Cayman S 987.1 Suspension upgrades and car valuation

[ralphmusic]

Having gone down the tuning route with a 981 Cayman (see Modified Register section of the forum) I have to say you should do it for yourself or not at all.

A modified car will appeal to a smaller market on resale but at least buyers will likely see the modifications as positive. Don't expect to get back all the cost of the mods.

A question with Bilsteins is whether you want to have stiffer springs than their standard parts and in addition generally, how much camber adjustment you want.

CG can probably tell you about my suspension modifications, most of which are on the Modified Register post, you can do a great deal depending how you want to use the car.

You can also take a basic approach and spend a lot less and have a perfectly usable track oriented car.

We'll be interested in how you get on.

Ralph

 

[tcreswick]

Hi All,

I'm considering a Bilstein B16 suspension upgrade and full geometry tune on my 2007 Cayman S (50k miles, main dealer serviced). I've had quotes from a few, including CG.

I track the car a bit, so that's some of the immediate appeal. It doesn't have PASM, so another benefit is getting it a bit (~20mm) lower. It runs on 18" wheels.

Interested if anyone has any feedback and/or thoughts on this, especially from anyone in or near London who might be able to give me a ride on their B16s.

The car is getting to the point where it needs new control arms as the bushes are delaminating, a full geo as a result and also the front springs are corroded. At that point it feels like if I'm paying for all that work, it's not much more to up-rate all the components.

To that end, I'm probably looking at £4k to get the whole thing done by CG (including replacing a few other suspension parts) which doesn't seem ridiculous, but it's certainly not the cheapest quote.

I'm making a bit of an assumption that if I have this done by CG, the extra cash probably translates into better after market value.

Specifically, my two main questions therefore are:

1. Is there demand for used gen 1 Cayman Ss with these upgrades, or am I creating a car for which there is no demand?
2. To what extent am I hurting or improving the value of the vehicle? If it's not improving the value, it's probably worth shopping around on the job.

I'm not really too fussed if it turns out I'm just building my own track unicorn that no-one else wants, but I'd just like to be clear on the ultimate costs of that exercise

 

[tcreswick]

Thanks for that - didn't occur to me to look at the modified section. For anyone reading this, the post you're referring to is https://www.porscheclubgb.com/forum/FindPost/888638

That's an awesome project. Would love to see your car sometime.

I know a lot of people complain that the suspension is too hard on the stock B12s on the gen 1, especially without PASM but I really don't feel that. Some of the compliance will doubtless be coming from the 18" wheels though.

Lowering the car a bit would be a real handling benefit - it really is at least 15mm too high. The front camber seems way off. I was able to confirm this with a thermal camera borrowed from work at my last track day and it explains the hesitation at turn-in (if anyone's interested, I can upload the photos). The car feels like it could corner so much better but there's quite a bit of understeer at corner entry, although it's quite balanced after that. I suspect that the stock components will make additional negative camber hard to achieve at the front (although I haven't had it geo'd yet).

Other than that, my impression is that the ride isn't presently too stiff, and there's a bit of body roll on the track so it wouldn't hurt to go for more firm suspension but also lowering the CoG will help. I've ridden on B16s in some other cars (non-Porsche) and been impressed at the quality of the dampers which actually feel less "juddery" on the road. No idea if that will carry across to the Cayman though.

As I'm no expert, I certainly would value the input from a firm like CG, even though it's at a bit of a premium. I can describe what I don't like, I really need someone else to translate that into bill of work.

 

[mikeklein]

I have a stock 987.1 and have been thinking of getting mine lowered, though not necessarily stiffened and have seen Eibach kits being advertised. On further investigation it seems people have reported these as being a bit 'bouncy', so, without wanting to hijack this thread, if any readers can suggest the best way to lower the car without the bouncyness, all advice would be gratefully received.

 

[Tinners1983]

Sorry to drag this up, but did you go ahead with the upgrade? How do you find the car now? I'm looking to do something similar except my 987 CS has PASM.