No. A drag strip is not the same thing as Laguna Seca. It’s a drag strip. You can take a busted old station wagon to a drag strip.
Drag racing is a competitive event which is not recommend till you get to 1500 miles.
The part of the manual discussing Launch control is explicit that it’s not to be used on public streets. They know you’re gonna do it anyway but that doesn’t mean you have any legal standing.

 

Can you take off your blinders please.
Is a launch control start a full throttle start? Yes or NO
The "break-in" section of the manual specifically says no full throttle starts until 500 miles. That means after 500 you can. So if I just hold down the brake and rev it to 3,500 and take off after 500 miles would that be OK? PLEASE tell me WHY they didn't say IN THE "break-in" section no full throttle starts AFTER 500 miles?

Great to learn I can't take a station wagon to Laguna Seca. Are you sure about that?

You're talking out of both sides of your mouth. In one breathe you say I can't do launches at a drag strip until 1,500 miles and in the next you tell me I CAN take a non Z51 to a track when GM says I'm not supposed to. Either it's a track or it isn't, it can't be both.

 

Is launch control a full throttle start? Yes. Is it explicitly stated it is to be used for a closed course race event only? Yes. Does your break in say no race events till 1500 mile…Yes.
so no going to tests and tune night at the drag strip before 1500 miles because the manual tells you can’t do a launch control start at your next red light.
“Full throttle start” doesn’t necessarily mean launch control. You can just mash the gas and not have the DCT drop the clutch which is far more jarring to the transmission.

As for your tracking comment yes drag racing and doing laps are both motorsports but drag racing is not “tracking”. Z-51 is not a drag racing package. This is an” all poodles are dogs but not all dogs are poodles” kinda thing. You seem to be inferring the two are interchangeable.

I get that most of this legal more than technical, but it’s the legal part that gets people in trouble with warranty claims. With all the DCT issues that seem to be a thing, I personally would follow the manual to a T, and got give GM a reason to put me on the hook for a $20k+ DCT.. Its not like they can’t pull codes and see when you’ve done launch control.

From what I’m getting with DCT issue threads is it appears to be debris related. If I got a check engine light after launch control, my first thought would be that I knocked some debris loose. Might be better to do a DCT flush first.

 

@Phil1098 - have you ever dealt with any lawyers in a court case? Serious question.

 

Unfortunately yes. I have also defended a customer in a Lemon Law dispute against GM and made them look foolish and the customer won.

 

On this we are in accord. Most people have no idea the abuse level of accept criteria GM puts on drive train. I have yet to see one actual failed DCT. Failed being bent shift forks, stripped splines on shafts, cracked cases from stress, etc. It's unfortunate the debris has given the DCT a bit of a black eye. Right now GM is trying to do damage control, if anything they aren't going to try and get out fixing any DCT or it will look like they are turning their back on it and with social media what it is today, that's not good. I recall the first year of the Nissan GT-R they had a fragile DCT and the input shaft would have the splines peel off like the skin on an onion. That would have when you followed the instructions in the owners manual and THEN they would deny the warranty claim. It was a HUGE deal at the time. Here was a guy with a 3,000 mile car and a $20,000 repair bill because Nissan had built a car that could hurt itself very easily.

 

Regardless of the wording in the manual, lawyers, and whatever else, using Launch mode is perfectly fine. The Ron Fellows cars get launched that way several times in every class, 2 classes per week. They report no issues caused by LC. The car is programmed to protect the drivetrain by not allow too many revs, too much torque, or too much wheelspin.

 

Great - you must be a attorney. I was hoping there was an attorney on this forum who could chime in. Another question: Could you defend GM with the very broad "similar activity" language in the manual to prove the owner was driving the car more aggressively than they should have in the first 1500 miles and caused a transmission failure?

 

No, not an attorney, but the customer (my customer) would have gone into the lemon law meeting alone. It was held at the BBB and an impartial rep made the decision. GM wouldn't even send someone, they called into the meeting. I offered to go and help my customer and they really appreciated it. It was pretty funny, a bunch of people at the dealership asked me if I was really going to do that and I said yes. They asked if I was worried about being let go because I was going against GM, I said right is right and wrong is wrong, if I get let go for doing what's right, I don't want to work here anyway. I painted them into a corner to the point the BBB rep started laughing and said I've heard enough.

 

Since you mentioned that the ambient temp was at 44F degrees - it begs the question... Did you first bring the engine oil & water + the transaxle oil to normal operating temperatures prior to your "launching" adventure? I'm not even going to ask about the tire temps.

 

So - for me, its not just about the lawyers, or the potential denial of warranty coverge, or even a different interpretation of the wording. It says you should not participate in tracking or similar events until 1500 miles. I interpret that to mean that certain drive train components of the car are not sufficiently broken in to withstand the stress of track related activities. I dont know what those components are (engine or transmission), and I don't know what activities will stress those component too soon. So, in the interest of not damaging the car, I choose not to fully exercise its capabilities until 1500 miles. The lawyers may have picked the words, but the engineers determined the 500 and 1500 mileage points based on wear profiles.

 

No matter what forum I read, every car/motorcycle/boat etc is complete garbage and broken before it leaves the factory. I am completely surprised I have never experienced any of the faults on any of my cars/motorcycles/boats.

 

My c8 does the exact same thing did they solve the problem?

 

Does yours also have less than 1500 miles on the odo? lol

 

No kidding. Buy a $100k car. Check. Read break in instructions. Nope. Car breaks. What the hell?

 

I had about 5000kms on mine when it first did it I have about 15000kms on it now. Did you ever get solved?

 

I blindly followed the advice of some guy named Tadge. Figured he’d have some insight:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1606289607