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I recently picked up a 987.1 to autocross and do track days in. It was replacing a 2013 Subaru STi. As I am sure you are all aware, the difference between these cars is vast, in almost every aspect. My STi was not setup for autocross really well as it was the DD and the wife and I autocrossed her MazdaSpeed3. I decided the Subaru would be more fun and autocrossed it for a year. Usually ending up top 15 PAX.
At the first autocross in the 987, there was a couple small issues I wrote about in the Cayman forum. Basically, there was a mysterious noise (ended up just being dried up bushings) and smoking brakes (new rotors fixed this). The car is a completely stock 2007 Cayman S with PASM, Sport chrono, and PSE. Wheels are the heavy and skinny sport design wheels. Tires are stock size Federal 595 RS-RR's. I got them to be the cheap daily driver / track day tires. I have some RE-71r tires in 285/265 on order along with some OZ Legerra HLT wheels in the XRR sizes. I also have the Tarrett front anti-roll bar and drop links on order.
First autocross I ended up 13th out of 82. The surface here is fairly new asphalt, with half the lot covered with a newer, slightly less grippy surface. As mentioned earlier, a couple issues, nothing major. The car was much more neutral than I expected. I really enjoyed the way it handled. It felt a bit lacking in power. And traction control was manageable, only robbing power on one off-camber right hand turn right at the finish.
We just had our second autocross of the season. This surface has top-seal on it and it is like ice when cold or overheated. This weekend was around 70 degrees, so just right. But man, did the car understeer. And traction control was pissed. I tried running with traction control off but ran about the same times. I adjusted tire pressure and picked up some time, but in the end, all I could manage was 26th out of 125 drivers. I will attach some photos and you can see how badly I need that anti-roll bar. Still loving the car. Wish it wasn't an East Coast car, but having a blast, and can't wait to do more. Just anxiously awaiting those tires and ARB. Unfortunately I have one more autocross before they are going to be here. But I should at least have the ARB before the HPDE at the end of the month.
Yeah, I guess it was a Boston area car until the guy died. Then it ended up in the hands of a dealer in New Jersey. He had it on the auction system for a while. I ended up getting it a bit cheaper than what it was listed at the auction for and had it shipped here to Utah. It showed up with some stuff the dealer did not disclose. Like a bubbled tire and cracked windshield. But I just love the blue. Had to have it.
Nice car. I think you'll end up quite a bit faster with all nannies disabled in the long run.
I had the older 595RSR on one of my cars and loved those, but they had real soft sidewalls and needed quite a bit more pressure than expected. Not sure if the RS-RR has a similar carcass. Switching to RE71R is likely really going to wake the car up for AX.
We used to have a sealcoated lot around here, it was ice at the beginning of the day and just got faster and faster first as it cleaned up, then as it got rubbered in. As an extra pain in the butt, it was a "take your runs when you want" format club so if you wanted a shot at top PAX you had to wait until the very end of the day.
Nice car. I think you'll end up quite a bit faster with all nannies disabled in the long run.
I had the older 595RSR on one of my cars and loved those, but they had real soft sidewalls and needed quite a bit more pressure than expected. Not sure if the RS-RR has a similar carcass. Switching to RE71R is likely really going to wake the car up for AX.
We used to have a sealcoated lot around here, it was ice at the beginning of the day and just got faster and faster first as it cleaned up, then as it got rubbered in. As an extra pain in the butt, it was a "take your runs when you want" format club so if you wanted a shot at top PAX you had to wait until the very end of the day.
With both PASM and Sport Chrono, he might be better off leaving the nannies on, as disabling PSM also disables some of the go-fast stuff. I would turn if off for the first few events to get used to the car's natural handling then turn back it on to experiment.
So I am on the other side of the autocross experience levels (1 yr), racing PCA GT3 class (GT4's, GT3RS's and highly modified 911's), while also doing HPDE and club touring. Tarett GT adjustable swaybars and Ohlins/springrates really keep the car from rolling in tight autocross corners. Tarett Cup LCA's help with the camber to keep the outside tire flat to the pavement, running -2.7f and -2.9 r, which allows better traction out of the tight corners. I just need to keep focued on drivers improvement, currently 3rd in class.
04-02-2018, 05:23 PM
My autocross story so far.
