So I bummed a ride from an instructor yesterday at Thunderhill. Beautiful black Cayman S riding on RA-1s (not my favorite tire), various suspension goodies (remote reservoir shocks, etc.), custom fabbed roll bar, race seats, etc. etc....

not impressed. the car might have been mal-adjusted -- and the driver (an instructor) was NOT terribly skilled IMHO -- but the car would not bite and turn in, it wanted to rotate oddly under heavy braking, and felt heavy and unsure. we were only doing 2:12's. with a better driver, i'm sure 2:08's would be in the bag, but i was expecting more like 2:05's or quicker. certainly the car was fast in the main straight.

and then it happened: coming out of turn one at (only) 70mph, he downshifted, let out the clutch, and spiked the rev-limiter. we both thought he missed the shift, so he stuck it back into 4th, let out the clutch.... and spiked the rev-limiter. nothing. no gearbox at all. we coasted around through turn 4, engine sounded fine, but there were some terrible noises coming from the rear of the car. a little puff of white smoke here and there.

by the time the tow truck had us in the paddock, the little puffs turned to big puffs, and got alarmingly black. big flames shooting out the passenger-side rear wheel well. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and got the fuck out of there! took two extinguishers to put it out, whatever it was...

i never got the chance to thank him for the ride...

Damn. The Cayman is getting poor reviews around here. At least with the 914 if you booger up the trans your car doesnt go up in flames.

Take the race stuff out and scream WARRANTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND the dealer "porsche" will read out the computer and say "sorry charlie" been raced"

With the new cars "big brother" is watching.

mike

YUP. they know everything you do to the car. i was talking to a 996 guy two days ago who lost an engine that he was able to get replaced. the dealer knew that it had been tracked, but since it was still in stock configuration, they held up their end of the warranty. computer tells ALL.

Sounds like the car had a lot of aftermarket crap thrown on it but it was never properly setup.

I haven't been on a track yet but with AX I've had instructors who were simply awesome and got the best out of me and then others who were kind of lame.

Again thats scary. Big part of the reason I never tracked my Boxster. I dont think these newer cars do well in track enviroments when they see a little abuse.

i wouldn't go that far, but i do understand what you're saying, grant. it takes care to prepare a 30 year-old car for track abuse -- why wouldn't the same be true of a new car, if to a lesser extent?

in the past three track days i saw two 996's and an M3 pissing copius amounts of coolant, an EVO shooting 6 foot flames out the tail pipe sitting off track in turn 8, a 951 lose a radiator hose, a 968 shear off an A/C-compressor eye bolt which threw the serpentine and dropped said compressor on track, and this CaymanS lose the gear box and catch on fire.

Yeah people are just starting with a much more expensive vehicle that hasnt had much development work etc. We all know what breaks on 914s and older 911's and have some good aftermarket fixes. I think its more my personal feeling that if I'm going to trash a car on the track it should be a less expenseive car that has proven track record. I had a real hard time abusing my Boxster. I always forget that there are people with enough financial resources that abusing a $70K car isnt a big deal. I guess thats good because it helps people understand where weak points of the newer cars exist. So guess this means Caymans need a reinforced gearbox? I wonder what went wrong?

If I was going to develop a new car for track I think my MX-5 would be a blast. Stout little 2.0 engine, tough 6 speed gear box, simple design etc. Investment would be about a 1/3 the cost of a Cayman S.

A big heavy car blew up its transmission, why does that not surprise me.

Yeah, the internet is mined for info to deny warranty claims, also not a large shock.

yup. this guy was headed home to bring back his GT3 for the weekend.

Well.. I the clutch broke and he broke the air oil seperator. It doesnt take much to kill the stock disc. I would rather kill the disc than the engine. The air/oil seperator sounds like it physically cracked and leaked oil out of it starting the fire.

Or.. like the other tracked late Boxsters/Caymans it popped the power steering line off and started the fire.. he would have felt that.

B

wasn't the steering -- it remained smooth.