"The Cayman GT4 is a high performance sports car..............that can handle........sessions on a race circuit"

Thus begins the special and separate manual that comes with the Gt4 entitled "Cayman GT4, Driving on the race Circuit", with all sorts of advice on suspension setting, adjustment to the wing and front splitter for more downforce, tire pressures and finally a complete checklist and maintenance guide for driving on the track.

The Warranty book, however, is another story. Under the heading "This Warranty Does Not Cover", the last item in a long list is "abuse, accident, acts of God, competition, track use, or other events".

So, on one hand you have encouragement and marketing on one side telling you this is a great track car with a manual that is meant to assist you in getting the maximum enjoyment out of track use and on the other hand, the business and legal people telling you that if some part of the car fails from normal track use, the Warranty will not apply.

Go figure!

 

Take good care of the car with maintenance and corresponding records, always warm up the powertrain before flogging, keep a good relationship with your dealership and service advisor and there is a 99% chance you'll be fine with warranty coverage if there is some sort of non-driver induced mechanical failure at a track day.

Just IMHO.

 

I know you're right from personal experience I had with a GT3 in 2004. I just object to having to be surreptitious about it.

 

Didn't we debate this in another thread. I thought someone said that the GT3 warranty booklet excluded the words 'track use' from that sentence and that those words were only in the standard Porsche model warranty books. Are you reading from a GT4 warranty book?

 

Yes, I am!

 

Absolutely. Particularly when a number of Corvettes, Z28, etc now specifically do cover track use.

Can you post a photo of the relevant section? Anyone have a copy of the 991 GT3 warranty booklet to compare?

On the GT3 the following appears in the "driving on the race circuit" supplement:



Note the last paragraph. Is the GT4 language the same or different?

 

Track use warranty exclusion sounds like yet another copy and paste error from other 981 manuals, like dynamic trans mounts being part of Sport Chrono when it's standard on the GT4. I remember a story here about a guy who was initially denied a warranty claim on a .2RS due to track use and his response to the dealer was, "Show me one widely circulated RS marketing brochure photo that doesn't have the car on a track and I'll accept that decision." The dealer did the work under warranty.

The GT4's marketing photos are all track-related as well, and I would bet that Porsche including a manual supplement called "Driving on a Race Circuit" would make it very difficult for them to argue that track use falls outside of the car's intended use cases and therefore isn't covered by a warranty. Hell, even the M3's warranty covers track use; basically all you lose is Ultimate Service on your brakes due to the excessive wear rate, which is fair enough IMHO.

 

That would be disappointing if true. I am pretty sure this has been discussed at length on the 991 GT3 board and everyone was content that Porsche started covering track use for the 991 GT3 and it is specified in the owners manual.
Why wouldn't they cover the GT4?! Again disappointing!

 

The key here when reporting GT4 track issues to your dealer is that you were driving in a "spirited fashion, up in the hills"...

 

There is a track app...

 

I've seen people crash their car at the track and then have a tow truck dump them on the side of the road a few miles from the track. Only to call another tow truck. #InsuranceFraud

 

The warranty book that came with my 991 GT3 is the generic warranty book and includes the words in the first post. But there is also a following Note 1: Components or parts that fail during racing or driving events (including Porsche sponsored events) may not be covered by the new car limited warranty.

I think the word "may" softens the exclusion a bit. of course would be better to have clear coverage for track use. I've not seen the text for Corvette or other cars. In my own experience, I had the water pump replaced on my Cayman R under warranty with no questions. The service manager knew the car was regularly used for DE (they did tech forms, suspension mods, etc.)

 

There's also the EVO video with Andreas Preuninger where he's talking about how the car was designed to be used for extended track use and track days "every weekend"...Good quotes at around 14:30 and 18:00:

 

When the RX7 tubo first came out I thought it would make a good track toy and bought one. In 12 months the dealer had it for 5. The first thing that went south was the turbo. The dealer looked at the car and tires and said I had tracked it so the warranty was void. I grabbed a brochure from the showroom and pointed him to 'To be fully appreciated the new RX7 needs to be driven on track'. End of story they fixed the car for the first of many times.

 

It would appear that Porsche is making the warranty subjective because it is subjective. It is a car driven on both street and track. The 4 yr / 50,000 mile warranty is a street warranty.

If it were 100% street use, it would be reasonable to expect the transmission will last beyond 50,000 miles, and therefore covered under warranty.

If it were 100% track use, it would not be reasonable to expect the transmission to exceed 50,000 miles track use, and therefore not covered under warranty. It will have exceeded its useful life.

If I were using the car primarily for track use, it would be prudent to log the use in terms of hours and plan to overhaul components as necessary without regard to the total miles traveled IMO.