Now that Napelton Racing has closed its race shop, what is the future for the interseries race cars that they built, and where are the owners planing on getting their cars serviced.

 

I'd think there are a lot of service options, locally and regionally. The cars were just built to a specification. There's ITC, there's Bill Riddell's series as part of HSR... Heck, I think SVRA has a place.

Like every spec series whose organizers lose steam... It's up to the current owners to talk and band together to create critical mass so that a bunch show up at a few designated events. That's how you get clout with sanctioning bodies and maximize the fun factor.

Problem is you have to have an organizer who is not SO beholden to the series participants that the scrutiny goes out the window... The death of any spec series, IMO.

 

there was a decent crowd at the ITC/NASA weekend at VIR.

a guy in the paddock next to me seemed to be doing his own support; he trailered the car behind his pickup on an open trailer. funny to see that directly across from the Isringhausen transporters

I would think any shop capable of supporting Cup cars or modern (i.e. water cooled) PCA club race cars (SPBOX, etc) would be able to handle a Cayman race car no problem...

 

Napelton had what I consider a sound business model, a good crew and large enough facility. They had a big open house at the beginning of the year for the Chicago region PCA. Its a shame that they could not make it financially viable.

 

Go big or go home????

 

I think in total Napleton built 60+ cars. At least that's how many LSDs they bought from me. There are a lot of them out there and most of them have been serviced and looked after by someone other than Napleton for some time.

The owners will go to the various Cayman specialists out there. I know that currently Goldcrest, Speed Sport, Body Motion, Deman Motorsports, and Chris Smith Racing all look after multiple Interseries Caymans for clients. And some of them had already been withdrawn from Interseries and repurposed at ITC or PCA racecars. I think one or two of them are even in World Challenge.

Bottom line is that while it's a shame to see it go,there are still plenty of venues to race Caymans and I don't see them going anywhere any time soon. Caymans are super popular in racing and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

 

Series wise, Intercontinental Trophy Cup is a series that will allow any Cayman Race car in for 4 races without doing any changes. You have the Stuttgart Cup that runs HSR ( primarily in the southeast) and you can always find a class in PCA or NASA. The only series with contingencies I believe is the ITC.
Please contact me if you have any interest in learning more about ITC.
BTW, ITC has a support race at the final ALMS race at VIR in October. Contact me for more info!

 

I musta missed something...What happened with Napleton??

 

doors closed about 2 months ago Brant.

 

Ya it is a bummer but the race crew is doing different things and going seperate ways and the service out there may get better.

What is a shame is all that knowledge base all broken up. Those guys know how to make the caymans go fast.

 

I think some of the children were having to much fun, and spending some of the nest egg. Finally mom and dad stepped in and put a stop to it. I don't think 24 hour races come cheap.

 

So no more Interseries races? They will no longer run with PCA club races? Does anyone know if they ran at Mid Ohio in July?

 

I think Mark is right. The 24 hour races dont come cheap. What is sad is that the Cayman Interseries cars were made specifically for the Interseries class. Yes they are eligible to race in PCA GTB-1 and some other classes, but they are far from optimized for those classes. The Interseries cars are not the fastest caymans in GTB1 bc they were built specifically for their own series. As with almost any purpose built class car they dont transition well without a lot of money being spent on them.

I feel like the poor interseries customers were left a little high and dry with the shop focusing more on their 24hr event than on awarding the loyal customer base who shelled out 100-150k on their cayman builds. With that said, I have no idea what really happened behind closed doors so I may be talking out of line, but I cant help but feel for the guys and gals who spent very large sums of money on the interseries cars!

Hoping they find a class for them instead of having to spend another large chunk of change to make them competitive elsewhere!

 

I don't have an interseries car, but they had my cayman s in their shop on three different occassions...

-Once for an LSD rebuild... they had the car for over 30 days. I was initially told that they'd need it for 5.
-Once for an LSD cooler... Final bill came in well above estimate.
-Once for anti-sway bar install... they told me that their install includes some welding on the subframe to strengthen a weak area. This wasn't done on my car.

Given my experience with them, I'm not entirely surprised that they closed up shop. On the other hand, I met some great folks there who really seemed to love doing what they were doing.

 

As stated their are a number of talented and capable shops across he country that can service the Interseries cars. Their is no mystery to the build or set up. Unfortunately many of the cars build were purchased and never or not often raced. With over 60 cars build and the average Cayman Interseries Races showed with 10 cars and frequently less how could any business survive on that. Then you add the expense of a Rolex 24 Hour race build and Drivers and that's how the phrase began, " how do you get a small fortune in motorsports, start with a large one!"
The Cayman Interseries concept was brilliant for Napleton and Porsche it created a Halo in an entry level price point car and Napleton was able to sell more than any other dealer at that time.
Now there are a number of venues to go racing for these cars, and no race car should sit in a garage, they were meant to be driven! Go out and race them, help the economy of your local shops and clubs!