in a similar position: 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.
i've never heard of a tech inspection that involved a joyride. this guy sure smells fishy. and i've never had a tech inspection done that didn't happen while i waited. up on the lift. poke, prod, etc. no drama. doody.
While you wait for more enlightened responses which may put better cards in your favor... Knee-jerk reaction: I would suggest writing to the director and others - apprise them of this situation. Reason being... documentation and acknowledgement of some description. Should the need arise, things put in "black and white" can prove to be more beneficial than just one man's word some time down the line.
I'm sure I missed the prologue to this, but why didn't you have the car inspected at either Hoehn or Miramar Porsche? Are you selling it? Or was this a routine matinenance inspection?
This seems confusing even after reading the post a few times. So, Ferrari of Orange County, recommends three shops to do tech inspections right? And, you take a "Porsche Carrera GT" not a Ferrari to one of the shops for a "tech inspection" after owning the car for a month and a half for some reason. The owner of one of the recommended shops joyfully speed tests your Porsche to the tune of 150 miles per hour with a detailer, who admits it too, somewhere on the streets of Orange County, I'm assuming. Then there is an admission of all of this even to the amazement of a director of Ferrari of Orange County who happens to be at some place to hear all of this. Finally, there is no evidence of damage or that this even happened other than this admission from the shop owner? I still don't get it, help me understand?
I don't know about the CGT, but I think you can print out an ECU record that shows the revs if you want to try to prove that there was abuse on the part of the techs. Best of luck
Ben, Are you coming to the SD meet this Saturday? If you are, we can talk about Steve Maxwell all day long. Raymond
he was also custom making a bracket for a fire extinquisher (after seeing the fried 996TT thread owing to a known fluid leak defect that porsche didn't stand behind - i thought it a good idea to be prepared) which is why the car was left at the shop for 4 or 5 hours.
it was a tech inspection for an FOC event similar to those put on by PCA. neither hoehn (who does all my service) nor pioneer (who will never touch another of my cars) is authorized by FOC (Ferrari Owner's Club) to do tech inspections. and, nope i'm not selling it.
zero. not only would the context and body language have made it obvious but the friend of mine who referred me asked him about it to which he admitted to a more watered down (but still outrageous) version when he found out how pissed i was.
lot of assumptions, most incorrect. it is san diego - not OC. ferrari of san diego is just one of 3 approved tech inspection shops for the ferrari owner's club for track related events which require these inspections (as does the PCA for their events) to participate. yes, it was on public roads somewhere near miramar because there were 10 to 20 miles add'l on the car. i chose this shop owing to recommendations from a friend with fcars, and the shop was also making me the fire extinquisher bracket. the guy is a super nice guy and apparently his work is top notch. however, most all of that is negated by a distorted feeling about what is appropriate treatment of $1/2 mil customer cars when they're not looking.
i believe the ecu only logs over revs and only logs the hours on the car when it (they) occured. there would be no way to prove the over rev(s) if present happened before or after the shop visit.
I love how this story is presented out of sequence and with key elements totally missing. Reads like a Tarantino screenplay. I think I solved it. When do you post the answer? SrfCity - I think you are close.
I should've included this on my previous post. I brought my car to Steve for service once. When I got the car back there was an additional 80 km on my car. He also said my car was very stable at 170, but not as fast as the Diablo he modified. Raymond
what key elements were missing and how do they in any way minimize the gravity driving a customer car @ 150 mph on public streets (trying to make a personal best MPH on a specific route he obviously does this often on) when the nearly new $440k + tax car was in for fire extinquisher fitting and a VISUAL ferrari owner's club inspection? you are the first person to hear this story and not be outraged. go ahead, take your car there - i dare you.
You're not saying that Ferrari of San Diego was somehow involved in this joy ride, are you? I know they're in the Miramar area but I can't imagine they would do such a thing.
absolutely not. i went in there (FoSD service) today to ask bill what kind of driving would be involved in them tech inspecting my new CGT for the FOC event. he said "none" and agreed to the outrageous nature of the joy ride at Exotic. i didn't take it to FoSD in the first place because i didn't think they would make the custom fire ext bracket for the porsche being they are an fcar dealer/service ctr (which he told me today he would have) and because i was referred by a friend to the shop in question. then again, i've been referred to bill at FoSD too and that's where the stradale will be going.
I may or may not be the first person to hear this story and not be outraged. This thread has been viewed 150 times but only 1 or 2 people have responded with any type of outrage. Anyhow - not going to debate the number of people that were outraged. One thing is very clear, I am not the first person that had problems following your story (e.g. Hubert, Surfcity). At first glance I thought I missed a previous thread / post. Then I realized the out of sequence nature of the story and figured out what you were on about. Kinda like that movie Momento. I like your style - it makes reading a post more exciting when you have to reread it a few times to figure it out. Anyhow - now that I get the story, I sympathize with you. I too would be very outraged if it were my car. I will not be taking my car to Exotic for any fire extinguisher work. By the way - did you get that exhaust glow problem fixed? Also my friend said he thinks he may have seen a CGT cornering at approximately 150 mph in the Ralphs parking lot. If you need him to sign an eyewitness statement, please let me know.
thanks, an affidavit would be much appreciated someone else commented that their CGT exhaust glowed after "very fast" driving, but i've driven it "very fast" with people behind me and have never observed it before. btw, i wish i could say the exciting writing style was intentional.
Mike, are you joking about that? If not, then Im amazed that someone would be that incredibly stupid enough to attempt something like that in a Ralphs parking lot of all places...