gtb

I recently joined an autoX event and loved it. I have a 2006 Porsche Cayman S that I still owe a fair amount of cash on and was wondering what folks think about selling it, to pay outright for a cheaper 944/928/924 purely for use at autoX. Having both isn't a financial option for me at the moment and if i sell the Cayman i would have some extra cash to fix-up its replacement.

Thoughts, suggestions?

burglar

What's wrong with the Cayman?

Jason @ Paragon Products

I agree, what's wrong with the Cayman? If you wanted to do one of the mentioned cars I'd expand your list to include the 968.

edfishjr

I assume the OP is worried about damaging the car and not being covered by insurance? Or maybe just running cost. In any case, some sort of financial worry.

As for the cars to consider, I would say: the 928, while a fine car, wouldn't be my choice for autocross fun. 944/924 better, but if it were me, I'd go for an early Boxster.

sjfehr

Cayman S is a great car to both daily drive and autocross, and the 2006 is even classed pretty well in AS if you stick with it. A lot of us autocross Boxsters & Caymans. Competitive tires are expensive in 18" sizes, but there's essentially zero prep required for local competition, so that's a big plus right there. It's really up to personal preference whether you'd rather do that or tinker. If this is your only car, I daresay the Cayman is by far your better option. If it's just a fun car? Well, that's personal preference from there.

I certainly wouldn't do anything rash after a single autocross- no mods, no new cars, not even new tires as a fresh novices. Take your time, do more events and then see how you feel.

Earlydays

+ 1

knfeparty

Stick with the cayman. Run it on your regular tires. Don't modify it. If anything, be more diligent on the maintenance like visual inspection of the radiators.

You don't want to go down the 944 road. At this age, they don't hold up well to autocross without doing lots of work like suspension mods.

cretinx

My 944 needs a complete engine rebuild . . . so, stick with the Cayman.

Lance-AR

The car isn't as important as the amount of seat time you're getting. Focus on getting time doing AX and don't worry about what car or what tires/mods you're using.

mopar bob

Hi I think that your car is classed well in AS. I'm running a 07 C2 in SS and I'm starting to close the gap between me and the Lotus's that I run against. This is my second season running AutoX with the SCCA. Let me jest say that the first 3 - 6 races you are just trying not to get lost in the sea of cones. Last year I didn't mod the car, I just worked on my driving. I did replace my brake pads last year because they needed to be replaced. I went to starting line school and the EVO 1 school. And get seat time. I sucked last year but I had a great time and keep coming back.

Over the winter I added a Tarett GT front sway bar and got a alignment with more neg. chamber. The first race this year was my highest point race yet, but my second race I was pushing the nose of the car around the turns since I was over driving. So I went back to EVO 1 school and it was in the rain, but I think it helped me break the over driving.
The next race my son co drove and he beat me by 2 seconds but he was a 1/10th off a Lotus. So it's not the car but the driver so get seat time.
This is the advise from a second year novice. Get seat time learn the sport of SoloII. The most important thing to remember is to have fun and to ask questions.

cretinx

And get rid of the front bar . . . . the last thing our car needs is more understeer.

burglar

Is that common practice? I was under the impression that the increased transitional response and decreased total roll of leaving a front bar in (or actually putting a stiffer front one on) usually trumps roll stiffness ratio on a strut car.

Lance-AR

The general consensus is a front bar helps the rear while a rear bar helps the front. Under SCCA rules of allowing 1 bar in the street class, the rear is generally preferred.

sjfehr

This is bad advice. It's counterintuitive, but you want to go stiffer in the front on a 986. A slightly stiffer front bar actually helps decrease understeer, because it decreases dynamic camber loss in cornering, which has a disproportionate increase in front grip because of how poor the front camber is. And it does this all while increasing overall rear grip, giving you more benefit than if you'd have stiffened the rear bar. Too stiff and it goes back to understeer again. But there's a sweet spot 1-2 clicks from full soft on a GT3 front sway bar where you get the best possible performance- reduces roll, increases front grip, increases rear grip, and helps plant the rear on corner exit.

You can drop a 996 GT3 front bar into a 986 pretty easily; Tarret makes a good adjustable GT3 clone, too. You'll need adjustable droplinks to use them.

And also- even if you did want to remove the front bar, you'd be better off stiffening the rear vice softening the front!

ilikemy944

The Cayman is a lot of fun at auto-x.
It is also going to be significantly faster than a 944 unless you drop some $$$ into the 944.

I take my modded 951 to the track and the Cayman to the auto-x.