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Porsche: Park all new 911 GT3s for fire risk

Fred Meier
USA TODAY
The 2014 Porsche 911 GT3.
  • Race-ready GT3 was redone for 2014
  • Two have had engine problems and fires
  • Owners asked not to drive them until cause is found

Porsche gave its all-new 2014 911 GT3 owners the black flag today -- the mandatory signal to return to the pits.

The VW-owned performance car brand asked owners of the street-legal and track-ready sports car to park it and dealers to stop selling them until the figure out the cause of two cases in Europe of engine problems and subsequent fires. There are no crashes or injuries linked to the problem.

It is Porsche, after all, so the company said it will come pick up the $130,000-and-up cars from the owners and give them a loaner. There are just 785 of the 2014s on the road worldwide, 408 in the U.S.

And few of the GT3's likely are being used as daily commuters -- the company says that 80% of owners also drive them on a track.

The Porsche did not say what would be done to the cars nor how long it would take -- it said an engineering investigation into the cause of the engine failure is not yet complete.is studying The company is offering to pick up the vehicles and take them to a Porsche Centre immediately.

Porsche"s slogan for the newest version of the go-fast car with a long racing heritage is "Limits Pushed." And maybe they were pushed a little too far in pursuit of better lap times with the GT3's newly developed 3.8-liter, water-cooled, aluminum six.

It puts out 475 horsepower at nose-bleed high 8,250 rpm -- near the red line of 9,000 rpm -- and tallies 325 lb.-ft. of torque at 6,250. In the just over 3,000-pound car, that's good for 0-60 mph in 3.3 seconds, says Porsche, 0.7 faster than the previous GT3.

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