Espo78

Hi all, new 987S owner here. My car was equipped from the factory with "Sport Chrono Pkg w/out PCM" and the orginal head unit in the car was replaced by the previous owner with an Alpine Car Play touch screen. Currently, the stop watch does not light up, and I don't have Chrono functions in the steering gauge cluster menu. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to have other functions for controlling DRL etc but I don't have those either as far as I can tell. I don't really need the stopwatch but I want everything to work as it should. And from what I read there are some useful functions that I'm missing. Can anyone give me guidance on if I just need a dealer to reprogram functions for me or if I'm actually missing hardware since the headunit was changed? Also, I probably need to drive the car more as weather has been bad, but the "Sport" button doesn't seem to change anything. It does light up when I press it and "Sport" appears next to the speedometer. Thanks guys great forum!

BH987S

olegd

I have a 987.2 Cayman and the head unit was also replaced with an Alpine unit. The Sport Chrono is working fine for me, I get Sport and Sport Plus modes and these definitely change the behavior of the PDK transmission and throttle.

Espo78

BH do you have the Chrono options in the menu? Or other options that come with Sport Chrono?

Espo78

Olegd, mine is a 987.1 manual so I don't get the same benefit from sport chrono as you unfortunately. What is the difference between sport and sport +? I'm pretty sure I don't have sport+ and might not even have sport at this point haha.

Fined

I just replaced my 987.2 (ASK package with NAV) with a Pioneer NEX8400.. sport chrono works fine.

Rick_H

The key is your saying you do not see the Sport Chrono features in the cluster menu....you should if the car is equipped with the package which is obviously is with the wart on the dash

Swapping the head unit should have no issues as stated by many others

Espo78

Ok thanks. That was my initial thinking but since I didn't see the options in the menu I thought maybe it had something to do with the factory headunit/computer being replaced. Looks like my new car has some interesting history I'll have to dig into.

Can anyone give me a run down of what options/functions are specific to the Sport Chrono package? Mine is listed as "Without PCM" so I'm not sure what includes or does not include.

Zach L

The owner's manual explains the Sport Chrono pretty well and what it does. I actually just did that this weekend for the first time even though I've owned my 987.1CS since March. Very helpful and informative.

I shopped for my car for over 6 months because I would not buy one without Sport Chrono and PASM. Both together are super helpful for autocross to be competitive B Street category. I've fallen in love with PASM on 19" wheels. Sport Chrono helps on road courses too. The feature that helped me most at the track this weekend, was the "Intermediate" traction control setting available in Sport Mode. I didn't have to turn PSM fully off or on... I could leave PSM turned 'on' while also engaging Sport mode... this raises the traction control thresholds and will allow you to use the rear tires to turn the car through a corner using the throttle and let it slide a bit (that's faster around a track). The PSM will only kick in if you're REALLY losing control of the car. After I engaged this setting, it allowed me to use the car and cut about 3.5 seconds off my lap time on a sub-2:00 track.

Sport Chrono Package Plus vs. Sport Plus (they are different):

Sport Chrono Package Plus was an option for all 987.1 and 987.2 cars, and with all transmissions (manual, Tiptronic and PDK), but only if the car had PCM (navigation). With SCP+, the difference is that you get a 'personal memory function' and a 'performance display' in PCM that logs past laps, allows comparisons of the laps, and stores the data in a memory function to be reviewed later, etc.

Sport Plus (aka Sport+) was a button on the later 987.2 cars of 2009+, and only available if the car had PDK transmission. Sport+ is the button that provides the Launch Control. It also enables a "motorsport-derived gearshift strategy" with even quicker shifting. The Sport+ button is on all PDK-equipped cars with Sport Chrono. (no PCM/SCP+ is needed to get the Sport+ button).

Phil McKrevice

I have nothing to add to help you but this...

I had a battery die on me. I jumped it using a portable battery pack and when I fired it up all of the warning lights came on and stayed on. I think it had a dead cell in it. The funny thing is that I jumped it when it was dead no problem. Drove it for an hour, and had to take a wicked **** so I stopped at a grocery store 5 mins from home and then it was just dead when I got back to the car. I tried to jump it again with my battery pack and AAA came out and their pack wouldn't even do it. We had to use their pack and my pack to get it to jump. Even trying to jump it from that tow trucks beefy battery did not work. Replaced it a few days later and when I fired up the car, I got all the dash warnings again. Then things stopped working. No wipers, no brights, no wing going up, no blinkers, no psm plus all sorts of other things that I can't remember. Really dangerous IMO. So I took it to the dealer. They spent 10 hours trying to figure out why it was doing this. They finally found the culprit. A bad sport chrono clock. Apparently if it goes out, it causes all this other stuff to go out which is utter garbage IMO. Losing blinkers and brights and wipers because of that stupid *** clock? Nice work Porsche! So I had to buy that clock, and it was well over 1000.00 and had to come from Germany. Not sure why they designed the car to have so much go through that. My Mercedes as the same way. When the alarm siren went out because it has a non replaceable battery, it took out the radio stations. Anyways...not sure why they did this or made the frunk and trunk be electrical and a pain to get to for those of us that store our cars in the winter. These are great cars...but when they get you, they really get you. Oh well, have to pay to play I suppose.