and it's a REPLICA, $2MILL
 

I have wondered what happens in cases like this, you break a car during a photo shoot.

Journalist blows engine on $2 million Porsche, must pay for repairs
Published January 22, 2013
The Sun

A hapless motorist is facing bankruptcy after he blew up a $2 million Porsche during a test drive, The Sun reports.

Mark Hales was at the wheel of a replica Porsche 917 owned by veteran Formula One ace David Piper, when he over-revved it causing the engine to explode.

Hales, 62, claims he made a gentleman's agreement with Piper that the 81-year-old would cover the cost of any mechanical damage caused during the session.

But the multi-millionaire denied making the deal, sued Hales for $76,000 in damages - and the High Court has ruled in his favor.

Hales, who writes for Octane and Auto Italia magazines, has been left with a bill of $76,000 to cover repairs to the car, plus $100,000 in legal costs.

Speaking after the ruling, the "devastated" journalist said: “I’ve sold everything to pay my lawyers and if he chooses to enforce the findings it is bankruptcy for me.”


Read more: Journalist blows engine on $2 million Porsche replica, must pay for repairs | Fox News

Ok, so the chassis/body might be replicas, but is the engine? That's the part that was damaged.

Piper's 917 is real - The confusion as being a 'replica' is that Piper allowed a builder to take a mold off the body to make replica bodies.

As a side note, David Piper was also a stunt driver in the movie Le Mans and lost a part of a leg during an accident.

AM

Saw that, thot it was funny.
they call that "the money shift" and it prolly didn't just "pop out of gear", I'm betting he shifted down when he wanted to shift up.

I read the article a few years ago - even then, the author mentioned a difficult to use shifter ;)
I'll see if I can find it and post the relevant paragraph

That was my first thought. Not sure what car the case involves but I think Pipers car (a green color??) is the real deal and he's owned it fresh from the factory as privateer new. His other cars are stunning too.

The car in the article was the green one with white flashes and was matched up against a Ferrari 512 (I think?)
It's funny because he also mentions using a lower shift limit on the track than the cars limit of 8,500...

The PO on my 993 money shifted it in the late 90s IIRC. The bill was $10k from TRG - that's without anything "exploding", just some lightly bent valves, I guess. I am not surprised a 917 will be over $70k.

There is really no excuse money shifting someone else's car. There is no need to shift quickly and let out the clutch quickly if you just drive it for testing / enjoyment. Letting the clutch out carefully and watching the rpm change can always save you from over-revving.

I'd be hesitant to drive anyone's 917 - but of course I am not a journalist either!

G

$100,000 to a lawyer?
$76,000 if you just make good man to man.
$176,000 now.
It is hard to make those kind of decisions but when you do and they go south,
the lawyer will be driving a nice new Carrrera at your unethical gamble.

Agreed. The guy f'ed up a very expensive car and then tried to weasel out of fixing it. He got what he deserved.

LOL - isn't that the truth. What makes you think the pissed off rich guy is going to lose the court case if the car was running fine before you drove it and had a blown engine afterwards? Maybe it was a hopeless case with bad blood from the start, but most rich guys probably would have accepted a payment plan. This could even have been fun, documenting the rebuild of the engine for another article. :)

G

I'm surprised a 917 is only worth $2,000,000.

the article says it's a replica

I think the blown engine brings the value down considerably.

It's not a replica, it was a test chassis used by Porsche for aero development and sold to Piper at some point as a spare car for his own race team. As such, it didn't have any race history and may have been a bit cobbled together over time with different components. It likely has less value than a car with great race pedigree.
AM

Hales states in the article (after prefacing how Porsche set up the synchroed and locked out gearboxes to mitigate against missed shifts etc) "but my preference is always to miss out gears for a hairpin - like going straight from fifth to second - which as long as you do it carefully..." :(

I imagine this would have been highlighted and bolded for the lawyers too.

Poor bastard, the dogs got him!

There was a show on speedvision a few years ago with Alain de Cadenet called victory by design where he talked about having to "get" insurance on each car before he drove them.

Might be a good idea for all classics before they get wrung out on track.

Sounds like a job for Henry.