"Budget" 987 Cayman Track Car - From Daily To Donington
Discussion
Just home from another weekend of working on my "Budget" 987 cayman 2.7 track car and thought i'd start a thread on it from here to keep running.
The car, an Ex guards red 2006 2.7 987 cayman that i bought around my 20th birthday about 8 years ago ( that hurt ) used as my only car for a few years and then moved to weekend car duty when i bought a sensible car for work but the story of how it became a track car is a little more interesting than just simply retiring from service.
I traded the car in for a yellow 2.7 981 in 2022 and kind of regretted not keeping it alongside as it really did have a massive impact on my life in my early 20s and selling it for the "small" sum of £6,000 seemed worthless once the bank account had recovered from the 981 purchase. Well, fast forward to 2024 the 981 has been traded in for a 981 GT4 ( also yellow ) and i'm doing my monthly search for the 987 reg plate to see if its MOTd or maybe for sale somewhere and i come across a link to Buckinghamshire councils abandoned car website. I click the link and lo and behold there it is, my old 987, not in the slightly lacquer peeling but ok guards red i left it in 2 years earlier but this....
Covered in bird sh*t and half a tree, left by the side of the road in some pretty little village becoming an eye sore in the words of the man who'd posted the photos.. He was right, and i couldn't believe id found it again, so i started in the last place i saw it and dropped the garage i'd sold it to a message to ask if they still owned it and if they were aware it was on the website and might be moved by the council... Well, they still owned it but most certainly weren't aware where it was ! after a few messages back and forth it turned out the car had developed a misfire a year prior and was sent to a garage for repair and there it stayed for a year till in what i can only assume was annoyance from the garage owner the car was moved onto the road and left.. The dealer thanked me for letting them know and said they'd go and get it back, fixed and then let me know what they were going to do with it as the big boss had promised the car to a friend for cheap if they fixed it.. ( annoying ) so i left it at that.
Well, 2 months later as i was walking into the gym one lunch time when i get a message on whatsapp " hello - we've got the cayman back and fixed, and the other fella doesn't have space for it so its yours if you want it" safe to say it took all of 30 seconds for me to reply with " i'll be there on saturday "
Saturday came around i went to see it, there it was parked in exactly the same spot as when i'd sold it 2 years before and in way nicer condition than the council photos ! a quick test drive highlighted some issues that needed sorting but nothing i wasn't going to do anyway as i had a plan....
The car made it the 170 miles home with little issue minus some savage wheel wobble from the flat spotted tyres and annoyingly, no working AC. And was dropped off at my newly acquired storage unit that was housing the QS mk1 TT i was using as a track car at the time ( yes i like red cars )
Being lucky to own a far sized collection of cars the 987 got left for a few weeks whilst i collected a few parts to get it ready for its maiden track day, an october weekend at Blyton park me and my friends do on my birthday weekend each year..
250bhp and a 265 wide rear tyre meant the car was always incredibly "over tyred" in my eyes so, for £280 i found a set of used boxster wheels with basically brand new n rated PS2s on them to try and readdress that balance. Of course its no good going if you can't stop so i replaced the brake pads and fluid with a combination of motul 660 fluid, PBS prorace pads in the front and my favourite £35 eurocarparts pagid pads in the rear. Putting cheap pads in the rear of a 987 helps loosen the PSM up abit i find as it uses alot of the rear brakes ! a quick service and a slightly panic filled evening finding the long lost towing eye and it was ready.
Of course being late October and blyton park it was wet, and after some poor sod in a very fast mk1 focus RS had dumped oil all over the top corner 15 minutes in the day the track only got worse. however, this allowed me to get familiar with the handling on the smaller wheels and just have some fun with the boys. I'm incredibly fortunate to have a big group of fantastic friends who i do TD's with in a range of cars from every single type of clio RS under the sun to an RX8 and an OG M2 so being out on track in a car that i'm so well known for and used to driving felt abit surreal. I said to myself when i bought this car back that the goal was to share it with as many people i trust as possible to keep building up its stories with the people in my life so after lunch i let JJ who has never driven anything with more power than a 170bhp Audi A4 take it out for a session, he and the car survived, finished the day and drove home zero issues.
( being chased by one of the lads in his clio 200, its great how well matched these cars are )
The winter break was upon us so it was time to get started on my plan for the 987. A few years before i'd had a bit of an exhaust leak which no one seemed to want to touch and i was put onto a guy called Tom by funnily enough another friend called Tom, first Tom ran a company specialising in custom fabrication work from exhausts to roll cages and everything inbetween so i went over to his unit in Doncaster and we became friends pretty much instantly whilst he fixed the leak, fast forward a few years and many trips to see him and sitting in and driving a few of his cars with full cages and i was hooked on the idea of caging something to track.. Well, it wasn't the car i expected but i booked the 987 in with him over winter 24 for a full cage, custom seat bars, a complete redo of all the brake lines ( now ran internally ) and a few other bits.
After sitting for 3 months and not starting ( lol ) i took the car over to the unit to which me and a couple of friends spent a day fully stripping the interior ready for the cage, i don't know if you've ever stripped a car but christ its fun..
With just dashboard and doorcard left in ( for the door handles ) Tom set to work building the cage.
Track season started without the 987 finished as the work was taking longer than expected ( no fault of toms ) so i had to bring out the " back up " cayman for the first track day of the year at blyton.
GT4 was fantastic, but i'll gloss over the obvious and back to the 987 as by this point the car was just waiting for me to go to Manchester and collect the newly refurbished brake calipers, with those collected and some last minute scope creep of a set of nankang NS2R's and a brake dust coloured wheel refurb the car was ready to collect.
I know, i know... I took silver wheels and had them changed to grey, however if you've ever done track work ( as Smith and sniff say ) you'll know how much brake dust you have to clean off them so my logic was simply to paint the wheels brake dust coloured from the start. I picked the car up from Toms very excited to see what the difference was like and wow, what an experience. Raw doesn't even scratch the surface, its incredible. However, 20 minutes from home i hear the engine misfire now i've had experience of this car eating coilpacks in the past, so instantly my mind starts going to that but the misfire goes away again until i'm just about to join my favourite piece of local B road and it goes down to 5 cylinders and pings an engine light... BRILLIANT
No problem you'd say, replace a coilpack and your golden... ah well you see, its tuesday night and i go to Germany in the GT4 on the Thursday for a long weekend again no problem sort it when i'm back i hear you say, however 3 days after i get back we've booked onto cadwell park for a day ! Once again I'm here bigging up THE best group of mates a man can ask for who whilst i was off tarting about germany in the GT4, took the 987, Tracked it up and spent an afternoon replacing all the coilpacks and plugs for me to fix the misfire. They might read this one day but i doubt it as they're all fed up of my s
t im sure but they have no idea how much doing that meant to me as i was in a very bad place at the time due to some mental health st thats still ongoing and getting out on track with them helps me forget about it, as a thank you i bought them all a lap ticket for the ring whilst it was out there ( which we used last week at the time of writing ).... worth it
Cadwell time came after a few very late nights working on one of the lads M2's which had a split brakeline 2 days before the TD !
My first time at cadwell and my first time out in the 987 with all the mods and what a difference ! now sporting a set of BC coilovers that i've had in my attic for maybe 4 years and all the work Tom put in the car felt so much sharper, lapping all day with little issue minus one loose undertray that showed its head at around 110mph ! a successful day but a way less comfortable drive too and from circuit now but hey... i'm not complaining !
Me and one of the boys on the way back, roof rack on the track car - big vibe...
Side note - you may have noticed the private plate that appeared on the car, i adore this car but its affectionately referred too as f*cked ( Sorry ) by me and my close friends as the paint work is ruined from 125k miles of stories so one evening whilst searching for a plate for it i came across something perfect ( my Dad has a lovely spec 981 boxster with a F6 XXX plate on it ) and F6 FKD was bought....
I then spent a month tidying up bits of the interior, making some plastics fit back in around the cage, fitting a floor plate and boring little bits like that to make the car more usable before 2 Donington park evening sessions in a month both with VERY different weather conditions.
1 - Raining.... we got a few dry laps in but just as i was getting comfortable with the grip down crainers the heavens opened and within one lap i went from flat out to backwards towards the gravel ! kept it out the pit but thought it best to call it for that session and let the weather clear. It did, but it never dried up completely so i spent the evening learning some lines and just having a laugh really.
2 - 35 Degrees and sonny... So i'm in the process of buying a house right now and a great friend has been a massive help sorting it out so as a thank you i very last minute ( as we booked it in the pub the night before ) booked the 987 and his M2 onto another evening at donington.. It could have not been anymore different, incredible weather and not one drop of rain. I'm pretty settled into the car now so had a great string of fast laps at a pace i'm very pleased with ( no idea on times thats not what its about ) until the first proper issue occurred. An oil leak... a small puddle on the garage floor right under an oil pipe was enough for me to call it and spend the rest of the evening passengering and sorting out driving it straight to the unit to look at it when we got a second.
The next weekend we went over to the unit to try and find the leak and give the car another service as knowing how fragile M97 engines can be i like to keep the oil as clean as possible.. Weirdly though, we found nothing wrong with it... apart from a massive spattering of oil at the top of the engine from around a breather leading us to think the car had just got REALLY hot on track and burped out some oil, service done the car was stuck back in the storage unit whilst we went and booked another nurburgring trip...
Because blyton park seems to have become my second home it wasn't long till we were back for what was THE most chaotic TD of my life.
we were blessed with perfect weather and a fairly quiet day helped by the fact we rocked up in a group of around 10 cars which meant it felt like a mostly private day towards the end...
I felt properly confident in the car and was getting some great long sessions out of it before feeling like i needed a cool down more than the car did, i let a few of the lads take the car out for some feedback ( not JJ this time as my new fixed seats are too far away for him to reach the pedals lol ) which went well, until Tom put it sideways into the only bloody barrier on the track... i do have a photo of this but i'll save him the blushes, with only a small war wound and some popping back out of dents i carried on issue free to the end of the day in what was one of the best days driving i've ever had..
That day at blyton was also the first time i've ever seen the police called to a circuit, as someone drove out the pits with there phone on the roof of the car went round the first corner loosing it in the process resulting in the phone thinking it had been in an accident and automatically calling the police.. a funny red flag !
I am determined to get a photo of this car on 2 wheels through the chicane hence the aggressive usage lol
987 X Clios... a common site
Remember that red QS TT from earlier in the post ? well i still owned it at this point and just wasn't using it so sold it ( within 5 minutes.. madness ) and said to myself that i was to spend half the money on things for my house and the other half i was going to allow myself to spend on cars..
So, i went on a spending spree. Adjustable GT3 front arms, adjustable tuning forks and all new bolts, a 3rd radiator kit ( this puts a 3rd rad in from a 987S/997 to help with cooling ) a cayman R rear roll bar, various polybushes and some tarty aero bits, a massive rear wing and a proper custom front splitter. I also spent some of the car money on renting an F56 Mini Cooper S at the ring for an afternoon which was great fun.. ( have a photo )
As the first section of this says, i'm just back from a weekend working on the car again fitting all the new bits which has been a task due to it being a 20 year old high mileage rusty thing thats lived its whole life in the UK but hey...
3rd radiator kit was an easy fit along with the R roll bar, but the front arms and the tuning forks required the front subframe to come out to get them free ( only 4 bolts so not a big job ) i've currently got the biggest shims the arms came with in the front which should equal about -3 degrees of front camber with my adjustable top mounts a good increase over the old set up !
The "aero kit" was fun, drilling holes in the boot lid to mount the wing was an experience and having the custom front splitter made to my specs has been a cool project, its still a work in progress so i'll keep you all updated on that one !
The cars now due an MOT and a nice new suspension set up which i need to get booked in this week so i will leave you with a couple of photos of it today.
Plenty more action booked this year with the car and a big colour changing project to be done over winter... If you managed to read this far then thank you so much and i hope you enjoyed the first part of the story of my "budget" 987 track car... ( PS, if you read this when you should be working.. sorry )
The car, an Ex guards red 2006 2.7 987 cayman that i bought around my 20th birthday about 8 years ago ( that hurt ) used as my only car for a few years and then moved to weekend car duty when i bought a sensible car for work but the story of how it became a track car is a little more interesting than just simply retiring from service.
I traded the car in for a yellow 2.7 981 in 2022 and kind of regretted not keeping it alongside as it really did have a massive impact on my life in my early 20s and selling it for the "small" sum of £6,000 seemed worthless once the bank account had recovered from the 981 purchase. Well, fast forward to 2024 the 981 has been traded in for a 981 GT4 ( also yellow ) and i'm doing my monthly search for the 987 reg plate to see if its MOTd or maybe for sale somewhere and i come across a link to Buckinghamshire councils abandoned car website. I click the link and lo and behold there it is, my old 987, not in the slightly lacquer peeling but ok guards red i left it in 2 years earlier but this....
Covered in bird sh*t and half a tree, left by the side of the road in some pretty little village becoming an eye sore in the words of the man who'd posted the photos.. He was right, and i couldn't believe id found it again, so i started in the last place i saw it and dropped the garage i'd sold it to a message to ask if they still owned it and if they were aware it was on the website and might be moved by the council... Well, they still owned it but most certainly weren't aware where it was ! after a few messages back and forth it turned out the car had developed a misfire a year prior and was sent to a garage for repair and there it stayed for a year till in what i can only assume was annoyance from the garage owner the car was moved onto the road and left.. The dealer thanked me for letting them know and said they'd go and get it back, fixed and then let me know what they were going to do with it as the big boss had promised the car to a friend for cheap if they fixed it.. ( annoying ) so i left it at that.
Well, 2 months later as i was walking into the gym one lunch time when i get a message on whatsapp " hello - we've got the cayman back and fixed, and the other fella doesn't have space for it so its yours if you want it" safe to say it took all of 30 seconds for me to reply with " i'll be there on saturday "
Saturday came around i went to see it, there it was parked in exactly the same spot as when i'd sold it 2 years before and in way nicer condition than the council photos ! a quick test drive highlighted some issues that needed sorting but nothing i wasn't going to do anyway as i had a plan....
The car made it the 170 miles home with little issue minus some savage wheel wobble from the flat spotted tyres and annoyingly, no working AC. And was dropped off at my newly acquired storage unit that was housing the QS mk1 TT i was using as a track car at the time ( yes i like red cars )
Being lucky to own a far sized collection of cars the 987 got left for a few weeks whilst i collected a few parts to get it ready for its maiden track day, an october weekend at Blyton park me and my friends do on my birthday weekend each year..
250bhp and a 265 wide rear tyre meant the car was always incredibly "over tyred" in my eyes so, for £280 i found a set of used boxster wheels with basically brand new n rated PS2s on them to try and readdress that balance. Of course its no good going if you can't stop so i replaced the brake pads and fluid with a combination of motul 660 fluid, PBS prorace pads in the front and my favourite £35 eurocarparts pagid pads in the rear. Putting cheap pads in the rear of a 987 helps loosen the PSM up abit i find as it uses alot of the rear brakes ! a quick service and a slightly panic filled evening finding the long lost towing eye and it was ready.
Of course being late October and blyton park it was wet, and after some poor sod in a very fast mk1 focus RS had dumped oil all over the top corner 15 minutes in the day the track only got worse. however, this allowed me to get familiar with the handling on the smaller wheels and just have some fun with the boys. I'm incredibly fortunate to have a big group of fantastic friends who i do TD's with in a range of cars from every single type of clio RS under the sun to an RX8 and an OG M2 so being out on track in a car that i'm so well known for and used to driving felt abit surreal. I said to myself when i bought this car back that the goal was to share it with as many people i trust as possible to keep building up its stories with the people in my life so after lunch i let JJ who has never driven anything with more power than a 170bhp Audi A4 take it out for a session, he and the car survived, finished the day and drove home zero issues.
( being chased by one of the lads in his clio 200, its great how well matched these cars are )
The winter break was upon us so it was time to get started on my plan for the 987. A few years before i'd had a bit of an exhaust leak which no one seemed to want to touch and i was put onto a guy called Tom by funnily enough another friend called Tom, first Tom ran a company specialising in custom fabrication work from exhausts to roll cages and everything inbetween so i went over to his unit in Doncaster and we became friends pretty much instantly whilst he fixed the leak, fast forward a few years and many trips to see him and sitting in and driving a few of his cars with full cages and i was hooked on the idea of caging something to track.. Well, it wasn't the car i expected but i booked the 987 in with him over winter 24 for a full cage, custom seat bars, a complete redo of all the brake lines ( now ran internally ) and a few other bits.
After sitting for 3 months and not starting ( lol ) i took the car over to the unit to which me and a couple of friends spent a day fully stripping the interior ready for the cage, i don't know if you've ever stripped a car but christ its fun..
With just dashboard and doorcard left in ( for the door handles ) Tom set to work building the cage.
Track season started without the 987 finished as the work was taking longer than expected ( no fault of toms ) so i had to bring out the " back up " cayman for the first track day of the year at blyton.
GT4 was fantastic, but i'll gloss over the obvious and back to the 987 as by this point the car was just waiting for me to go to Manchester and collect the newly refurbished brake calipers, with those collected and some last minute scope creep of a set of nankang NS2R's and a brake dust coloured wheel refurb the car was ready to collect.
I know, i know... I took silver wheels and had them changed to grey, however if you've ever done track work ( as Smith and sniff say ) you'll know how much brake dust you have to clean off them so my logic was simply to paint the wheels brake dust coloured from the start. I picked the car up from Toms very excited to see what the difference was like and wow, what an experience. Raw doesn't even scratch the surface, its incredible. However, 20 minutes from home i hear the engine misfire now i've had experience of this car eating coilpacks in the past, so instantly my mind starts going to that but the misfire goes away again until i'm just about to join my favourite piece of local B road and it goes down to 5 cylinders and pings an engine light... BRILLIANT
No problem you'd say, replace a coilpack and your golden... ah well you see, its tuesday night and i go to Germany in the GT4 on the Thursday for a long weekend again no problem sort it when i'm back i hear you say, however 3 days after i get back we've booked onto cadwell park for a day ! Once again I'm here bigging up THE best group of mates a man can ask for who whilst i was off tarting about germany in the GT4, took the 987, Tracked it up and spent an afternoon replacing all the coilpacks and plugs for me to fix the misfire. They might read this one day but i doubt it as they're all fed up of my s
t im sure but they have no idea how much doing that meant to me as i was in a very bad place at the time due to some mental health st thats still ongoing and getting out on track with them helps me forget about it, as a thank you i bought them all a lap ticket for the ring whilst it was out there ( which we used last week at the time of writing ).... worth itCadwell time came after a few very late nights working on one of the lads M2's which had a split brakeline 2 days before the TD !
My first time at cadwell and my first time out in the 987 with all the mods and what a difference ! now sporting a set of BC coilovers that i've had in my attic for maybe 4 years and all the work Tom put in the car felt so much sharper, lapping all day with little issue minus one loose undertray that showed its head at around 110mph ! a successful day but a way less comfortable drive too and from circuit now but hey... i'm not complaining !
Me and one of the boys on the way back, roof rack on the track car - big vibe...
Side note - you may have noticed the private plate that appeared on the car, i adore this car but its affectionately referred too as f*cked ( Sorry ) by me and my close friends as the paint work is ruined from 125k miles of stories so one evening whilst searching for a plate for it i came across something perfect ( my Dad has a lovely spec 981 boxster with a F6 XXX plate on it ) and F6 FKD was bought....
I then spent a month tidying up bits of the interior, making some plastics fit back in around the cage, fitting a floor plate and boring little bits like that to make the car more usable before 2 Donington park evening sessions in a month both with VERY different weather conditions.
1 - Raining.... we got a few dry laps in but just as i was getting comfortable with the grip down crainers the heavens opened and within one lap i went from flat out to backwards towards the gravel ! kept it out the pit but thought it best to call it for that session and let the weather clear. It did, but it never dried up completely so i spent the evening learning some lines and just having a laugh really.
2 - 35 Degrees and sonny... So i'm in the process of buying a house right now and a great friend has been a massive help sorting it out so as a thank you i very last minute ( as we booked it in the pub the night before ) booked the 987 and his M2 onto another evening at donington.. It could have not been anymore different, incredible weather and not one drop of rain. I'm pretty settled into the car now so had a great string of fast laps at a pace i'm very pleased with ( no idea on times thats not what its about ) until the first proper issue occurred. An oil leak... a small puddle on the garage floor right under an oil pipe was enough for me to call it and spend the rest of the evening passengering and sorting out driving it straight to the unit to look at it when we got a second.
The next weekend we went over to the unit to try and find the leak and give the car another service as knowing how fragile M97 engines can be i like to keep the oil as clean as possible.. Weirdly though, we found nothing wrong with it... apart from a massive spattering of oil at the top of the engine from around a breather leading us to think the car had just got REALLY hot on track and burped out some oil, service done the car was stuck back in the storage unit whilst we went and booked another nurburgring trip...
Because blyton park seems to have become my second home it wasn't long till we were back for what was THE most chaotic TD of my life.
we were blessed with perfect weather and a fairly quiet day helped by the fact we rocked up in a group of around 10 cars which meant it felt like a mostly private day towards the end...
I felt properly confident in the car and was getting some great long sessions out of it before feeling like i needed a cool down more than the car did, i let a few of the lads take the car out for some feedback ( not JJ this time as my new fixed seats are too far away for him to reach the pedals lol ) which went well, until Tom put it sideways into the only bloody barrier on the track... i do have a photo of this but i'll save him the blushes, with only a small war wound and some popping back out of dents i carried on issue free to the end of the day in what was one of the best days driving i've ever had..
That day at blyton was also the first time i've ever seen the police called to a circuit, as someone drove out the pits with there phone on the roof of the car went round the first corner loosing it in the process resulting in the phone thinking it had been in an accident and automatically calling the police.. a funny red flag !
I am determined to get a photo of this car on 2 wheels through the chicane hence the aggressive usage lol
987 X Clios... a common site
Remember that red QS TT from earlier in the post ? well i still owned it at this point and just wasn't using it so sold it ( within 5 minutes.. madness ) and said to myself that i was to spend half the money on things for my house and the other half i was going to allow myself to spend on cars..
So, i went on a spending spree. Adjustable GT3 front arms, adjustable tuning forks and all new bolts, a 3rd radiator kit ( this puts a 3rd rad in from a 987S/997 to help with cooling ) a cayman R rear roll bar, various polybushes and some tarty aero bits, a massive rear wing and a proper custom front splitter. I also spent some of the car money on renting an F56 Mini Cooper S at the ring for an afternoon which was great fun.. ( have a photo )
As the first section of this says, i'm just back from a weekend working on the car again fitting all the new bits which has been a task due to it being a 20 year old high mileage rusty thing thats lived its whole life in the UK but hey...
3rd radiator kit was an easy fit along with the R roll bar, but the front arms and the tuning forks required the front subframe to come out to get them free ( only 4 bolts so not a big job ) i've currently got the biggest shims the arms came with in the front which should equal about -3 degrees of front camber with my adjustable top mounts a good increase over the old set up !
The "aero kit" was fun, drilling holes in the boot lid to mount the wing was an experience and having the custom front splitter made to my specs has been a cool project, its still a work in progress so i'll keep you all updated on that one !
The cars now due an MOT and a nice new suspension set up which i need to get booked in this week so i will leave you with a couple of photos of it today.
Plenty more action booked this year with the car and a big colour changing project to be done over winter... If you managed to read this far then thank you so much and i hope you enjoyed the first part of the story of my "budget" 987 track car... ( PS, if you read this when you should be working.. sorry )
Nelka said:
Good write up, nice pair of Porsche s you ve got!
Pity about the QS really like them.
Thanks, always wanted one since my Dad had a silver 225 back when they first came out, i'd have loved to have kept it as it was a fun little road car that I am sure i will regret selling in a few years but i ran out of space ! Pity about the QS really like them.
I've had a couple of TTs and annoyingly they never seem to last long with me, i do wonder if a MK3 TTRS might change that.
MOT Passed, 100+ miles done since the last round of work and minus some bolts working there way loose ( i know keeping an eye on that ) its been spot on. Getting booked in for a proper set up on monday ready for another day at Blyton park on the 25th of october with the guys..
Looking very race car parked on the side road at home, -3 degrees of front camber has made a huge difference to the front end on the road so can't wait to test it out on track..
Looking very race car parked on the side road at home, -3 degrees of front camber has made a huge difference to the front end on the road so can't wait to test it out on track..
Great thread and car. I keep looking at these as a track day car.
Previously had a Clio RS200 and it was great but not road legal or in the slightest practical so the reward of a track day against the hassle of hiring a trailer and losing my tow car (changed jobs and could have bought another diesel estate to replace the company car but bought something slightly more interesting instead!) meant I wasn't using it. I don't think I would go as far with mods but it's good to see what you have done
Previously had a Clio RS200 and it was great but not road legal or in the slightest practical so the reward of a track day against the hassle of hiring a trailer and losing my tow car (changed jobs and could have bought another diesel estate to replace the company car but bought something slightly more interesting instead!) meant I wasn't using it. I don't think I would go as far with mods but it's good to see what you have done
the-norseman said:
That looks good fun! I really miss my old 981 Cayman S.
It is ! you get all the noise and feeling of something alot faster all whilst being in points not prison territory on the road anyway. I had a 2.7 981 for 2 years and 25k miles loved it and i will maintain the 981 might be the best thing porsche has built !
LastPoster said:
Great thread and car. I keep looking at these as a track day car.
Previously had a Clio RS200 and it was great but not road legal or in the slightest practical so the reward of a track day against the hassle of hiring a trailer and losing my tow car (changed jobs and could have bought another diesel estate to replace the company car but bought something slightly more interesting instead!) meant I wasn't using it. I don't think I would go as far with mods but it's good to see what you have done
Thank you ! i have to say, i absolutely adore a 197/200 clio and have done a good few miles in friends and always jumped out with a smile on my face. The way they turn in is incredible for such a "cheap" car, How was the towing experience ? i'm planning on getting a bar fitted to my A7 over winter as i would like to push on abit with the 987 and don't want the worry of getting it home after. Previously had a Clio RS200 and it was great but not road legal or in the slightest practical so the reward of a track day against the hassle of hiring a trailer and losing my tow car (changed jobs and could have bought another diesel estate to replace the company car but bought something slightly more interesting instead!) meant I wasn't using it. I don't think I would go as far with mods but it's good to see what you have done
987s are fantastic cars, and with the right mods are a great road/light track car ( don't strip anything out the inside they are SO loud ! ) especially if you plan on keeping it on tyres like a PS4S or PS5 as they don't really take to semi slicks well in the engine reliability department i hear. Mines on NS2R's but i fully plan on having to drop another engine into it at somepoint anyway due to the mileage so not too worried..
Afternoon everyone !
Its the Monday after a track day so whilst fighting the blues i thought id update.
I picked the car up from BRAM racing after tracking last week and what a difference ! we've not gone mad with camber at -2.5 degrees all round due to the car still being driven to track.
I knew before the car went in that it had developed an exhaust leak from around the manifold area but i left it hoping to sort after the Blyton park day coming up but when i took the car to work one morning to get some miles on it i arrived light headed and dizzy... only one thing causing that.
Unfortunately, it was on the manifold and not as i'd hoped a gasket on the mid pipe. However once again the main man Tom came to the rescue and he offered to get it up on the ramp and see if we can weld it up for now as if you know these cars changing manifolds is a nasty job i really didn't want to do.
Lucky it welded up quite nicely and the problem is solved !
Track day day comes, the usual night before fuel stop completed ( later than planned as some friends have just moved house so of course i was lending a hand ) the 6:00 alarm set and the dread of watching the time go to 1:00 and thinking.. ah 5 hours of sleep is going to suck.
But of course, i was up and out of the house in record time and on the road to Blyton. I think if someone now asked me what one of my favourite drives of all time is i could hand on heart say a cold dark wintery morning drive from Sheffield to Blyton in a loud, clunky, uncomfortable old 987 with the excitement of spending all day driving it flat out with my friends might be it.. Sighting laps complete the track opened at 9... instantly followed by a red flag with an MX5 off in the field ( it must have been 5 minutes ) collected, this then turned into me using a full tank by lunch as it did not take long for me to get used to the new set up and wow what a thing, its so planted in the fast stuff and you can feel the spitter and wing working. Nipped out in the car at lunch for another tank of BPs finest ( why theres zero 99 anywhere near blyton park i have no idea ) and proceeded to carry on kicking the cars head in to the end of the day going through yet another 64 litres.
Not one issue popped up, not a drop of oil used, and the new third radiator prooving effective as the car used to smell physically hot after a long session but not anymore.
" massive props to Javelins photographer, that man is a hero in my books"
This photo has however made me realise i need to stiffen up the front slightly i think, the 987R rear roll bar has solved the issue of the rear wheel try to look like a car on air ride in hard cornering so i think the front is next... 997 GT3 bar maybe ?
Now for me, as much as track days are for going and driving as fast as possible and trying not to put in in the field. They are equally about the people, and for once ( thanks to my "personal" photographer also known as greg, thats a joke btw he's my cousin and one of my closet friends ) we managed to get a photo of a few of us out having a few laps togther.. I have known the drivers of both the RX8 and clio for quite literally my whole life. 25 of the 28 years ( its my birthday today ) i've been on this planet i've been doing stupid sh*t with these two and thats gone from us being 12 and racing RC cars to now building very different cars to track.. it is true what they say, you never really grow up your toys just get bigger and more expensive...
I would like to think i'm a safe pair of hands when it comes to track driving so when friends offer me to have a go in there cars i don't really say no and of course i then throw them my keys and let them go and burn some fuel or in JJ's case... Clutch ( LY man but lets save the clutch kicks for drift cars yeah ? )
And over the course of the day i drove Chris's massively improved RX8 with its new fully rose jointed adjustable rear end and fresh second hand gearbox, i've driven it before and could never really enjoy it as 2nd gear was basically unusable due to the warn syncros but i get why people love those cars now. I also got to take out Kris's ( a theme here ) new clio 182 which might be the fastest N/A clio i've ever driven in a straight line ! its got 197 cams and some other trick bits but it would easily match the 987 in a straight line, fantastic fun.
I'm always open to feedback on the 987 from people who drive it as thats kind of why i've built it like i have, so the only thing that we all agree needs to change is the steering wheel.. The 350mm prototipo being just abit too big, 997 cup car OMP wheel on the cards then...
I have a massive itch to own an Aston Martin in the not too distant future, a casino royale era DBS being the goal once i've recovered from moving house so to see this absolute hero tracking his Vantage gt4 car at blyton made my day even better. I would love to build a "cheap" manual vantage in the same way i have the 987 one day to see what they can do !
Not alot to do now before the 987s last TD of the year at donington in december, so i'm going to tuck it up in the unit and leave it for a month.
However i do need to order the paint for this winters colour change so that will be fun !
TLDR - Went to blyton, drove fast in circles with friends all day and did'nt break.. Onto the next one !
Its the Monday after a track day so whilst fighting the blues i thought id update.
I picked the car up from BRAM racing after tracking last week and what a difference ! we've not gone mad with camber at -2.5 degrees all round due to the car still being driven to track.
I knew before the car went in that it had developed an exhaust leak from around the manifold area but i left it hoping to sort after the Blyton park day coming up but when i took the car to work one morning to get some miles on it i arrived light headed and dizzy... only one thing causing that.
Unfortunately, it was on the manifold and not as i'd hoped a gasket on the mid pipe. However once again the main man Tom came to the rescue and he offered to get it up on the ramp and see if we can weld it up for now as if you know these cars changing manifolds is a nasty job i really didn't want to do.
Lucky it welded up quite nicely and the problem is solved !
Track day day comes, the usual night before fuel stop completed ( later than planned as some friends have just moved house so of course i was lending a hand ) the 6:00 alarm set and the dread of watching the time go to 1:00 and thinking.. ah 5 hours of sleep is going to suck.
But of course, i was up and out of the house in record time and on the road to Blyton. I think if someone now asked me what one of my favourite drives of all time is i could hand on heart say a cold dark wintery morning drive from Sheffield to Blyton in a loud, clunky, uncomfortable old 987 with the excitement of spending all day driving it flat out with my friends might be it.. Sighting laps complete the track opened at 9... instantly followed by a red flag with an MX5 off in the field ( it must have been 5 minutes ) collected, this then turned into me using a full tank by lunch as it did not take long for me to get used to the new set up and wow what a thing, its so planted in the fast stuff and you can feel the spitter and wing working. Nipped out in the car at lunch for another tank of BPs finest ( why theres zero 99 anywhere near blyton park i have no idea ) and proceeded to carry on kicking the cars head in to the end of the day going through yet another 64 litres.
Not one issue popped up, not a drop of oil used, and the new third radiator prooving effective as the car used to smell physically hot after a long session but not anymore.
" massive props to Javelins photographer, that man is a hero in my books"
This photo has however made me realise i need to stiffen up the front slightly i think, the 987R rear roll bar has solved the issue of the rear wheel try to look like a car on air ride in hard cornering so i think the front is next... 997 GT3 bar maybe ?
Now for me, as much as track days are for going and driving as fast as possible and trying not to put in in the field. They are equally about the people, and for once ( thanks to my "personal" photographer also known as greg, thats a joke btw he's my cousin and one of my closet friends ) we managed to get a photo of a few of us out having a few laps togther.. I have known the drivers of both the RX8 and clio for quite literally my whole life. 25 of the 28 years ( its my birthday today ) i've been on this planet i've been doing stupid sh*t with these two and thats gone from us being 12 and racing RC cars to now building very different cars to track.. it is true what they say, you never really grow up your toys just get bigger and more expensive...
I would like to think i'm a safe pair of hands when it comes to track driving so when friends offer me to have a go in there cars i don't really say no and of course i then throw them my keys and let them go and burn some fuel or in JJ's case... Clutch ( LY man but lets save the clutch kicks for drift cars yeah ? )
And over the course of the day i drove Chris's massively improved RX8 with its new fully rose jointed adjustable rear end and fresh second hand gearbox, i've driven it before and could never really enjoy it as 2nd gear was basically unusable due to the warn syncros but i get why people love those cars now. I also got to take out Kris's ( a theme here ) new clio 182 which might be the fastest N/A clio i've ever driven in a straight line ! its got 197 cams and some other trick bits but it would easily match the 987 in a straight line, fantastic fun.
I'm always open to feedback on the 987 from people who drive it as thats kind of why i've built it like i have, so the only thing that we all agree needs to change is the steering wheel.. The 350mm prototipo being just abit too big, 997 cup car OMP wheel on the cards then...
I have a massive itch to own an Aston Martin in the not too distant future, a casino royale era DBS being the goal once i've recovered from moving house so to see this absolute hero tracking his Vantage gt4 car at blyton made my day even better. I would love to build a "cheap" manual vantage in the same way i have the 987 one day to see what they can do !
Not alot to do now before the 987s last TD of the year at donington in december, so i'm going to tuck it up in the unit and leave it for a month.
However i do need to order the paint for this winters colour change so that will be fun !
TLDR - Went to blyton, drove fast in circles with friends all day and did'nt break.. Onto the next one !
Nice to see another one being used and certainly know how it goes with these... assume you're planning on painting the inside and out in one go?
Regarding GT3 front bar, it doesn't fit the "budget" nature (c. £550 discounted), nor does it fit how people claim on "the internet"... It bolts up, but other things need to be done to prevent issues. If you can find a used one though...
Regarding GT3 front bar, it doesn't fit the "budget" nature (c. £550 discounted), nor does it fit how people claim on "the internet"... It bolts up, but other things need to be done to prevent issues. If you can find a used one though...
f0xy said:
Nice to see another one being used and certainly know how it goes with these... assume you're planning on painting the inside and out in one go?
Regarding GT3 front bar, it doesn't fit the "budget" nature (c. £550 discounted), nor does it fit how people claim on "the internet"... It bolts up, but other things need to be done to prevent issues. If you can find a used one though...
Proving you don't need to buy a GT3 to have fun on track in a Porsche ! Regarding GT3 front bar, it doesn't fit the "budget" nature (c. £550 discounted), nor does it fit how people claim on "the internet"... It bolts up, but other things need to be done to prevent issues. If you can find a used one though...
Yep, painting the inside and outside at the same time to keep it as simple as that can be. Going grey inside and changing the colour outside for something abit brighter.
I just saw your thread mentioning the GT3 bar so thats handy, i appreciate the heads up and will have a look at other options. I don't want to go with a massive thick H&R bar as it wont be even remotely matched to the 987R rear thats on the car now..
usernametaken said:
Enjoying reading this thread. Bringing back memories of my 987 track car. Great cars. 40+ track days and no engine drama. 
Thanks ! i've seen your car about on social media for a while and its made me slightly less nervous about the whole M97 engine thing. Didn't you end up buying one of the old 981 track cars that brookspeed built ? massively interested in how thats going as im a big 981 guy on the street and have tracked my GT4 a few times but theres no way i could bring myself to cage that like i have the 987..
harrymaisey said:
Proving you don't need to buy a GT3 to have fun on track in a Porsche !
Yep, painting the inside and outside at the same time to keep it as simple as that can be. Going grey inside and changing the colour outside for something abit brighter.
I just saw your thread mentioning the GT3 bar so thats handy, i appreciate the heads up and will have a look at other options. I don't want to go with a massive thick H&R bar as it wont be even remotely matched to the 987R rear thats on the car now..
The GT3 bar on the middle setting is good with the R rear, I went for it as I wanted the 5 adjustment points rather than a thick bar with only two points (or in some cases one). Also depends on what suspension/spring rates you are on I guess...Yep, painting the inside and outside at the same time to keep it as simple as that can be. Going grey inside and changing the colour outside for something abit brighter.
I just saw your thread mentioning the GT3 bar so thats handy, i appreciate the heads up and will have a look at other options. I don't want to go with a massive thick H&R bar as it wont be even remotely matched to the 987R rear thats on the car now..
You just need to be able to fabricate some drop links and get the angle/spacing/position correct without binding - off the shelf 'adjustable' ones just dont fit well with it, the joints don't allow the amount of movement required.
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