How safe is it to regularly redline my 996c4s

Maybe a silly question but if I regularly really rev my car for maximum acceleration will I.. A . risk shortening the life of the engine etc...B risk blowing it up. I always drive very carefully, mindful of the fact of some of the stories on the various forums. I dont rev to the limit often but when I do I wonder if it will all go bang. Maybe paranoia but I would welcome others thoughts and views on this subject. my car has covered 27k of I believe gentle driving. Many thanks Mike

Suspect you're not warming it up either. Low miles,steady previous life? Yep you're going to blow it up! Personally I don't hit or cross the red line. There is no need or place on the queens highway for such antics. Enjoy your investment not destroy it! Just an opinion mind!

No you should not be worried. I do that often (ok its a 997 but rules should be the same) and I am not concerned but I have some rules 1. Never do that when cold 2. Wait until both water and oil temp reach normal levels 3. Always making sure I am not low on oil As long as you are sensible and careful as above then the engine should give you no problems but only pleasure through the noise and acceleration and a bit smile in your face Theo

i agree with both of the above you don't really need to but if you do warm the engine first and make sure fluids are topped up , but think if red lining the engine was a no no the rev limiter would be set lower to stop you doing it Rob

All IMHO... I think you DO need to! Make sure the engine has been properly warmed up, and by that i would say not just wait til the temps are up after poodling around at <3k revs and then go straight to red line, but work your way to gradually higher revs after water temp up and oil pressures down. (I allow extra time after water temp as no oil temp gauge in a C4S) As long as you are in a safe environment (track etc) then I think a good hoon is good for the car, an Italian tune up. :wink: ETA: And I also let the car have a warm down on lower revs before parking up and switching engine off.

Wait for idle oil pressure to drop to <2 bar. Nail it! No point in a Porsche if you don't drive it.* Racing. Not posing. *driving to the rev limit might not be sensible simply because both maximum power has already been and gone and changing up into next gear will be after optimum shift point. Also if you literally hit the rev counter you won't get max acceleration as the software rev limiter will have halted acceleration by stopping/limiting fueling.

sums it up perfectly! :thumb: PS and those of you who are wondering why I'm posting at 5.30, I'm on my way out to catch the 1st train

Hello thanks for the advices, but kindly note I am 54 going on 55 years old, I do warm up first and always have, and importantly I do try to remain absolutely legal but sometimes I stray above the limit, but thats the same for everyone I look down and think oh dear that was not intended! I have both a class 1 hgv and Pcv licence and so cannot afford to break the law. My point was simply that I have never really redlined my car or cars for that matter, but the other evening I did push my C4S for the first time fairly hard, and, I have to say that with the sports exhaust it was was rather intoxicating! So I was simply wondering if on the odd occasion it would do any harm, I cannot justify blowing it up and would not abuse either the law or my car.regards Mike

As has been said, as long as the car is fully warm it is impossible to 'blow up' your engine by exceeding the revs it is designed to operate safely at, the limiter will prevent you reaching dangerous levels, that is its job. I have the little nagger set to 99 mph. I hear it trigger during many of my overtaking manoeuvres which, once completed safely and with minimum time exposed on the wrong side of the road, I quickly allow to decay to legal limits. Prolonging your exposure unnecessarily is, I believe, foolish.

Strange, that's what I call my wife too. :hand:

Its pointless but if you wanna redline it you can, it has a rev limiter for a reason and thats to protect itself. As long as your car is well maintained and warmed up it will be fine. As with all of these types of questions i think the best answer is drive the thing however you want and if something breaks fix it. simple

could have sworn I read somewhere that any redline occurrences would be recorded in the engine management system to snitch on you to Porsche should you go bang, and this may invalidate any warranty....

There's a couple of points to that. One is that most 996 are now well out of warranty, and secondly, if they did try and claim any damage was self inflicted you would have a pretty solid case against Porsche for redlining and setting the rev limiter above the level at which damage occurs.

Overrevving and hitting the limiter is two different things. Overrevving will happen when you downshift and that will be recorded Theo

"*driving to the rev limit might not be sensible simply because both maximum power has already been and gone and changing up into next gear will be after optimum shift point" Well said. By 5,300 rpm on most NA's(exc NA GT's) and 4,750rpm GT2/Turbo's the power gains are gone, so all you get left with is higher fuel consumption and risk.