'07 Cayman S

This might be the slowest "build" thread ever, my 914 will likely be more interesting when I get around to it.

Anyways, I am a NH redneck that loves German cars and I daily drive my reasonably priced dream car. Sure I'd love a GT4 but a $100k car is definitely not in the budget. 

Two years ago I bought my 987.1 out in California for $32k with 43k miles on it.  I drove it around the awesome roads in Southern Cali for a month then my wife and I hopped in for the 3300 mile drive home.  77mph average with 20.9mpg for 3300 miles.  We both agreed that it was an absolute epic way to go across country.

It came with really dark tint on the windows that I removed due to to much attention from the local LEOs.  I still run CA plate on it even in NH, but I started feeling I would be pulled over for illegal tint eventually and did not want to deal with it.

Besides the tint the car is stock except for the engine lid that the previous owner swapped out so it looks like this:

At first I thought it a bit flashy but it has grown on me.  There is an LED light strip in there but it is either broken or I cannot figure out how to turn it on.  That is way too flashy so I do not think I will ever fix it.

Cool thing about the clear cover is the sounds that come into the cabin.  I read an article about the new 911R and they described exactly what my car sounds like (albeit 200hp lesser).  It whooshes and pishes and makes all sorts of delightful sounds that normally would be blocked by a heat shield and insulation/carpet.

As I type the car is about to turn 67k miles, I store it from November to April when I am in New Hampshire.

So I have put close to 25k miles on it since purchase.  I have replaced the front tires once and the rear tires twice and done the oil at the recommended intervals.  The rear tires lasted about 15k miles, but I drive it hard and have brought it out drag racing (low 13s) a couple times (no burnouts but wheelspin at launch).

Kind of a base model for an S.  6mt, PASM, 19" wheels, and that is about it.  No Sport mode, no Chrono.

Only upgrades I plan are exhaust inc. cats, a GT3 throttle body and the bigger plenum it needs, and a ECU flash.  That should get me about 55 crank hp (350 from 295).  Additionally I will upgrade the Michelins when all four tires need to be replaced.

I was worried about this engine's well known IMS issue, but a friend who has been a factory Porsche trained mechanic for 30+ years said to drive it hard and keep an eye on the magnetic oil plug and not worry about it.  I trust him.  First metal shavings in the oil and a new IMS bearing will go in.  If it blows up I will find a 3.8 to put in it.

I am currently most of the way through 9 months in CA again and I had the car shipped out in February and plan on driving it home again.  This trip we plan on zigzagging a bit to see some sights my wife has not seen and to let me drive some proper roads on the way (Tail of the Dragon here I come!).

I have enjoyed the mountain/canyon roads out here in S Ca some but I came out to work and I work a ton.  I even brought my helmet out, but I have not had any time to hit any PCA SD Region events unfortunately.

I smile every time I get in and out of the thing.  Worth every penny to me.

In reply to preach :

Beautiful color!

Beautiful car!

My dad picked up a maintenance deferred '07 987.1 S last year and spent the winter getting it to like new. He did the clear engine cover also and the attention he has gotten from it has been amazing. He also did the desnorkel mod and it sounds pretty throaty now. He doesnt have PASM but has Sport Chrono +.  Only thing it needs now is an ignition switch which is causing some starting issues.  Other than that it has been great!  Enjoy yours!

Wow beautiful color. 

Im glad you've been enjoying it. 

Who do you use to ship your car? 

Sounds like a fun adventure. 

That's my favorite Cayman color.

In reply to yupididit :

I used a company out of Springfield, MA, IM Transportation or something like that.  I will choose better next time as it showed up a week late and on an open trailer.  It would have been worth the money to me to have it shipped enclosed.

FOP

Forgot to update after the drive home. 

The first trip home after I bought the car we took 3300 miles to get from San Diego to NH.  That was a pretty fast straight through deal.  This time I went 4700 miles and zigzagged a bit.

But first...trouble.  I started smelling gas about 10 days out from leaving.  Thank goodness it happened then and not in the middle of nowhere.   It started out faint enough that I thought is was the cars in front of me then got stronger.  A search on the internet found the most common culprit being the fuel sender gasket venting into the frunk and getting brought through the cabin filter into the cabin.  Great, but I can live with that until I get home.  A couple of days (scary) later I had to check the air in the tires and noticed a very strong gas oder coming from the driver's rear...not freaking good at all.  I drove it back to my apartment and hopped into the trunk to take a peak through the clear engine cover:

Might be hard to see but that is the Y to split the fuel to each fuel rail.  I looked at it and saw that the Y was cracked and just happens to be directly over the driver's side header.  (Insert every burning mid-engined Italian car ever image).  Fortunately there was an Indie Porsche shop 2 miles from my apartment.  Awesomely that Y is part of an assembly and both fuel rails and lines had to be replaced.  Part had to come from Germany to Cali...standard shipping was 20 days.  Remember I am less than 10 days from heading home.  I paid the extra $50 to expedite shipping and we had the part in 3 days.  $1300 later I was good to go.  Part was $527 + $50 shipping, and I had the shop go through everything since I was heading out across country.

Here is where I wish I took a ton of photos, but I didn't.  I will say that the USA is a beautiful country and if you ever get the chance drive it!  I think this was my 5th coast to coast trip and the 2nd in the Cayman.  Once again the Cayman is an amazing grand touring car as well as a sports car.  It LOVES cruising at highway (+) speeds all day.  10 hours in the car is nothing.

This trip I took the 8 out of SD and into AZ, then up to Flagstaff for the night.  Rolled East on I40 across canyons, the painted desert, TX panhandle, OK, AR, and TN.  I stayed the 2nd night in Amarillo, TX and the 3rd in Memphis, TN (I forgot my blue suede shoes though).  1/2 way through OK the world changed and suddenly it was green everywhere and this liquid was falling from the sky.  I had not seen rain nor lush green in 11 months.

After Memphis I headed to Chattanooga, TN to see some cousins for the first time in 30 years.  That was great and makes me want to be less black sheepish.  What a beautiful area.  Smoky Mountains and fantastic roads.  One of those roads is a Mecca for motorcycles and sports cars  Highway 129 in TN and NC, also known as Deal's Gap, also known as The Tail of the Dragon.  318 turns in 11 miles.  Absolutely amazing even though it was damp.  I took some GoPro video on this whole trip but realized I cannot post it online.  I ran it both ways then headed north to KY.

Bowling Green, KY is the home of the National Corvette Museum as well as the 'vette factory.  Why would a Porsche guy care about the Corvette?  I grew up with one, a 1963 split window 327/4spd.  They hold a soft spot in my heart and I may need to go drag racing one day.  Unfortunately the race track was closed for some private testing and the factory was closed so they could tool up for the C8, but the museum was great and worth every penny of the $10 fee.

From there I headed to Pittsburgh, PA.  My Mother and Step-father live there as does 2/3 of my siblings.  Great visit with all of them.  Took half a day to make a special trip to Shanksville, PA.  Todd Beamer is kind of a hero to me.  "Let's Roll!"  Very powerful place and a very nice monument to this portion of the 9/11 attack.  I left my note on the board:

Scottish motto (I am Scottish and Cuban), it means: "No one provokes me with impunity".

Back to PGH for another couple of nights then headed home through NY and VT and finally into NH.  

Amazing trip.  I have been through 24 states now with the Cayman, 23 of them are in a special club I coined up for this car.

Just passed 73k miles.  Besides oil changes I did the fuel rails and I have done through rear tires every 15k miles and the fronts once.  In TX the inner drivers door handle broke, more of an annoyance than trouble.  I hate that porsche uses so much plastic now.

I have been meaning to update this for a few weeks. I have some pictures ready to go and lost a few when I dropped a cloud service and did not read the warnings.

I think I parked the car for this winter at about 92k miles. Current state is awesome, but I hate the key.

I have a dead battery right now, tonight will hit <10*f. I need a battery I am sure. Well crap. 

Dead battery frunk issues. It happens. I know the fixes.

Anyways. Since my last update in '18 I went back to the Tail of the Dragon in 2019, and my wife and I decided we will retire down there. I paid the car off, so time to slightly modify it.

In 2020 (berkeley 2020), I drove it round trip to San Diego, CA from ~ Portsmouth, NH (CoronaBall Run). That made it 4 times across country with this car (the TN trip = the same miles, so 5 really).

You need one of these cars.

Waiting on this:

I still want a 987 S 

yupididit said:

I still want a 987 S 

Yes. Yes you do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbklHycW5mI

I do not know how to embed nor do I know if this is acceptable but, the speed limit in the canyons is pretty adequate. I forgot to turn the music off before I hit record but I can tell you that the Kyuss song was WAY better than than the canned crap. 

I am 28 states in this car. So good.

In reply to preach (fs) :

Been wanting one since 2016 or so when I drove my friend's 987.1 Cayman S with a 997 4.0 engine swapped in. It was the perfect. 

yupididit said:

In reply to preach (fs) :

Been wanting one since 2016 or so when I drove my friend's 987.1 Cayman S with a 997 4.0 engine swapped in. It was the perfect. 

Wasn't that car for sale? And for a reasonable price? I seem to recall thinking to myself that I really should buy it. 

As for the OP, stunning car!! What is the name of that color?

Phenomenal car OP. Thanks for the thread. Please post an update once you get the exhaust bolted on.

Cobalt Blue is the color.

In reply to dyintorace (Forum Supporter) :

He was willing to sell it to me for a reasonable price. Luckily I didn't buy it because I went through a divorce soon after and would've needed that money lol

Girodisc aluminum hat slotted rotors and PFC pads ordered. 

Badge tax put vomit on shoes.

Car will brake though.

All sitting in the living room waiting for the car to come out of storage maybe this week.

Finally. Warm starts and drive bys...

Stock:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fAy42f3JM3GTOQWyx38WOIaAzvkaR856/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14J5eWsWolNwLAmgZCQsUNGkLjqionD6X/view?usp=sharing

New:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sNJNn-dcG3sSE-dVWuEkG65hFHRdrHBy/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zfmtdnRtPUy9UBjkq1BD9XyR-ZtKmtQA/view?usp=sharing

Sounds amazing!!

Factory exhaust 56lbs

Soul 51lbs

Not as much savings as I thought but I figured the factory headers would be close to as beefy as the Soul header.

Factory header vs Soul above:

A funny thing happened Thursday when I was in CT for work and coming home Friday...

So, I was coming off of a light and turning onto the on ramp to get on I95 and went to shift from 2nd to 3rd and there was no 3rd..it would not even rev match in. I stopped in the middle of the on ramp as I could find no gears.

E36 M3, my shift cables broke or something...

I ended up finding 2nd as I sat there and took off thinking I'd limp it the 7 miles to work via back roads. It ended up shifting through to 6th, but when I got off of the highway I had issues again. I made it to work.

So here comes the "Mea Culpa", I never did put the new brakes on the car. I,also never knew nor would think, to combine the clutch and the brake reservoirs. Well, my brakes are WAY low. Between pads with about 3/16s pad left and a good 1/8" lip on the discs I ran out of fluid. I figure I just got air into the system, but...

I ended up getting a uhaul trailer and having a coworker to me home with his 2016 50k-mile f-350 with a 6.7 PS. That truck did not care that my car and trailer were on the back. He said it got 1mpg less than normal. I cannot tell you how much I want a Super Duty diesel right now, or really any truck that can haul my crap around. My Tacoma cannot tow much at all.

The car could be put in any gear when the engine was off and would move a bit hesitantly so I drove it onto the trailer. Then off.

I need to put a shop story in my Toilet thread as I had to do some diagnosing in my upper parking area that is mostly sand.

Yesterday I decided to bleed the clutch. Plywood down under a jack and jackstand, tire under the trans skid, I go under. 

I watched a youtube vid just enough to figure out where the bleeder was. So I whip out my Mighty-Vac and bleed the clutch system. The results were negative.

More complete watching of the tube and I find out that I did not bleed the system right. 

Porsche recommends pressure bleed. I ordered a Motive pressure bleeder today. It comes in Wednesday. I will bleed again!

My only other thought is bent tines on the pressure plate or I smoked the slave. 

Story at 11.