Porsche Recalls 918 Spyder

2015 Porsche 918 Spyder (Credit: Porsche)

Car recalls happen all the time, much thanks lately to GM and Takata, but it’s not every day that a supercar is involved in one. Porsche is recalling numerous 918 Spyders for a problem with the fasteners on the front axle, because having that breaking free while traveling at 160- plus mph would be a slight problem.

Actually, saying that recalls on a supercar isn’t an everyday event might not be entirely true. After all, this is the second recall for the 918. The first one was issued in July for the rear control arms possibly failing when the car is being raced. Only five cars in the country needed the fix. This time around, only 43 cars from the United States are affected, and 205 worldwide. Considering that there are only 918 of the cars, and 297 of them in the United States, that’s a pretty sizable chunk of the population.

Details are scant on what exactly the problem is with the front axle fasteners. Porsche is being coy with any information, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is dragging its feet with posting the official filing. After all, if the government doesn’t drag its feet, how would anything get done? That leaves plenty of people guessing about the exact problem, but in the end it’s all a mystery.

The good news is that no crashes have been caused by the problem. Porsche says that the issue was uncovered internally and that no customer cars have even experienced the problem, but it’s being proactive about resolving the situation quickly (and hopefully GM is taking notes). Every owner with a car that is part of the recall has already been contacted.

Of course, Porsche has a reputation for addressing problems with their cars promptly, instead of some exotic manufacturers that ignore fire risks for years on end. The new 911 GT3 was experiencing sudden fires, so Porsche replaced the entire engine on the 785 units that had already been sold to consumers.