need to share an experience w/lambo/ferrari/porsche service

[ben, lj]

shop

Well I have gathered my thoughts, tried for almost three days to rein in my emotions as well as spoken to both of the other two shops which are authorized to do tech inspections for FOC (on my 1 1/2 month old Carrera GT). Both said it is a rigorous VISUAL inspection which results in ZERO driving of the car - as I expected! They were both floored to learn this shop justified abusing a customer and his/her car as some sort of responsibility required by the tech inspection. Absurdly enough, he still thinks he did nothing wrong!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some notable quotes from Steve Maxwell, the owner of Exotic Car Care ("car care" being a bit ironic in this case) who was the offender. It is immediately ajacent to M.O.M. Mind over Motorsport:

"did you know your exhaust glows when it is hot?" (never seen that myself nor has anyone behind me in several spirited mountain drives commented on this).

"the traction control on this car in first (gear) is useless" (fwiw, you have to give it a LOT of throttle to make the traction control useless in first gear and this suggests he was enjoying my tires he didn't have to buy himself).

he stated, "the car has some wander during high speed cornering". to which i said i'd had it at some fairly high speeds in corners without experiencing any wander. he then looked over at the guy who does detailing for the shop who was apparently a passenger in the joy ride and said "what did we hit in that one corner? about 150?" to which the detailer responded "yes, 150". he then went onto say proudly "it was 16 mph more in that corner than any other car i've taken through there."

in addition to the detailer, a director of the FOC was there and likely heard a great deal if not all of this conversation.

[kary]

I did not know that Steve did any Porsche work. Sorry to hear of your misfortune.

[ben, lj]

I did not know that Steve did any Porsche work. Sorry to hear of your misfortune.

Thanks. I just want to make sure no one else turns their keys over without knowing what this shop considers normal behavior. That said, I'm not even sure they do PCA tech inspections (though they do work on Pcars), but if they do...

[martinreinhardt]

A similar story happend to someone I know in L.A. but by valet parking his Ferrari 355.

"A car is like a women, you don't let your friends drive it"

[Mike]

he stated, "the car has some wander during high speed cornering". to which i said i'd had it at some fairly high speeds in corners without experiencing any wander. he then looked over at the guy who does detailing for the shop who was apparently a passenger in the joy ride and said "what did we hit in that one corner? about 150?" to which the detailer responded "yes, 150". he then went onto say proudly "it was 16 mph more in that corner than any other car i've taken through there."

Is your car black?
http://members.roadfly.org/fastherthanu/CGT4.mov
Agree, Race cars get pre teched and they seem to do so with out taking them out on the street.

[ben, lj]

no, it's seal grey.

[MikeD]

I agree with Mike. There's nothing on a tech sheet for any club I know of that requires the car to be driven. Seems like a bogus excuse to drive a nice car.

BTW, who is FOC?

[ttweed]

BTW, who is FOC?

I'm going to take a SWAG and say "Ferrari Owners Club"?
http://www.ferrariownersclub.org/menu.htm

TT

[Mike]

no, it's seal grey.

But if it was black it might of gone like this.
Click on the high-lighted link.
http://members.roadfly.org/fastherthanu/CGT4.mov

[martinreinhardt]

Interesting video.

I am surprised that Porsche didn't come up with a system like a "service key" to restrict the engine at certain RPM during service or valet parking to prevent a bunch of clowns joy riding the Carrera GT.

But it all comes down to finding a shop that you can trust.

[martinreinhardt]

http://www.wreckedexotics.com/carreragt ... _001.shtml

[MikeD]

OK, Tom sounds reasonable to me, thanks.

I remember who this guy is now. I didn't think he liked Porsche's. Seems like I remember him making sarcastic comments about them the few times I interracted with him. Didn't really instill a whole lot of confidence.

Anyway, best bet Ben is to A) find another shop to do FOC tech inspections, and/or B) find another club to run with that has reputable tech stations (i.e. PCA ).

[David J Marguglio]

<edit>

[bobbrand]

That story is incredible.

I would hope that this information would at least cause FOC to drop this shop from its list of approved tech stations.

[ben, lj]

That story is incredible.

I would hope that this information would at least cause FOC to drop this shop from its list of approved tech stations.

Yes, and after reading his quotes on the internet (which were placed after he admitted to the same details on Sunday to the friend who referred me - only he reduced the speed to 115 mph in this version), he left me a message today wanting to get together so he could explain why he hadn't done anything wrong!! I'm telling you the guy honestly thinks his job as a tech inspector is to drive other peoples cars at 150 mph (in corners), hammer the throttle in first geat sufficiently as to cause the "traction control to be worthless", and achieve his best times on his personal race track - hence the "I was able to carry 16 more mph through there than in any other car before". It's simply unbelieveable to me that someone can be in this much denial. It is his attitude that this is not only acceptable behavior but REQUIRED behavior as a result of his job that I feel it is so very important to let other victims know his biz practices because he apparently has no intention to change them.