Chris' Cayman

I ran Thunderhill West for the first time on Saturday. Honestly, it was a perfect track for my car, tight, twisty, technical and a short front straight. I ran 6 sessions and my times improved each session. It was basically impossible to pass without a point by, but I didn't have too many issues with being held up. I tried running staggered pressures to help the car rotate a bit more and it made a huge difference. I would up running 31/33PSI and the tire temperatures looked really even on all four corners.

I was in a group with a few new BRZ/GR86/ND Miatas, all with differing amounts of modifications. They all seemed to all run around the same times as my base Cayman. Another base Cayman owner and I were talking and he referred to it as a fast Miata. That's basically how I feel about the car too. I basically paid what a new BRZ costs. It's more refined than a BRZ/GR86 but it isn't significantly faster (I think they both have ~220 RWH).

One more datapoint: I've been using RaceChrono with a Racebox Mini GPS. I also ran a transponder on Saturday and my lap times from RaceChrono were within .1 seconds of the transponder times.

CAinCA said:

I was in a group with a few new BRZ/GR86/ND Miatas, all with differing amounts of modifications. They all seemed to all run around the same times as my base Cayman. Another base Cayman owner and I were talking and he referred to it as a fast Miata. That's basically how I feel about the car too. I basically paid what a new BRZ costs. It's more refined than a BRZ/GR86 but it isn't significantly faster (I think they both have ~220 RWH).

That's consistent with my base Cayman experience. 

I've been really impressed with my Racebox Mini and their app as well, it's the only phone based system that I've had consistently record autocross runs. I just wish they would release something to get OBDII data into the app as well so you don't need to use Racechrono or Harry's.

Glad to see the updates continue. If you ever want this thread moved to the project car section, just let us know. 

Thanks for sharing with the rest of the class.

Thanks David. I might just take you up on that.

I've been playing with this tire temperature spreadsheet for a while. It's pretty interesting and the data seems reasonable. Overall the temps look pretty good. I could probably use a little more camber. The car is still understeering a little but not as much as before . I have enough shims to add -.3 degrees to the front. I might add them and realign before my next track day.

If you're interested in trying it out you can find it here:

https://nasaspeed.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/TireTempCalculator.xls

This article explains the thought process behind it:

https://nasaspeed.news/tech/wheels-tires/tuning-tires-tracking-tire-temperatures-and-tuning-your-setup-accordingly-can-pay-dividends-on-the-racetrack/

In reply to CAinCA :

Cool. Just let us know if you want the thread moved. Your call. :) 

I love driving this car and drive it every chance I get. I don't baby it. So it gets DIRTY. Last week I cleaned the wheels and then applied a coat of Griot's Black Shine to the tires and wheels. Yesterday I had some free time in the afternoon so I pressure washed the heavy stuff off, foamed and then hand washed the car. After it was dry I wiped the entire car down with detailing spray.

After dinner we took a family drive. When we got back I was drooling at the reflection off the door.

It was sparkly for a few hours...

There's been a rattle coming from the RR area for a while. It's fairly low frequency and only seems to happen on bumpy roads. Unfortunately that describes most of the roads around here. It sounded like it was coming from below so this morning I put the car up on jack stands and removed the rear/left/right underbody panels. All three of them had a resonance when I tapped on them. For the L/R panels I cut a 12" x 12" square of 5mm neoprene rubber RC car pit mat and used carpet tape to attach it to the panel right under the seat pan. The panels have a small gap to the seat pans and the rubber didn't fill the gap completely, but it seems to have removed the buzziness.  The rear panel covers the hoses at the front of the engine.  It looks like an AC line and the heater hoses were rubbing on the pan. The heater hoses had rubbed enough that there were indentations worn into the panel. I bought a roll of 2" wide aluminum backed 1/8" foam pipe insulation tape and put a ~6"x12" double layer over the rub points. I put all of the panels back on the car and they *seem* to be a lot less buzzy. I'll probably order some sound deadening and replace these pieces of foam at some point.

While I was under there I took at look at the muffler heat shield. It was a little rattly near the outside corners. I gave it a little tweak on each side until it was fairly dead. 

I took it for a quick drive and it seems a little better. 

There is a mass damper in the hatch that starts to rattle over time in the 987.1 cars. You need to remove the interior panel off to get to it. I'm not sure about the .2 cars.  FYI.

PMRacing said:

There is a mass damper in the hatch that starts to rattle over time in the 987.1 cars. You need to remove the interior panel off to get to it. I'm not sure about the .2 cars.  FYI.

Thanks for the tip. I'll look into that.

Yesterday I removed the front bumper cover and cleaned out the radiators. I had put this off for a while because I needed to order a replacement for the broken LH grill. I haven't had any overheating issues and the maximum temperature I've seen on the track was ~216F but I thought it would be a good idea. Turns out I was right. No idea when the last time they were cleaned but a good sized pile fell out of both cooling ducts and there was still a bunch stuck to the radiators. 

In other news, the aftermarket car stereo that came with the car refused to turn on over the weekend (again!). I pulled the stereo out and started looking at the rat's nest of wiring and decided that it's time for a replacement. I'm going to take it to a reputable shop this time. 

Today I took the car to a professional car audio installer (as opposed to the asshat who installed the previous stereo) and had a Sony XAV-AX4000 head unit installed. The installer said it took about an hour to remove the rats nest of wires and connectors before he could even start on installing the new unit. He soldered all of the connections to the factory harness, got the Bose amp connected through the MOST adapter, replaced the non-functional microphone and got the reverse camera working. 

Since my car doesn't have steering wheel controls I really wanted physical buttons for the volume, mute, and switching channels. It also has wireless Apple Carplay. 

Nice audio upgrade! CarPlay is such a game changer.

I've got the older version of that in my 996 Turbo.  I wanted a volume knob but I haven't hooked up the rear camera...

In reply to docwyte :

I really wanted a knob but the only off brands are offering them these days. The old Pioneer had a touch strip along the bottom that had the same functions in basically the same positions, but the Sony has actual buttons that you can find with your fingers. Good enough. 

trumant said:

Nice audio upgrade! CarPlay is such a game changer.

Thanks! I agree. Carplay is a must these days.

Love what you're doing with the car, keep it up!

Sony looks interesting, I've been running Pioneers in my car and installing them for customers, might have to see if Sony offers wireless carplay models in Europe and order one in to play with..

reiernumans said:

Love what you're doing with the car, keep it up!

Sony looks interesting, I've been running Pioneers in my car and installing them for customers, might have to see if Sony offers wireless carplay models in Europe and order one in to play with..

Thank you reiernumans.

The old unit was a Pioneer AVH-X5600BHS . I liked it but it had issues. They may have all been from the wiring, but it was such a mess that I didn't want to deal with it anymore. 

Personally, I think physical buttons are a must for a car that doesn't have steering wheel controls.

My car has a couple rattles that have been driving me crazy lately. There was something clunking in the rear trunk area. There was also a buzzy noise coming from the driver's side door near the upper speaker grill. I had some free time yesterday and today so I thought I'd take a look at it.

First, I removed the tail light access covers. The driver's side wasn't bad but the passenger's side was a little rattly. Then I tapped on the rear hatch cover. It was buzzy on the passenger's side too. I removed the cover and tapped around on the hatch. It seems to be better. I took it for a drive and I could hear the harmonic weight on the hatch rattling occasionally. I took the weight off and examined it. The silicone bushings are intact but they seem really soft for the amount of weight they are supporting. I decided to fill the gaps in the bushings with clear silicone RTV. I'll let it dry overnight and see how it looks in the morning.

Next, I removed the driver's side door panel. That was fairly uneventful but when I removed the mirror adjuster two small metal clips fell out. It looks like the tabs holding the clips onto the adjuster just broke clean off when I popped the adjuster housing off the door. I glued the adjust back onto the housing with Shoe Goo. It works great for these type of repairs. I examined the door and I didn't see anything that could be making the buzzing noise. I moved on to the door panel and it sounds like the grill is a little loose at the top. There's no way to remove it so I pried the gap between the panel and grill open and shot some super glue into the gap. I'll check it again tomorrow to see if there are any other places that might be causing the noise I'm hearing.

Yesterday afternoon I ordered some 4mm sound dampening material from Amazon to add to the hatch, interior cover, door and door panel.

This morning I re-installed the door panel and then went for a 30 minute test drive. The rattles and squeaks seemed to be gone. I think the harmonic weight was the cause of the clunking I heard from the rear. When I got back I added some sound deadener to the hatch and interior panel. I also added a strip of 1/4" x 1/8" weatherstripping to the 3rd brake light where it contacts the interior panel.

A friend on Rennlist suggested using Tesa fuzzy fleece tape between the panels. It seems like a good addition for my tool box so I ordered a roll from Amazon. If the hatch is still squeaky I'll add it around the perimeter and anywhere it contacts another panel.
 

I added sound deadener to the tail light access covers. I tapped on them after I reinstalled them and I could hear them rattling against the interior plastics. I added a strip of the 1/4" x 1/8" weather stripping at the top inside edge of the covers and those rattles went away.

I'll take it for another test drive this afternoon. I'm hoping I've killed off the worst of the squeaks and rattles for now though.

I took a 160 mile round trip drive from my house to Alice's Restaurant in Woodside on Saturday afternoon (Hwy 152, 1, 17, 9, Skyline/35 and back). The trunk area is much quieter than before. I didn't notice any rattles coming from the back of the car unless the pavement was really rough. The doors both have a buzzy rattle on medium to rough pavement. It sounds like it's coming from inside the door, maybe the window regulator? Anyway, it's a big improvement from before.

In other news, I'm signed up for a HPDE day at Sonoma Raceway this Saturday. This will be my first time driving on that track.

Yesterday I changed the oil after 6k miles and 2 track days and took a sample for an oil analysis. I don't mind changing my own oil but holy crap is is a freaking mess in this car. The oil filter is about a foot above the belly pan. You have to reach up into a ~6" hole between the subframe, exhaust, suspension and belly pans to get to it. The filter is a cartridge type and it sticks out above the top of the filter housing by about an inch. When you crack the housing loose it leaks about 1/2 quart of oil everywhere. I've tried putting a gallon sized ziplock bag around the filter but that only catches about 50% of the oil. Afterward I had to clean up an Exxon Valdez sized spill on the garage floor.

In hindsight I should wipe down every surface in a 6" radius around the filter before I install the new one. I failed to do that yesterday and found a quarter sized spot of oil under the car this morning. I really need to find a large drip pan or mat to put down under the car when I do oil changes from now on. 

I pulled the street tires and brakes off the car. I've been using Porterfield R-4 pads on the front and R-4E pads in the rear. The front pads lasted about 4 days. The 4E are endurance pads and are supposed to last longer than the 4s but have slightly less bite. I took the car our this morning to bed in the pads. I was able to get ABS to kick in a few times so I'd say the 4E have plenty of bite. 

I'm heading to Sonoma Raceway for a track day tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. I've had several people tell me that it's their favorite track in CA. 

I drove Sonoma Raceway for the first time on Saturday. I've been putting off running there for a while because of all the horror stories I've heard. There are a lot of places where the walls are close and it's easy for things to go wrong. It's definitely not a place where I could go 100% right off the bat. There were multiple offs during the day. Most weren't too bad but I saw a new GR86 with the front bumper torn off and the entire right side mangled, a 986 Boxster with the entire left side torn up, and a brand new C8 Corvette with front end damage that had to be towed out. 

I was running in the intermediate group and I was near the bottom for most of the day. Each session I tried to find someone whose pace was a little ahead of mine but it wasn't easy. My fastest laps started in the 2:05 range. In the final session I was finally starting to get my footing and got a point by from a guy in a M2 that had been dogging me all day. My final full lap was a 2:03.39  but I was up .86 seconds in the second sector when I saw the checkered flag. My optimal lap would have been in the low 2:02s. 

I used Porterfield R-4E pads all the way around. They are lower bite than the R4 that I used before but for the most part I didn't have any problems slowing the car down. I think that I'll try something else after I've gone though this set though. This was the third day on this set of tires and I can probably get a couple more out of them. The tire temps were higher than I'm used to but it was a warm day (87F) and this track is harder on tires than the others I've ran. It could still use a little more camber in the rear but the adjustments are maxxed out. The pressures were pretty damn close.

184 184 191 | 183 177 172

166 168 165 | 170 168 168

A minor update: I've owned this car for just over a year and put ~15k miles and 6 track days on it. I've really enjoyed it. It was cheap enough that I don't feel bad racking up miles or track days on it. I've just done basic maintenance (oil changes/air filter/DSG fluid/filter) and swapped the brake pads over for track days.

The adjustable lower control arms in the front and track(ish) alignment have been all it really needed to make it a decent track day car. The PS4S street tires have 7k miles on them and still look good. The extra camber doesn't seem to be wearing them abnormally.

I'd be lying if I said that I haven't been tempted to buy something faster (newer Cayman S/GTS, C8?) but I'll probably hang onto it for at least another year or two. Once my son graduates college I'll probably look for an upgrade.

Last Saturday at Laguna Seca was interesting. It was HOT, at least for Laguna. The temperatures were in the low 90's all day. My car was HOT, like 240F by the middle of each session. The new surface was great. I was able to brake about 1/2 marker later on every turn. Unfortunately that really didn't translate into much time wise. I think I shaved .2 seconds off my personal best. Also, for some reason my RaceBox Mini would not connect to my iPhone. I wound up renting a transponder and using my iPhone for GPS data in RaceChrono. So, the time is real but everything else is weird in the video.
 

While I was swapping the brakes and tires over the weekend I noticed that the left outer CV boot is torn. It looks like it happened at the track since there was grease on the inside of the wheel. I made an appointment to have it and the spark plugs replaced since they have about 30k miles on them.

I also ordered a center radiator kit from Suncoast Porsche Parts. I don't want to deal with the car overheating while I'm at the track.

The Goodyears look like they are done. I got 4 track days and a few hundred road miles out of them.

In other news, it looks like the rear street tires (PS4S) I purchased last December are already down to the wear bars. They have a little over 10k miles on them. The fronts have at least 6/32" left and look like they will last another year. They all look like they are wearing evenly even with the added camber.