2010 Cayman Refresh Update

Here’s an update of my Cayman refresh so far. Thanks again to all those who have directly or indirectly helped. Hopefully it will help with future novices like myself with their upgrades. Just to recap, my 987.2S is coming 10 years next April and 40k miles on her. We have a silly car population control mechanism (some call it a great government revenue generator) here that basically states you have to buy a certificate of entitlement (COE) that allows you to buy and own a car for 10 years, after which, you need to renew the COE for another 10 years to continue operating the car. Despite this, I’ve decided to renew the 10 year COE at current rates of SGD$38K which is perhaps 1/10th or 1/11th of the cost of a new similar Cayman . So, as I’m keeping her for another 10 years, one aspect of the refresh program was looks. I thought some racing stripes would help give here a new look and landed on brushed silver and a version of red 3M films plus 3M carbon fibre film on the front lip, lower half of the wing mirrors and the rear wing. I also have these carbon fibre pieces from a while back from my 997 which happen to fit so I thought what the heck LOL. Lights: As my rear lamps were also getting fuzzy from age, I thought perhaps go the LED route that several here have taken. I landed on a 718 style light from a Taiwanese company called Sonar. Now, I know some have reservations about going non-original Porsche parts and I can understand why. I generally tend to subscribe to that school of thought as well but for PERFORMANCE parts like brakes, engine type parts, suspension etc… lights however, pose no safety and performance issues. In fact, I would argue these LED lights perform better than the originals. They are brighter and have rear fog lamps on BOTH sides which is great for my conditions when it rains.. because it pours when it rains here. From an aesthetics perspective which is personal and subjective, I love how they look and for me, they give a 10 year old car a real positive update in looks. Quite a difference between old and new. I really like these lamps and the best part, super easy DIY even for a 10 thumb guy like me. Plug and play and 30 minutes to install both sides. All you need is an Ikea wrench. Brakes : Next up was the regular service and while at it, I changed the front brakes to the new Brembo drilled uni directional rotors and LOW MED pads. So far, very nice feel and quiet. Still needing them in so no hard braking yet and hence can’t comment on braking power. I also replaced my brake lines with the BF Goodridge Steel braided brake lines. The brakes FEEL firmer now and I don’t have to step as hard… again, still bedding in my new brakes so can’t really comment. Rear shock mounts and all bellows have also been changed. Engine Tune : Now comes the fun part.. engine tune.. I considered Cobbs and FVD and eventually settled on FVD. Rhonda has been great and so patient with my novice questions. Loading it was fairly easy. First drive after the map was mixed… Is there an increase in power? Hmm.. Butt dyno thinks so but not much (and shouldn’t be I guess).. What I find is really good is the gear shifting which is weird as mine does not come with a PDK remap. It feels so much more responsive throughout the range even in normal driving mode. There is more power at the low end and delivery is smoother. I think the proper term is more linear? In Sport mode, power was instantaneous. If you’re looking for a huge power jump from just a tune alone, I think you have to mange your expectations but how the car drives seems to have improved so much. Its more refined and seems like there is always power on instant tap. Note that I’m on stock hardware. Anyway, for those interested, these are the parameters I gave t FVD for my tune : a. 2010 Cayman 987.2 3.4S PDK non PASM. I have sport chrono and sport plus as well. b. I run RON 95 (which I think is 95 Octane) 95% of the time with Ron 98 occasionally c. I'm at sea level d. Average temperature is 92*F with the temperature range being 80* to 98*F. e. Average humidity is 84% with range f. As discussed, more torque and power at a lower range is preferred. g. Increase should be throughout the range and flat spots eradicated. h. I have done a minor mod in my stock muffler where some kind of straight pipe was done inside the stock muffler for more sound. I am told a bit more power at high end but with some loss at low end. That’s all for now. I’m waiting on my Bilstein B8s to arrive to pair with my Cayman R springs. En route as well are the Verus dive lanes. Both of these mods should be on by mid Jan. In the meantime, here’s wising one and all a safe and blessed X’mas and New Year.

what took you so long to start modding your car? still liking those rear 718 style lights.... I thought you were going with slotted rotors... btw you should try RON 100 once in a while - blast to use in spirited driving....better than a tune me thinks...

LOL... why so long? I kept extending the warranty. As for the rotors, I though it'll be weird if I have slotted on the front and drilled on the rears. Maybe when it comes time to change both I'll go slotted. I also got a fair deal on the Brembo rotors and the new LowMed pads and that Brembo was really forthcoming with answers to all my newbie questions made me go Brembo . Ron 100... you guys still have that up north? the 718 lights..... yeah, I really like them.. Its more than anything else has modernized the look and that was what I wanted. The old lenses are stored so I go back to to retro any time. BTW, my Bistein B8s just arrived today. Can;t wait to get them and the R springs on. With the FVD tune , its made the car more fun to drive for daily use. I'm hoping the lowered and firmer stance will give it another positive dimension but I suspect I'll only find out how much on the next B Road drive near you.

do you have a link for the lights? I can't seem to find them online? Thanks!

Here you go : http://www.sunnylive.en.alibaba.com The turn signals are also sequential/streaming.

Got my Bilstein B8 and Cayman R springs on. The height has dropped from 4 fingers to 2 fingers in the front and 2.5 fingers in the rear. It should get a ta lower after its settled. I hope not too much lower. Ride is definitely firmer and more "one piece". Not as firm as my K&N V1s from a long while back though. No problems with pedestrian crossing hump and speed bumps.

Also got my Verus dive planes installed. I decided to get these on a whim after a B-road drive and on the way there, we exceeded 120mph and for the first time felt a very uneasy floatiness in the front. I hope on the next high speed straight, these help to reduce that floatiness. These came as matt and I applied 3 coats of 2K high gloss coating. Supposed to be chip resistant and offers UV protection as well. I opted for the screw install as opposed to the 3M tape . Will paint the screws black this weekend.

This is the report form my alignment service.. Can someone educate me what these numbers mean and what effect its supposed to have pls.

Am close to the end of the refresh... looking at 7mm and 15 mm spacers now. Maybe thinking of adding a Cayman R spoiler. Still unsure on the Carnewal 200 cell cat headers . Loving the car on the FVD tune so far but I've noticed some minor flat spotting. Will drive a few more days and see how it goes. Still under my 30 day return window but it doesn;t look like it. My mech also commented its so smooth now with gear changes and power seems to be more effortless compared to stock tune.

Looks terrific! Enjoy your "new" car in good health. Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Thanks to all the inputs direct and indirect from members here. Any idea what my alignment numbers mean?

The Cayman R camber specifications are slightly different from the ranges shown, as follows: (F) -45' +/- 15' [or -0•30' to -1•0'] (R) -1•50' +25'/-5' [or -1•15' to -1•55'] Regardless, your current alignment settings are all within this specification. Enjoy the drive! Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

I had a nice 30 plus minute drive last with with spirited bursts. I realy think FVD has done a great jone with the tune whatever they did. Clams are +13 hp at crank which is about 10 at wheel. I'm not going to bother dynoing it and butt dyno says definite slight increase. Power is so linear and the kick down still has the head jerking surge. gear changes are super smooth. The B8 Cayman R setup is also really nice. Much stiffer but again not bone jarring stiff. Softer than KW V1s iirc. Car feels a lot more planted especially on faster swooping curves. I hop my next B-road is not too far away. That will be the real test and the highspeed highway drive to the B-roads will show what effect the Verus dive planes have. The steering also feels heavier (which is a god thing for me). Not sure if thats due to the lowered B8 R springs or the alignment. Feels more tracky.... Really happy with the money spent.

Thanks... I need to beg the question as I dont know what the numbers mean... So is my setup with the wheels slightly angled out to give better handlng in corners? Both front and back? Thanks.

So just an update on the new gen Brembo LOW MED pads... they do indeed give off very little brake dust.. a lot less than original pads. Have not had a need to e brake yet so still can't comment on braking power but for daily drives with spirited sprints, no complaints.

I certainly don't have your engineering background and while his alignment does fall within the R's range I'm not crazy about it. The only thing I do like is the front toe out which gives you much faster turning response. I would change the front camber to -1.0 and rear camber to -1.55. It looks like the aligner went with the stock Cayman S max's which many alignment firms will not go beyond even though this is far far from a stock Cayman S suspension. In actuality I would have used greater than the R spec's which are still very tame even though this isn't a track or autocross car.

Finished the scuff plates on the passenger side. A lot faster this time and with a lot less bubbles to manage. Any ideas how to get rid or make less obvious the scratches on the aluminium badge? Just waiting for my spacers and carbon fibre duck tail to arrive and I should be done.

The almost finished refreshed ride now with lowered Bilstein B8 and R Springs . Waiting for my spacers and duck tail to come in.

Looks great! Are you planning to paint the ducktail black also? Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Got my H&R spacers on today. Went with 7mm front and 15mm rear. Thanks again to the forum for all the input. Front right before Front Right after Front left before Front left after Rear right before Rear right after Rear left before Rear left after Its not overly pronounced especially the fronts but nice I think. On the drive back, the steering does feel a tad heavier, something which I like as it gives me more assurance. One last thing now for the refresh.. the duck tail.

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Those H&R spacers and bolts are very nice; good quality and product.

I hope so. It was between H&R and Eibach for me.

You could have gone with 12mm f and 18mm r without tire or fender lip damage. I do not know your wheel offsets, so just a guess from looking at your pictures. I used my OEM wheels with ECS spacers and bolts. Although, I am using a bit more camber -1.6 f and -2.1 r in this picture. This was before I installed Tarett Cup LCA's allowing much more camber in the front. The camber allows the outside tire shoulder to tuck under the fender lip on compression. I also noticed that the Tarett Cup LCA's also prevented my 255/35/18 f tires hitting the front interior liner on turn in (race wheels were 9 wide in f offset 47). The front spacers push out the wheel/tire combo so on turnin with OEM LCA's can hit the front inner liner as shown. Wider race wheels without spacers but a different offset also had the same results until I switched to the Tarett Cup LCA's with the solid red thrust puck preventing forward/rear wheel motion in both front and rear.

Like your look better; combo of wheel ET and aligmnet

Hi, Yes.. on hindsight, perhaps a 10mm front. I'm really happy with the rear though and 15mm is perhaps as much as I would like. About the rubbing, that was one of my concerns given what I read and since 7 or 8mm seemed tried and tested, I went the safety route. Perhaps if I get bored later, I may switch to 10mm fronts. I've still no clue what my alignment numbers mean lol. FYI. Yours was one of the reference cars I took to decide on spacers so thank you.

If you can see a 0.10", 1/10 or 3mm you have very good eyes. Going to 12mm you could probably see clearly 0.20"

glad to see you're progress on your mods and you enjoying them....wonder how you kept it stock for so long I'm also running H&R spacers and they seem to be pretty good so far. and yes they can make the rear feel more "planted" hence the 'feel' of slightly heavier steering.

Can someone educate me what these numbers mean and what effect its supposed to have pls. OK, As other have suggested your front camber is almost nil, in other words the wheel is almost straight up and down. What that means is in sharp corners, your tire tread will roll inwards on the outside tire causing the tire shoulder to wear extensively. Camber in the negative will prevent that from occurring. Your OEM front camber number could be -1.4 f and -2.1 r without much inside wear.

Thanks for this Apex. Understand about the wear behavior with near 0 camber. That happens though only on sharp cornering. For normal street driving though, a near zero camber as opposed to a more aggressive camber is probably better I think? Maybe I was given this setup as my mech has an understanding of my driving needs 90% of the time. But yeah, I may still consider this for that 2 or 3 times B-road runs a year. I can see how the more aggressive camber will help much more under those driving conditions.

It's strongly linked to my deciding to keep the car and wantng to give her a new look to keep her fresh. And also stumbling onto this forum.

Duck Tail came in yesterday and I installed it today before the sky opened up. Really simple job which would have been faster if I had an L shaped wrench. In any case, my allen key set served the purpose. Looking at this duck tail, its nothing like the 911 ducktail so I don't reckon any reduction in lift will be significant if any at all. Cosmetic wise, I like the cf twirl. This about wraps up my Cayman refresh program.. I guess the only mod still really lingering in my mind is the Carnewal 200 cell cat. Year end will see some kind of dry air filter play.. and then maybe some CF front lips to match the duck tail, side vents, wing mirror and dive planes.

Can you post a wider shot; I'm not sure about this and would like a better look.

Will do.

Lookin' good! Picts prove that it really happened.[emoji4] Please add some 3/4 rear photos also. I had installed a similar part on my '07 Cayman 2.7, and it made a noticable difference in reducing "lightness" or "floatiness" at high speeds when I used to track that car. At street legal speeds, you likely won't notice any difference. But it sure looks nice! Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Good to hear about the effect in reducing floatiness. I'm hoping with the dive planes, my next spirited run up north will be more assured.