With the FRS temporarily down for maintenance (since completed), I finally had the chance to put the Cayman S on track up at Watkins Glen a few weeks back.
Aside from a brake fluid change, the 981 CS is essentially stock (though I upgraded to the factory X73 sport suspension and dialed in a bit more camber (-1.5FR/-1.8R) and zero'd out the toe. The Pirelli P-Zero tires are decent for the street but they're woefully inadequate for track duty. And the stock pads Porsche uses, while better than most, glazed over after just four sessions and I think I warped the aluminum backing plates. I'm still waiting to see what that's going to cost me.
I had to stop after just a single day, four sessions. Two days were planned. The car had 5,200 road miles before putting a wheel on track. I'm guessing the tires have less than 1/2 their life left.
Sorry car.
But that's how it goes. I told myself I wasn't going to push. But the car is just so wonderful, so beautifully balanced, you can't help yourself. The first session out it was about 48*, chilly, windy, a bit damp. I had no idea what to expect with pressures (I was up to 42/44 psi when I came in, yikes). By the 2nd session I was starting to get things dialed in, adjusting my lines and braking points and turn in points and getting a feel for the car's balance. And I was already telling myself that if I was only running a set of NT-01s and XP10s, oh my, what I could do. And the X73 suspension which feels a bit taut, maybe even a bit harsh on rough public roads, tends to dive a bit under heavy braking and rolls a bit much for my liking in the corners. The track changes perspective quickly.
There's an old adage that good road cars make lousy track cars and good track cars make terrible road cars. And it's true. But the Cayman is about the best example I can envision of a car that truly bridges the gap between the two and feels truly comfortable in both worlds. I drove the car to the track and didn't suffer for the effort. And despite the relatively conservative laps I was running, my FL of the day was almost 2 seconds quicker than my PB in the FRS with R-compound tires. (That probably says more about the FRS and how truly quick it is with just a few simple mods than it does about the Cayman). But it was also interesting driving a car with power. I had to progressively squeeze down on the throttle exiting corners instead of just mashing the pedal at the apex (or earlier). And the same E46 M3s that would leave me for dead in the FRS on WGI's long uphill straight, the flat-6 in the Cayman just starts screaming like a Valkyrie and I started reeling them in.
It's almost too easy when you don't really have to 'work for it'.
Yeah hitting 140 mph+ was a new experience. I actually blew my numbers off and got black-flagged for the effort.
DSC_3325 by Nick Winsor, on Flickr
