Blown vacuum pump at Summit Point this weekend
 

On the fourth lap after two yellow laps heard a loud bang behind the driver's seat going down the straight away. Instructor looks at me and asks what was that. I said don't know, no warning lights or changes in car. Limped around to the pit and checked under the car and found nothing. Went out and immediately found that the brake pedal was like a rock with little or no effect and saw a trace of blue smoke. Obviously limped around again and pitted. Jacked up the rear and put car on three jack stands and remove left rear wheel. Found about two paper towels of oil around left suspension. Finally saw a cover with two ripped screw holes and a flat piece of metal about an inch wide and 5 inches long laying on the left suspension.. Called Convenience Tire & Auto in Manassas, 703.330.2237 which has two Porsche mechanics and spoke to owner Timmy Tyrrell. Described issue and he said definitely the vacuum pump and said he would have Cindy start to look for one and he had one of his Porsche mechanics there until 10 PM that night. Mechanic works 4 tens, 9-10 Tue-Friday. Timmy was on the way to NC to watch his son race. Short version flat bedded car to Manassas and I picked up the repaired car at 11 PM that night and drove back to Summit Point early Saturday and did two full DE days. THANKS AGAIN TO CINDY FOR FINDING THE PART AND TIMMY'S FOLKS FOR SALVAGING MY DE WEEKEND. PS Apparently almost all new cars have vacuum pumps to provide reliable boost to the brakes and sometimes other functions. They are direct drive off of the exhaust cam shaft on my Boxster which was the source of the oil after the cover was blown off. I have the part and it looks like the flat plate rotates but some how jambed and blow the cover off with force throwing it against the left suspension. Mechanic indicated he had replaced several for oil leaks and failing vacuum, but had never seen one blow up before.

09 Boxster PDK w/Sport/Sport+

Fumes had one blow at VIR the other year, thought the engine grenaded from the sound.........

Intersport in tysons is another great shop to call if you ever have an issue at summit, i was out there friday and saturday coaching etc, sorry i didnt get to meet ya

Wow great service!!!

That is the second one I have heard of gernading... Still beats the oil starvation issues we have with the 987.1 though..

Congrats on a successful weekend

Timmy is a legend for his driving, hospitality, and service. I had a blast at Summit during a NASA weekend with him and his crew. If I could write a movie script about grassroots racing, Timmy would be a main character.

Mini or Timmy haha

Interesting.

Mine blew at Mid-Ohio earlier this year going through Madness. Sudden metal clanking sound then spun in the middle of a corner - oil on left rear tire.

Had never heard of other people complaining about this until my incident.

My friend has a 2011 997 and had his vacuum pump cover blow off at Thunderhill 2 years ago. He had intense white smoke and pulled off immediately, thinking the car was on fire.