Hello Everyone,
My name is John Gaydos, and I’m back! Some of you may remember me back when I was active member here on behalf of
another company as their Porsche Specialist
. I had done a
Phase 1
and
Phase 2
build on my Cayman R during that time. I then parted ways with that company and for most of 2017 and 2018 I was in Florida
working with AutoQuest Motorsports
, concentrating on chassis development and in general building GT cars for DE and competition use with our home track of Sebring. The knowledge there was like trying to drink water from a fire hose, but I’m happy to say that I have been overly hydrated haha. Happy Wife, Happy Life...I am back in PA and have some time and opportunity to hop back on Planet 9 as SOUL’s Performance Specialist to share the new developments on my Cayman R.
Onward to Phase 3 and beyond with my Cayman R. First up is the switch to SOUL’s exhaust configuration, and then I’ll be posting later when I have more time about the
PCS Intake System
I installed, as well as the chassis/brake upgrades I put on (control arms, toe arms, custom alignment, wheels spacers, pads, brake ducts, etc.)
Switching to the
SOUL Competition Package
(Competition Headers and Valvetronic Exhaust System)
As much as I track my car, I enjoy driving my car on the street and also drive my car to and from the track. After about 2.5 years and near 20k miles on and off the track on my old setup, there were several things I did not enjoy that I wanted to target. The drone/resonance in cabin below 3k rpm was rather intense, and sustaining that rpm range (no choice due to speed limit and traffic) would leave anyone in the car with a bit of a headache. Performance with valves closed was significantly reduced, causing a noticeable transition in performance between valves closed and open. Therefore I didn’t want to use the valves closed, but valves open worsened the cabin presence…stuck between a rock and a hard place. The sound level with valves open was straight pipes loud. While glorious at WOT conditions it was a bit obnoxious, and anything other than WOT had little to no “tone” to it. I wanted something less raw/tinny/raspy, more smooth/refined with similar sound level but the edge taken off.
Enter the
SOUL Competition Packag
e. About a month ago I went back to Sebring for my
PCA Instructor’s Training
.
I shipped down the full exhaust system, and the day before I spent 3.5hrs installing the system in AutoQuest’s parking lot on my back with jack stands. No lift space as they had some bigger fish to fry for that weekend (photo below of their shop that day).
I will say the exhaust system install went very smooth with no hiccups considering I was on the ground, and I was pleasantly surprised it only took me the time it did. Sorry no photos of the system on my car, I was in a rush to move onto the suspension and brake swap that day as well, which I’ll get into later. Once I ship the car back up in March for the north track season I’ll get some. On to the sound.
I will say the exhaust system install went very smooth with no hiccups, and I was pleasantly surprised it only took me the time it did. Sorry no photos of the system on my car, I was in a rush to move onto the suspension and brake swap that day as well, which I’ll get into later. Once I ship the car back up in March for the northeast track season I’ll get some. I am happy to report that my expectations were exceeded. With the valves closed the drone under 3k rpm was significantly reduced, I finally didn’t have a headache driving to and from Sebring (which was a round trip of over 3hrs). The biggest surprise was that even with the valves open the drone was less than the valves closed on my previous setup. My wife is going to be ecstatic once I get the car back up here haha. The power/performance with valves closed felt just as strong as valves open, so no more performance loss in the valves closed position and no crazy performance transition from closed to open. In fact, even the sound transition closed to open was much smoother. This may be seat of the pants but I do feel like it had a bit more low end grunt than before, though I’m not the only member here that felt this in doing a similar swap (Paul Solk). Sound level at WOT was taken down a notch which to me was a plus as it was pretty obnoxious. The sound itself was more in tune with the premium character of the car. A bit less raw racecar, more so smooth and exotic with a much fuller tone than before, yet still the aggressiveness you’d want as a something advertised as a “Competition” setup. A massive difference from that dead, vacuum cleaner sound that was factory when I bought the car. A true and efficient mild and wild.
While I don't have photos yet, what I did get is video footage and sound clips. I spent three days of bliss beating the snot out of this setup on Sebring, and boy did it leave an amazing impression. So…don’t just take my word for it, take a watch/listen for yourself. If you want to chat about it, give me a call anytime. Again, upcoming topics of conversation are going to be the PCS Intake System I installed, as well as the chassis/brake upgrades I put on (control arms, toe arms, custom alignment, wheels spacers, pads, brake ducts, etc.) and the changes/benefits that each made.
Best regards,
John Gaydos
Performance Specialist
PCA National Instructor
[phone removed]
[email removed]
In February I flew down to Sebring, instructed two students (including my brother) and we beat the snot out of my
Cayman
R for two days. Then, I changed nothing but tire pressure at the track Sunday evening and we drove the car 1100 miles back to PA and to work this morning in perfect comfort. Thank You Porsche for the amazing car, and Thank You SOUL for the amazing sound, performance, and lack of drone for all that highway driving haha. Also, shout out to AutoQuest MotorSports for the hospitality and Apex Pro for the wicked cool new data acquisition system!
