C8 Corvette Z51 Breaks Down at Track Day, GM Denies Warranty Claim

The owner of this C8 Corvette Z51 seemingly has a strong case, but many unanswered questions about the incident remain. 

These days, we’re often bombarded with automakers telling us all about how track-capable their vehicles are, and as a result, many of us have taken our vehicle to the track at least once. In fact, it’s hard to even count the number of track-focused models out there at the moment, as even those who never plan to set foot – er, tire – on that type of tarmac gravitate toward them for reasons varying from the desire to look cool to wanting to have the most collectible version of a car that exists. However, sometimes, track days can go from fun to nightmare in mere seconds, and that’s precisely what happened to CorvetteForum member 70thAnnvGuy recently in his own C8 Corvette Z51, as he discusses in this thread.

“My 70th Anniversary Z51 overheated and shut down on a HPDE run at COTA last summer,” they said. “I broke the car in properly. I had the car towed to Capital Chevrolet in Austin, TX. The car has 1,753 miles on it. GM has been the most uncooperative, least forthcoming, worst company I have ever dealt with in my life. After months of virtually no communication from GM or Capital Chevy I was told verbally by the service manager that GM blocked my warranty and would not repair the vehicle due to customer negligence. As of today I have only been told because the car was raced and driven hard. It was not raced, not a timed event, and not driven to the limits.”

“I still have no real diagnosis of what actually happened to the car,” they added. “The only thing they will tell me is that the engine has signs of excessive wear and metal flakes in the engine. They referenced tire and brake wear. I have tried to get it resolved with the BBB Autoline and had a signed agreement that the car war going to be repaired. Nothing has happened, and now BBB has come back and said they cannot do anything because the car has to be under warranty and the BLOCK won’t allow it. Something they should have known 90 days ago. I had to have the car towed to the Petrol Lounge to be stored last week. I am now at a total loss????”

“Capital Chevrolet says I need to replace the engine, the brakes, and probably the transmission. How can a company treat a customer that pays 100k for a car like this? They could care less. How can they just BLOCK the warranty and not tell me specifically what failed on the car? and why? and how is that customer negligence? At this point I plan on hiring a lemon law attorney. Any referrals? I sincerely hope no one else has had this kind of experience.”

While this type of incident isn’t exactly common, we have seen the owners of a handful of various vehicles – not just Corvettes – taken to the track over the years, suffer either physical or cosmetic damage, and then have their warranty and/or insurance claims denied as a result. The reason, it seems, is that there’s always some sort of vague language present in a vehicle’s paperwork, but that isn’t seemingly the case with the C8 Corvette Z51, specifically.

“I do not have any insight into why the OP’s warranty claim was denied, but I would really question whether the term ‘racing’ had anything to do with it – for a track prepped Z51,” said Andybump. “Why? Search the owner’s manual, the warranty manual, and the track preparation guides, and you will find quite a few statements that seem to say that a properly prepared Z51 can be used for racing and competitive driving events. There is a caution statement in the Warranty Manual that says damage caused by ‘misuse of the vehicle such as racing’, but then it goes on to defer to the owner’s manual ‘proper vehicle use is discussed in the owner manual.’ And both the owner’s manual and the track preparation guide seem to say racing and competitive driving are OK for a track prepped Z51.”

As one might imagine, this post has garnered hundreds of responses so far, with many other members offering to chip in and help – and yet, the mystery remains. We haven’t yet heard back from the C8 Corvette Z51 owner to see how their case has progressed, and there are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding this incident as well. Thus, we encourage you to head over here and check out this thread in its entirety – and perhaps, while you’re there, even help us solve this mystery!

Photos: Chevrolet

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