Well, it'll cost between 35,000 and 50,000 USD to get into the 370 - 390 horsepower range with either a Ruf kompressor or a 3.8X51 engine package. One only wonders what the engine-related costs of your goal will be let alone the subsequent brake and suspension work that would be necessary...

Why buy a Cayman? For the amount of money you'll spend, why not a GT3, Turbo, or even a recent model F430?

You can get an X51 installed for 25k by me in CT with all software and parts and have 418HP.

Don't forget these other Cayman engine mods.

Orton's 500 HP Supercharger:

Orton Performance - Porsche - Cayman

or with TPC's Cayman 422 HP Turbocharger:

TPC Racing - Porsche Supercharger and Turbo Specialist - Rolex 24 Champion - Home


Not sure what friedman_japan is talking about. Maybe he doesn't understand the basic design differences between the the 911 and the Cayman besides just the differences in HP? There are actually many many obvious reasons why some would prefer the Cayman platform over the 911.

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Seat of the pants dyno

Not to nitpick, but to the poster above, the tpc is 422 to the wheels, and the orton is 500 to the crank which are entirely different measurements.

they both actually work out to be similar when compared in like units.

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Cayman S Black.
s550
e93 m3 (in production)

yeah,.. i understand completely. I am just using each tuner's terminology for their own product. And I will let each of them explain it all.

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Seat of the pants dyno

Quite right, I don't have any understanding of the difference between mid-engine and rear-engine layouts... One wonders why I included the F430 in the list of alternatives...

- The Cayman S comes with 295 - 300 hp stock. We all want a bit more hp, but if someone is looking for hp in the 480 - 500 range why look at the Cayman? Hell, why not buy an Exige S with the GT option and add a high performance titanium exhaust? You won't get hp bragging rights but you'll blow off just about every other street legal car in existence.

- Modifying the Cayman to give it such a substantial growth in hp should not really be done in isolation of other components. With that much more hp brakes and suspension need to be upgraded as well. Lets not forget that there will be a lot more heat generated, that'll need to be cooled, more radiators, ducts, and fans... All of that costs $$$$.


We can debate the relative merits of mid-engine vs. rear-engine, and in fact we have been doing so in an assortment of posts since Ken started this forum, (in fact I believe there was a video from croctoberfest that stirred things up a bit last week) but that's not my point, this is:

The total cost of getting to the hp range that we're discussing in this thread starts to get into the price universe of the GT3, 911 Turbo, and F430 (note: mid-engined, just like the Cayman). Which was the overall point of my earlier post.


btw: I live in Japan, the prices I mentioned are the USD equivilents for what is being charged here, clearly prices will vary depending on location.

I'm not sure what the prices are like in Japan right now, but wow...a F430 or a Turbo for $95-110,000?? Sign me up!!

Actually there are quite a lot of differences between the Exige S and the Porsche Cayman S as well. And even with all the needed upgraded components for the big HP Cayman S, I think one is still very, very far off from the price of Ferrari s, Ford GT s, Porsche GT 3RS and other such super cars. One should be saving at least $35,000 - $120,000, or even much more. The few people who have done serious HP/ engine upgrades on their own Cayman S's, seem very satisfied indeed!

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Seat of the pants dyno

Why?

The brakes are very good for a car of this weight and hp, and with the PCCB the brakes are h u g e, i am not sure even the GT3 or turbo brakes are much larger?

As for the suspension, I see no need to upgrade anything just for an increase in hp.
I think the Cayman is a very good handling car, and that has nothing to do with horsepower.

Stiffer? Well, consider this - for high speed the stock PASM in normal mode is very good, and the sport mode is too stiff in damping setting, it makes the car less stable and more difficult to drive.
On our twisty and narrow Nisse (Norway) - roads the suspension could have been stiffer, to get even less undesired body movements, same goes for the race track, as several others here already have found out, and solved.
Personally I find the stock set-up very good, it is even very comfortable, yet stable and confident in feel.

Imagine.. a stock car cornering at 1 g.. have you told me I would own one say 10 years ago, I would not believe you..

(Well, it would need som kind of limited slip diff. )

I think I would be very comfortable driving my Cayman S, as it is now, with 500 hp, I even suspect it would be a very satisfying experience.

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Øyvind Kvålsvoll

2006 Cayman S
1991 928 GT

My lightly optioned 2006 Cayman S was the equivilent of 95,000 USD. Once we start talking about upgrades (35,000 USD for a Ruf kompressor, another 30,000 USD for suspension and brakes), and we're at a total of 160,000. The entry price for a new GT3 is (at current exchange rates) about 157,000 USD. A new f430 wll set you back about 190,000, one or two year old f430's can be had fo4 160,000.