996 TT

My experience with the Porsche club of the UAE The UAE Porsche Club As a ex-club member, I would like to urge all members of the UAE Porsche club who are looking to participate in future events to read all event policies carefully and clarify exactly the meaning behind each policy, before you even sign up. This is advice coming from my own personal experience - an incident that happened at the Porsche Driving Experience XLV; Yas Marina F1 Circuit event, held during the weekend of 7 March. At the point of the actual day event registration, my 996 TT had a breakdown on the spot, due to the sudden breakage of the coolant pipe connecting the water pump of my car. This happened literally when I was in my car, waiting in the queue to register. Perhaps you might say, ‘well, you should have serviced your car before the event’, but here’s the thing – I did. I had the car checked on 6 March, which is also when I changed the brake fluid in preparation for the event (and as advised by the Club), and the car passing a major service earlier. As regretful as I am about this incident, I am sure that you’ll agree that it was pure bad luck. One of the event organisers even agreed with me and told me to write in to the committee to see what could be done about my paid participation. I wrote in as suggested, explained the incident, and asked if I could participate in the next driving event instead, seeing as how I had already paid for an event I could not drive in, through no fault of my own. Today, I finally received an update from the committee. The decision of the committee was that they could not accommodate me in the next Porsche Driving Experience because according to their policies and rules, if cancellations are not done 48 hours prior to the event, they cannot refund the fee. Please allow me to clarify that I was not, and am not seeking a refund but was hoping to be allowed to participate in the next event in lieu, and I made this quite clear in the email I wrote to the committee. The course I had signed up for was for Beginner, and I was obviously hoping to progress level by level with each event. Whilst I respect the right of the Committee to exercise the policies they have in place, I wish to express my disappointment at their decision, and their failure to consider the unique circumstances of this incident, and to govern their decision accordingly. Having gone through this experience, I can tell you honesty that I don’t want to be part of a club that does not take care of their members, a club which is not flexible nor empathetic. Lastly my advice, always clarify exactly the meaning behind each policy, before you even sign up. P/s: For those interested in why the coolant pipe broke, be advised that it is actually a manufacturing defect direct from Porsche
“The problem exists on the GT1 motor because there are a couple coolant pipes in these motors that are not a single cast piece: the larger cast pieces have extruded inlet/outlet tubes that are connected using an adhesive. There is no metal-to-metal friction or press-fit to keep these tubes in place, so after enough heat cycles the adhesive will soften/loosen up and the tube will come out of the cast block (with the hose still attached), resulting in a rapid loss of engine coolant. Regardless of how the vehicle is driven, it seems this problem may eventually effect all 996/997 Turbo, GT2 and GT3 models including the 2010+ GT3 and GT3RS.”