Hi all,
I have had a 2009
Cayman
upgraded by prior owners to 3.8 by BGB for about 18 months. It is used as a frequent daily driver and occasional track/DE car. Several upgrades have been made over the past year but the last two have made driving the car amazingly fun! I wanted to talk a little about it because others might be considering the same upgrades. The upgrades are
Numeric shifter
and cables, and Sparco QRT-C performance seats. The seats are the Carbon fiber and leather version.
While many have extolled the virtues of the
Numeric Shifter
and cables, I can't over-emphasize how much they transform the car. Gear selection is more precise with so much less vagueness that improper gear selection is much less likely to occur. The precise "snick" as it goes from gear to gear is pure joy, making me look forward to red lights so I can run the gears down from 4th to 1st. I am sure there are some that prefer the softer, looser and longer gear throws of the stock set-up, but for me it is the best upgrade ever on the car. I did not get the shifter risers, so it all fits under the stock center console for daily drivers.
The seats have been a real addition to daily driving pleasure as well. At 6'3" and 240, headroom is a major issue for me. The Sparco seats are mounted without sliders in the most laid back position touching the firewall in the back. It is not lower than the stock seating position, but nearly as low. sliders are completely out of the question for my height. With a helmet on I need to remove the seat pad(velcro) on track days to gain an extra inch, but with that the position is fine, no helmet rub on the headliner. They look similar to the much more expensive
GT3
seats with leather bolsters, alcantara seating surfaces, and carbon shell. Sparco embroidery on the headrest is black. While not completely stock looking, it is more OEM in appearance than many aftermarket options.
I have been surprised at how much more direct the connection with the car is. Both 3-pt and 6-pt are available and work easily. Comfort is not an issue with daily commute of 30 minutes. 1 hour trips are fine, longer trips might be less desirable, primarily due to less ventilation in the shell style seat.
So my reason for posting is that these two upgrades are ones that I thought long and hard over. For the shifter it seemed like a big effort in terms of money and labor for an invisible improvement to replace something that was working fine. But, nothing could be further from the truth, it is a huge improvement.
The seats were an upgrade that I thought I might really regret. Less comfortable , difficult entry and exit, too much flash. But again, much better than expected, makes every trip more fun.
David Saint
"Everything in life has risks, pick something fun"
I'm doing the
numeric
next
in my CS. I added the HK bronze weights in the oem shifter knob and that is revelatory in itself.
AP exhaust added also made the thrill to rev her out more.
Mine is a frequent daily as well with a 3.6 Vision power plant, short shifter and LSD. Pure fun!
Sent from my
iPhone
using Tapatalk
I have an LSD as well
I was getting some brake fade problems and was told it was from electronic diff over heating brakes
not sure if that was the case, but after Brake flush and OS Giken LSD all problems went away
The LSD is fine for daily driving
David Saint
