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Who doesn't love posting pics and telling the story of acquiring a new car?
I was fortunate enough to be offered this Cayman R through my network of car friends rather than having it go for sale publicly, while searching for a 997.2 C2S for my father in law. My FIL had no interest in Caymans but I couldn't help myself once he said no LOL. Only 61 Cayman R's came to Canada, and this is car #61 of 61. 2 previous owners, less than 12k miles, 6 speed manual with heated sport seats, PSE, and a bunch of other options. Fairly high MSRP @ $97k CAD.
I'm no stranger to the 987 platform; I own (and built) a PCA GTB1 987.1 race car, which I've now rebuilt again over this past winter to compete in SPC class instead of GTB1. I clearly love the platform!
As I have the 987 racing car already, the list of mods planned for the Cayman R is small and already almost complete;
Installed spacers front & rear
The car had original PPF from 2012 on the front half of the hood, fenders & headlights; the talented team at The Refinery in Toronto did a great job removing all the original PPF and installing seamless Xpel Ultimate on the complete front end, headlights, mirrors, side skirts & rear hips, and rear bumper behind the wheels
Installed Carnewal modified OEM headers with 200 cell HJS racing catalytic converters - done, and sounds fantastic with the factory PSE (and you wouldn't have any idea the factory headers were modified under inspection...)
The big mod: Recaro Pole Position Classics with Pepita houndstooth inserts - seats have arrived, now just waiting on the BBi seat bases to be back in stock & shipped. While I certainly wish the car had original GT2 buckets, I believe these are the next best thing! Can't wait to receive the seat bases so I can get them installed. I actually tried to order new GT2 seats from Carnewal, but I was the first customer to find out they (the 997/987 version) are officially NLA from Porsche. Only the ROW 991 folding carbon bucket is available now, and at a premium price to the already expensive 997 version
My last street car was a 997.1TT with exhaust, intercoolers and tune. I sold that car a couple years ago when I decided to go racing. The Cayman R of course is a completely different kind of weapon, but having lost all desire to drive fast on the street in a straight line, I am absolutely loving the Cayman R as a backroad carver & just enjoying the balance, sound and experience of it. It's like my race car, but street legal and 95% less of an assault on all senses...
A few pics of the new Cayman R, the Recaro PP Classics about to be installed, and the R's racing car brother:
Gorgeous car, gorgeous seats! I feel like is should get a commission from Reccaro.
Ha! To be fair I had those seats on order well before your PM lol. As soon as I knew the OEM buckets were no longer available these were a no brainer @ 1/3 the cost.
Thanks gents, looking forward to more time with the car. As far as I know, all the black painted accents are factory original. Plenty of others have the same black bits.
Doing a quick search online I see a mix of Silver and Black trim on the R, was it an option to choose black or did Porsche change the trim color part way through production?
Gorgeous seats! Where did you source them? Did prices vary significantly with the sources?
Thanks for sharing, Mike
Carnewal in Belgium had this set in stock. I checked elsewhere and pricing was roughly equal to Carnewal even with accounting for 3 day express FedEx shipping from Belgium to Canada. And everyone else was quoting 30+ week lead time special order from Recaro. Big thumbs up to Gert Carnewal for actually keeping these in stock.
FedEx is awesome - no fees, no brokerage etc... Just owed 5% federal GST (Canada) on arrival. Shipped from Belgium Monday, arrived at my door Thursday morning. Canada and the EU have a free trade agreement which includes all auto parts made in EU or Canada. These seats are made in Germany so arrived in Canada duty-free.
Congrats and enjoy for many kilometers in the best of health!
I owned a Peridot Cayman R (LWB, manual) and I still think about it all the time, 6 years later.
That’s the one that I shouldn’t have sold.
Doing a quick search online I see a mix of Silver and Black trim on the R, was it an option to choose black or did Porsche change the trim color part way through production?
It was dependent on what color the car was--Peridot, Platinum Silver, Carrara White, Speed Yellow, and Guards Red all had black trim/decals. Black, Aqua, and Meteor Grey all had silver trim/decals. Not sure if the few PTS cars out there were able to choose their trim/decal color or if it was chosen for them.
Nice! Do you sit lower than in the standard seats?
No, sport seats and sofa comforts sit lower that this setup, I estimate about 0.5" or so. OEM carbon buckets also sit higher than sport & sofa seats due to the side mounting design. Thankfully I am not very tall!
I used the BBI seat bases, which have a 3/16" plate that bolts to the floor + sliders bolted to the plate + side mounts bolted to the sliders.
In my 987 race car, we cut out the floor under the seat and bolted the OMP side mounts straight to the chassis. No sliders. I can barely see over the wheel in the race car haha. Nice low COG though, and the connection to what the car is doing is unmatched.
05-25-2021, 05:15 PM
New Cayman R owner
