2009 Cayman 987.2 2.9l

My Gen 2 Cayman 2.9l has been my daily driver for the last 9 years, and it's the best car I've ever owned. While I liked my 944 Turbo, and liked my 997.2 C2S, my favourite of the 3 is my Gen 2 Cayman , and I can't imagine ever wanting to sell it. Recently I've had the wheels refurbished , had some minor dinks removed & the bonnet repainted, and it looks fantastic. While it drives fantastic I've recently thought if it might benefit from a small increase in power. Is it possible to increase the bp from the factory 265bhp? 10% or so would be great. If it is possible what are the various methods, is it remap, exhaust or other stuff?

Hi @FitzMurray - Welcome to P9! Glad you dig your 2.9L - It really is a very special car (I'm very biased as I own one with 256K miles on it). Lots of good threads here per what people have done, so do a search. There are some things you can do, but the cost/gain in performance (cats, exhaust, Cobb tuning) might not be worth it. It's pretty well tuned as it is. Surely you know about keeping the revs up as far as performance goes... Please make sure you introduce yourself in the New Members section with photos - it's tradition here before asking questions! We'd love to see pics of your ride! Cheers and again, welcome.

2.9 owner here too. As @foodbiker said there's really not a lot that you can bolt on to get a 10% bump in power. Plus the parts that are out there are super expensive too. There's a dealer in the US that advertises adding the factory Sport Mode which is the programming and the button control. The few reviews on it are positive. While your car may not actually gain any power, the updated throttle mapping would probably make it feel quicker. I know my Cayenne feels faster in sport mode, but it's just more responsive and holds the gears longer. Then if you get an exhaust of some sort to get a better sound you may find that this pleases you enough rather than spending $10k on headers, cats, exhaust, and intake to gain 10-12 hp. Having said this, there's also a kit from Fabspeed which is headers, cats, exhaust, and programmer that claims +12 hp. There's a positive review on their website from a 2.9L owner.

FWIW- I went way down the rabbit-hole with my ' 06 Cayman S . That is a 3.4 motor, but the issues are the same...weak low-end torque makes it a bit of a wimp around town. A little more power up top is always welcomed. Ultimate power is really not the issue with them...at least for me. I got a Softronics flash, a GT3 throttle body and a SpeedArt cat-back exhaust . I got the exhaust because the trio of the throttle body, the flash and the cat-back work well together. SpeedArt's "TUV approved" cat back is quite mellow and made my car sound exotic and expensive rather than like a race car...That's just what I was hoping for. This combo put my car in the "acceptable range" as far as normal driving in traffic is concerned. Stop and go was much easier as was just pulling away from a stoplight without stalling or awkwardness. I did a lot of other things to make the car track-worthy that I won't go into here except...Do something to give yourself more negative camber (tops of struts more inward or bottom of struts more outward) if you can. That can be GT3 adjustable-length lower control arms, which are GREAT, or, for a lower-value car, just slot the strut mounting holes in a bit..and treat the naked metal slot with a very good rustproofing coating before you put the strut back. Fish-oil primer and body-colored paint at a minimum. There are plenty of good solutions around. The front tires will stick better in curves, especially low-speed ones, and the glorious mid-engine weight shift thing that happens as you accelerate through the turn will happen easier. That's worth doing, track or no track. If you go for an engine mod on this 2.9, get one that improves the low end. Some mods increase peak power at the expense of low-end. Don't spend good money making your car worse. Since I don't have a 2.9L, I don't know what the possibilities are, but I've been happy with Softronics flash on 2 different cars now. Very driveable.

+1 on Softronic . While I am driving a 981CS with the 3.4L, if the Softronic provides a lower/stronger torque peak like it did for the 3.4L, this is a recommended modifiation. Their customer service is awesome as is the drivability gain. I especially like that it is totally unobrusive as there is no box or other gaget involved after the reflash.

I’m running fvd catless headers and tune on a 2011 Boxster base and got a nice increase in performance. Other than a tune headers likely offer the best potential for a bolt on. Can’t imagine the 2.9 would really benefit much from an intake.

I just bought my 2009 2.9 this week....so I'll be intently following along. It is VERY stock and unmolested at 106000 miles. Love to see a car that has 295000 mile on it!!!

If it is a PDK , and if you do not have Sport Plus, you might want to get Sport Plus. Whether you are in manual mode or in automatic mode, it transforms the car with the push of a button. I don't know that it would make that much of a difference on a manual-transmission 987.2 car. I will let others advise you on that.

I’ve drilled out the second cats, got carnewal GT exhaust , k&n air filter and sprint booster . All in was around £700. Made the car sound a lot better, more responsive and maybe a few extra ponies but nothing noticeable. I also added 15mm spacers to rear and 10mm to front, car feels more planted for such a cheap mod too, would recommend that too. Exhaust comparison if interested:

Did you drill the cats first or get the Carnewal GT ? Or did you do both at one time? Love to know how just drilling cats alone sound. Seems like a good first start, but not reversible. I should probably just do the Carnewal GT alone and be done with it...