Afternoon all,
New club member based on the Surrey/Hants/Berks border and new to me Cayman GTS - firstly a thread to say ‘hello’, secondly an excuse to keep a bit of a car/progress diary.
After 3.5 years and 25k miles, I decided that it was time to move on from my E90 M3. It was a tough decision to make, as I adored that car. However, it was time to experience something new.
So what to replace my beloved M3 with? After months of deliberating over 911’s/Guilia QF’s/F8x M3’s CS’s/etc, a Cayman came up locally from a well-respected performance car dealer. Being naturally impulsive, I went against advice I give others and put a deposit down on the first car I saw.
It’s a late 2015 build 981 GTS, and my first Porsche - a marque I’ve obsessed over since I was about five. What sold it to me other than the way it drove, was the superb spec. Aside from the usual GTS additions, we have:
X73
PTV
Carbon buckets (heated was a nice surprise!)
Bose
A previous owner had also decided to add 981 GT4 wheels, which was kind of them.
It’s a PDK car. I initially wanted a manual, but since PDK is so good (and manual 981’s are so rare), it was a compromise I was happy to make.
The other trade-off for such a high spec? It’s on 80k miles, which seems to be much higher than average. However, not one to be afraid of miles - the M3 was on 116k - the service history was good, it drove fantastically, I took the plunge.
Plans?
Within 10 miles of leaving the dealership, the PCM (nav/music/etc) failed. It has a mind of its own, so it’s being fixed under warranty. While it’s in there, I’ve also bought a mr12volt unit, so will have CarPlay running too.
I’ve also bought it (knowingly) with a slight handbrake issue. It’s currently locked in service mode. It doesn’t affect the drive and still catches fine, but gives me a nice warning light. The dealership have advised to drive for a bit and it may recalibrate, if not, they’ll sort it.
It could do with a PDK and diff service, so that’ll be done in January.
The valves in the PSE failed, so the previous owner removed them rather than fixing. This means that the exhaust is always in party mode. No bother to me, potential bother to my neighbours; it’s louder than the M3 at cold start. More importantly, it may be too loud for some tracks, so if that’s an issue I’ll look to get it sorted. It sounds fantastic on full chat though, really good.
The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that it’s currently not running a front plate. I’m an idiot and removed the vinyl plate yesterday to put on my private plate, only to realise afterwards that my new V5C hadn’t arrived. Genius.
Tyres. It’s running a weird setup at the moment, PS5’s at the rear and all seasons up front. In this weather, it’s fantastic but my OCD of not having matching rubber all around is making my eye twitch. Will revisit in spring.
Mods-wise, nothing planned other than CarPlay. I intend to run this in the same way I ran my M3. Drive it everywhere, over-service it and if it breaks, fix it.
Some initial thoughts, two weeks in:
- The Cayman is far less frantic to drive quickly than the M3; it’s almost delicate to drive. The way it flows down a b-road is unlike anything I’ve experienced before. In short, it’s wonderful and I keep on finding excuses to drive it.
- People don’t like Porsches. I’ve never owned a car where I’m tailgated so much, and not let in on junctions/filter lanes. I thought this was placebo, but my wife drove it for the first time and noticed exactly the same.
- Adaptive headlights are very good.
- I found out yesterday that my fixed buckets aren’t actually fixed. They fold forwards, although with it being a two seater and no storage space behind, I don’t fully understand why…?
- You don’t really need to brake…
- …but when you do, the brakes are very good.
- In fact, all controls are well weighted. Take the steering as an example, I’d read all the reviews that the 981’s electric steering wasn’t great for feel. The truth, it provides more feedback than the M3’s hydraulic rack. I reckon this is possibly due to the thickness of the wheel over other things.
- PDK is excellent; rather than (when in auto) hunting for 7th like some other dual-clutch ‘boxes, it seems to actually pick the right gear for the situation.
- It’s also very smooth, and lightning fast. I do sort of miss the jolt to the back from the DCT though.
- Changing gears with the stick rather than paddles is counter intuitive here. I have a habit of choosing 1st>2nd with the stick when pulling out of a junction (easier than fumbling for the paddle in the M3 when applying a dab of ‘oppo), but ‘pushing’ to go up a gear is strange me.
- I have a number plate light out
- I also have a dash rattle. Normally, turning the music up would suffice, but the PCM is broken…
- I’ve not got over the novelty of putting shopping in the frunk.
- it sounds fantastic.
Will aim to keep on top of this, but it’ll likely become a picture-diary!
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. Look forward to becoming more involved in the community.
Cheers,
Luke
New club member based on the Surrey/Hants/Berks border and new to me Cayman GTS - firstly a thread to say ‘hello’, secondly an excuse to keep a bit of a car/progress diary.
After 3.5 years and 25k miles, I decided that it was time to move on from my E90 M3. It was a tough decision to make, as I adored that car. However, it was time to experience something new.
So what to replace my beloved M3 with? After months of deliberating over 911’s/Guilia QF’s/F8x M3’s CS’s/etc, a Cayman came up locally from a well-respected performance car dealer. Being naturally impulsive, I went against advice I give others and put a deposit down on the first car I saw.
It’s a late 2015 build 981 GTS, and my first Porsche - a marque I’ve obsessed over since I was about five. What sold it to me other than the way it drove, was the superb spec. Aside from the usual GTS additions, we have:
X73
PTV
Carbon buckets (heated was a nice surprise!)
Bose
A previous owner had also decided to add 981 GT4 wheels, which was kind of them.
It’s a PDK car. I initially wanted a manual, but since PDK is so good (and manual 981’s are so rare), it was a compromise I was happy to make.
The other trade-off for such a high spec? It’s on 80k miles, which seems to be much higher than average. However, not one to be afraid of miles - the M3 was on 116k - the service history was good, it drove fantastically, I took the plunge.
Plans?
Within 10 miles of leaving the dealership, the PCM (nav/music/etc) failed. It has a mind of its own, so it’s being fixed under warranty. While it’s in there, I’ve also bought a mr12volt unit, so will have CarPlay running too.
I’ve also bought it (knowingly) with a slight handbrake issue. It’s currently locked in service mode. It doesn’t affect the drive and still catches fine, but gives me a nice warning light. The dealership have advised to drive for a bit and it may recalibrate, if not, they’ll sort it.
It could do with a PDK and diff service, so that’ll be done in January.
The valves in the PSE failed, so the previous owner removed them rather than fixing. This means that the exhaust is always in party mode. No bother to me, potential bother to my neighbours; it’s louder than the M3 at cold start. More importantly, it may be too loud for some tracks, so if that’s an issue I’ll look to get it sorted. It sounds fantastic on full chat though, really good.
The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that it’s currently not running a front plate. I’m an idiot and removed the vinyl plate yesterday to put on my private plate, only to realise afterwards that my new V5C hadn’t arrived. Genius.
Tyres. It’s running a weird setup at the moment, PS5’s at the rear and all seasons up front. In this weather, it’s fantastic but my OCD of not having matching rubber all around is making my eye twitch. Will revisit in spring.
Mods-wise, nothing planned other than CarPlay. I intend to run this in the same way I ran my M3. Drive it everywhere, over-service it and if it breaks, fix it.
Some initial thoughts, two weeks in:
- The Cayman is far less frantic to drive quickly than the M3; it’s almost delicate to drive. The way it flows down a b-road is unlike anything I’ve experienced before. In short, it’s wonderful and I keep on finding excuses to drive it.
- People don’t like Porsches. I’ve never owned a car where I’m tailgated so much, and not let in on junctions/filter lanes. I thought this was placebo, but my wife drove it for the first time and noticed exactly the same.
- Adaptive headlights are very good.
- I found out yesterday that my fixed buckets aren’t actually fixed. They fold forwards, although with it being a two seater and no storage space behind, I don’t fully understand why…?
- You don’t really need to brake…
- …but when you do, the brakes are very good.
- In fact, all controls are well weighted. Take the steering as an example, I’d read all the reviews that the 981’s electric steering wasn’t great for feel. The truth, it provides more feedback than the M3’s hydraulic rack. I reckon this is possibly due to the thickness of the wheel over other things.
- PDK is excellent; rather than (when in auto) hunting for 7th like some other dual-clutch ‘boxes, it seems to actually pick the right gear for the situation.
- It’s also very smooth, and lightning fast. I do sort of miss the jolt to the back from the DCT though.
- Changing gears with the stick rather than paddles is counter intuitive here. I have a habit of choosing 1st>2nd with the stick when pulling out of a junction (easier than fumbling for the paddle in the M3 when applying a dab of ‘oppo), but ‘pushing’ to go up a gear is strange me.
- I have a number plate light out
- I also have a dash rattle. Normally, turning the music up would suffice, but the PCM is broken…
- I’ve not got over the novelty of putting shopping in the frunk.
- it sounds fantastic.
Will aim to keep on top of this, but it’ll likely become a picture-diary!
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. Look forward to becoming more involved in the community.
Cheers,
Luke
