Basically what the title says: I'm curious to know if anyone with higher mileage (>70k miles) 997 TT still drive hard and/or track their cars? I'm currently sitting at 72k miles, and almost exclusively drive the **** out of mine and it got me wondering... do others do the same? Any major failures I should worry about with regular spirited driving or going to the track while approaching 100k miles (and beyond). Any input is appreciated!

 

Boost check daily, for safety in case you need it.

Told the Porsche dealer tech when he got done with pinning the water pipes, take it out and thrash on it.

Nothing broke in the last 30K miles since.

 

I have about 105k kms (aroudn 65k miles). I drive my car fairly easy about 80% of the time but I am not scared of going to red line and driving her pretty hard whenever I feel the need. Biggest thing is to have a look over the car. I dont do any crazy runs without verifying tire pressures with an accurate handheld gauge (I disabled my TPMS) and have a good look over the car. I had a coolant leak and that was my biggest fear was a coolant failure while pushing the car (possibly blowing coolant under a tire in a turn). Now that this failure has been address I am not worried at all. Stuff may happen but I am confident going over the car before any crazy driving.

I also do boost leak checks a couple times a year but have found that the most common failure point of this is where the turbo cold side connects which is where I do my boost leak tests from. I try to secure this properly after the test but I have had issues where it popped off at this exact location first time I really drove it hard after this (UMW tune I think around 18psi).

 

I have 115,000 miles running strong and exclusively driven really hard for hours on end. I only use the car only for rallies now.


Engine Mods-
D088 Big Intercooler Pack
Promotive Custom Engine Tune
D088 Y pipe
3.5 Custom Xpipe Exhaust/ No Cats
Protomotive 63.5MM turbos
Protomotive Injectors 80LB

 

83k driven fast every time I make sure to go redline after warm up ALWAYS
I hit 178 last weekend on a closed road 188 has been my fastest so far

 

Driving them relatively hard must keep them going strong!

 

90k mi and I drive it relatively hard but always take great care of it. Proper warm up and cool down. Good oil and changed frequently. I'm tuned, exhausted, intercoolers, lowered, DSC. I find the harder you drive these cars, the more rewarding the experience. They're just so f'ing good!

 

What doesn’t kill you must make ithe turbo stronger 😎

 

nice, that’s awesome to hear you’re able to run the car hard and not worry about major stuff breaking after that many miles! Makes me feel much better about my “spirited” driving haha

 

I’m the same in that I take care of the car. Always keep the rpm under 3k until the oil comes up to temp. As far as cool down, I’ll let her idle for a couple minutes after a spirited drive before killing the ignition; is there anything else you mean by “proper cool down”?

 

Also wondering how closely y’all monitor temps on spirited drives? For me, the water temp gauge always sits dead in the middle after warm up, but I do see oil temp rise above 225 from time to time when I’m really ripping hard (I like to do a lot of early morning canyon runs where I’ll gain a lot of elevation over a few miles, and there’s no traffic, so I’ll let er rip) then tend to get worried and will drive more conservatively and will lay off the boost for a bit until the oil temp comes back down to 200 or so. Is that necessary? At what point should I worry?

Sorry in advance for some of the noob questions. I’m relatively new in my ownership and shortly after purchase, had to pay for a huge repair bill due to a burst coolant hose while I was on one of my “spirited drives” (while the engine was out, I had a ton of other stuff done as well and it ended up setting me back quite a bit).

That expierence has made me worry a bit that maybe I’m pushing this 15 year old car too hard and setting myself up for another big bill. Sounds like that’s not the case though, which is a huge relief!

 

I remember your original post. IMHO you have absolutely nothing to worry about now other than speeding tickets and gasYour driving style and terrain sounds like mine. These cars shine the most while canyon carving uphill. For cool down..after a spirited run I try not to get into boost for about 2 miles before shutdown. If I'm feeling the need for it, I'll still let it idle for 30 sec to 2 min. Probably totally unnecessary with the afterun pumps in these cars but it can't hurt and old habits die hard

 

2011 TTS with 121K. 144 mph last Tuesday; 165 mph a few weeks before that. Most daily drives are 300-500 miles, but rarely less than 100. All fluids and filters replaced regularly, including PDK, Diff and AWD controller.

Always 5-10 miles sedate cruise before getting on it to any degree. Let things cool down before she goes back in the garage. Engine lid open to reduce heat soak after the drive.

 

When the car is started, I wait until the choke comes off and the car is idling normally before moving, I then make sure the engine oil is at temp before hitting boost or using sport mode. Before I turn the engine off, I try to avoid idling, driving calmly off boost for the last 5-10 min of the drive.

My maintenance regiment:

Oil change- 3000 miles
Plugs - 6000 miles
Coils - 12,000 miles
Transaxle - Every season
Brake Fluid - Every season
Air Filter - Every Season

 

Oh wow, that is really frequent. But I suppose it makes sense on an older car that is being driven hard. I was planning on doing oil every 5k and plugs/coils at 15k, but maybe I'll adjust this (Porsche's recommendations on maintenance intervals seem crazy to me... it's like they want the cars to break to make $$$ on repairs and/or buying newer models lol).