For those of you that didn't catch the latest Excellence, here's the meat of Bruce Andersen's Tech Notes on the age-old question of why are we in the US told the break-in is 2,000 miles...

As for break-in, I used to have a good friend who worked at the factory who would give me the straight scoop on all of these matters. When Porsche went to a 2,000 mile break-in recommendation [note - this is for the US market only], I asked him what that was all about. He said to break the car in like you were going to drive it: [Bruce's friend - Porsche factory guy] "The reason why we did increased the mileage to 2,000 miles is that, with new materials and lubricants, it actually takes this many miles to fully complete the break-in phase under light driving conditions. During this time, it may occur that the oil consumption is higher. To prevent complaints and to not alarm customers with 2,000 to 3,000 miles who may still have oil consumption, we had to raise the mileage. The gold rule is: the harder you push the motor after an easy 300-500 miles, the faster break-in will be completed. Bruce, the question is: Who really uses the potential of the motor these days with the exception of about two percent of 'track attackers' - whos cars are broken in after 500 miles?"

[Bruce again] Based on this, I'd say drive it like you stole it after 300-500 easy miles. I'd be willing to bet that if anything goes wrong with your engine, it will be something totally unrelated to how you broke it in. I'd follow the "break-in hints" in the owner's manual with the exception of the rpm limit; I would use the redline. Within the factory's "break-in hints," I would drive the car aggressively.

This jives with everything I've been able to discover on the subject. The only manual in the world that has 2,000 mile break-in is the US one, yet it's the same car everywhere. Reports were that the break-in was extended due to possible complaints from US owners that don't understand high-performance engines and their break-in process (oil consumption possible).

Just thought those that don't get Excellence might enjoy the read...

 

Ron thanks for the info.

Byron

 

Finally someone with some authority speaks the same realism we have been espousing.

 

Funny just hit 400 miles on the "3" today and finally hammered it to around 7500k...unreal

 

So jealous... How much better is the GT3 over the Turbo?

Good find, Ron - thanks for getting some answers. I'd heard the same thing from a friend who writes for Motor Trend (well that plus getting the driver used to the car).

 

Yes, I heard that too - that one of the litigation lawyer concerns was that an inexperienced driver that comes into money buys one off the lot and immediately starts driving it aggressively. With a "mandate" to keep revs low and not use full throttle for 2,000 miles the theory was a driver is less likely to "crash" it when new and build some experience / respect for the power of the car. Therefore he / she would have a harder time litigating Porsche in the event of a high-power / high-speed incident between delivery and 2k miles. For example, a claim could be "Porsche knew this was a wild and powerful sports car, but did not adequately warn my client that he if took delivery and ran to redline 1-3 he'd have trouble controlling the car - that's why he crashed and so we are seeking damages..."

No, we aren't making this stuff up... Why do you think the manual is full of disclaimers and we have all those stickers on the visors now

 

256 miles here, its almost stolen!!!!!

 

Thanks! Great to know!!