Cayman RS

[JimP]

Still no Cayman, was holding out for my perfect spec GenII and then a few personal issues got in the way, but i'm back on the case now!!  

 

Anyway, I noticed something when I was searching the web earlier today about a Cayman RS that was a shop modified Cayman - has anybody seen one of these before or know much about Autofarm?  

 

http://www.autofarm.co.uk/projects/past/cars

 

 

 

[ian964]

This car (the original development car) now belongs to Jamie Summers (he's on PH) - he had it at Donington last month. I don't know whether Autofarm built any more though.

[PhilCS]

Not heard of this before, but a Cayman with a 3.7 lump sounds like a lot of fun! 

[DJMC]

I dare say there's someone out there who'll build you a Super Cayman. it's gonna cost though!

 

...and I bet you wouldn't get so much fun as in a lower powered Gen II.

 

I just revel in revs...

[Trickle]

I beg to differ, I bet that car is a hoot to drive!!  

 

I've had my fair share of 'lower powered' Porsches and they're fun, but the high powered ones rev too, and contrary to belief can be rung out when you want  

[CaymanDave]

I wonder why they didn't just stick a 3.8L motor in it?  Be interested to understand the thought process there. 

 

Sounds like a lot of fun though, I like the simple ethos of lighter wheels etc.  

[DJMC]

6 hours ago, Trickle said:

I beg to differ, I bet that car is a hoot to drive!!  

 

I've had my fair share of 'lower powered' Porsches and they're fun, but the high powered ones rev too, and contrary to belief can be rung out when you want  

 

On the road or track? Road test driving the 981 2.7 and 3.4 the latter seemed to me to be just as much fun but the speeds it tempts the driver with are excessive for a license lover.

 

On the road a "RS" would no doubt be mostly frustrating to drive rather than a hoot. I'd say it'd be a hoot 2% of the time, whereas mine is a hoot 10% of the time. The rest of the time I'm in traffic or obeying "rules".

 

Track's a different matter... perhaps.

[Jamie Summers]

Hi all,

Just found my way onto the forum........  As Ian points out, I now own the Autofarm development car.  I know of at least one other they produced (funnily enough it was for sale with a non-Porsche specialist at the same time I bought mine).

I will let you read about the original development of the car on the Autofarm website and various magazine articles.  All of the modifications were carefully thought through and well-executed.  At the time they did the engine work the 3.8 was still a new engine and thus prohibitively expensive for this exercise.

I have carried on with the evolution towards something a little more track-focussed.  The car now looks rather more subtle - the decals have gone, the wheels (unbelievably light) are now black with silver rims, the raw carbon panels have been painted black and it now sports a Speedart spoiler.

Underneath I have added RSS lower control arms and toe links front and rear, Rennline front and rear camber plates and KW V3 adjustable shocks.  It is now very low and running very aggressive geometry.  Inside it now has a proper Cup wheel and alcantara shifter and handbrake.

I am about to undertake the next round of mods - Heigo cage, under-drive pulley, semi-solid engine mounts, Cup centre radiator, which should see the job completed (for now).

As it stands, other than the ride-height which leads to quite a lot of scraping, the car is remarkably tractable and road-useable.  It is comfortable on long drives and fun on A-road blasts.  It's a bit of a handful for thrashing down the lanes, but otherwise it's a remarkably capable car on road or track.

I can't fault how the car has been put together - it's done 50k miles since the development process began and it still feels very fresh and willing.

Having come from a 964 RS and 968 CS it's yet another new driving style to learn, but there's no doubt it's fast ! 

SVP have worked on a similar set of modifications for Caymans, so there are definitely specialists out there producing these cars.  The costs involved in getting the car to where mine is are prohibitive, I was only too happy to buy someone else's expenditure !  Doubtless I will end up sinking the equivalent of the purchase price back into it, but it will still not be an expensive car, and I doubt there will be too many ways of going faster for less, short of a stripped-out track special.

 

Jamie

[Beanoir™]

Good work, thanks for sharing - and welcome!  How long have you had the car Jamie?  

 

Have you got a build thread type thing anywhere? 

[Jamie Summers]

Thanks !  I've had the car since last August, though I've really not had a huge amount of opportunity to drive it yet.  I've done no more than about 1,500 miles including 3 track days.  There are still things I'm trying to optimise on the car, so I've not been using it much - just waiting to do the next round of mods.

I haven't done a build thread as such, but there's a lot of detail on the Autofarm website with links to the various magazine articles written at the time.

http://www.autofarm.co.uk/projects/past/cars

The car has evolved considerably since then.  It's all in the history file that came with the car.  I should probably write up exactly what I've done to the car over the past twelve months to bring it all up to date, but most of it is summarised in my earlier post.

I have just continued along the logical path that Autofarm set out on.  Interestingly they did nothing to the stock PASM suspension, so this was my first port of call to make the most of the other modifications that they had made.

To date over £40k has been spent on modifications, which makes very little financial sense, but thankfully only a small proportion of that has been my expenditure !

I'll try and sort out some pictures.....

 

Jamie