Porsche halts 911 GT3 deliveries after two catch fire

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Porsche halts 911 GT3 deliveries after two catch fire

Reuters
February 19, 2014, 2:14 am

BERLIN (Reuters) - Porsche has stopped deliveries of the most expensive version of its overhauled 911 sports car after two of them caught fire, the German automaker said.

Engineers at Porsche's Stuttgart-based headquarters are examining the remains of the gutted vehicles used in Switzerland and Italy to determine the cause of the fires, a spokesman said on Tuesday, confirming a report on German newswire dpa.

The Volkswagen-owned carmaker expects to conclude the investigation this week, the spokesman said, adding that Porsche had this year delivered 322 of the GT3 models, which start at 137,000 euros (112,240.63 pounds).

Porsche expects to hit a target of selling more than 200,000 sports cars and SUVs in 2015, three years earlier than first scheduled, Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller said last week.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)