cgomez

Yes, but that doesn't really help much.
But, for those who only DE or track their cars bear in mind that race conditions are a lot more stressful than regular track time; so I really dont think regular track time of 20-25mins sessions where you lift off regularly to wait for a point by shouldn't be an issue or put too much stress on the tranny.

otisdog

This thread was started about the second generation Cayman. Cgomez, your car is a first generation, no?

imfc66

All

I will tell you that we found very early on that the gearboxes do get pretty hot, so all the Interseries cars come equipped with a trans cooler and electric oil pump as standard.

Ron

pedsurg

Thanks Ron.
Anyone aware of the differences between the gen 1 and gen 2 trannies ??

Ron: How involved is the cooler and pump and has it made a difference between modded and un modded trannies ??
Thanks
Jack

imfc66

Jack,

They are different and I couldn't really tell you in what areas or specific internal parts. However the coolers in our cars are essential since some of our races are three and four hours long.

Ron

pedsurg

Ron has recently posted an update re the durability of the gen2 cayman over at planet-9. The cars have accumulated over 100,000 race miles with few serious issues.

Jack

Ernie J

The MantisSport Cayman has its gearbox lube changed after every raceweek. 12k miles 1 broken 3rd sycro ring, driver induced(rental). working a 5/8" slimmer sump extension, solid bottom. A dry sump kit which can be installed with engine in the car. Should fit boxster/cayman/996/997 engines. spring release.

BGB Motorsports

The transmission in the 2nd generation Cayman seems to be the most reliable gearbox ever for street-stock racing when comparing them to 996 and 997, 1999-2008 spec cars. I should say that all tests were done with cars outfitted with power steering and gearbox coolers, but the 2nd generation Cayman is the only transmission we've ever seen last an entire season without ANY grinding. 996 Getrag transmissions were good for about 3 races, while 997 Aisin transmissions lasted as many as 6. The Cayman gearbox in our black #38 Cayman is the same gearbox as-is, the day she came home from the dealer. That's 15 weekends on a stock gearbox. 15 hard...abusive...nasty...vengeful weekends. NO GRINDING!!! You won't ever read that anywhere though, because no one wants you to know it. So I guess it never happened. Good luck.

pedsurg

thanks John
What are your thought re adding the PDK tranny cooler to these units ??
Jack

BGB Motorsports

Jack,

I've been paying attention to this closely because a lot of people have been asking about the reliability of the PDK trans in racing conditions. I'm sure the owner will chime in, but there's a guy in Colorado that has a Cayman with PDK and he has cooling issues running 30 minute sessions. While I've had people tell me that trans has been tested, abused and proven, i have my doubts as to how she would hold up in an endurance situation without a cooler. I've followed the buildout of a Gen. 2 DFI Carrera S with PDK that runs PCA and I have gotten some data on how it's doing at the hands of one our of Pro drivers that is working with the car owner; while there haven't been any overheating issues, it tends to slow down and get less responsive during the heat of battle. Upshifts are still lightning quick but downshifts seem to be lazy. Whether it has a cooler or not, the Cayman's having the headers, engine, gearbox generating much heat in an engine bay that doesn't exhaust extremely well, could be contributing to the fact that the 997 PDK doesn't overheat in race conditions while the Cayman's PDK might?

In any event, I think that all of these cars need gearbox coolers if you're going to track them. Whether it's a 996, 997, Boxster or Cayman, cooling the trans and power steering is paramount. The newer DFI cars have cooled power steering now from the factory oil cooler but we installed an additional to be safe. We have installed trans coolers on our race cars since 2004 and none of our data assumes that the transmission is as-is, with stock cooling. It's too risky. You have to exhaust your cooling resources before you deem her beyond salvation, so I'm afraid I don't have any answer as to whether or not it would resolve the issue on the Cayman. If the owner is on here somewhere, hopefully he will chime in if he installed a cooler.

GTgears

Our LSD ups the gearbox temperatures by 20-30 degrees. All the Interseries cars, Mantis and BGB's #38 runs it as well. I think Cgomez may have one in his car too. A car without one will run cooler and may be able to get away without an external cooler, but then a car without one probably isn't a racecar...

Krokodil

John,

I can second the longevity of the Cayman transmission in race conditions - this time a Gen 1. We have raced the Cayman for over two full club race seasons (18 weekends and 36+ races without significant issue (the clutch seemed to get hot once and affected the 5/4 downshift). The car was also driven 45K street miles (and was TT'd for 2 years) before conversion.

Transmission has a Quaife TBD (not LSD, but it will not break so we can switch) and no external cooling (yet). We have raced this car in 100+F degree temps many times, several on the AAA roval (150+ down to 40 - 6th to 2nd), and it keeps on trucking. Surviving in the hands of a hack amateur like me may be a better testimonial than lasting through a GS season.

Here is a recent picture (shameless promotion):



Cheers,