New 981 Cayman owner- track questions
 

Hi all, after lurking in the 981 and 997 forums for a couple years, I finally decided on the 981 and pulled the trigger on a car listed here in the marketplace. I have about 6 miles behind the wheel so far, as I just got title and tags after several weeks of waiting. I am jumping right in with this, as I am already registered for an Audi club event this weekend at Lime Rock.
I am brand new to this car, and a mid engine car (I used to track my Audi S6- about as different from a Cayman as you can be). I want to hear from other owners with any advice for this car. The car also has many track mods that the previous owner installed: limited slip diff, TPC springs/sways, camber plate. So here goes:
what tire pressures do you recommend? Car is on 20 inch summer Pirellis
what kind of movement can I expect with the sport plus setting? Will it give me some slide/slippage before traction control kicks in? I used to run my Audi with all the nannies on, as it was the family car (not that I would want to crunch ANY car).
The seller gave me some Pagid pads that he used for the track- I don’t have the knowledge or space to change pads around. Are the factory pads up to the task? I can have my shop put them on when I do tech inspection but I don’t want to drive the car on the street with very noisy pads. I certainly tore through pads, rotors, and tires on my S6 but obviously the Cayman is so much lighter.

Thank you you to everyone on here for the info I picked up over the last two years.
Pictures to come!

Additionally, more info about my background would be helpful for people offering advice. I have about 8-10 track days under my belt in two years. I was cleared at my last event for a solo run by the end of the weekend by my instructor, though I certainly will continue to take advantage of instruction offered, especially being in a new to me car with completely different dynamics. I realize I have a LOT of room to grow into this car.
Thanks in advance!

Congrats to the new addiction. Start tires at ~30 psi and bleed down to 35-36 psi hot after the first session. You may have to run more than that to protect the outer edges of the tires, depending on what camber you're running. SC allows decent slip IMO. Much more than you're used to in the Audi with full nannies.

Stock pads are totally fine first event, especially if you're used to the braking of a S6 on track. Pagid are good, but squeal on the street (like a lot, school bus mode).

One problem with the 981s is that the front brake calipers must be removed to change pads. This makes it more involved to swap track pads with street pads. A related problem is that the caliper bolts thread into an aluminum hub carrier, potentially leading to stripping of the carrier threads if you are not careful. It is highly recommended if you track often enough to consume brake pads and rotors on a regular basis, that you replace the caliper bolts with studs. The studs are permanently attached to the carriers and eliminate the danger of your bolts coming loose under high speed braking conditions.

The 981 Caymans are absolutely great track cars. My track pads don’t squeal THAT much (well sometimes they do.)

I'm running closer to 32 PSI hot with every tyre I've tried so far (Pilot Sports, RE71Rs and Firehawk Indy500s) with the exception of the firewhawks I run 32/32 both ends (Firehawk's 31 lbs in the rear to tame down some oversteer characteristic)

Agree if you're doing a lot of track days put on the brake caliper stud kit, and I'd consider studs for the wheels too, makes changing tyres easier.

I've also done the top hats in the front and the Lower control arms in the rear to get the right setup on alignment, other than that, great car, loving it!

I’ve found that beveling the race pads (specifically Pagid RS29’s) substantially reduces the noise. I leave the RS29’s in year round on my BGTS.

What does it mean to bevel the race pads?

I switched to RS29s on my BGTS recently and have all but switched to using my 911 for pleasure drives as a result. The Pagids have utterly ruined me in terms of brakes on anything else, but that squealing... :eek:

I do the same for my Pagids, I use a bench sander to just put a slight bevel in the leading and trailing edge of the pads, makes a huge difference in the squealing noise. and I leave them in year round.

Any pic of how beveled you make them? I've seen many stock-ish pads that come beveled, so probably about that angle?

+1 on installing the studs, even if you wind up using a shop for the pad changes.
Bern

Sorry on the car at the moment, I'll try and take some when I do the next set, I've got to do them soon so they're read, but I think it was just like a 45 degree angle on the edge, not a ton, maybe half the depth?

Thanks to those who PMed and posted here.
I had a great time at Lime Rock last weekend. The Cayman was everything I hoped for, though I couldn’t do the incremental push each session that I normally would due to some drizzle on Friday and tires that were on their last legs on Friday and Saturday. The tires made for some lower speed sliding that was fun- Sport Plus allowed some sliding that I could quickly correct - the side to side weight transfer going into Lefthander definitely made the car want to kick out. I certainly hope to see higher limits when I put some new and better tires on it.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...9f415a1c4.jpeg

Congrats, enjoy in good health!

Nice pic, I really like those wheels.

Thank you- the Sport Technos are my favorite Porsche wheel. I saw a Suncoast posting on here last month with two sets of never used Sport Technos for sale for 60% off new, I couldn’t resist. I didn’t even have the car yet- it was still on the transporter making its way to me!