Why Porsche made new tires for a 20-year-old supercar
OWNERS of Porsche’s last great supercar are rejoicing as a 17-month recall and subsequent stop-driving order on its high-octane Carrera GT ends. The April 2023 recall affected all 1,270 of its V-10, 605-horsepower roadsters, when a potential suspension failure caused by corrosion or mechanical stress came to light. Many owners subsequently lost insurance coverage on their million-dollar vehicles.
“The recall is over, it’s all done!” automotive YouTuber and Carrera GT owner Doug DeMuro crowed on his popular channel after the company started shipping replacement parts in early September. “A lot of people were upset. This is a valuable car, people want to drive it, people were angry that they couldn’t drive this expensive car because of this order for this old part.”
“Rainy day but let’s take it out anyway,” wrote Andre Lotterer on Instagram, under an Oct 9 photo of himself standing next to a black Carrera GT. (He drives for Porsche Penske Motorsport in the FIA World Endurance Championship.) The company started shipping replacement components to dealerships worldwide last month.
Porsche announced on Thursday (Oct 10) it had even co-developed brand-new Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires specifically to outfit the car, which it introduced in 2003 and produced until 2006. Owners complying with the recall will receive the new tires for free, plus the new suspension components and a US$3,240 service credit for the maintenance recommended after an extended period of idle time. The set of four tires retails for around US$2,200, a Porsche spokesperson confirmed.
Spending money and time to develop tires specifically for a product that’s been long discontinued is a significant move for the automaker as it works to keep the Carrera GT in good working order – and its long-term, deep-pocketed clients happy – while potentially forestalling any further issues around the vehicle.
The six-speed, manual, rear-wheel-drive supercar is known to be challenging to drive – it is tuned more like a race car than a production car – and quickly gained a reputation as a rewarding drive for the most skilled of technicians. The lack of driver-assistance systems such as electronic stability control, a notoriously delicate clutch and rear-oriented handling, among other quirks, can combine to catch the unexpected driver by surprise. (Porsche updated the original tires in 2013; they’re famously in short supply.)
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It gained infamy in 2013 when The Fast and the Furious actor Paul Walker died as a passenger in a Carrera GT after the car hit a tree and burst into flames near Santa Clarita, California. Porsche settled two wrongful death lawsuits with members of Walker’s family in 2017, and one brought by the family of the driver, Roger Rodas, in 2018.
Years earlier, in 2005, Jay Leno spun out in a Carrera GT at the Talladega Motor Speedway, and there are Reddit threads devoted to crashed Carrera GTs. That same year, two men died when the Carrera GT they were racing crashed and caught fire at California Speedway in Fontana. A lawsuit regarding the crash was settled in 2007.
Porsche declined to comment on any of the litigation regarding the vehicle, but the new tires, which offer the most advanced technology available to improve predictability and braking distance, give the automaker a modicum of control over how the car behaves on the street.
“The new tires do not just make the Carrera GT faster, they also make it easier for the driver to pilot the car in a spirited manner,” Jorg Bergmeister, a Porsche development driver, said about the project. The goals of development were to further improve how the car handles on both dry and wet pavement, he said.
The automaker also has a vested interest in identifying and catering to the high-net-worth clients who can afford to own the Carrera GT, a database of consumers most likely to purchase its upcoming successor, the electric Mission X. Owners who bring in their cars for the recall will provide valuable insight to the brand about the potential market for the next Porsche supercar.
Unveiled as a concept in 2000 in Paris, the Carrera GT’s naturally aspirated direct-injection engine and analogue interior have earned it accolades as one of the last great combustion supercars. (The Porsche 918 Spyder that followed it in 2013 was a hybrid; it’s therefore considered a beast of a different sort.) Values have surged in recent years, with multiple examples approaching US$2 million at auction.
The initial recall was preemptive on the part of Porsche, the company spokesperson said, since no suspension issues have ever been reported on a Carrera GT. The components involved in the recall are not used on any other Porsche vehicle.
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