Longtime lurker, looking to get into my first 911. In looking at these cars, how concerned should I be regarding track use? I am looking for a 991.1S PDK. In looking at a recent car, the Owner noted that the vehicle had been used at HDPE events ~10 times over the last 2 years. They indicated that the oil was changed after each event and the brake fluid has been replaced with ATE (along with new rotors/pads). The car has around 30k miles.

In any purchase I would be getting a PPI, but want peoples thoughts on the long-term affects here, or if there is anything specific or beyond a normal PPI you would be looking for. I see myself owning the vehicle for several years minimum, it would be a causal use vehicle for me.

 

Should be no issues at all cars were meant to be driven.

 

Porsche car stock perform well at the track just slam some good tire and have an epic day

 

Of course I'm biased since I track my cars, but I don't think you should be concerned at all about your potential purchase's track use. While it's not a 100% certainty, it is a pretty safe assumption that people who are using their cars at the track will, by necessity, pay extremely good attention to the car's maintenance and mechanical condition. It's good that you'll get a PPI done as that will rule out any potential abuse of the car but, again as an assumption, just being driven at a track doesn't equate to abuse - I've seen people driving on track who are barely straining their tires and I've also seen people just driving on the street who are horribly abusive to their cars.

If it's the car/spec you want and it passes PPI, I think you should go for it (and try it out on the track for yourself once you have it!).

 

As long as maintenance is done frequently I would have zero concerns.

There may be some owners that neglect maintenance (brake fluid / oil) etc, but the people I know that track/autocross their cars seem to care about their cars enough to maintain them.

HPDE days = forced maintenance on brake rotors / pads / oil / brake fluid / tires. Generally at a road track people are not using launch control or launching hard from a dig. Autocross may see LC used to gain that extra .1 sec in the eyes of certain drivers.

 

I would not be worried about it. What year is it? You can have the person doing the ppi look at the suspension bits to see how much wear and tear there is on the bushing and the like. If it is an early model there will be some age related wear but worth noting. You can also do things like pull off the wheel liners - there are only a few screws. Rubber boogers and the like tend to collect in there (along with road debris) so if you see 5lbs of the stuff, it was probably tracked more than 10 times. If it is clean, then he was not driving aggressively or he took care to clean it. Either is a good sign, IMHO. Ask if he's done any blackstone reports that you can see. Any service receipts for doing things like PDK fluid changes?

 

Often, enthusiasts who track their cars usually take excellent care of them. Likely over-maintained. As long as it wasn't wheel-to-wheel racing, I would have no concerns.

 

i would have some concerns. similar in many ways to concerns regarding garage queens that are rarely driven and/or driven like Ms Daisy. "concern" doesn't mean deal breaker but it does mean looking closer at specific things and being sure everything is up to snuff

in a perfect world....given the theoretical choice between 3 identical cars (occasionally tracked /garage queened and seldom pushed/normal spirted driving), the one that was driven normally/in a spirited manner would be the one for me. understanding my perfect world doesn't exist, i'd be ok with the occasionally tracked car after a good/detailed inspection by a trusted pro. ditto the garage queen.

 

The cars at The Porsche Sport Driving school in Alabama are bought from Porsche AG (Germany) by Porsche USA. The cars are beat on nearly every day by experts and newbies alike.

What does Porsche USA do with these cars after a year? They certify them and sell them as CPOs.

Porsches do not get worse with hard use.

 

If you operate something at 90% capacity will it fail sonner than if operated at 40% capacity ? On a track you spend a good deal or time at or near the cars limits (redline, heat, traction, pdk shift points, etc etc). This means dog years for all the moving parts. I would not purchase a tracked vehicle ever having done a half dozen track events in rented or other peoples cars. I would not track my own 991.1S due to the cost of parts and the complexity of fixing stuff on a 911. To me this is in the same category as a wrecked car, the risk is very high.

 

who ever told you this loves folklore and hates physics.

read Bud Taylor's reply for details. this isn't about how good 911's are. it's engineering/physics

 

All products are engineered for a certain duty cycle. Higher stress operations will cause the components to fail sooner. Porsche seems to design and build a robust product but they will eventually wear out.

 

operating at higher capacity will cause the wear items to wear faster, that's it.