Mid-summer heat and that flat six Koolaid. A good mix.

We brought three of our 311RS Porsche units up to BIR for a mid-summer evaluation. We’d been driving them for a few months now, it’s time to see how much they’d improved since we were last here in April.

For our 981 Cayman S development unit, this would be the first true test for it. The first few months of the program were spent refining it’s road manners and bringing everything together, making it whole, rather than just a modified car.

For the 991 GT3 development unit, this was it’s fourth track day but the first in a modified state. The car is now running our Phase One setup: 991 GT3 Cup bushings & caliper studs, adjustable thrust arms/bearings, a focused performance alignment (still a street car), and finally a titanium Akrapovic Evolution Race exhaust system combined with an EvoMS tune.

Akrapovic claims ~25hp which is great, but our main reason for choosing their system was to reduce weight. The complete Akrapovic system is 49lbs. lighter than the OEM system. That’s huge.

The combination proved lethal. If you remember from our post about PCA First Fling, we had a baseline of 1:45 on the car. That was the first time we had it out, but even so it gave us a good idea of what the car had in it.

Ryan Gates ran a 1:37.7 lap time with our Phase One setup. “I figured the car would come alive with a proper setup, but shaving nearly 8 seconds off a lap time is huge. No doubt I’m more confident with the platform, but even so the improvements were clear.”, Ryan said of the 991 GT3.

With the 991 GT3 running smoothly, focus shifted to exploring the 981 Cayman S dev car. It’s running a well-balanced component set that includes suspension, brakes, wheels & tires, and engine upgrades.

The setup was a success. We were proud of how the car performed during it’s first real test.

The car is fast. Like quicker that GT4 fast. A good start, but we found some areas that can be improved moving forward.

Speaking of, until next time we’ll be out driving.