Hello. I Ordered my 2007 Cayman S last week for November delivery. Wanting to have a brake cooling solution ready for my track days next year. I have attended over 30 track days in the last two years and I am still slow. I have always had problems with brake cooling on the track and have never come up with a good solution. I just sold my 2005 WRX STI since I couldn't take the way it looks anymore and wanted to try a mid engine car instead on the track.


I have only used brake ducts and 4' silicone air hose from the bumper openings to the center of the brake rotors. Is that solution best for the Cayman S or do the GT3 plastic brake ducts scooping air to the rotors provide better brake cooling? I have searched for the subject and just found the GT3 plastic brake duct scoops.


Brake cooling is the greatest problem I have at the track causing me more than a few times to drive without brakes, which is my favorite way to improve my cornering speed. But, I would prefer not to have to worry about the brakes fading or the brake pad deposits on the rotors creating the horrible vibrations.


I would love to find endless brakes that stand up to the temperatures and not require gentle use.


One more thing, a main reason I am getting a Porsche was due to a comment made by one of the head instructors at the Bob Bondurant School in April. From his 15+ years of racing and instructing, from his perspective, he liked Porsche the best for their racing durability. He spoke of other makes that may be faster but under track conditions they succumb to failures regarding structural integrity. The Porsches are solid.


I attended the 3 day Advanced school and was the slowest out of 4 students. They all had raced professionally . I understand to be good needs thousands of hours of track time. I can see why carting from a young age is so important . Track time lots of track time. After my awakening from that school with my level of ability accessed, I am ready to really learn now, but I will never be fast.


I attended two other pro schools this year. A 3 day advanced school with Russell at Infineon and a 3 day off road rally school in Florida. I will only talk about how much I enjoyed the Russell school, of all the pro schools I have attended this is the best location, best track, best cars, best weather of any school. I can't stop smiling thinking about the Formula Russell cars on slicks at Infineon. Put that on a list of things to do, you won't be disappointed. I have been to the former Derek Daly school a couple of times, Skip Barber a couple of times and Bondurant twice. I will only go back to Russell at Infineon.


Sorry I got off the initial subject.


TJ

The Cayman will have the best brakes you will have experienced on a street car - the engineering spec for a Porsche is that it needs to make 20 back to back panic stops from 90% of it's top speed with no fade, period.



I've seen stock Porsches run hard on the track for very long periods of time, and they just keep on working as designed - no fade, really. On those same days, I've seen cars from other manufacturers try to do the same thing, only to see them with brake pedals to the floor after 4 or 5 laps. The stock Cayman has a good cooling set up, but if you want more air to them, the GT3 ducts are the ticket.



brad

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21-year PCA Member
PCA DE Instructor

with proper hi temp brake fluid and track pads, you will not have any fade on oem set up. unless you do 2 hours or longer stints.

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You will be surprised by the Cayman S brakes, in a good way. I changed the fluid to ATE blue and pads to Performance Friction Carbon Metallic and have had no fade at all. No need for extra cooling ducts so far, and none expected.


Doing some PCA schools in your Cayman will probably be more of a practicallearning experience. The pro schools are great but it is hard to transfer everything you get in their cars to your own IMO.

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Formerly 914Geezer

I had my CS prepped by Farnbacher Loles (Connecticut). Here are the brake upgrades I made:
<ul>[*]GT3 cup brake ducts (very inexpensive)[*]Castrol SRF brake fluid (to avoid boiling)[*]Pagid orange pads (amazing upgrade- doesn't cool any better, just stops much better)[/list]

I am very pleased. Good inexpensive upgrades. My brakes never faded before the upgrades, but they were a little 'squishy' and didn't bite enough. The SRF was a safety precaution.

Joel:



Did Farnbacher have to trim the GT3 ducts to make them fit? My dealer has tried to fit them twice, but claim they will not work without substantial modification.

i did the gt3 brake ducts too, although I have the gt3 lower control arms, so they are a perfect fit, don't know how they would fit on the standard arms. one caution, on a lowered car the ducts seem to rub on pavement when going up or down steep inclines. This has caused them to unclip on half of the duct.

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Craignyc
Cayman S 2006 - Sold
Boxster 2001 - race car and current track toy.
www.nycs4.com/cayman_track_times.html

beez,


Should we tell him what Vic Elford said about some drivers having 'balance' and others not? [img]/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/wink_smile.gif[/img]

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K-Man S

What makes the rotors on the Porsche CS better able to disipate heat from track use than other rotors used on cars from other manufacturers. Does the Porsche use curved vane rotors/ directionally vented ? Would that be the main difference? My STi used pillar vanes andthey didn't expell heat well. They use Brembo brakes but pillar vane rotors for the illusion of performance.

From Brembo web site.
"The curved vane rotor operates as a centrifugal pump when installed with the vanes from the inside to the outside of the rotor. The rotation of the disc therefore, causes air to be pumped from the center of the rotor, through the vanes, and out through the outside. This enhances the rotor’s ability to dissipate heat and guards against premature wear."

Also some wheels are designed to expell the heat from the inside out and other wheel designs don't. What wheels if any are designed for track use and significantly help brake cooling?

To my knowledge, they didn't modify the ducts. I looked at them and they appear to be unmodified/untrimmed.