Interesting piece:
Is your new-car warranty good at the race track? - Autoblog
www.autoblog.com/amp/2017/02/27/new-car-warranty-valid-race-track/

About Porsche specifically. interesting to compare to others and VERY different from what Porsche instructors told me:
"Surprisingly, Porsche's warranty does not make the same distinction. Under a heading of "This Warranty Does Not Cover," Porsche's warranty states: "Abuse, accident, acts of God, competition, racing, track use, or other events. Note 1 : Components and or parts that fail during racing or driving events (including Porsche sponsored events) may not be covered by the new car Limited Warranty." This seems a bit hypocritical for an automaker that just built a track at its new Atlanta headquarters and another one in Los Angeles."

 

Good discussion topic, thats for sure. Hypocritical is probably an understatement; their entire branding, marketing, etc. is built around these cars being able to be driven on race circuits. But, its ultimately the classic "Buyer beware" and reading the fine print.

These cars can take a lot, however...

I've always thought if you had a mechanical issue arise, I'm sure the dealer can look at the ECU and determine the car has been driven on the track, and whether it was related to the track event or not, ultimately decline warranty coverage.

That said, these forums (and, general internet) are full of track enthusiasts and Porsche lovers (I am both) and people sharing too many bad experiences would be bad for Porsche (although I'm sure they wouldn't hurt that bad...haha).

But as you say, someone ordering a brand new Turbo S and taking delivery in ATL's Porsche Experience and driving it on THEIR track and having a mechanical issue occur would not be a good "Porsche Experience" haha

 

I noticed that as well. I can think up all kinds of scenarios why they do this but i never heard of a warranty denial for non-wear items. How many owners actually know this?

 

How many of us actually read the manual... I know for a fact that the use of slicks will certainly complicate things. A neighbor of mine had a PDK fail on his 2000ml GT4, PCNA wanted to know if he used slicks on a track before replacing the piece (took them almost 3 months to be able to take a full PDK from the production line). Ultimately they covered it regardless of track use.

Allegedly, the more "track-friendly" Brand is mclaren.

I believe they leave that in small writing for the lawyers. If they would pursue every case, would make all GT models garage queens and we all read how upset they were with folks using the 911R for profit, not tracking.

If I remember, I'm going to ask the next time I trade a car if I can take it to the track and ask for it in writing. I don't envision the stealership refusing to do so, facing a juicy profit out of a gear head.

 

I ran into someone at the track last year and he told me he missed a gear, over rev'd his new GT3 and blew the engine. This occurred on a new 997GT3 some years ago. PCNA denied the warranty claim and they went to arbitration. They settled on PCNA replacing the engine and the owner paid $10k. Not a bad result considering the owner caused the undeniably caused problem. The owner successfully proved to the Arbitrator that PCNA designed and markets this car for track use and should be responsible to replace any component that fails. PCNA decided that this was not going their way and chose to settle, eating the lions share of the cost to replace.

 

Picture directly from the Porsche USA site .... Hard to imagine a Jury wouldn't find in your favor that Porsche markets their cars for track use ...

 

Most times it's hard enough getting the car serviced properly just during just regular driving! Bring the car in to the shop that shows no codes and the response is invariably, "it's normal". Porsche does not want to pay for anything, and if they don't want to fix it from pedestrian use, how can you expect them to want to fix it from track use. Sad but true.

But it's not just Porsche, most car manufacturers have the same policy. Manufacturers don't want to pay for costly repairs from risky behavior.

 

It seems like you need a lawyer or a letter from one to get fair treatment these days.

 

Even better, a twitter or facetube account with lots of lackeys, I mean, followers

 

2013 4S
49k miles
Tracked 4 different times
Launch Control at least 20 times
Drive it like a crazy man lots of times, redline revs...Flat out takeoffs...you get the picture.
Have had into the dealer 4 times
Some AC line problem
All the lights went yellow, and had to Limp into the dealer.
The PDK was shifting screwey once.
All fixed under warranty, and I bought it used and it's CPO
They never once asked me about it being tracked, or said anything about the codes when they did what they had to do.
I drive it in the snow, with smaller 19" wheels.
As far as I know, these cars are made for the track.

 

This ^^^^^^^^

 

I think that mention in the manual is legalese

Fact is the only factory that is ok with track use is mclaren

Clearly misleading from porsche and others with those track pictures and even worse, track driving schools

Regardless on the likelihood of a warranty issue, using slick tires on the track is very tricky. These cars register the lateral g and they know how much the OEM tires can yield. As I mentioned, my neighbor's GT4 had a PDK failure and PCNA concern was if the tires were OEM, with knowledge of the track use.

 

GT4s were manual only. No PDK.

 

True, force of habit I guess...