Soul Performance

Hello Everyone,

My name is John Gaydos, and I’m back! Some of you may remember me back when I was active member here on behalf of another company as their Porsche Specialist. I had done a Phase 1 and Phase 2 build on my Cayman R during that time, which I posted about here and on Planet 9. I then parted ways with that company and for most of 2017 and 2018 I was in Florida working with AutoQuest Motorsports, concentrating on chassis development and in general building GT cars for DE and competition use with our home track of Sebring. The knowledge there was like trying to drink water from a fire hose, but I’m happy to say that I have been overly hydrated haha. Happy Wife, Happy Life...I am back in PA and have some time and opportunity to hop back on Rennlist as SOUL’s Performance Specialist to share the new developments on my Cayman R.

Onward to Phase 3 and beyond with my Cayman R. First up is the switch to SOUL’s exhaust configuration, and then I’ll be posting later when I have more time about the PCS Intake System I installed, as well as the chassis/brake upgrades I put on (control arms, toe arms, custom alignment, wheels spacers, pads, brake ducts, etc.)Switching to the SOUL Competition Package (Competition Headers and Valvetronic Exhaust System)


As much as I track my car, I enjoy driving my car on the street and also drive my car to and from the track. After about 2.5 years and near 20k miles on and off the track on my old setup, there were several things I did not enjoy that I wanted to target. The drone/resonance in cabin below 3k rpm was rather intense, and sustaining that rpm range (no choice due to speed limit and traffic) would leave anyone in the car with a bit of a headache. Performance with valves closed was significantly reduced, causing a noticeable transition in performance between valves closed and open. Therefore I didn’t want to use the valves closed, but valves open worsened the cabin presence…stuck between a rock and a hard place. The sound level with valves open was straight pipes loud. While glorious at WOT conditions it was a bit obnoxious, and anything other than WOT had little to no “tone” to it. I wanted something less raw/tinny/raspy, more smooth/refined with similar sound level but the edge taken off.

Enter the SOUL Competition Package. About a month ago I went back to Sebring for my PCA Instructor’s Training. I shipped down the full exhaust system, and the day before I spent 3.5hrs installing the system in AutoQuest’s parking lot on my back with jack stands. No lift space as they had some bigger fish to fry for that weekend (photo below of their shop that day).

I will say the exhaust system install went very smooth with no hiccups, and I was pleasantly surprised it only took me the time it did. Sorry no photos of the system on my car, I was in a rush to move onto the suspension and brake swap that day as well, which I’ll get into later. Once I ship the car back up in March for the northeast track season I’ll get some. I am happy to report that my expectations were exceeded. With the valves closed the drone under 3k rpm was significantly reduced, I finally didn’t have a headache driving to and from Sebring (which was a round trip of over 3hrs). The biggest surprise was that even with the valves open the drone was less than the valves closed on my previous setup. My wife is going to be ecstatic once I get the car back up here haha. The power/performance with valves closed felt just as strong as valves open, so no more performance loss in the valves closed position and no crazy performance transition from closed to open. In fact, even the sound transition closed to open was much smoother. This may be seat of the pants but I do feel like it had a bit more low end grunt than before, though I’m not the only member here that felt this in doing a similar swap (Paul Solk). Sound level at WOT was taken down a notch which to me was a plus as it was pretty obnoxious. The sound itself was more in tune with the premium character of the car. A bit less raw racecar, more so smooth and exotic with a much fuller tone than before, yet still the aggressiveness you’d want as a something advertised as a “Competition” setup. A massive difference from that dead, vacuum cleaner sound that was factory when I bought the car. A true and efficient mild and wild.

While I don't have photos yet, what I did get is video footage and sound clips. I spent three days of bliss beating the snot out of this setup on Sebring, and boy did it leave an amazing impression. So…don’t just take my word for it, take a watch/listen for yourself. If you want to chat about it, give me a call anytime. Again, upcoming topics of conversation are going to be the PCS Intake System I installed, as well as the chassis/brake upgrades I put on (control arms, toe arms, custom alignment, wheels spacers, pads, brake ducts, etc.) and the changes/benefits that each made.

Best regards,

John Gaydos
Performance Specialist
PCA National Instructor
484 883 6197
johng@soulpp.com

Code

Thanks for sharing, she's a screamer!

850tgul

Soul Performance

Sure thing, I'll PM you to chat while I work on the review to post. I might do that officially in a separate thread as I don't believe there are very many intake reviews out there.

Thanks, she certainly is a blast to say the least haha

andy7777

Heh, so the Fabspeed stuff you were pushing isn't so good after all?

Soul Performance

I wouldn't say that at all. I had no complaints about my old iPhone until I had it for a few years and new models were out, and my old setup may very well meet the goals of someone else better than my current one. Heck if you want it, it's sitting in a box in Florida haha. I enjoyed that system, it met all the goals I had at the time and I was quite involved in the research and development of that system myself. I'll also say I value the time I spent working there. The components performed well, never missed a beat, and didn't have any issues in near 3 years and 20k miles of Hard abuse. That said, over time and mileage on the car my goals and preferences changed a bit, and with the new job so did the opportunity to see if they could be met and do a comparison. An educated decision is the best decision, and that's why I like doing these write ups. I recently made another one comparing side and center muffler bypass pipes on the GT3 platform if you'd like to take a look. If you would like to pursue a more in depth discussion of brand comparison and my history, I'd be happy to have an open discussion offline. My cell is 484 883 6197, you can text or call me anytime

DFW01TT

Well that's laying it out there @Soul Performance . I look forward to your reports.

Soul Performance

I appreciate that, I'll be working on a PCS Intake write up over the holidays to add later this week

Soul Performance

This took longer than expected to get back to but here is my PCS Innovations Intake story. I had been wanting to install an intake system for some time as I've had an intake on every car I've owned. Simple reason...I love the sound of it, and I wanted more engine sound in cabin on my CR. As I have full exhaust and tune on the car already to hit the low hanging fruit for performance improvement, any performance increase to me was a bonus but not expected. Upon removing my engine cover for the first time...surprise surprise the previous owner had someone make a custom intake on my car haha. As the PCS system relocates the filter to outside and seals it from the hot engine bay, and I hadn't heard any real intake sound to begin with, it was a no brainer for me to continue. It took me about 3hrs to install taking my time, which would have been a bit more if I had tried taking the factory airbox out in one piece (requires dropping the engine smidge to clear, or you just cut it out). It was tight work and my shoulders and neck muscles took a beating. The trick part was tightening the filter on the intake tube, then getting the rubber intake pathway back around the filter. I understand some people simply cut or remove that intake pathway for an easy install, but it was my preference to keep it intake to prevent incoming air from escaping into the body panel area and limiting the air intake to the cold air coming in from outside the car. Fit, finish, and adjustment was great.

Results/Opinions: I find this intake rather astonishing. Especially after discovering I had a custom intake on the car, I didn't have high expectations on it making a night and day improvement. Boy was I Wrong! I have never heard an intake/engine sound so superb and engaging, it was absolutely transformational. You can literally hear the air being sucked into the engine behind your head. Under heavy load in the lower rpms it has this intense, throaty, deep engine sound. For those that don't like cabin presence, it's likely not the right mod as it could be considered a bit intense for those that are sensitive. However if you're after maximizing the engine sound and driving experience, it absolutely hits the nail on the head. From a performance perspective I didn't notice much of a butt dyno improvement, but that wasn't surprising to me as I already had race headers and a tune on the car to start. However the intake has underlying improvements in the design that I believe will inherently help overall performance at a more minute level. It blocks off hot air from the engine and limits intake to cool air from outside with a direct shot to the engine, which will inherently help lower average intake temperatures. A GT4 style side scoops may help take full advantage of that as well. Overall it has certainly exceeded my expectations, enough so that I made arrangements to be a dealer for them. It is an upgrade I would recommend to anyone looking for increased engine/intake sound on their cars.

Here are some photos of the install.

9872SpeedYellowCS

John, congrats on the switch!

Where is homebase now?

Soul Performance

Thanks buddy! Happy wife happy life, I'm back in Lansdale, PA...freezing my tail off haha. I kept my CR down at Autoquest for the winter to come back for Suncoast's instructor training (which went very well). I'll be coming back down there the end of this month with PCA to run/instruct Sebring one last time on the 23/24th and then drive it back. Will you be there by any chance?

Soul Performance

In February I flew down to Sebring, instructed two students (including my brother) and we beat the snot out of my Cayman R for two days. Then, I changed nothing but tire pressure at the track Sunday evening and we drove the car 1100 miles back to PA and to work this morning in perfect comfort. Thank You Porsche for the amazing car, and Thank You SOUL for the amazing sound, performance, and lack of drone for all that highway driving haha. Also, shout out to AutoQuest MotorSports for the hospitality and Apex Pro for the wicked cool new data acquisition system!

JSF101

John,

Looks like fun! Wish I was there to enjoy with you.

Steve

9872SpeedYellowCS

Same

Soul Performance

You both should make a trip up here to run some NorthEast tracks this season