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Cayman (981) S Ground clearance and cattle grids

Motorhead

Motorhead

PCGB Member
Member
Hi Caroline,

Hopefully someone with more specific Welsh local knowledge will be able to help but in general I wouldn’t think that cattle grids will be a problem. I have PASM on my 987.2 CS which lowers the suspension slightly (-10mm from standard) and have never encountered any clearance problems. If you’ve not experienced difficulties navigating speed bumps and other London “street furniture” then I doubt that cattle grids will cause you any difficulties.

Just drive cautiously over them of course. [;)]

Enjoy your trip!

Jeff

 
I've been over dozens of cattle grids in Wales and elsewhere in my 981 Boxster S with PASM, Sport Chrono etc without any problem. Most of them are actually pretty well laid and can be taken at speed. Take more care if (like us) you travel with heavy luggage on board.

 
Great, that sounds good. I've also been told the roads can be a little uneven in the area I'm going to, but as Jeff says that is not unusual for the London area either - the road from the M25 up to Chessington has probably got one of the most atrocious and bumpy road surfaces I've ever seen in places and the car is fine over that (although I am probably the only one driving significantly *slower* than the 40mph limit along there! :ROFLMAO:), so hopefully it will be OK.

 
Hi all, hope this is not too odd a question but I am going to Wales in a few weeks' time and want to visit a specific area where I know there are cattle grids on the roads. Does anyone know if the Cayman S (with Sport Chrono pack - though I would not be in Sport mode driving over those! :ROFLMAO:) would have any issues with them in terms of ground clearance?

Thanks
Caroline
 
No issues with cattle grids in my 718 Boxster GTS4.0 which has the -20mm lowered suspension. Some bumps cause the little plastic flaps in front of the front wheels to catch slightly but that doesn't worry me. You should be absolutely fine in a standard 981 S.

 
Just a quick update to say the car had absolutely no issues at all on the cattle grids and roads in Wales [:)] The only hairy moments I had was when I took a wrong turning down to a lake and ended up on one of the worst road surfaces I've ever seen (loose gravel and full of potholes!) so I had to take it VERY slowly over those and choose my path carefully. However the car came through it OK and no damage was done, although I made sure I was careful not to follow the sat nav after that if the road looked a bit iffy! In fact if anything the entrance to the car park of the hotel where I was staying caused more issues, as it had a big dip in it and as the front of the car went up I heard a very slight scraping, although nothing to worry about.

What was more amazing (and uncanny) is the way the PDK gearbox works - I went from driving very carefully down a tiny little narrow one lane road where I couldn't see beyond the next corner (so slow and steady, no fast acceleration or cornering) to giving it a few "beans" when the road widened out to two lanes, but was still twisty and I had much better visibility, and before I had got to the point where I was going to put it into sport mode it felt like the PDK already "knew" it was being driven differently and started to change much more like it does in sport mode anyway (i.e. keeping in a lower gear, changing at higher revs and blipping the throttle on braking and change down). I had no idea it worked like that (I've always either put it in sport mode before driving more "sportily" or sadly have not had any reason to use it as I live in the South East where the opportunities to drive "spiritedly" are very limited) but as I didn't know this road at all, I had not taken it out of standard mode straight away, so was quite surprised that it almost immediately seemed to "sense" the change in driving style and change itself to a more sporty mode. Has anyone else noticed this?

 
Hi Caroline,

Good to hear that your Welsh trip was incident free Cayman-wise!

The scraping sound you heard most likely was from the plastic air-deflectors in front of the front wheels … very common, and nothing to worry about.

I’m sure that if you read all the blurb you’ll find that the PDK transmission adapts automatically to driving style - as does PASM if you have it - even with Sport mode inactive.

Jeff

 
carolinewoodley said:
What was more amazing (and uncanny) is the way the PDK gearbox works - I went from driving very carefully down a tiny little narrow one lane road where I couldn't see beyond the next corner (so slow and steady, no fast acceleration or cornering) to giving it a few "beans" when the road widened out to two lanes, but was still twisty and I had much better visibility, and before I had got to the point where I was going to put it into sport mode it felt like the PDK already "knew" it was being driven differently and started to change much more like it does in sport mode anyway (i.e. keeping in a lower gear, changing at higher revs and blipping the throttle on braking and change down). I had no idea it worked like that (I've always either put it in sport mode before driving more "sportily" or sadly have not had any reason to use it as I live in the South East where the opportunities to drive "spiritedly" are very limited) but as I didn't know this road at all, I had not taken it out of standard mode straight away, so was quite surprised that it almost immediately seemed to "sense" the change in driving style and change itself to a more sporty mode. Has anyone else noticed this?
Click to expand...

Most certainly ... some `auto boxes` have been doing this for many years now, the PDK being an exceptional iteration [:)]

I don`t recall the PDK (2013 Cayman S) having auto blip in `Normal` mode though ... probably due to me most always being in `Sport`

Great to hear of your `eureka` moment [:D]

 
AndrewCS said:
Most certainly ... some `auto boxes` have been doing this for many years now, the PDK being an exceptional iteration [:)]

I don`t recall the PDK (2013 Cayman S) having auto blip in `Normal` mode though ... probably due to me most always being in `Sport`

Great to hear of your `eureka` moment [:D]
Click to expand...

Mine is a 2014 car, I don't know whether there were any changes in the PDK specification between 2013 and 2014, but it was most definitely blipping on down change as it sounded fantastic! [:D]

Edited to add, I also have the sport chrono package on mine, but I don't know if that would make any difference to the standard PDK mode? And it felt very different too, so I am assuming the PASM changed as well.

The more I drive this car the more I am in love with it! It really is the very best "all round" car I have ever owned, it is happy in any circumstance (even driving home in heavy stop-start traffic was easy and completely stress free - unlike all the sports cars I've owned before) and when circumstances and road conditions allow, it is so much fun too!

 
Caroline,

If your 981 is like my 987.2 (manual), in addition to modifying PDK gearshift speeds and change-points, activating PASM sport mode, activating PSE (if you have it) and delaying PSM activation, Sport Chrono also activates a more aggressive throttle response and engine tune (with a harder rev-limiter), which probably explains why you reckoned the car felt different.

Jeff

 
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