Looking to build a 987 or 981 track car Cayman with PDK. What is the maximum mileage I should consider on a used PDK car? A mileage for a used streetcar more specifically, I don't want to buy a racecar. This Car will be prepped to the minimum street legality of Virginia and then driven to/from/on the track about 20 days a year.

thanks

 

If your going to build a car mostly for the track, I would buy the 981. The PDK in the 981 has extra cooling that the 987 doesn't have.
My 981PDK has over 7800 track miles and its working just fine so I don't think should worry about street miles. Just buy the car you like that's been properly serviced.

 

General wisdom is to buy the best maintained and lowest mileage car you can afford to a dedicated track car. There are very few dedicated 981 track cars because the aluminum bodies are tough or impossible to repair. You can tell by the fact that used 981 engines are more abundant than used 987 engines that more 981s are write-offs after incidents.

 

I'm actually looking at a 981 myself, but the 987 extra cooling is really easy to deal with. For about $2.5K you can get a 3rd radiator and a PDK cooler installed including parts/labor on a 987. I'm adding the PDK cooler to my Spyder pretty soon.

 

981 much more expensive to repair even from a minor incident than a 987. Just bear that in mind. Buddy recently dinged the rear driver side and then got dinged again for $35k to repair it. If you go 981 make sure you insure it.

 

Be careful on running a 987.2 PDK in warm temps. I just had to have mine replaced and I had the 3rd radiator. I've now removed the OEM radiators in favor of more efficient ones, added a diff cooler and had the shroud modified to gain better air flow.

 

You need a transmission cooler with PDK.

 

 

 

 

My understanding is there are 2 fluids in a PDK. Fluid for the wet clutches is separate from the fluid for the gears. The wet clutch fluid is cooled by the radiators and on the 987.2 there isn't a gear cooler. A gear (diff) cooler, mine is oil to air, is a good idea. If you're tracking the car in very warm temps, then additional cooling for the wet clutches is needed to prevent a transmission failure. The 987.2 is a very good track platform. Beware of the slippery slope of track mods - lol. Good luck!

 

 

I've been considering this cooler that does both sides. Any experience with it? I don't think that I'm forced to change headers as well. Is one side fluid more critical than the other?

https://lnengineering.com/products/b...il-cooler.html

https://lnengineering.com/products/b...ide-mount.html

LN is a sponsor as well...

 

Interesting - I had not seen that product. I am having this one installed: https://www.teambgb.com/BGB-Motorspo...-p/bgb_tck.htm

I've had a couple sources tell me the BGB is tried-and-true and along with third radiator really solves the problem. I have not heard anything about LN although it looks like it makes a lot of sense, and the sensors would certainly be nice...

 

At the time the BGB and TPC coolers were the only ones I was aware of on the market. I like the fact this does both sides of the box. As you did, I've heard of good things about the BGB cooler. Unfortunately its a shop install only due to Porsche computer necessary to fill the box.