The Intelligent Money Racing 718 Cayman build thread!

[Steve H]

So I guess I should start with a bit of back story here............

I’ve been playing on race tracks for a while now; I started with bike racing back in the 80s, I was trackdaying in cars from the mid-90s, began instructing in the mid 00s and I finally got round to start competing on four wheels about seven years ago.

The maths clearly makes me well past my sell-by date as an aspiring racer but with a miracle of experience overcoming decrepitude it turned out that all that practice had beaten down a lack of natural talent and I now have a few shelves full of plastic trophies including one championship win; and an empty bank account .

I did a few bits of racing last year but my last full season was 2018 and while I did want to do more and I knew what I wanted to build next, I also knew I would need a bit of help and there isn’t always a lot of support available in the glamorous world of UK club racing .

What I needed was a sponsor , someone with a business to promote, a sense of enthusiasm and a love for motorsport...........


In steps Julian PH, boss at Intelligent Money, sponsor of the PH finance forum and main Championship sponsor of British GT, a mad enthusiast if I ever did see one!

In a chance conversation I suggested that it shouldn’t be all about champagne and six figure GT cars and there was plenty of fun to be had supporting club racing as well. By the time we had finished talking the bare bones of a plan were in place............



The car had to be suitably attractive to an audience and while I’ve had plenty of success in the 106 that I’ve owned for almost 20 years, it wasn’t quite the look or image we were aiming for



So instead we decided on something a little more aesthetically pleasing



A 2.0 turbo 718 Cayman.

Unfortunately however, this is still racing on a budget so our starting point is not quite as pretty as it first seems



Yep, she’s a write-off, but not for too long!!

We are underway with the project so I’ll keep updating if it’s of interest?

[Steve H]

Thanks for the comments fellas, the damage doesn’t look so bad but the hero in question had somehow managed to stick it in on three out of four corners, bumper, wing, bonnet, headlamp are all done and it clipped a few bits of paintwork along the way. The wheels are trashed, front radiator with AC rad, housing and fan are smashed, rear toe arm and some steering parts are no longer the original shape. Put this together with the price of Porsche parts and it’s an insurance write off.

Fortunately a lot of this stuff was getting replaced or can be repaired to a good race standard anyway so not such an issue for us.

Sam, yep it’s awesome on right handers but won’t turn left , we have a plan to sort this .

Paul, it could well have been me, I used to work for the circuit and still instruct there for Circuit Days.

Caddy, the plan is that the car has been pre-disastered so shouldn’t need any more T-Cut .

I should also say that we are running pics and info about the car on Facebook and Instagram so if you are on either please look for Intelligent Money Racing and give us a like to help spread the word .

[Steve H]

Thanks GPM, I’m a fair hack from you I think (Stafford) but appreciate the offer

I’ve also had a PHer contact me via instagram to offer help with livery design, not sure of his handle on here but many thanks @racerdesigns .

[Steve H]

So next stage of the build was to check it was worth building and that there was no hidden issues following its crash.

I started by taking the car over to Chris at CenterGravity for a checkover and to start the shopping list of what I would need to get the suspension right.



Aside from the bent rear arm causing massive toe out, the front left steering arm was also bent giving a load of toe in so it was a bit entertaining getting the car on my trailer as it was crabbing on severely and there was only a couple inches either side to play with.



Fortunately Chris was able to put a spare rear arm on and cut/weld the steering arm as temporary fixes so we could check the rest of the car was straight.



Fortunately it was all good so we could move forward................

[Steve H]

Ash_ said:

Really keen to see how this develops and hopefully see it race somewhere (as a Cayman owner, all be it and older 987.2).

Can’t fault ya, I’ve had a 987.1S for about 7 years, mega car!

[Steve H]

So next on the menu was to strip the damaged parts and dispose of unnecessary bits.....









It had survived pretty well considering but the rads are very exposed on the corners so the are scrap along with the bumper wing and a bunch of other plastic bits. As it happens I wanted to change the bumper anyway but less fortunate was that the headlight was also smashed and you should see the price of them

[Steve H]

I wish I could get a used one for £170-300


There was one photo that I forgot to post earlier, this part is supposed to be straight, could explain the rear toe

[Steve H]

Hi Martin, you have email!

[Steve H]

PorkInsider said:

Great thread!

Will you be slipping into the odd conversation that (by a little stretch of the imagination) JB is, technically, your teammate?

Already on it

[Steve H]

So these updates may appear to be coming quickly. It isn’t really a sign of the actual pace of progress, just that I started the project before I started the thread so I’m catching up .

Anyhoo....

Next up comes stripping out the inside of the car. A load of stuff is obviously coming out anyway but we also need to make room for the cage to be fabricated in so that means dash out, windscreen, tailgate etc as well.

So that means starting with this -







And ending up with this -





And a few leftovers like this -





The top part of the dash will be going back in but the rest is heading for ebay with the full airbag kit that strangely did not detonate in the crash!

[Steve H]

Have you ordered the IM Racing teeshirts for dogs yet Julian?

[Steve H]

So, next instalment is the cage.

There’s very little available off the shelf for the 718 Cayman, in fact there’s not much for the previous model 981 either (which shares pretty much the same shell) so this was going to be a build from scratch job.

Welding is one area that I lack skill more than most others so while I’m happy to do most of the work on this car myself I figured the safety cage should probably be done properly, you know, just in case .

For this I’ve been gone to a local workshop tun by a racer with an annoyingly good understanding of how to build a fast race car, they do a bit of general repair and exhaust work but also a lot of trackcar prep and some very funky fabrication. They also ran the car that was our main competition in the 2018 championship that I raced in but they assured me that there was no hard feelings.............

We started off getting some ideas from pictures of the factory cage in the GT4 CS, this showed how they dealt with some of the mounting points etc and an idea of general layout, then they set to work.............


















This takes me pretty much up to date so the updates may well slow a bit from here, hopefully early next week the cage and other bits of fabrication will be finished and I can get the car back but it’s not a part of the job that should be rushed!

It’s a pretty odd experience being involved with the development of a crash structure where you are discussing the best ways of surviving various flavours of severe shunt but it’s kind of reassuring to be putting the effort in at this stage in the hope that it won’t be needed later .

[Steve H]

No, the way the car is laid out the front turrets are well supported as standard but also very hard to tie in or brace. The cage is bound to add rigidity but the beauty of starting with a car that is designed to be fast in the first place is we can concentrate on adding strength for safety.

[Steve H]

JulianPH said:

Steve, I asked you not to waste money on a safety cage, what did you think all that light weight bubble wrap I sent you was for?

Sorry Julian, the stuff you sent wasn’t the proper FIA product but to see if it’s worth investing in that I tried it in in my road Cayman anyway and all the popping noise was distracting my zen like driving technique

[Steve H]

ChevronB19 said:

That’s one hell of a cage, looks good! Does it need certification?

No, it simply needs to pass scrutineering which is based on the MSUK "blue book" regulations.

Suffice to say it well exceeds the requirements .

[Steve H]

I thought parquet might be a bit OTT

[Steve H]

Yes I have seen those photos and we did look at options but there doesn’t seem to be a good way of reinforcing there so I’m relying on my smooooooooth driving style instead

[Steve H]

Teeshirt teeshirt teeshirt

[Steve H]

We’ll have to talk kit for next year, I can see the paddock being well attired with IM tees and caps .

And just in case anyone thinks we’re just playing with our dogs and not building cars, the front aero mods are well in hand and they tell me I might have the car back by the weekend so I can start painting the cage

[Steve H]

Thanks, it’s all happening too slowly for my taste but we are making progress with aero, cooling and suspension plans all underway at the moment so hopefully more updates very soon!

We will be waiting to see the calendars before confirming what the first season’s racing will involve.

If we go for a single championship the current favourite is MSVT SuperCup; they spent most of this season at Brands which would make it a poor choice for me but a lot of that was due to corona rescheduling and they tell me next year will be different. However they are a largely southern based series with a natural bias towards MSV circuits so possibly unlikely to get to Croft or Anglesey both of which would be favourites for me.

An alternative would be to play in a few different series, the car should slot nicely in with MSVT, CSCC, 750, BRSCC and others so we could have a season trying some different paddocks.