extinguisher should the owner tick the 'Clubsport' box, the GT3 was an instant hit.

Featuring parts taken from the famous 962 Le Mans-winning prototype, the engine was air-cooled and came with a dry-sump crankcase. The power reached the back wheels through a six-speed manual that was left unchanged by the time the 996.2 GT3 arrived in 2003, complete with 380 horsepower. Beyond the cosmetic changes, the GT3 was also made to be sold Stateside meaning some 2,589 units were sold as the floodgates opened to the very Porsche-savvy American market.

The car you see here is one of those 2,589 996.2 GT3s but it's safe to say this one can probably tell more stories than most. Its owner, Nick, can be seen oftentimes putting the car through its paces around the Green Hell and that's exactly where YouTuber Misha Charoudin found him - a good excuse for filming a second video with the car.

As Charoudin points out, the car's now nearing 300,000 kilometers (over 180,000 miles) and most of those miles have been racked up during track days with Nick saying he's completed over 3,000 laps of the seven-kilometer-long Spa-Francorchamps track in it as well as 950-odd laps around the 22-kilometer-long Nurburgring-Nordschleife. Given its arduous lifestyle, it's no wonder that Nick is now putting miles on the car's third engine, a 4.0-liter mill out of a 997-generation 911. To cope with that powerplant, Nick also got hold of a short-ratio transmission from a 997.2 GT3 RS.

The list of mods is much longer than that, however, as Nick's managed to stuck many a carbon fiber body panels onto the car including the trunk lid, the bigger rear wing, and the engine cover and rear bumper. With no rubber bushings in the suspension and a Cup exhaust, this 996 GT3 is sure to take no prisoners on and off the track (you'll see what you mean if you watch the video and crank the audio all the way up).