[CAinCA]

I took the car in for an alignment last Wednesday. When they finished they told me that the most camber they could get on the right side was -2.1 in the front and -1.6 in the rear. Interestingly this same shop told me the same thing about my GTI when I bought it there. I looked at their initial numbers and it was like -2.7/-1.9 in the front and -1.9/-1.3 in the rear. They maxed out the right side and made the left side match.



My gears were grinding the whole way home. It seemed strange to me that two different cars would have almost the same exact camber offset side to side. When I got home I could see a visible difference side to side. The top of the front tires were off by about 1/4". I decided to check the camber at home on Saturday using my digital angle finder again. I measured with the car pointed in and then pointed out in the garage. The absolute numbers changed by about .2 degrees depending on orientation but the offset was always -.5 on the right side. That pretty much eliminates the garage floor being the problem. I'm pretty sure that their rack needs a calibration. Crap!



There isn't anyone with a decent alignment rack open on the weekend around here and I had a track day at Laguna Seca on Monday. I wasSOL as far as getting another shop to take a look at it so I decided to take a look at it myself. On the rear end the left side was pretty much maxed out on negative camber adjustment while the right side was almost at the minimum. I measured the toe with a pair of straight edges and tape measures. Then I adjusted the right side so the camber and toe adjusters matched the left side. I wound up with +.4 more camber and the toe stayed the same. I did the same procedure to the front. The top of the right strut was clearly 5/16" out farther than the left. I made them match and then readjusted the toe. I took the car out for a test drive and it was dead nuts straight. I remeasured the camber in both directions again and it's much closer. Maybe .2 degrees variation L/R now. That should be good enough until I can get it to reputable alignment shop.



I think its around -2.4/-1.8 F/R now. It looks like I'd need to add adjustable toe links on the rear to get any more camber.

 

[CAinCA]

I joined the California Central Coast Region PCA at Laguna Seca yesterday. The run groups only had about 18-21 drivers in each class so traffic wasn't an issue.

I bled the tires down to 24psi before the first session and they warmed up to 31psi. The car was really well balanced all day. With the new alignment I dropped 2 seconds of my previous best time in the first session. After lunch I bled another pound out of the tires to get them to 30psi hot by the end of the sessions. It took about 2 full laps to get them warmed up but they they felt really good. I managed to shave another 1.2 seconds off my best time in the third session. I had tconsecutive laps at 1:49.91 and 1:49.90.

Unfortunately RaceChrono hasn't been very reliable lately and it never started timing for the last session. I really need to look at another solution. The Garmin Catalyst might be on my Christmas list this year.

My tire temps for the third session looked pretty reasonable. The outer inch of the front tires are heavily worn so I don't think they were heating evenly:

L/R

142,155,162 | 161,154,138 Front

145,151,156 | 165,150,148 Rear


I'll get the car re-aligned before I track it again. Unfortunately it might be a few months. Laguna Seca is going to be repaved starting in early November and won't reopen until early March.

 

[CAinCA]

I'm really happy with the way the car is driving right now. Going to zero toe in front and very little in the rear made the steering feel a lot better.

The weather was in the low 70's over the weekend so I took the opportunity to take couple 90 minute drives with the windows down and the stereo off. It's a joy to drive.

I forgot to mention that I had the PDK and differential gear oil changed at 60,600 miles.

 

[CAinCA]

I usually don't buy pictures from my track days. They're either overpriced or I think I could do better myself. Gorilla Tornado Photography did a great job on these though.


Gray and reds.

Use all of the curb!

Bottom of the Corkscrew. 50mph and 1.1g.

 

[CAinCA]

One thing that has driven me crazy with this car is the shift paddle buttons on the steering wheel. On every other car I've driven the left paddle shifts down and the right paddle shifts up. On this steering wheel the buttons on the back of the wheel shift down and the buttons on the front (at your thumbs) shift up. Shifting up also feels awkward because you have to move your hands from their natural position. It's a common complaint and a lot of guys upgrade to the "Sport" steering wheel. That's an expensive option though since they run $800-$1500 on the used market.

I don't mind the look of my stock wheel so I decided that I'd try rewiring the shift paddles. I found a thread here on Planet 9 that detailed how to disassemble the wheel and rewire the paddles:

Rewire Steering Wheel PDK Buttons? - 2010 Cayman

I had a free afternoon yesterday so I did the mod. I completely disabled the front buttons and rewired the back pair. It works as advertised. I should have done this right after I bought the car.

 

[Rocket3004]

Cool thread, thanks for sharing

I may have missed it, but any info on the rear spoiler from the first post? It looks larger that stock and in carbon fiber.

 

[CAinCA]

Cool thread, thanks for sharing

I may have missed it, but any info on the rear spoiler from the first post? It looks larger that stock and in carbon fiber.

Thank you.

The spoiler turned out to be an eBay special. It didn't fit particularly well. The "carbon" was a poorly applied wrap. I stripped the wrap off and attempted to make it fit better. In the end I decided it just wasn't worth the effort.

 

[CAinCA]

The Hankook R-S4s I've been using for track days are a few years old and don't seem to have much grip. After a ton of reading and talking to other Cayman drivers I finally overcame my analysis paralysis ordered a set of Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 in 245/40/18 and 275/40/18. They seem to have the best combination of grip, consistency, and wear of the 200TW group. We'll see.

 

[Chris(NJ)]

Good pics and vid! One day I'll get out and drive at Laguna.

 

[CAinCA]

Good pics and vid! One day I'll get out and drive at Laguna.

Thanks Chris.

 

[CAinCA]

I changed the oil on my Cayman (and 3 other vehicles) yesterday and had a few thoughts.

1. The canister style oil filter is a PITA. It's nearly impossible to get it out without making a huge mess. I think I'll be ordering LN Engineering's spin on oil filter adapter before the next oil change.
2. I put 7k miles on this oil and it didn't look good. I'll be dropping down to 5k miles for the oil change interval and see how it looks.
3. I knew my tires we're getting old and I thought I had been keeping an eye on them but the rears are shot. The inner third is bald and the outer third have maybe 1/32"-2/32" of tread left.

I ordered a set of Michelin PS4S in 235/35/19 and 265/35/19 from Tire Rack last night. They should be here tomorrow. I'll be curious to see if they ride any better or are any quieter than the 5 year old PSS on it now.

 

[ELCID86]

I changed the oil on my Cayman (and 3 other vehicles) yesterday and had a few thoughts.

1. The canister style oil filter is a PITA. It's nearly impossible to get it out without making a huge mess. I think I'll be ordering LN Engineering's spin on oil filter adapter before the next oil change.
2. I put 7k miles on this oil and it didn't look good. I'll be dropping down to 5k miles for the oil change interval and see how it looks.
3. I knew my tires we're getting old and I thought I had been keeping an eye on them but the rears are shot. The inner third is bald and the outer third have maybe 1/32"-2/32" of tread left.

I ordered a set of Michelin PS4S in 235/35/19 and 265/35/19 from Tire Rack last night. They should be here tomorrow. I'll be curious to see if they ride any better or are any quieter than the 5 year old PSS on it now.

1) agreed. I have one to install on my next change—this summer.
2) sending off for analysis?
3) glad you caught it before something bad happened or you got stranded.
4) Tire Rack is amazing. When they have stock it’s super fast to get them to you.


Shawn in VA (USA)

 

[CAinCA]

1) agreed. I have one to install on my next change—this summer.
2) sending off for analysis?
3) glad you caught it before something bad happened or you got stranded.
4) Tire Rack is amazing. When they have stock it’s super fast to get them to you.


Shawn in VA (USA)

2) I was using a draintainer and didn't think to grab a "clean" sample while I was trying to keep the oil from splattering everywhere.
3) Me too!
4) I've had really good luck with Tire Rack. In fact, I think I've bought all of my tires from them for at least the last 5 years (6-7 sets at least).

 

[CAinCA]

A while back I was thinking that I wish there was a good place to store a quart of oil in the Cayman without it sliding around the frunk or trunk. Today I stumbled on this Porsche Mobile 1 Oil Bag at Suncoast:

Mobil 1 Oil Bag

It has velcro strips on the back so it will stick to the inside of the frunk.

 

[ELCID86]

A while back I was thinking that I wish there was a good place to store a quart of oil in the Cayman without it sliding around the frunk or trunk. Today I stumbled on this Porsche Mobile 1 Oil Bag at Suncoast:

It has velcro strips on the back so it will stick to the inside of the frunk.

I have one left over from my BMW days


Shawn in VA (USA)

 

[CAinCA]

I got the PS4S installed yesterday at America's Tire. I got home and realized that the nice aluminum valve stem caps that were on the wheels were replaced with new plastic caps. WTF? This is the second time they've done this to me. I went back and, of course, they couldn't find them. They found similar set in their box and gave them to me. I actually like them more but as I was driving home I realized that some other poor schmuck got ripped off too.

Anyhoo, about the tires. I was hoping that they'd be a little quieter and ride a little better. They are a little quieter but they ride a LOT better. They are smoother and feel a bit more flexible. I guess those 6 year old MPSS really were hard as rocks. It's raining tonight so I didn't press them too hard but they feel like they have more traction too.

It's supposed to rain all day today. Sounds like a great day to take a drive to the coast, right?

 

[CAinCA]

The brake pedal on the 987 Boxster and Cayman is a bit soft from the factory. This was by design since these weren't supposed to be as performance focused as the 911s. The stock master cylinder has a 23.8mm bore. Thanks to Porsche's Lego mentality though the GT3 master cylinder bolts right up and has a 27mm bore. It increases the pedal pressure by 29% and reduces the pedal travel by the same amount. I found the 27mm MC for a $155 at FVD Brombacher last week so I ordered one and received it on Friday. it looks like they raised their price slightly since I ordered mine.
https://www.fvd.net/us-en/99735591031/brake-master-cylinder-27mm-multiple-models.html



I installed the new master on Saturday morning. The installation itself was an easy but slightly messy job. I bled the brakes with my Schwaben pressure bleeder at 18 psi. I flushed plenty of air and roughly 3/4L of Castrol SRF through the lines, put the wheels back on and took it for a test drive. I was pretty disappointed as the pedal felt softer than the original setup. I did some research and found that you should use a scan tool to activate the ABS pump to properly bleed the brakes after a MC swap. I went back out to the shop and hooked up my Schwaben Porsche scanner (Foxwell NT510) and found the correct section for the automated Bleed process (OBD scan -> PSM -> Functions -> Bleed?). You're also suppose to use 2 Bar (28psi) of pressure in the bleeder. I went through the automated process and was immediately rewarded with a nice firm pedal.



On Sunday I rolled over 10k miles since I purchased the Cayman back in May, six months to the day since I bought it. I'd say at least 90% of those miles have been on fun drives. I've only put 150 miles on it driving in to the office.

 

[CAinCA]

I signed up for a HDPE at Thunderhill East Bypass this coming Saturday. I can't wait it's been a few months since my last track day.

 

[Terrapin Station]

I have today and tomorrow off for company holidays so I decided to take a drive down Hwy 25 to Priest Valley. It's very dry, brown and not very pretty right now. The road itself long and windy and the kind of road that the Cayman was made for. The 4 mile stretch of Hwy 198 East of the 25 junction happens to be Motor Trend's test route for their annual Best Driver's Car competition.

Apparently it was let's see who can get closest to getting hit by Chris' car day. I had two coyotes and about 47 squirrels run across the road right in front of me. I also ran into something you don't see in Northern California very often. Roadrunners! How appropriate.


Look! That's my sign!
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Looks like a fun day. That road that heads east out of Bitterwater looks to be a more adventurous route to take some day.

 

[Terrapin Station]

I usually don't buy pictures from my track days. They're either overpriced or I think I could do better myself. Gorilla Tornado Photography did a great job on these though.


Gray and reds.
View attachment 283972

Use all of the curb!
View attachment 283973

Bottom of the Corkscrew. 50mph and 1.1g.
View attachment 283974

Nice Shots!