It is handy. I could just put cats on the 03 to pass smog but at this point the 04 is better equipped. I'm pilfering the Brembo rotors & street pads to get the 04 brake upgrade done sooner & tested. Having to restore the caliper piston seals & hard lines.

I wanted to take the calipers completely apart to clean& repaint but don't have time for cosmetics. I'll definitely do that later at the end of this season.

Including some photos of the 03 brake ducting which I think is interesting using NACA vents.

 

I've kind of screwed up my plans by buying a 2006 Cayman S. I'm going to have to reconsider what I'm doing with the 2004 Touring and then put it up for sale.

I have to decide whether to take it back to stock in a few areas or go full on and finish the track build and sell it as such. I'm leaning toward stopping right here and just doing a nice street prep for sale.

that means putting the stock calipers back on after I've just gotten started doing the brembo conversion. because anything I do to it is likely to be a bonus to the buyer, not increasing the sale value.

after sorting this out I'll resume work on the 03 on this thread. any tips as to what to do pre-sale are appreciated!

 

So the Cayman as a dd and the Z as the track car? I have a 2006 Boxster S as my daily and as tempting as it is to take it on the track, I know how much pcar parts cost, so no thanks. Also, I ran with my buddy's Cayman S at VIR and the cars were very close. The Cayman has 320?hp so it was a bit faster in the straights, but with the wing and slicks I had obvious advantage in the corners and was overall faster by 2 s/lap. So I don't feel like I'm missing out not tracking the porsche.

 

A bit of both. my DD is a business van so i will drive the Cayman to work once a week or so. Track it once in a while but never go over 7/10. Only 33k miles. The 03 will be the main track car after i sell the 04.

 

Driving the Cayman S for a few hours ruined me. 😕 I decided to return the 2004 Z back to stock to sell. swapping the rear subframe with the 03, but leaving the cooling system, exhaust, etc.

I've also changed my plans for racing as a consequence. I'm not going to swap wheels, get a trailer, etc, just going to equip good summer tires on the Enkeis and drive to the tracks. that means getting the 2003 to pass smog. all I've got to do is swap the test pipes for cats. the most I will do is hpde4 with modestly upgraded street cars, not a comp license. making that firm decision is helpful.

so I'll have some stuff for sale because I know my limits and carbon fiber is not going to help my track times. LOL.

if anyone wants a like new Siebon CF hood and rear hatch, in the North/Central CA area, they're for sale. or maybe trade. $1600 each new with shipping, I'll let them go for $950 each. or trade. I'm open to offers. (i will post to the appropriate for sale area, this is just a mention in passing). I'm keeping the 2nd faded CF Hood because I'm just going to get it painted with the rest of the car.

I will also have a set of four restored Brembo calipers with the hard line set available for sale/trade. I could just keep them as a backup but if the fairly new set on the 03 wears out I'll just put something else on that car. I'm $1050 invested with the lines & seal kits, seems like a fair price.

 

damn I wish you were in NC id snag that cf hatch! good luck with everything dude

 

thanks, man! this car came with a lot of good stuff. knowing my own limits is helpful. and the seller included the original hatch and hood.

I'll get into the 2003 and revive this thread after sorting out the change of plans...

 

thought I had shared this a while back but maybe not. before buying the 03 I picked up these Brembo calipers on mercari in December. rebuilt the seals which was surprisingly expensive. I'm going to install them on the 03 and save the centrec repros as a backup. I know for sure that those work but these originals haven't been tested yet.

I have the front end of the 04 restored to stock and will be pulling the subframe next and swapping them. I'm not sure that anyone is interested in posts about undoing the track build on that car but I might share a few progress photos.. I'll be putting the original burnt orange seats back in it. and swapping the subframes and suspension between the two.

p.s. this forum is almost unusable for posting content on mobile. I should stick with using the PC. I think I'm a masochist though.

p.p.s. I learned a lot about the Cayman at Sonoma this weekend. I knew it was going to be very different from the Z and I'm still learning how it handles. part of the experience was a 180 at turn 4 with an M4 and an Audi R8 right on my *** which was dicey.

I think what I did wrong was letting off the gas and brake mid turn which lightened up the front end and the rears lost traction at the same time. so I won't be driving that car ever again with Please Save Me turned off. 😆







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The Cayman will never be a serious track car because that's what my Z is intended for but I will be making some reasonable upgrades and using it as a backup occasionally some weekends. so I might sprinkle a few photos here and there as a comparison. I'm sure there are other enthusiasts who are interested in the differences between cars and this is just something that I enjoy. I was shocked at how much stronger the Cayman suspension looks. with the struts going down through the middle of the wheel hubs instead of attaching to a LCA. the only thing I've done to the car so far is install some Hawk track pads.

 

I was just notified by CZP that my backordered Kinetix Racing High Flow Cats have shipped early. the timing is perfect because I just might be able to get this car registered street legal and put together in time for June 25th Sonoma.
this car was shipped from Florida 3 months ago and it has test pipes so I haven't been able to get it registered.
I don't think I'll be able to get it dialed in properly in the same amount of time and damn I could really use a racing suspension specialist but I guess I'll just do the best I can on my own for now.
I couldn't be happier though with this news because as much fun as the Cayman was last weekend I really don't want to track it that much yet I really want to stick with the Z for a while. because I've invested a lot of money into it.

 

I hate being anywhere near gasoline with tools. Just drop a screwdriver and cause a spark...

I'm waiting for new sending units from Z1. I was about to put the two dead units back in just to button up the car (and use mileage as an ad hoc gas gauge) when Z1 notified me that the back ordered units were shipping.

Right now I'm focused on getting the car registered street legal in time for June 25-26 Sonoma weekend. because I really don't want to take the Cayman. I enjoyed it last month but it's not track ready with ridiculously staggered 235/295 tires. I installed new rotors and pads so the braking is 100% better but it has so much understeer that it is not predictable.

tomorrow I'll be going to the DMV to get a 30-day pass so I can work on getting the car streetable in CA which is quite a challenge.

 

yea working with fuel sucks, I just did a scavenger pump setup from the driver side and it sucks ***. I even drained all the fuel and it is still no fun. The fumes make you sick quickly.

 

Damn, I got the new sending units installed and no change to the gas gauge. I don't think it's a fuse because the fuel pump works. I'm going to have to get a ohm meter and figure out what's going on and might have to open up the dash which I'm not eager to do.

but as I was sitting there, frustrated, I also had to smile because I love this stuff. and running into problems just makes it more fun in the end when you solve the problems. I have a bit of a dilemma though and having these two cars and wondering if I chose to keep the wrong one. but the stripped track Edition is not very marketable whereas my 04 touring is in very nice condition so I'm committed. 😆

 

I still have a hard time understanding manufacturers that do this. From one perspective I get it; the car is safer for normies if it understeers and since most modern sports cars only build downforce (if any) in the rear the aero balance matches the tire size on high speed turns. At the same time though I wonder just how much performance is left in a typical sports car by going down this route. Reminds me of an ooold article when a journalist brought a ferrari 458 speciale to the tail of the dragon to see if he can be faster than the local "king". Turned out the fast local had a bolt on rx-7 with the widest front tire he could fit and generally outran the ferrari without too much trouble. Fun read:
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...eciale-dragon/

 

I blame Porsche. The fat rear tire make sense with a car that is rear (or mid) engined with most of the weight in the back. But then this became an idiotic trend on cars that are front engined and front heavy for no other reason than the "cool looks". And the manufacturers had to struggle with sub-optimal suspension setups to make the car safely drivable despite the fat tire where it's not doing any good.

 

My 987.1S was triggering PSM on almost every turn that weekend. so I turned it off for one session and went into a very unexpected 180 and that was the end of that experiment. an instructor watched my footage and commented that I didn't do anything unusual on that turn except letting up the gas and brakes. with that much understeer, seems to have engaged the nervous PSM (which will trigger even if you have it turned off in some circumstances). so with it off, a normal turn caused PSM to panic and kick in at the Apex and tossed the rear end around.
I've been shopping for some new wheels. I mean the techarts are so damn heavy anyway that's reason enough. but want to get the 350Z done first.

 

I can't say much about that particular situation without seeing the footage. The 987 weight distribution is about 47% F / 53% R while the 350Z it's opposite 53% F / 47% R. That 6% difference is huge in the way the cars behave and respond to inputs, you simply can't drive them both the same way. This is most obvious on the skid pad, the Z with front weight bias can be powered out of an oversteer situation, but a 987 once in oversteer adding power will just make it go around faster.

 

I definitely experienced what you are saying. I got used to tracking the Z with traction off because it was very easy and predictable and also I'm not at the limit I'm still a beginner.
here's the spin out with the addition of a secondary angle via the M4 driver, which is helpful. the spin is at 1:40.

 

Yeah, cold tires + cornet falling away from you at the apex + weight transfer to the front of the car = loss of traction. I haven't driven Sonoma irl, but I've spend many hours driving it in games That corner goes down rapidly after the apex, it's similar to turn 16a going into hog pen at VIR, if you're braking thru it you'll get sideways every time. Brake early and accelarate early, or at least hold momentum thru the corner.

And if you have to ask if the black flag is for you, the black flag is for you :P

 

That's an interesting video and honestly by the look of it a bit unexpected. It didn't seem like you were jerky or upsetting the car in any particular way, it just sort of gave the rear end up.
The closest I can relate to this is when running the G with worn tires, yes, the car become tail happy, but it never really feels like it's trying to do a 180 on me as opposed to what your cayman did with PSM off. I have a video that shows the worn tire behavior of my G relatively well; it slides out, but the moment I just ease up a tiny bit on the power and give it a touch of counter it does exactly what I want. I've never driven a mid-engine car or rear weight biased car so now I'm veeery curious how different the two slide around. Fascinating
sry, only uploaded the worn tires vid on instagram: