She started like in 2006- fresh meat for the grinder!


The first phase is to do the flash for slightly more HP and improved throttle response. Now it's not like the TT cars we do in terms of the gains but certainly some marked improvement (and Egas remapping).


Then we quickly de-snorked it. Obviously there's plenty of write-ups on this but the main thing you really need to be careful of is the "middle" clip. Try prying that off first as it's a weak-spot and you can/will crack/snap it. A flat head screw driver is your friend... We ran out of intakes so that'll happen shortly.


We also we're going to use this:

we decided to go with Bilstein PSS9s and H&R sway bars for an aggressive street/some track type set up. The adjustability and compliance is second to none in terms of a street coil over and much more to our liking than a lowering spring kit. I'm just not keen on the stiffer spring/soft shock mismatch which gives you the pogo effect (bounciness). We lowered the car about 1.5 inches in the front and 1.25 in the rear. The dampening was set to 3 to start off with. It's quite an involving install as most of the back end and interior has to come out and in fact takes more time to do than any 996TT, 997TT etc... The rear sway bar is easy but the subframe has to come out on the front thanks fo some "ingenious" routing of the sway bar by Porsche on that one.



Either way, the car set up the way it is now seems to be so much flatter and devoid of sway through the twisties. The real test will be this weekend when she hits Thunderhill where she'll be driven on the same track with this new set up. The time there previously was 2min 15 seconds (not me driving!) so we're hoping the same driver can shave a few seconds off....

With the extra G's we expect at the track the stock seats just aren't going to cut it. For almost 5K per side, the 997GT3 ones aren't either so in with a pair of 996GT3 seats and a harness bar from TC Design. With the schroth harnesses and the seats my butt no longer slides around... I've been using the GT3 seats for years in 996s and they are _not_ for everyone in terms of fitments. Try them first for sure. It really helps to take the steering wheel out as well when doing the install. Just for clearance on the driver's side. With everyone out it was a good time to do the B&M SSK kit. The shifter in the 987/997 is certainly much improved over the 996s but still too long for our liking.

We also installed our Fire Extinguisher kit as some of the organizations requite it.


Something that I've always changed in any Porsche I've owned is the steering wheel. No matter whether it's a 996 or 997/987 they're just on the skinny side for me. I've always gone with the "thicker" Tech Art steering wheels which do not require any wheel adapters or the like. They fit perfectly and here's a before and after.

Before:


After


Folks, if you're installing a wheel and need to disconnect the air bag to do so please please remember to disconnect the negative terminal on the battery first. It'll save you from any Airbag lights or worse...

On to the body, and a little plastic surgery for today as the tech art lip went on and we also blacked out the light surrounds. You can see what it looks like compared to a stock Cayman S. It's subtle but we decided not to go for the full tech art kit (we've got enough big-winged cars lol).





For braking we installed the Brembo F50 brake kit for the fronts (there isn't really anything out for the rears but it's not really needed anyway). We're going to be testing these out at Thunderhill and Reno Fernely shortly. We had these on our 996 track car as have the more track-orientated 996 customers. There's a good amount of pad choices for these. These aren't really a street (or bling) kit and as you can see it uses two-piece light weight slotted rotors (for better cooling properties). The four piston calipers are from the F40/50 and also weigh less than stock so a bit of weight savings here...
[IMG]hhttp://www.sharkwerks.com/forum_photos/project_cayman_september_mods/P1010698.JPG[/IMG]



Back to bling now, we went with the tech art front lip (blacked out the fog lights) and tech art side skirts. As you'd expect from those guys, it just plain fits (no issues).