Building a split personality CS - a luxury cruiser on a date, an insane monster on the track...
A new year, a new project...
Posted 02-05-2008 at 10:23 PM by facelvega
I love my CS. It is a beautifully crafted car, and it is fantastic right out of the box. I would wholeheartedly agree with anyone who says that there is no NEED to modify the car. However, I am driven to modify it not because IT needs to change, but because I love to tweak and fiddle with machines.
After getting to know my car for a few months, I have figured out where it does not meet my expectations. One reason I have the car is because it impresses people (I’m human – sue me). It certainly works well in that area. Everyone seems to feel that it looks fast and beautiful. The interior has the same effect. I have the full leather interior, and while the Porsche is austere, it is very elegant and luxurious. When people look at it, both from the outside and from the inside, they are impressed, so I do not really feel the need to work on the appearance.
It is in the area of NON-high-performance driving that car does not meet my expectations or those of my passengers. The cabin is very noisy, and the ride is bumpy and harsh. While many have complained about the quality of the stereo, right now I could not say because you really cannot hear it anyway. It is those times when I would like a luxury cruiser (for either myself, a business associate I am lunching with, or a date) that the car lets me down.
If I had ordered the car with PASM and 18 inch wheels (I bought off the lot), it would be better, but still not what I want.
On the performance side, the handling is superb. It probably does not need any improvement, but there is always a little voice that whispers that another 50 HP would make it even sweeter. I expect to play with a number of the typical improvements to increase horsepower. I will also install the Quaife LSD and do some suspension tweaks to help put the power to the pavement.
The Porsche engineers did a good job at crafting a car that can do everything. They built it with the assumption that the owner would not wish to do more than push a button to change the setup of the car. In Germany, you might drive 150 MPH to the grocery store (ahhh, the autobahn). The compromises that were made to cover the range of performance, from low speed rush hour traffic to high speed, high G maneuvers makes sense. Since I am willing to spend a few minutes to swap from performance mode to luxury mode (and I will NOT drive 150 MPH on city streets), I can do some things that the Porsche designers could not.
A rundown of the basic luxury mods I am looking at is as follows:
Lightweight wheels with narrower, softer, quieter tires
Lightweight brakes
Adjustable suspension
Sound proofing (doors, roof)
For higher performance:
Lightweight wheels with large sticky tires
Lightweight brakes
Adjustable suspension
Lightweight battery
Suspension setting and ride height adjusted for performance
Breathing improvements: intake, filter, plenum, headers, exhaust.
Softronic ECU remap
Quaife LSD
As you can see, some things work well for both luxury and performance, some are exactly opposite. I expect to have some fun finding ways to maximize performance in both modes.
My target is to have the car perform no worse than the stock Cayman S while in luxury mode.
Change to performance mode should take no more than 30 minutes.
Performance will be measured – dyno, straight line acceleration and braking, AX times versus local AX group, DE lap times on local courses.
Luxury will also be measured – noise readings, and 3-axis accelerometers for ride dynamics over a consistent test course.
“Butt-dyno” and subjective impressions will be noted, but I think that genuine improvement should be measurable with an instrument.
Final commitment is this: If I cannot show improvement in luxury or performance modes, I will take it back to stock, and enjoy the car even more KNOWING that it cannot be improved.
After getting to know my car for a few months, I have figured out where it does not meet my expectations. One reason I have the car is because it impresses people (I’m human – sue me). It certainly works well in that area. Everyone seems to feel that it looks fast and beautiful. The interior has the same effect. I have the full leather interior, and while the Porsche is austere, it is very elegant and luxurious. When people look at it, both from the outside and from the inside, they are impressed, so I do not really feel the need to work on the appearance.
It is in the area of NON-high-performance driving that car does not meet my expectations or those of my passengers. The cabin is very noisy, and the ride is bumpy and harsh. While many have complained about the quality of the stereo, right now I could not say because you really cannot hear it anyway. It is those times when I would like a luxury cruiser (for either myself, a business associate I am lunching with, or a date) that the car lets me down.
If I had ordered the car with PASM and 18 inch wheels (I bought off the lot), it would be better, but still not what I want.
On the performance side, the handling is superb. It probably does not need any improvement, but there is always a little voice that whispers that another 50 HP would make it even sweeter. I expect to play with a number of the typical improvements to increase horsepower. I will also install the Quaife LSD and do some suspension tweaks to help put the power to the pavement.
The Porsche engineers did a good job at crafting a car that can do everything. They built it with the assumption that the owner would not wish to do more than push a button to change the setup of the car. In Germany, you might drive 150 MPH to the grocery store (ahhh, the autobahn). The compromises that were made to cover the range of performance, from low speed rush hour traffic to high speed, high G maneuvers makes sense. Since I am willing to spend a few minutes to swap from performance mode to luxury mode (and I will NOT drive 150 MPH on city streets), I can do some things that the Porsche designers could not.
A rundown of the basic luxury mods I am looking at is as follows:
Lightweight wheels with narrower, softer, quieter tires
Lightweight brakes
Adjustable suspension
Sound proofing (doors, roof)
For higher performance:
Lightweight wheels with large sticky tires
Lightweight brakes
Adjustable suspension
Lightweight battery
Suspension setting and ride height adjusted for performance
Breathing improvements: intake, filter, plenum, headers, exhaust.
Softronic ECU remap
Quaife LSD
As you can see, some things work well for both luxury and performance, some are exactly opposite. I expect to have some fun finding ways to maximize performance in both modes.
My target is to have the car perform no worse than the stock Cayman S while in luxury mode.
Change to performance mode should take no more than 30 minutes.
Performance will be measured – dyno, straight line acceleration and braking, AX times versus local AX group, DE lap times on local courses.
Luxury will also be measured – noise readings, and 3-axis accelerometers for ride dynamics over a consistent test course.
“Butt-dyno” and subjective impressions will be noted, but I think that genuine improvement should be measurable with an instrument.
Final commitment is this: If I cannot show improvement in luxury or performance modes, I will take it back to stock, and enjoy the car even more KNOWING that it cannot be improved.
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