First impressions

[bjb]

Hello. I've just bought a 987 Cayman S and this is my first posting on here. The plan is to use the car for track plus road use, but absolutely not as a daily driver.

I've had the privilege of spending some time in the shop with the car to oversee (aka "get in the way of") some service and upgrade work - I've uprated the brake discs and pads and otherwise had all the major service items carried out and changed all the fluids.

Alongside was a restoration of a Mk I E Type and I couldn't help doing a little bit of compare and contrast. Some thoughts:

Cayman - every millimetre of space was used effectively. All parts were of a high quality and fixed with planning and great design.

E Type - a joy to work on because there was acres of space. But what was in the space was a bit like something out of the parts bin.

Cayman - electronics and mechanicals eg coil packs, brake sensors

E Type - dated mechanicals: distributor. Drum brakes involved a certain amount of faith!

OK, a bit unfair, the E Type dated back to 1965 and is a museum piece. So beautiful it made me go weak at the knees. But the Cayman just had such a satisfying feel of everything being right.

Mine may be a bit of a hobby car but it drives like a dream and I couldn't be more pleased with it.

 

[MrDemon]

but absolutely not as a daily driver

why not, ? if you plan to track it, you need to do some serious track mods to avoid damage and upsets

 

[bjb]

Why not a daily driver? Current daily drive involves passengers: will stick to Range Rover - most of the time! Don't want to make the Cayman too hardcore because I do want to be able to use it on the road when I get bored with my other cars and the track use is going to be limited to track days for a while so it needs to be a compromise.

 

[MrDemon]

if you can pedal a car ok, you will melt the tyres in about 6 laps and you cannot dial any camber in worth talking about for track use. if it's a gen 1 Cayman you will have oil pick up issue as it only has 1 pick up point. it will also get oil into the air and could seeze your engine, so you would have to fit a motorsport oil/air separator. none of that is hard core, it bare minimum to not ruin 1k worth of tyres In a few laps or blow your engine up !

 

[bjb]

Well, MrDemon...I took your advice. []

I don't use this forum very often (hence "guest") but thought I would resurrect this old thread in case anyone was interested in an update.

Addictive pastime this motorsport lark?

I decided just to use this car on track and it is currently non road-legal.

I changed:

Fuel and air intake (Now 84mm plenum)

Exhaust (straight-thru - no cats)

Oil pick-up

Clutch

Gearshift

Brakes

Brake pipes (braided)

Air filtering

Wheels + spacers

Tyres (Currently running Toyos. Thinking of trying Pirellis)

All fluids up-specced. (Currently running Dot5.1 brake fluid)

All coilpacks

ECU mapping

I added:

Rollcage

Cotterpins on bonnet

2 x Race seat

2 x six-point harness

Checker-plate in footwells

Direct oil feed to IMS bearing

Towhooks

I removed:

All internal furniture: standard seats, carpets, door cards (door openers have fabric loops, but not quite GT3RS spec!), transmission tunnel cover

All consumer electronics

Tyre etc sensors

Air bags

Weigh-saving: approx. 150kg

By the end of the year the car looked like this:

 

[Brian_Innes]

Looks good. One thing, don't buy Pirellis, stick with Toyo R888's for track use. If you are intending doing long circuits like Silverstone GP, try Michelin Cup 2's. You may benefit from some wheel camber mods to front and rear if you want to maximise the track day tyres.

Otherwise, your pretty much on the button. Enjoy!

Brian

 

[bjb]

Thanks! That was the only outing (so far) after changing the wheels from 18s to 19s. 19x11.5 rears running 295mm Toyo R888s. Forgotten the widths on the fronts: must be getting old! It is set it up very neutral camber-wise with a view to adjusting as required, but the rears are spaced out 40mm and the fronts 20mm - both stick out a bit beyond the body. But that seemed to work pretty well with plenty of grip and no significant understeer.

The biggest difference in all of the changes from the stock Cayman S has been in terms of torque. It now pulls like a locomotive from <4,000 rpm to >7,000 instead of having a much narrower band above 5,000 which was what I found with the unmodified M97 3.4 engine. I don't really like to talk about fuel consumption but that's the price you pay, of course, for pushing more fuel and air through and with the throttle operating either on or off!

 

[Brian_Innes]

Interesting comments on the throttle body mod. I've heard that the 82mm GT3 TB and IPD plenum works very well, particularly with the DFI engine Cayman R mapping. The CR also has larger diameter exhaust manifold pipes and no pre-cat which would marry well with the TB mod. Food for thought perhaps.

That's mighty big wheel spacers you have chosen! If they work well for you that's all that counts. I use 9mm up front and 5mm rear for tight circuits, with 9mm on all four for long circuits. Suits the Cayman R for my driving style.

A couple of other mods you may care to think about.........

997 GT3 Brake Master Cylinder, or TRW equivalent. Works well with steel braided hoses. I've done this mod on my CR and it is essential for track work in my opinion.

Fit an LSD. Absolutely essential for track work if you want to transfer the extra power to the track. More control on tight corners also.

Like you, fuel consumption doesn't bother me either.

Brian

 

[bjb]

I changed the whole exhaust system from the headers back - very similar to the CR.

LSD may just be next on the list!

Food for thought on the brake master cylinder. I hadn't thought of that.

 

[M030]

.... The CR also has larger diameter exhaust manifold pipes and no pre-cat ...

The CaymanR has 2 x 2 cats, the same as any other 987-2.

 

[bjb]

Think BJInnes might be referencing his CR rather than stock?

 

[PaulJ]

Am I the only one around here to think that E-type Jags have disc brakes all round? Or are we talking about some obscure old Porsche and now I've made an utter a**e of myself?

 

[bjb]

Ahem, red face for me. The case for the defence however is that there were in fact three cars together in scene 1.

From left to right: my then newly acquired Cayman 987-1; a mk 1 e type ; an XK120 (or might have been an XK140). One of these vehicles definitely had drum brakes and, now you point out the error of my ways (there are a few others to be taken into account), I think I must have mentally combined some features from the two jaguars. []

 

[PaulJ]

Actually I seem to remember E-Type rear brakes are inboard, therefore not easy to spot anyway.

 

[Buddy]

Correct Paul, next to the diff inboard of the driveshafts you must be old to know that!