Journalist out $174K after a test drive goes badly.
917 blows up

This might sound harsh but.... I don't feel bad for him at all. As a racer, he had plenty of experience and as a journalist I'm sure he has plenty of money. Bottom line, he should have known better. Whats the old phrase? "You break it, you buy it!"

If he can buy a 917 engine for $200K ... I want 3 of them.

That was the repair price

Actually it was $74K for the repair and $100K for legal fees. Ain't that a kick, the lawyers cost more than vintage Porsche race parts.

Thats why I don't like riding someone elses motorcycle or driving there car.
Because #1 if I wad it up I couldnt afford to fix it. and 2 i would feel soooo bad. But my personal opinion is, if you hand someone your keys you the owner are assuming responsibility.

Poor bastard!! It is also why I do not " borrow " anything of value from friends and or acquaintaces. If he missed a shift he shouldn't have been driving it!

Agreed with "you play, you pay".

Everyone knows that these are museum pieces. You, as the rental driver are responsible.

Dit or get off the pot!

why would he not insist that the owner or the owners specified driver not be doing the track driving???

wow! to leave your self open for that kind of liability......

as others say... you play, you pay.... and i wouldn't play unless i could afford the repair bill if i broke it!

After reading about it, I think the owner was sketchy and was hoping it'd break so he could blame the driver. But that's just my opinion...really, who owns a 917 and has it in such bad condition that you tell the driver not go go over 7k rpm?

I'm sure that David Piper has the Funds & does keep his cars in Tip-Top shape. If you don't know who he is, look it up, he lost part of his leg during the filming of "LeMans" & has plenty of money

i wouldn't think it necessary to maintain a historic exhibition car to the race level performance standard. and i don't think asking to keep the rpm down is out of line at all.

to run a car that is that old and has not had to be kept up to the strict tear down and inspections that a competitive race car would have at the max or near max performance level is just ignorant. [and expensive]

917 transmission issues, eh? I wish they would send it to me for a rebuild

David Piper is a true gentleman and driver. Anytime I drove someones toy I honored their redline and warm up instructions and had a 1 million dollar liability policy in case something went wrong. Silly on the journalists part and David's IMHO.

I was going to add that about Piper. T.C., wasn't he still driving occasionally in the Le Mans Historics? Seem to remember they did a "Le Mans" start a few years ago at the 24 and they gave him a little head start Poor guy!

The owner of the vehicle is responsible for the maintenance and caring of his or her vehicle. You let a journalist (race experience not withstanding) drive your 2 million dollar car then sue him when it breaks?? If the journalist had been killed because the car broke, should his family sue the cars owner?? I've loaned both my 914's out to individuals. Once on the road and once at Willow Springs race track. If he had broken it, it would have been MY responsibilty to pay to have it fixed. It's MY car. It's MY responsibilty to take car of it and repair it when needed. Piper should quit whining, fix his 2 million dollar toy and get on with it.

I agree ...

Piper is still racing this car & others in Historic Racing & they are prepared properly. That said, I would not let a Writer drive a car like that. Vic Elford said that a 917 was a very scary vehicle at speed & he was the best behind the wheel of these Monsters!

Knowing journalists, I'd say that is it pretty rare that they have plenty of money. Heck most of them live poorly except when the company is paying and that doesn't happen like the old days.
The real problem here is that they failed to sign any sort of binding agreement over liability. I think they are both at fault in some way, no matter how nice, or good people they are. Think of this as a rental car, as he did pay $3200 for the rental and something went wrong and he sure as hell wishes he had paid for the extra insurance.
As always, the ones who win are the Lawyers... $100k... lovely...

You want to let a writer (racer) drive your car, put a rev limiter in it @ 5000rpm and let him go. If he crashed that's different. If it blows, it's not his fault.
Just my opinion.

Are you sure? I'd really have to think aboot taking something like that on. I don't know if I'd want any part of it. The cool factor is through the roof but I don't know if the hassle would be worth it.

My father is a journalist, and yes, a majority of them live on meager means (this is why I never had a 914 in high school - daddy never bought me anything - quite proud of that actually). However, Mark Hales is an automotive journalist and well known as a historic racer over there. Well, I've heard of him before at least. He has the money, or can get it, but like others have said, the PRUDENT thing to have done is have some sort of written agreement and liability insurance, otherwise never get in the damn car.

I think $74,000 seems pretty cheap for repairs actually. I'm pretty sure that anything that does get replaced on those engines comes straight from Porsche, who apparently still has the ability to make parts to build a flat 12, and I thought they would surely charge a larger premium than that for parts. You're right - the travesty here really is the lawyer fees.