Covering the Track-Based Cars

A car that is made to be driven fast typically comes at a high price. Think of all the Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches that have been driven on various tracks over the years. The question might be to learn whether or not these cars are covered by their factory warranty on the track. In many cases the track car that you see taking turns and winning races is not a factory stock car, but it has the backing of a race team and lots of possibilities for power and performance. As for your ride, the story may be a lot different.

Most car companies will state the warranty has been voided if you take your car out on the track. This came to light a few years ago when those who bought the Lancer Evolution took to the track and tried to use the factory warranty to cover repairs. When the news got out that the manufacturer would not back the car on the track sales dropped. The question we should be asking automakers is “why are they making cars that are built for the track and not willing to cover them for warranty repairs?”

It seems like common sense that if you build a car and advertise high horsepower, exceptional performance and a fun drive the customers you attract are going to need a place to actually experience this in person. Can you legally experience these attributes on most roads; no, you need a track where the rest of the world won’t be driving and you can predict what’s up ahead in order to really let the car loose and see what it can do. At least one automaker has the idea right and will cover the car if a warranty repair is needed on your car.

That automaker is General Motors and the car in question for now is the Chevrolet Camaro. The Camaro is a car that you want to enjoy on the track and open it up to see what it can do and General Motors will cover the repairs that are needed due to a part malfunctioning under their warranty program. Of course, there are times when an owner can void the warranty on a Camaro as well, and that is by tuning or modifying it before heading to the track. In these cases the repairs will be the responsibility of the owner, but if you take a stock Camaro ZL1 to the track you can expect to have repairs covered that are caused by a failure of the vehicle to perform correctly.

This absolutely makes sense to me. If a manufacturer has built a car that is advertised to be great on the track and an owner takes it to the track and the parts malfunction the vehicle should be covered. GM makes it easy for us to have lots of fun in their track-oriented Camaros and other models, but for the Camaro this coverage applies to the V8 SS, ZL1, Z/28 and 1LE with either engine. This is not new for GM because the previous ZL1 and Z/28 were both covered as well, which means we have had a generation of great, track oriented models covered under the factory warranty.