Chris' Cayman

Hello,

Over the weekend I bought my first Porsche. It's a 2011 Cayman base in Meteor Metallic with a Stone Gray interior. The car only has 55k miles and looks like it's spent most of its life in a garage. It came with a set of 19" OZ Ultraleggera HLT wheels and low mileage Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires with 2017 date codes.

I'm moving up from a 2011 GTI with the DSG. I put camber mounts, sway bars, engine and DSG tunes on that car and tracked it a dozen times. I was able to do respectable times in the GTI (1:48.13 at Laguna Seca this January) and pass a lot of guys in more capable cars but I came to the conclusion that it's the wrong tool for the job. So, I started looking at Caymans last summer. My wife sent me to the Porsche Experience Center in LA to drive a 2021 Cayman GTS for my birthday last August and I was hooked. It was a great time and I'd highly recommend it.

The Cayman will be my daily driver and do a handful of HDPE events per year. I've already ordered a ProClip phone mount, Porterfield R4 brake pads and a set of GT3 brake ducts for the front and rear. I'm planning to attend a HDPE event next Sunday at Laguna Seca.

I'd like to keep it basically stock with the exception of adding camber F/R and a set of track tires/wheels. I'm leaning towards the GT3 adjustable LCAs in the front. I want to stay away from solid pillow ball type camber plates. I had a set of those on the GTI and they added a lot of NVH.

Car looks great and I really like how the black wheels look on that color car.

How does the GTI's DSG compare to the Porsche's PDK?

I'd start with just maxing out the stock front camber and seeing how that does. I don't know exactly what those cars are capable of but it should drive fine on 1-1.5* camber, it'll just be a little bit hard on the outer edges of the tires. Rear should be capable of >2* which should be plenty. Last I checked the reasonably priced GT3 control arms are out of production and you only options are porsche branded parts or full aftermarket, both of which are more expensive and/or don't use rubber bushings. Based on personal experience there's a pretty good chance those tires are about done, don't expect too much from them.

Slippery said:

Car looks great and I really like how the black wheels look on that color car.

How does the GTI's DSG compare to the Porsche's PDK?

Thank you.

Out of the box the GTI's DSG was really annoying in drive and sport modes out of the box. Drive shifted into 6th as soon as it possibly could so you'd be under the power band most of the time. If you tried to accelerate hard it would drop 2-3-4 gears and suddenly you'd have WAY too much power. In sport mode it kept the rpms above 4k and the slightest lift of the throttle would have the car downshifting hard. 

I added the Integrated Engineering DSG tune and honestly it was the best mod I made to the car for daily driving. In drive it keeps the rpms in the mid 2000s and it is much more lively. In sport mode it keeps the rpms in the low 3000s and it's much more smooth. The tuned DSG is pretty similar to the PDK.

Congrats Chris! You just bought one of the best cars out there for the money. They love to be run hard.

Nice car, congratulations!

FYI, SPC (Specialty Products Company) makes GT3 style LCA's now for much much less than Porsche. They were advertising in GRM.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing. 

Great color, and PDK is awesome!!

Javelin said:

Nice car, congratulations!

FYI, SPC (Specialty Products Company) makes GT3 style LCA's now for much much less than Porsche. They were advertising in GRM.

I looked into those and want to like them but am very hesitant without knowing more about them. Seems like not many people have actually run them so it's hard to get a good sense of the situation. From forum searching, early production parts had issues with the ball joint cups working loose. Supposedly the design was updated to provide more positive locking but I can't find much about how robust that change was and that's really not something I want to have to worry about or mess with. IIRC I saw at least one person say they were still having the revised design loosen up slightly from track use. Not really problematic but annoying. Also they claim to have a mechanism for adding litronic sensor brackets but I've never seen any indication that they make said brackets so it looks like it's a DIY project, likely with some guesswork involved. But if anyone has more solid info on them I'd be happy to have my mind changed about them. Over the winter I contacted one retailer (IIRC flat six motorsports...not to be confused with flat six innovations) and they basically said they didn't know anything about them and hadn't sold many of them.

dps214 said:

I'd start with just maxing out the stock front camber and seeing how that does. I don't know exactly what those cars are capable of but it should drive fine on 1-1.5* camber, it'll just be a little bit hard on the outer edges of the tires. Rear should be capable of >2* which should be plenty. Last I checked the reasonably priced GT3 control arms are out of production and you only options are porsche branded parts or full aftermarket, both of which are more expensive and/or don't use rubber bushings. Based on personal experience there's a pretty good chance those tires are about done, don't expect too much from them.

Yes, I think I'll try getting an alignment done and see what's available before I start swapping parts. From what I've read I should be able to get about 1 degree of adjustment in the front. In the end I'd like something around -2 F and -1.5 R. I'm not seeing any reasonably priced arms other than the SPC units and I'm not in love with their design. I'll keep my eyes out for a used set.

I'm not planning to push these PSS too hard. I know that they have soft sidewalls. I plan for the first couple track days to get to know the car and break my FWD driving habits.

You're probably going to want more rear camber than that, I think 1.5* is stock. My 981S is at 2* and it could probably go to at least 2.5* on the stock parts. It might seem weird but until you get into serious (like >3*) camber range these cars generally like as much or more rear camber as front. Stock spec for your car is probably something like .5fr/1.5rr.

The PSS are fine track tires, I'm just saying that at 5+ years old they're probably well past their prime. My ECS are the same age and they've been really falling off the cliff in the past few months. A friend has 2016/2018 PSS on their cayman and they seem to be in about the same boat.

Please just drive it stock first, then decide what you need. They are amazing stock and so much better when you put what your style needs.

In reply to dps214 :

I don't know about the GT3 style arms specifically, but I do have a lot of first hand experience with SPC personally. I did have one rear UCA of theirs on my Mazda5 have a lock nut that kept coming loose, but that could have been the huge 18x9.5 wheels with 225/40 tires and ebay coilovers that caused it. Every other suspension product of theirs I've tried has been amazing and their customer service is outstanding. I've met their lead designer, fascinating old guy who's not afraid to revise designs.

preach (dudeist priest) said:

Please just drive it stock first, then decide what you need. They are amazing stock 

I agree. 
 

Porsche engineers seem to know an awful lot about how to make these things work really, really well. 

preach (dudeist priest) said:

Please just drive it stock first, then decide what you need. They are amazing stock and so much better when you put what your style needs.

I generally agree. But if getting anywhere close to a track it definitely needs at least as much front camber as it can achieve with the stock parts. I would probably leave the rear alignment as it is unless it's out of spec and reset the front toe to whatever it was before adding the camber.

preach (dudeist priest) said:

Please just drive it stock first, then decide what you need. They are amazing stock and so much better when you put what your style needs.

Definitely. I'm going to track it a couple times and see how the tires wear. I'll only add the camber if it's really necessary.

From what I've been reading -2 to -2.5 in the front and -1.5 to -2.0 in the rear is a good compromise set up. I think you can only get about -1 in the front with the stock adjustments.

Having experience with both aftermarket and OEM Porsche parts, just spend the money and get the Porsche parts.  They're worth it as they fit perfectly and are far more durable.

Where are you guys finding used parts? I've been looking on eBay, Facebook groups, Rennlist, Planet-9, Craigslist, etc. Anyplace else that I'm missing?

CAinCA said:

Where are you guys finding used parts? I've been looking on eBay, Facebook groups, Rennlist, Planet-9, Craigslist, etc. Anyplace else that I'm missing?

AAZCD here on the forum for us Boxster guys... 

CAinCA said:

Where are you guys finding used parts? I've been looking on eBay, Facebook groups, Rennlist, Planet-9, Craigslist, etc. Anyplace else that I'm missing?

LA Dismantler right in Los Angeles.

Fantastic car, congratulations.  You will definitely want the control arms if you're going to track often, the camber available with the factory arms will kill the outside edges of your tires and the tires aren't cheap.  You can find tires that can be swapped on the rims for some extra life but for me it was easier just to get the LCA's.  I had the Tarrett Engineering ones and they were good.

I dropped the off at a detailing shop on Wednesday and had them color correct the paint, apply PPF to the hood and front fenders (it already had it on the bumper, headlights and mirrors), and then ceramic coat the entire car.  It looks amazing. 
 

We need glam shots on the PCH!

Looks fantastic!

In reply to CAinCA :

Oh my, that is delicious!

Thanks boys. Would you accept glam shots from Laguna Seca tomorrow?