I did a track day at Willow Springs last Thursday and thought i'd share a few observations.


1. As many of us know by now the Cayman is amazing on a race track. If you haven't been on the track in your Cayman i would definatly advise trying it at least once!


2. The Cayman has an incredible, uniquesound. I letmy instructortake my Cayman out for a few laps and the sound of the Cayman down the main straight was amazing. There were plenty of 911s, GT3 cup cars, F430s, a Gallardo, M3s, Radicals, ... and the Cayman definatly sounded the best. I was really suprised.


3. Starting my Cayman after a session on the track resulted in about aminute of blue smoke exiting the exhaust. I believe others have see this before as well.


4. Starting my car after a tracksession, once the tires had cooled,TPMS showed a warning that the air pressure in my tires was too low and the exclamation and flat tire warning light came on. This is expected, but what was a little annoying was that the lights didn't go out once the tire pressures returned to what i was running hot (38f/40r). The tire pressures shown by TPMS were above the factory specs and still the lights were on! Even restarting the car didn't change anything. The warning lights didn't go out until i stopped to get gas on my way home from the track.


5. I finally used the sport chronostop watch for something other then demoing to someone riding in the car! It was really cool and i saved most of my lap times. Until then i was still a bit annoyed about spending $1000 on a stop watch, but after using it on track i think it is definatly worth it for anyone who is going to be tracking their car (Of coarse the sport button is nice as well). You really need PCM as well, so that you can save all of the times and go back and look at them later. While on the track you won't really have much time to look at the lap times.


6. I'm still running PS2s (on 19s) but they held up fairly well. I did almost 100 laps and I've still got about 3mm of tread before hitting the marker. I have had an aligment done ( -.55f, -1.30r) and the tires are wearing fairly evenly. The fronts didn't role over too much, but more negative caber up front would be nice.


7. I changed the brake fuild and installed SS brake lines before the event and i was very happy with the overall brake performance (i have steel brakes). I've always installed SS brake lines on previous cars and was happy with the pedal feel on the Cayman. I think it just makes the pedal feel a bit more firm andmore consistent as temps go up.


Anyway sorry for the long post. The day was so much fun! Take your Cayman's to the track!!!

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Attila
'08 M3 - dd
'95 M3 - track
'06 Cayman S - sold

Another happy customer....


Paul

the sound of cayman you describe is from 'inside' the cabin?


from the outside, staning track side, you hear absolute nothing as you see cayman approaching, once it passes you, you hear a sonic boom, for lack of better description. i was surprised. try do that some time, it's very strange but cool...

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My understanding from reading the manual is that as the tyres heat up, so does the required pressure for the tyres to have adequate and safe pressure. There is a graph in the manual that shows this. I think the rear tyres are supposed to me more like 45psi when hot. The manual shows a mimimum pressure line that initiates the TPMS warning. The line goes up as the temperature rises. So I think the TPMS was doing its job.

Many people talk about pressures being in the 30's hot on the rears. I think this is probably right for R spec tyres, but my understanding (and experience) is that PS2's will get near 50psi from the standard pressure if you smoke them around the track.

mooty,


I was talking about from outside of the car watching it go down the main straight. You are right it is a bit like a sonic boom. Very cool sound.


dt,


That might explain why the light was still on. I was running 38f/40r hot, so when they had cooled off they were around 30.

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Attila
'08 M3 - dd
'95 M3 - track
'06 Cayman S - sold

AtillaS,


I enjoyed the post, the longer the better when posting I-witness accounts from the track.

AtillaS,

Thanks for the long post - the more, the better on topics like this?

Quick question: How did you decide on your f/r camber settings? I've been autocrossing farily heavily, and haven't had the time to do a re-alignment from factory specs, so I've been playing mostly with air pressure, especially in the front. I'm getting some new PS2s (19s) in the front as I still can't dial-out the understeer, and the shoulders of the tires are about gone.

Is -.55 all you could get into the fronts? I'm hoping the guys at Jerry Woods can get -1.5 in the fronts for me. And, why -1.30 on the rears?

Thanks again for a great report.

brad

Edited by - beez on 06/19/2006 10:37:05 AM

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21-year PCA Member
PCA DE Instructor

Beez - Since stock camber adjustments are minimal, I asked for max camber front and rear; I got -1.17 front and -1.45 rear. It is certainly not enough, but works out at the track and in autocross, I find that I need a lot for front and rear.

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FT

FT - thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

I knew the stock suspension adjustments would be minimal, I just didn't know how much, or I guess I shjould say little. That's about the same that I had my turbo tweaked for track and AX, without wearing too much off the tires while street driving, so that will be better than nothing - I really want to stay in a stock class in AX.

Thanks again,
brad

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21-year PCA Member
PCA DE Instructor

What were your lap times at Willow? Just curious what a Cayman can do there.

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Thanks,
Chad
www.plavanracing.com
www.ultralaptimers.com
www.r3device.com

I'm going to WillowSpings in the morning and it should be great! Hot, but great none the less.



G.

Here is a video from my race last weekend to get you pumped up. It was only 107 degrees! enjoy


http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...53872460382295

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Thanks,
Chad
www.plavanracing.com
www.ultralaptimers.com
www.r3device.com