Rode in a track-prepped CaymanS yesterday, not impressed -- AND it broke... Options

[nebreitling]

So I bummed a ride from an instructor yesterday at Thunderhill. Beautiful black Cayman S riding on RA-1s (not my favorite tire), various suspension goodies (remote reservoir shocks, etc.), custom fabbed roll bar, race seats, etc. etc....

not impressed. the car might have been mal-adjusted -- and the driver (an instructor) was NOT terribly skilled IMHO -- but the car would not bite and turn in, it wanted to rotate oddly under heavy braking, and felt heavy and unsure. we were only doing 2:12's. with a better driver, i'm sure 2:08's would be in the bag, but i was expecting more like 2:05's or quicker. certainly the car was fast in the main straight.

and then it happened: coming out of turn one at (only) 70mph, he downshifted, let out the clutch, and spiked the rev-limiter. we both thought he missed the shift, so he stuck it back into 4th, let out the clutch.... and spiked the rev-limiter. nothing. no gearbox at all. we coasted around through turn 4, engine sounded fine, but there were some terrible noises coming from the rear of the car. a little puff of white smoke here and there.

by the time the tow truck had us in the paddock, the little puffs turned to big puffs, and got alarmingly black. big flames shooting out the passenger-side rear wheel well. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and got the fuck out of there! took two extinguishers to put it out, whatever it was...

i never got the chance to thank him for the ride... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

[Brad Roberts]

Well.. I the clutch broke and he broke the air oil seperator. It doesnt take much to kill the stock disc. I would rather kill the disc than the engine. The air/oil seperator sounds like it physically cracked and leaked oil out of it starting the fire.

Or.. like the other tracked late Boxsters/Caymans it popped the power steering line off and started the fire.. he would have felt that.

B