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Mar 18, 2014 01:44:04 PM [TEL]
Porsche to Replace All 911 GT3 Engines
Nick
Telegraph Top News
Gibbs
March 18 (Telegraph) -- Porsche 911 GT3 fires tracked back to engine problems, company says
Porsche has said it will replace the engines in all the latest models of the 911 GT3 after finally identifying the problem that led to two cars being gutted by fire early this year.
Back in February Porsche took the unusual step of advising owners of the new, track-focused GT3 to stop driving their cars while it investigated the issue. In the UK that affected just over 100 cars out of total of 785 delivered.
The problem was tracked to faulty screws that joined the piston connecting rods to the crankshaft, causing damage to the crankcase, a Porsche UK spokesman confirmed to The Telegraph.
However, Porsche has yet to give customers a timeframe for the replacement. “Intensive trials are undergoing right now and once we’ve completed those trials we’ll replace engines in the GT3s,” the spokesman said. “We will inform our customers in the first instance what the next steps will be.”
Porsche has come under fire for its initial handling of the problems. Owners and those with cars on order posted on specialist Porsche web forums to express unhappiness that they had found out about issues with their car from the media rather than Porsche itself.
“Communication from Porsche Cars GB has been poor from the outset. They could have, and should have, handled this situation better,” GT3 owner Sunil Mehra, a property developer in the north east of England, told The Telegraph.
However, he said he was encouraged by the most recent letter sent to owners yesterday and signed personally by the Porsche GB managing director, Chris Craft. “It gives some hope that Porsche GB may handle the situation better going forward.”
Porsche said it was up to individual dealers whether they handed back deposits taken for the £100,000 car.
Porsche won praise from critics for the performance and handling of the latest version of the GT3 when it was launched last year. However, unlike previous GT3s, the new car did not use a version of Porsche’s race engine and instead was fitted with an uprated 475bhp version of the standard 4.0-litre 911 unit.
Click here to see the story as it appeared on the Telegraph website.
-0- Mar/18/2014 13:44 GMT
