If your Cayman broke tomorrow, would you have regrets?
#1
01-11-2013, 02:18 AM
If your Cayman broke tomorrow, would you have regrets?
As I sit here with $90k invested in the now "Porsche paperweight" in my garage, a lot of my friends and fellow car enthusiast ask me if I'm upset by the loss of my cayman.
The day it broke, yes, I was upset. But as the days and weeks passed and even to this day I felt no anger, sadness or regret.
Why?
Over the 68k miles and ~5.5 years of owning this car I've taken this thing to the moon and back, and then some. Each mile and minute driven done with zero concern of resale, mileage, or whatever. I did everything to make me happy. My greatest accomplishments while the Cayman was living include:
1. I've modded the car to a point where I wouldn't trade it for anything else on the road except a signal green 997.1 GT3 RS
2. I've been to numerous car shows and have had crowds of people stand around it like it was a Pagani (Cool feeling btw)
3. I've honestly found the limits to this car and developed a perfect driver-to-car relationship with it where we work in an amazing unison together
4. Made some bad*** car videos that I can look at forever
5. Got my car to shoot flames and capture
6. Took the Cayman on a 436mi road rally chasing down Lamborghinis
7. Tons of photo shoots
8. Shoe-horned a 5.0L V8 in there for a month
...Just Kidding....
9. Thousands upon thousands of amazing road exploration miles where I just fill the car up on gas and follow a road until it ends.
10. High speed sprints and time attacks
11. Been pulled over more times than I can honestly remember. My personal best is 3 times in one day
12. Learned a lot about cars by doing every modification and servicing myself.
13. Brought smiles, laughs, and "OH SH*T!! SLOW DOWN" to faces of friends and family members when giving them rides.
14. Officially daily drove the car for 5.5 years and it even served as my Home Depot getter :dance:
15. Never crashed or caused an accident! Still wondering why my insurance is through the roof though
16. Made enough car guy friends with the Cayman to get to drive some of my dream cars (GT3's, Lambo's, Ferrari's, cars that run 1 1/4mi in the 10's)
Turbo Exige S:
17. Learned the art of professional detailing with it and doing 28 hour full car detail marathons.
The only things that I find myself kicking me in the arse for is:
1. Not taking it on track more. I would have loved to have set base laptimes at VIR the day I got the car back in '07 and done some this past summer 2012 to gauge how much my car and myself have improved.
1.a. Perform in an official hillclimb like Pike's Peak
2. Ship my car to Germany during the 2012 year and living there for a month with a buddy and attacking the Nurburgring on a daily basis.
3. Cross country road trip from DC to CA. I would have really liked to have done this. Make a nice stop in Colorado to see the most beautiful state in the USA
Besides that, no regrets. My Cayman rests in peace... Remodeled the garage too to give her a nice coffin
So... if your Cayman threw a rod tomorrow, engine bearing, IMS failure, was wrecked in an accident, had to be sold for financial reasons, or was stolen... would you have any regrets?
What are some of the things that you want to do before and IF your Cayman kicks the can?
The day it broke, yes, I was upset. But as the days and weeks passed and even to this day I felt no anger, sadness or regret.
Why?
Over the 68k miles and ~5.5 years of owning this car I've taken this thing to the moon and back, and then some. Each mile and minute driven done with zero concern of resale, mileage, or whatever. I did everything to make me happy. My greatest accomplishments while the Cayman was living include:
1. I've modded the car to a point where I wouldn't trade it for anything else on the road except a signal green 997.1 GT3 RS
2. I've been to numerous car shows and have had crowds of people stand around it like it was a Pagani (Cool feeling btw)
3. I've honestly found the limits to this car and developed a perfect driver-to-car relationship with it where we work in an amazing unison together
4. Made some bad*** car videos that I can look at forever
5. Got my car to shoot flames and capture
6. Took the Cayman on a 436mi road rally chasing down Lamborghinis
7. Tons of photo shoots
8. Shoe-horned a 5.0L V8 in there for a month
...Just Kidding....
9. Thousands upon thousands of amazing road exploration miles where I just fill the car up on gas and follow a road until it ends.
10. High speed sprints and time attacks
11. Been pulled over more times than I can honestly remember. My personal best is 3 times in one day
12. Learned a lot about cars by doing every modification and servicing myself.
13. Brought smiles, laughs, and "OH SH*T!! SLOW DOWN" to faces of friends and family members when giving them rides.
14. Officially daily drove the car for 5.5 years and it even served as my Home Depot getter :dance:
15. Never crashed or caused an accident! Still wondering why my insurance is through the roof though
16. Made enough car guy friends with the Cayman to get to drive some of my dream cars (GT3's, Lambo's, Ferrari's, cars that run 1 1/4mi in the 10's)
Turbo Exige S:
17. Learned the art of professional detailing with it and doing 28 hour full car detail marathons.
The only things that I find myself kicking me in the arse for is:
1. Not taking it on track more. I would have loved to have set base laptimes at VIR the day I got the car back in '07 and done some this past summer 2012 to gauge how much my car and myself have improved.
1.a. Perform in an official hillclimb like Pike's Peak
2. Ship my car to Germany during the 2012 year and living there for a month with a buddy and attacking the Nurburgring on a daily basis.
3. Cross country road trip from DC to CA. I would have really liked to have done this. Make a nice stop in Colorado to see the most beautiful state in the USA
Besides that, no regrets. My Cayman rests in peace... Remodeled the garage too to give her a nice coffin
So... if your Cayman threw a rod tomorrow, engine bearing, IMS failure, was wrecked in an accident, had to be sold for financial reasons, or was stolen... would you have any regrets?
What are some of the things that you want to do before and IF your Cayman kicks the can?
Last edited by golfguy11800; 01-11-2013 at 02:21 AM.
#3
01-11-2013, 06:07 AM
Phat_J,
Thanks for the kind words.
Housekeeping notes... Gotta give a shout out to my videographer. Over the years he's helped me capture both still and motion pictures of my car. Priceless permanent memories that I will be able to look back at years from now and be able to relive. His latest piece is the video in my OP. It's very hard to find such creativity and vision in a reliable, trustworthy friend. If you're in the MD/PA area and want to have an epic video of your car you should contact him at his YouTube channel "WeJustDrive." ---> http://www.youtube.com/feed/UC2R0KlB3MS8dr3f7GmiYBYg
I'm sure he's reading this now, so cheers to us and hopefully filming Signal Green 997.1 GT3 RS's down the road and other neat bits of kit, thanks mate.
If and when I find out what is wrong with my car I will let you all know. As of right now it's just a spiderweb of possible problems from needing new electrics, new transmission, ECU, engine problems, etc. I've nearly driven myself insane with my mechanic friend trying to diagnose the issue.
Thanks for the kind words.
Housekeeping notes... Gotta give a shout out to my videographer. Over the years he's helped me capture both still and motion pictures of my car. Priceless permanent memories that I will be able to look back at years from now and be able to relive. His latest piece is the video in my OP. It's very hard to find such creativity and vision in a reliable, trustworthy friend. If you're in the MD/PA area and want to have an epic video of your car you should contact him at his YouTube channel "WeJustDrive." ---> http://www.youtube.com/feed/UC2R0KlB3MS8dr3f7GmiYBYg
I'm sure he's reading this now, so cheers to us and hopefully filming Signal Green 997.1 GT3 RS's down the road and other neat bits of kit, thanks mate.
If and when I find out what is wrong with my car I will let you all know. As of right now it's just a spiderweb of possible problems from needing new electrics, new transmission, ECU, engine problems, etc. I've nearly driven myself insane with my mechanic friend trying to diagnose the issue.
Last edited by golfguy11800; 01-11-2013 at 06:16 AM.
#6
01-11-2013, 09:33 AM
Great post OP. Sounds like you had a lot of fun with it! Its great to see a sports car driven hard and regularly 
#7
01-11-2013, 09:44 AM
Maybe the best car thread on the interwebs, but definitely here on TS.
What happened to the car?
What happened to the car?
#8
01-11-2013, 09:59 AM
Awesome post Chad !! Thank you for sharing your great experience and keep us updated on what you and your mechanic find out
