Plavan

A big + 1 on the stupid "You HAVE to buy the car from us" Porsche Dealer. Them not sharing parts (Wing) IS REALLY stupid.
There are a bunch of guys out there that can build their own car. I refuse to pay a ridiculous premium buying one done by a Porsche dealer. It's just plain silly.
The Liveries..... Look great, but now that there are so many cars, there are no real good liveries left.

I looked into the GEN 2 awhile ago, and I'm on the West Coast also. Yeah, I could go Cayman S Gen 1, but I do not want to do all that engine work, or worry about a blown motor. Boxster Spec looks great out on the West Coast, but I would want the possibility to go a little faster (However, the big Boxster Spec fields would more than make up for that).

Open the series up, get rid of the One Porsche dealer supplying expensive "proprietary" parts/cars, then see where it will go BEFORE adding Gen 1 cars. Or, open both at the same time.

If the series wants to grow, it is severely crippled.

In the mean time I will continue to enjoy my 2011 Porsche Spyder and race my 911.

Juan Lopez

SPG,

An idea would be for the Interseries/PNR to compile a spec like they do on the Miata's by which one could build his own car.

To ensure compliance there should be some authorized builders and PNR should sell the ECU flash, the shocks, wing, ... (the approved Interseries package) ~for a reasonable price~. The cars would then be built to the same standard and would be tech'd for compliance.

I for one would be very interested in doing something like that and having my support shop (Brady Refenning - 901 Shop) build and support a car for me.

In any case, I think it is a good idea for PNR and Interseries racers to have approved shops to work on their cars especially as the series goes into the next year and cars start to need freshening up.

I have enjoyed sharing the track with you guys (especially racing against the owners and not the pros ) and several friends who used to race with me on the 2 liter class are racing there now (Jimmy Mc and Keith C) who can provide references about my driving record.

On the funny side, the transmission fluid on the Pink Pig smelled like a pigsty when it got hot. I gather they are using Lubrication Engineering fluid in there. When I was chasing it around, it was pretty bad and I'm glad I could get around it to breathe some brake pads rather than tranny fluid...

Anyhow, put some thought into that and feel free to contact me. ( Juan at alteregoracing.com )

ZSA Motorsport

First to be clear, in case i wasnt, i have zero control or involvement in the moderation, control or rulesmaking of the series. im just a driver. i aint involved in napelton other than a customer of their cayman interseries car which obviously was purchased from them.

we could spend a lot of time debating the correctness of their controlling the flow of the cars, parts, etc. obviously, im more in favor of competitive market forces, and allowing owners to go build to a spec rather than buying a spec car built by the dealership who started and has fostered the series.

yet, thats the reality of it. without napelton, there is not series. noone is there racing 20 cool caymans around sebring. the dealership is obviously there to make money and to develop the series and the sport.

i would imagine some in the dealership might dislike the idea of opening it up as they'd like the entire sale of the car, mods, consumables...

i personally made the case that opening up the series to other cars, cars from the outside helps everyone , including the dealer. they can have the platinum class which i would imagine they will always want to be cars they build and sell. the Gold class would open the doors to all kinds of Gen1 cars. many fo those guys, while at events, will need trackside support, consumables, service and help. and many of those drivers might want to head up to the Platinum class, thus eventually buying one of the spec napelton-built cars.

Porsche is highly involved in the ALMS Gt3 patron series. they arent allowing people to run in the platinum class with a 2009 upfitted to a 2010 engine, transmission, etc. The sponsors have a right to limit the series to the cars they want, even if it looks and smells like a conflict of interest because the sponsor is also the supplier. If hoosier is a sponsor of the series, then they have the right to demand everyone run hoosiers.

a good point of contention is, though, that the dealership should be seperated from the admin/moderation/compliance/tech component.

as someone who put up the cash for the car, i can only say i just love the dang thing. cayman, to me, if developed right, is probably the best platform for a porsche race car. porsche just doesnt want to support anything that doesnt have the engine in the wrong place, the very tail.

obvioulsy, the interseries car is an expensive proposition. but considering how well developed it is, and the great opportunity you have to run awsome HSR venues with 18,20,30 other similarly equipped caymans...well, for me, it was worth it.

you should email the guys at Napelton and express your interests....they want to expand the series, the # of entrants. obviously, they want to control some of the flow of stuff, so your ideas really might strike home. they might make less in the short term, but long term, more cars equals the series being better for everyone.

Juan Lopez

Its clear to me that you are one of the racers. I was providing my thoughts to your original idea and request for comments.

I agree as to the separation of duties and also to the fact that they created this and without them there would not be an Interseries. However, there is money to be made by them in selling "a kit" if you will which would open up the series to much larger fields.

I still remember when we had the 2 liter explosion and we had fields of 30 or more similarly prepared 2 liters at every race and the top 10 spots were separated by no more than 1.5 secs at the finish line.

Another good point you make is that there must be a home for the current cars as they get older.

Thanks!

sleder

Here is a perfect example of how to get it built by someone else and build to whatever class you want to run in. We need to make that decision on our own as to the class to run in, and the venue to race in.
https://rennlist.com/forums/porsche-...track-car.html

Juan Lopez

SPG,

Going back to your original question. If they were to open the series for Gold type classes where the rules were inline with those of other sanctioning bodies, sure enough there would be racers interested in participating.

I like the fact that I can take my 2 liter car and participate competitively not only on HSR but also with PCA, SVRA, HMP without having to do a single modification. It would be great if the same were true with Caymans at HSR especially since some of us are already taking the weekend and bringing our trailers.

Look forward to any feedback you get from the organizers. I think its great that these discussions are taking place.

gums

Anytime you have to start with a brand new car, it's going to be expensive. I've said that from the beginning. It's a very cool series, but it's an expensive platform and to be expecting big fields is unrealistic.

ZSA Motorsport

Agreed. if you love hauling in a cayman, then who wouldnt love a cayman-only series with a class or two.
my suggestion is to email the gang at napelton and express your interest in being involved IF they were to open it up to a 2nd 'gold' class of cars.
i think they dont get how popular the caymans are becoming in the pca world.
in my experience, every time we go to a pca event, the caymans keep sprouting like wall flowers...

the new cars from napelton are expensive. my car was $120grand-ish before an additional set of wheels or two. you can go more affordably but there is no doubt that it is not budget-minded. there is no doubt and no reason to debate the topic of profitability to the dealership. they've gone to the extent of structuring this thing, putting in the time and effort, they sponsor it, so they call the shots. i have no issue myself with that.

but if enough people express an interest in a second class, perhaps they will see their way to allowing that second class which is terrific for the series and for the racing.

to be clear, we had nearly 20 cars in this past weekends field. thats a lot. i raced PCA last year and never saw 20 cars in the F class. i had 2,3 cars to race with near the front of the F class field, and that was it. here i had 5 to 8 cars to battle with out of the 20 caymans.

we had the track to ourselves which was good, and bad.(too vacant if you got into a void where no other cars were spaced).

and we had oodles of racing, and lap time.

i think it could be better.
if you're interested, go to napelton's page and send them an email suggesting your interest if they opened up a second class.

http://www.napletonmotorsports.com/contact.html

Juan Lopez

Before I write to Ron, is the series staying with HSR or moving to ALMS?

Juan Lopez

How's this for an idea?

They could run their session with 3 classes:

- Cayman Interseries
- Cayman Spec
- Boxster Spec

That way the grid would be filled and it would attract more cars (without eroding the Interseries) which are usable on other venues (PCA, ...).

sleder

That makes sense and can run with NASA or PCA. someone needs to get HSR to buy in.

ZSA Motorsport

All great ideas. Not sure the need for Boxster spec, nothing personal against boxster racers as my F class boxster is/was one of my favorite machines ever...but i dont see why it would need to go that far. they arent necessarily looking for 50,60 cars on track. 20 is a bit too little, 40 to me at sebring would be perfect. 40 at limerock might be tight.
but if their goal is to promote cayman racing, then i could understand the interest in limiting it to caymans.

why not just allow any F or E class PCA racer to come on aboard?
its a slippery slope and while i could back caymanspecs or another cayman specified racer, i just dont see the reason why they'd want to go as far as boxsters??

one of the things that a group like napelton, or alms/imsa, etc. would always face would be a desire to have the support of PMNA. historically, PMNA doesnt put any weight behind anything but their 911 race cars. even in grand am, ive heard certain teams who had run caymans or boxsters wont continue to run them because theycan not get race support, ecu programming and general credibility with PMNA because its not a cup car.

these are good discussions. i think the proper step is for those with caymans who would love to get involved, to go ahead and email napelton and express your interest. if they get enough emails suggesting potential interest, they might give it a shot and open it up and bang, we're on our way.

GTgears

Not to take this too far off track but I am curious who is dropping their Cayman programs? BGB is upping their Conti Tire effort to three cars next year, and Mantis has just barely gotten started with their effort in World Challenge. I've also talked to several others who are thinking about entering World Challenge next year. I get the impression that the Caymans are just as popular with the pro operations as they are becoming with the amateur ranks. They'll never be ALMS or Grand Am GT class cars, but there's a place for them.

With respect to the idea being discussed here of a Gold and Platinum class, I personally think it's a great idea.

cgomez

I think it is great that Napleton stepped in, took the risk and now we have a "Spec Series" of 20+ fun to drive cars.
However, unless it becomes an "open platform", IMO this (participation wise) is as far as it would go for Club Racing. If they are able to get into a Pro/AM series, just like PMNA with the GT3 Patron Challenge in ALMS, then that's another story, b/c it is really worth a premium to participate there (plus be able to get real sponsors given the exposure).

Additionally, the great thing about this effort is that it has proven the Cayman is an awesome platform. But there is NOTHING special about the Interseries cars. My car in I Prepared trim, is just as good with 200#s more, and equally fast (if the weight is removed).

Ernie J has proven this too by running competitively his 06 Cayman S in SCCA WSC. As per the current rules the Interseries cars can run in PCA in GTB1, and anyone can build an "Old" 06 Cayman easily into those specs (There is already a weight handicap to compensate for the extra power of the DFI engine cars). Therefore, I encourage everyone to just build their Cayman to GTB1 rules which is a lot more fun, faster and more reliable (due to lower weight) than a stock class Cayman plus have the Interseries guys join the class in PCA. There's no need for anything else for Club Racing.

mooty

i have been saying this since 2006. FINALLY...... others saw the light. yah, i know carlos, you knew it all along as well.



yes yes....
maybe my next car is GTB1