'What were they thinking?!' Porsche Cayman rear damping: Ohlins, FCM Elite and 997!

This one is kind of a heart-scratcher and I definitely intend to follow-up and seek more feedback from Porschephiles. What I know regarding Cayman vs 911 is there's some bad blood between the two on which is the better-handling car, which is more 'truly iconic Porsche', and who knows what else. I think they're both great sports cars, but I really had to wonder 'what were the engineers thinking?!' when I saw the factory rear Cayman damping forces!

It's very very VERY stiff on compression - to the point that nearly any mild bump (over 5 inch/sec, which is quite low speed) will cause the rear suspension to JUMP up and reduce contact patch with the ground. This will lead to a VERY BUSY ride, and an unforgiving suspension over any kind of broken or uneven road.

In stark contrast is the Porsche 911 (997), which is contemporaneous to the Cayman. The 997 rear shock (nearly a 1:1 motion ratio but just slightly lower) is supporting even more weight than the Cayman rear strut. So theoretically, the 997 rear should be a little stiffer but it's actually MUCH softer - or rather let me say, the 997 rear is less harsh. It's still overdamped on both compression and rebound, but not to the degree that the Cayman is.

If someone wanted to make the theoretically 'better-handling' Cayman suffer a ride quality penalty for outshining the 997, you can make that happen by overdamping the suspension. That's exactly what I see, and there's no good reason for it other than to make the Cayman ride worse than the 997 on rough roads.

What are your thoughts? Please pass this video along to any Porsche enthusiast you know, in case this information and dyno graphs aren't already available and have been discussed.

To get in touch for your own FCM Elite Project, send us an inquiry:

http://www.fatcatmotorsports.com/contact_elite.htm