need to share an experience with others who might find themselves

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.

 

luckily there were no damages (that i know of) to recover.

 

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.

 

yep.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

yes, he's kidding. the CGT needs a slightly larger area to obtain 150