trackjunky

Well, just had the Guards Transmission LSD installed in my 2009 Cayman S with PDK. I purchased this, along with other parts, from John Tecce at BGB. This car is not a daily driver, but is in the process of becoming a street/track compromise car. I don't intend to race it, but I do want to have some track day fun and still occasionally tear up the street and canyons. I've raced in the past, but I just want to have some good fun with this car.

I have purchased many parts from John and BGB in the past even though they are about 2,000 miles away from me. John is one heck of a stand up guy and a real pleasure to do business with. I highly suggest any and all Cayman owners reach out to John for performance upgrades. I am not affiliated with BGB, but merely a satisfied long term customer.

So, the diff. Here she is:

The picture makes it look like surface rust, but that is actually how the oil coating the diff shows up in the picture. The thing is like jewelry. I had Paul at 3R Racing install it after consulting with John at BGB (remember, he's in Florida and I'm in Colorado).

Let me just say, WOW! This thing completely transforms the Cayman. Planted?! You can't imagine. I thought it might click a bit in tight turns but I did some tight 360's in a parking lot and not a sound. I'll have the car on the track this weekend, but I can already tell you from flogging it around the "local street track" that this along with other suspension bits I bought from John really gives the Cayman some bite.

I'll follow up after the weekend, but I can't say enough good things about BGB Motorsports and the Guard PDK LSD. Stay tuned.......

trackjunky

OK. So took the car to a weekend DE to shake it down and see about the suspension settings and how the diff performed.

The car is on Bilstein PSS9's, RSS LCA's; RCA rear toe links and a front GT3 bar plus the Guards LSD and the PCCB master cylinder. I kept the car on street tires as I felt this was a better comparison as it would remove the impact of track tires, plus grip is less with street tires and I wanted to see the impact the LSD had on handling.

The first big noticeable is the braking. Wow! This thing is rock solid under braking and I could go really deep into the break zone and the car never wiggled. Even under trail braking I was pretty amazed how stable the car was. With the front bar set to the second setting from full soft, I did get some turn exit push if I didn't apex the corner properly and was not unwinding upon acceleration - but it was very manageable with throttle. The PSM never flickered even when I kicked the tail out under power. Overall very very neutral.

I never heard the diff spool up or click, it just hooked up and really made the car feel very planted. I could get some throttle off oversteer, but it wasn't the snapping kind you can sometimes get with an open diff. Overall the setup is very confidence inspiring and I wish I could better explain the before and after differences but this LSD may have been the best mod for the money, IMHO. This was my first time on this particular track, but if I had more than three run sessions my gut says I could stay with the guys on track tires and DA shocks, but without a diff.

I'll get a second impression on the 26th and 27th, but so far I think this is one of the best Cayman S mods out there. You are looking at about 4 hrs install labor plus the cost of the diff from BGB.

Postman

Very cool, thanks for the info. What made you go with the Guard LSD vs the OS Giken?

usctrojanGT3

From OS Giken's website it looks like they only have an LSD for 6 speed manuals. Is that right? I guess Guard it is since my rear end was wiggling under heavy braking at the track.

jcastle

os giken also makes a lsd for pdk.

usctrojanGT3

Thanks for the confirmation because when I went onto their website it showed that the only application for the 987.2 CS was for a 6 speed only (guess they need to update their website).

usctrojanGT3

I guess the only question is...go with Guard or OS Giken?

mikew968

I have the OS Giken on my 987.2 pdk race car. It does it's job and is totally seamless. You don't really know it's there except it does it's job. The car is totally stable on brakes and rarely am I out-braked into any corner! I'm sure either diff will work well.

jcastle

no issues from my os giken. would have probably gone with guards, but it wasn't available when building my car.

Paseb

the cayman here also has the os giken, no problem so far

BGB Motorsports

I was lucky enough to be one of the first people ever in North America to have an OS Giken unit to test. We did some of the early development BEFORE ANYONE in the U.S. At the end of the day, they're both good quality products with their own racing heritage. Obviously given my relationship with Guard, we support the Guard Unit. The single biggest reason we continued to use the Guard with the Cayman is that it has a very unique camber profile in the rear and does NOT like a lot of lock up on decel and accel. Our open working relationship with Matt allowed us to have full input over the setup of the Guard Unit. That R&D is in 12 Caymans that will take the green flag for the IMSA Continental Tire ST race in January. We wanted a unit that we could say was produced by and used by people with success in 3 - 24 hour endurance racing formats.

Bill...thanks for the kind words! Good luck with the 987.2!

usctrojanGT3

John, check your PM.

mikew968

Thanks for sharing that John!

GTgears

It's just a shame that BGB took last year off of racing Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. For those who don't know it, GT equipped Caymans swept the championship podium in ST in 2014. Only reason that BGB wasn't up there with them is because they weren't racing against them! But then winning GX in 2013 against a factory backed Mazda team is a pretty nice feather in your cap as well.

rackhenry

Did your car come from factory with an LSD and you replaced it? Also did you notice any difference in temps since installing the LSD?