Chris' Cayman

Hello, Last weekend I bought my first Porsche . It's a 2011 Cayman base in Meteor Metallic with a Stone Gray interior. The car only has 55k miles and looks like it's spent most of its life in a garage. It came with a set of 19" OZ Ultraleggera HLT wheels and low mileage Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires with 2017 date codes. I'm moving up from a 2011 GTI with the DSG. I put camber mounts, sway bars, engine and DSG tunes on that car and tracked it a dozen times. I was able to do respectable times in the GTI (1:48.13 at Laguna Seca this January) and pass a lot of guys in more capable cars but I came to the conclusion that it's the wrong tool for the job. So, I started looking at Caymans last summer. My wife sent me to the Porsche Experience Center in LA to drive a 2021 Cayman GTS for my birthday last August and I was hooked. It was a great time and I'd highly recommend it. The Cayman will be my daily driver and do a handful of HDPE events per year. I've already ordered a ProClip phone mount, Porterfield R4 brake pads and a set of GT3 brake ducts for the front and rear. I'm planning to attend a HDPE event next Sunday at Laguna Seca. I'd like to keep it basically stock with the exception of adding camber F/R and a set of track tires /wheels. I'm leaning towards the GT3 adjustable LCAs in the front. I want to stay away from solid pillow ball type camber plates. I had a set of those on the GTI and they added a lot of NVH.

This week: I had PPF installed on the hood and front fenders. The bumper, headlights and mirrors already had PPF on them. Had the car ceramic coated. Installed a ProClip phone mount. Swapped brake pads to Porterfield R4 track pads. Brake fluid flush with Castrol SRF. Oil Change.

On Sunday I attended a track day at Laguna Seca. I’ve done 12 days there in my GTI so I know the track pretty well. The MPSS weren’t the best tires for a track day but they did ok. My best time for the day was a 1:54.57. My wife, kids, and brother joined me there for the christening. My son and I. The family that plays together stays together.

My daughter asked if she could use my camera to shoot pictures on Sunday. I set it up for her and then she was on her own. She got 3 excellent pictures. IMHO the first one is better than any of the shots the track day photos guys take here.

Very nice pics! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Looks to be in very nice shape. Happy motoring!

man the car looks amazing after that ceramic coat and ppf ! Love some artificial garage lighting to highlight newly detailed paint I'm not sure what's involved, but you should set her up with the track, taking and selling photos. She did a great job! Out of curiosity what camera/settings/lense?

Thanks Chris. Canon R6 Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary 1/160 ISO 100 f/8.0 160mm “Vehicle” tracking AF mode. This was the first time I have tried using it.

Congrats on the new vehicle and the very talented shutterbug (that first picture is tremendous). I love the meteor gray - the finish looks great, and I dig the black wheels. I was looking for a base 987.2 in that color, couldn't find one, got a black 'n' tan '09 instead. Good luck on the track.

Thank you. My daughter was worried that she didn't get any good shots. LOL! I wanted a color (red, blue, yellow), not a shade but then I saw the ad and thought it looked pretty nice. We already had four white cars when I bought it. I wanted something else if possible. I knew I didn't want black. It gets hot here and the car isn't going to be garaged so it would always look dirty. Meteor is really growing on me. It has a ton of depth and at the same time it hides dirt pretty well. It's also subtle enough to not be a ticket magnet.

I saw that Pelican Parts had Schwaben tools 20% off for Memorial Day so I picked up their Professional Scanner.

I got video of my best lap editted last night. This is about 6 seconds slower than my best lap in the GTI, but the AR1s are so much better than these MPSS on the track. My brother said that they don't even squeal before they break loose. It was kind of like driving on a damp track.

Last Sunday was not only the the first time I drove my new to me Cayman at the track. It was also the first time I'd ever driven a rear wheel drive car on a track. Some of the things that worked well in the GTI didn't work as well in the Cayman . That and the greasy tires led to some exciting moments.

The Cayman is an amazing car especially for the track. Aside from GT3 's, I think Caymans are the next Porsche model in quantity at PCA track events. Some people will want the manual, but the PDK allows for full concentration on driving. I bought my Cayman specifically for the track. I have not highly modified it and I drive it to and from the track. Doesn't look like you have sport or sport chrono , but those are nice on the track. I am at the other side of the country and go mostly to Watkins Glen. Cayman 's look good, are track functional, and all in alll, a reasonable investment for use on the track. Enjoy!

This car has Sport and Sport Plus modes. It doesn't have the Sport Chrono option though.

I haven't updated my thread here in a while. Let's catch up... I picked up a used set of Apex Racing SM-10 wheels in 18x9 and 18x10. They came with Hankook RS4 tires in 245/275 40/18. The wheels are in great shape. The tires have a few track days on them and should be good for 1-2 more. I'm looking forward to seeing what this car can do on a decent set of tires . I had my first failure last a couple weeks ago. We went away for a few days for July 4th. When we got back I was itching to drive the Cayman but it wouldn't start. I got it jumped and drove it for a while. I stopped at the HW store and immediately restarted it. So far so good. I went inside and came back about 15 minutes later and the car wouldn't start again. Wa wa waaaa. Luckily Costco had the battery in stock and my son was able to give me a jump so I could drive it home. The only thing resembling a date code said I5. If that actually was a date code that would translate to September 2015. I think it was time. I also purchased a Carnewal GT modded muffler for the car and installed it last week. It wasn't hard, but getting the mufflers assembled and set to the correct width was a bit of a PITA. I wish I had measured the original assembly's width before I took it apart. A couple hours later I had it installed and took it for a drive. At lower rpms it really doesn't sound any different than the stock exhaust. At higher throttle or above 5k rpm it opens up a bit. The exhaust note is deeper and louder, but not too loud. Perfect for a daily driver. We took the Cayman on a 185 mile drive over the weekend. Hwy 152 to 1 to 9 to Skyline Blvd. Took a break at Alice's. Headed to 92 to Half Moon Bay. Stopped for lunch and then took 1 all the way back to Watsonville and 152 back home. It was a beautiful day and other than a short stretch on 92 it was traffic free. In other news I'm signed up for a HDPE on July 30th at Laguna Seca. This will be the first track day with the Apex wheels and Hankook RS-4s. I ran a set of RS-4s on my GTI and really liked them.

Awesome update. Congratulations on the tires /wheels they should make a big difference on track. Remember Costco has a no questions ask 3-year warranty on automotive batteries. Thanks for the initial review on the Carnewal exhaust . I’m leaning towards that on my 981C. No noticeable highway drone? Shawn in VA (USA)

Thanks Shawn. I've only noticed a drone once. It was noticeable but not terrible. I was NOT in sport mode, 7th gear, ~72mph and going up a slight incline. Apparently that was the perfect storm for drone, moderate throttle but not enough to kick down to the next gear. I manually dropped the PDK into 6th and it went away.

Last night I made up a set of dummy brake pad connectors, installed Porterfield R4 front and R4S rear brake pads, and mounted my Hankook RS-4 track tires (245/40/18F-275/40/18R). I was able to get it all done in about an hour. I'm heading to Laguna Seca tomorrow. It will be my second track day in this car and the first with decent tires .

Saturday was a blast. It was a 103dB day so there were a lot of big money guys there. The guy next to me had a McClaren Senna AND a Lamborghini Huracán STO. There were huge tractor trailer rigs everywhere. I was definitely a small fish in a pool full of sharks. LOL! I ran in Point By A (Fast). There was a group of guys running GT3s in our group and they were all running slicks. I'm usually one of the faster guys in Point By. Not this time. I was consistently in the bottom 3 out of 20-25 cars. I did have a lot of fun chasing a guy in an Elise and another guy with a GR86. Both of them were on 100TW tires . The Elise had a huge aftermarket diffuser. The GR86 had 235/40/18s and camber mods. I consistently pulled the Elise in the corners but he killed me on the straights. I would pull the GR86 on the straights but he would reel me in on the corners. It was fun. The R4/R4S brake pad combo worked out well. I got to the point that I could threshold brake and feel the fronts breaking loose occasionally but the car never went into Ice Mode. Yeah! The Hankook RS-4 were better than the Michelin PSS, but not by much. My best lap was only 1.3 seconds better than the last day out. I ran the tires at 31PSI F/R and they seemed to be happy there. The temperatures were within 10 degrees from inside to outside. I tried adding a couple PSI for the last session and it made the car more difficult to drive. I really need to get some camber on the car. I'm only getting 1.0-1.1g in the corners. Looking at the data my best GTI lap had 3-7mph on the Cayman at every point on the track. I was able to brake later and carry more speed in the corners. The GTI was able to consistently pull about .2G more in every corner. RaceChrono crashed mid session once and didn't record any data for the last session. I really need to look for a better solution.

For some reason my mic wasn't working very well so the sound is pretty quiet.

Was the ncrc event.. correct?

The one upgrade I really want to do on my car is install the GT3 adjustable lower control arms so I can put a decent alignment on it. I looked for a couple months but couldn't find the OEM arms in stock anywhere. I finally gave up and ordered a Cup-Series Control Arm Kit ( GT3 Rubber Spec) from Tarett Engineering today.

On you next brake pad swap you might want to consider Ferodo 3:12 pads, much better bite and they last about 3 times as long as street pads, I have also seen a difference switching from Motul brake fluid to Endless, much better pedal feel with Endless.

Where are you buying the Ferodo pads?

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I like the Meteor Metallic Gray but felt like it needed a little pop of color. I finally got around to installing a set of Cayman R style stripes this week.

I have today and tomorrow off for company holidays so I decided to take a drive down Hwy 25 to Priest Valley. It's very dry, brown and not very pretty right now. The road itself long and windy and the kind of road that the Cayman was made for. The 4 mile stretch of Hwy 198 East of the 25 junction happens to be Motor Trend's test route for their annual Best Driver's Car competition. Apparently it was let's see who can get closest to getting hit by Chris' car day. I had two coyotes and about 47 squirrels run across the road right in front of me. I also ran into something you don't see in Northern California very often. Roadrunners! How appropriate. Look! That's my sign!

Glad you got out and we’re able to stretch her legs! Did the Roadrunner give you a run for your money?! [emoji6] Shawn in VA (USA)

The roadrunners can be sneaky but it looks like you didn’t fall for the tunnel drawn on a side of a mountain or get hit by a wayward anvil during your drive. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

It was a good drive. I wish I had taken the time to drive a couple sections more than once. I also wish I had taken a couple shots of the car in scenic places. It was a dry dusty day though and honestly it wasn't very scenic. I've found that just like in the cartoons roadrunners seem to be smarter than coyotes. The roadrunners were near the road but didn't approach it. When I stopped they kept a respectful distance. The coyotes seemed to have a death wish yesterday. I'm surprised that I didn't find any fur on the car when I got home. I didn't see any tunnels, bird seed or ACME crates anywhere.

I've done that route (eventually ending up in Santa Cruz or Monterey) on my motorcycle when CA-1 was fogged in.. in the spring it's a bit more green and not dusty, nice road, mostly excellent road surface and no traffic except in Hollister (stopped for lunch there, sort of by accident in the bar made famous in the Wild Ones.. I only realized what the bar was when I came out and saw: I'd rather have been on PCH (CA-1), but this route wasn't without its charms.. mostly the no traffic part of it. I've been stuck a number of times on CA-1 behind a terrified old man navigating a giant motor home around the curves at 10MPH...

It is really pretty for a month or so every spring. This was from a couple years ago.

Looks like a fun day. That road that heads east out of Bitterwater looks to be a more adventurous route to take some day.

It's crazy how well I know this track. I've never been, I just know it from video games.