Cayman GT4

[Barrykearley]

Lotus managed it no problem on the v8 esprit. Stock it sounds as exciting as a Ford mondeo. Can't think it would be that hard to silence the brute a bit

[Stubox]

54 minutes ago, Gashead1105 said:

 Will have a look for some noise cancelling ear phones.

Bose ones....bought when I had my first Exige, now an absolute must in the Cup especially when the 2bular is fitted. In fact car keys and headphones live next to each other. Not cheap but nor are a new pair of ears.

[Gashead1105]

That's what I'm thinking. how do they work, do you plug them into the radio via the aux in or just straight into the ipod? and does the radio/ipod have to be on for the ear phones to actually do their thing?

[Stubox]

Plug into either aux or iPod (not the 7 obviously) if you want some music. They work like normal ear phones , but then switch on the noise cancelling and you take away the hi pitch noises leaving the engine noise etc as background hum. I've often used them without plugging them in just with the noise cancelling on. They don't take away all noise - you still hear car horns etc...but they take away the 'din'.

Had mine for nearly 3 years now, happily last a days driving , think I used them for 7 hours straight on a long euro drive.

 

[Gashead1105]

Sounds perfect got to be worth a go rather than buying a while new car!! 

[JayEmm]

Noise cancelling headphones are pretty common in a lot of environments - they use them in helicopters, and people who convert race cars for the road usually wind up wearing them.

[French Frie]

@Gashead1105 : I suspect you don't have full carpeted cabin, right ? I do have in my hairdresser roadster, and I have to say it makes a BIG difference in road and chassis noises deleting ! I used to be tired by them in previous Elises (S1 & S2) on long journeys, but not now ...

[ramjet]

6 hours ago, JayEmm said:

I love my Elise, but I could not do a track day in Europe in it. Being inside it is nearly as bad as a motorbike in terms of noise. It gets very tiring, very fast.

Wear earplugs the same way racing drivers do.

[Tim Raven]

Don't worry about me and gear ratios, I'm just a silly old s*d, I like the thought of pulling a big gear at motorway cruising speeds, comes from knowing what it's like to be a poor boy and wanting to save fuel ( when you are wearing out brake pads, brake discs and tyres at an astonishing rate ).

One thing that might interest you was an experience I've had a couple of times at Silverstone, pulling onto the hanger straight behind a Cayman GTS, and finding it took most of the length go the Hanger Straight to get passed it ? On checking with the car's driver, it was a completely standard car but with PDK. It seems those perfectly optimised super quick changes really make up for horsepower, also the GTS isn't dragging a big wing through the air, I've always said how much better the GT4 would have been with PDK.....some people are never happy !

[NW76]

The PDK is seriously quick and will shift much faster than even the best racer in a manual ... but you know what ... its not always about the last 10th of a second ... I had dual clutch cars for the past 10 years and I purposely wanted a manual again ...

I now have much more fun in my Exige with a manual gearbox than I could ever have with a PDK ... I just feel so much more involved ... 

 

 

[JayEmm]

If the Cayman GT4 had come with a PDK box I don't think it would have got half the press it did.

A lot of TLFers might not realise it but a lot of Porsche fans were pissed off when the GT3 went PDK only, because they weren't all chasing lap-times - a lot of them wanted a "proper" driver's car - and a manual was something Ferrari hadn't offered in years

@Tim Raven I found out that when I did the airfield top speed day, you need a HUGE power-weight difference to just get past someone. When I was on track at Hethel, I was only really pulling past the Elises at 100mph+, that was with a more than 200bhp difference (ok yeah a weight difference too, but a significant bhp-kg advantage aswell)

[Gashead1105]

What does fully carpeted look like in one ofvthese? I have what can only be described as mats... 

Tim, the question is whether your GT4 is more fun and involving than a Cayman S? the one I drove was the 3.4 pdk and it could basically be described as 'nice', which is not enough for me. it was a very similar experience to drive to my golf gti ed30 with dsg and I got bored of that quickly! 

Anyway, I'm going to invest in some noise cancelling ear phones and hopefully keep my current car for a while longer. 

[French Frie]

@Gashead1105: here's how it looks like in my car ... I assume it doesn't weight a lot, and it has a real effect by "damping" bad sounds  ! and, IMHO, it makes the car's interior looking better  !

PS: note some older cars have the carpeting going only half way on sides, with an aluminium U corner to protect the carpet border...

 

 

 

 

 

[Gashead1105]

Cheers, yours looks great, you definitely have more than I do - I have exposed aluminium on the sides and immediately in front of the seats. basically just mats in the footwell. 

[Hangar 111]

18 hours ago, Barrykearley said:

Lotus managed it no problem on the v8 esprit. Stock it sounds as exciting as a Ford mondeo. Can't think it would be that hard to silence the brute a bit

It's not - just fit the Exige Y-pipe and you can take your pick from any of the V6 exhausts (except the 400 one!).  All freely available off the shelf right now.

Dave

[JayEmm]

The GT4 is miles better than the regular Cayman, as far as I recall.

However, if you get straight into it from an Exige, especially a fairly raw one, it will probably feel slow, unexciting and a bit too refined. But then most will next to an Exige.

A bit of carpet and maybe some dynamat would probably do a lot for the noise level in the Exige, but if it's like my Elise a huge amount of noise comes through the roof

[JayEmm]

Interestingly Motor Trend tested the Cayman at 4.1 seconds 0-60 - precisely the same as an Evora 400. I'm not surprised - also not surprised at Porsche's official number being slower. Got to give the 911 owners hope.

[French Frie]

a bit off topic, but Shmee has officially announced he's selling his "zo perfekt" GT4  :

not for an Exige though  ...

[JayEmm]

Looked at the pictures of that car, I should have spotted it yesterday as I was at Lancaster Colchester (Ferrari though not Porsche)

Interior of it looks drab drab drab. The GT4 I drove was much nicer - Porsches really do rise or fall by the spec sheet

[Gashead1105]

I looked that over at Colchester on Saturday. I thought the blue was great, but overall I preferred the one with 1,000 miles next to it with 918 seats and the clubsport package. Schmee's has 10,000 miles on it and is definitely 'comfort' spec. 

Interestingly, I was offered 5k off advertised price on the clubsport as soon as I spoke to the salesman about it, and Schmee's car has been reduced by 2k as well. Clearly they aren't moving at current prices and I hope they continue to fall. At 65k, it's a compelling proposition for an every day/occasional trackday car, at 90k there are too many other things which are nicer and cheaper available. I'd finance an MP12 personally at 90-100k, but what I'd actually do if I had that amount of cash would be to save 30k and buy an Evora.

Edited November 24, 2016 by Gashead1105

[Gashead1105]

On 21/11/2016 at 08:00, Gashead1105 said:

Anyway, I'm going to invest in some noise cancelling ear phones and hopefully keep my current car for a while longer. 

Holy thread resurrection batman! 

This is actually about the Bose earphones though. Did a 3 hour trip to Bristol in the exige yesterday evening. Motorway speeds the whole way. Earphones made the while thing really easy and relaxing, cancelled out all the tiring wind and other white noise and left me to cruise along with the ipod on and enjoy the remarkable ride quality given how awesome the car is as a track car. Also the latest lotus map seems to have really improved fuel economy, I've still got half a tank left after 130 miles at 75ish since the last fill up - on the trip to Spa last November I was starting to keep a close eye on the fuel gauge at this stage. Proof of the pudding will be in the mpg reading when I fill the car up next. It also feels quite a lot quicker as well, which is a bonus, picks up quicker and just feels more grunty. 

Anyway, moral of story is invest in noise cancelling ear phones and realise that the Exige is impossible to change for anything else! 

[JayEmm]

I feel like I should add something to this thread.

My friend who let me (kindly) drive his GT4 sold it, after only 2000 miles. Because his OPC phoned him and told him if he wanted to keep the value in it, then he shouldn't drive it because his was "very high mileage". Very high mileage was 5000 miles.

They lowballed him, then he traded it in for another car, then they advertised it nearly 10K above what they originally said they would. And sold it almost straight away. Lots of GT4s are being bought and sold, but judging by the miles, very few are being driven. A shame, as they really are great cars to drive.

Oh, and the new GT3 which they'd told him "wouldn't be limited availability" very much is.

Edited April 29, 2017 by JayEmm

[Gm77]

James - did you ask him why he sold his GT4? I presume his replacement car was something more bog standard?

If someone had offered to buy either my Elise or Evora shortly after I'd bought it, even if they offered me a premium, I'd have told them where to go! And that would be in the knowledge that I could still buy a replacement car in the same spec! The premium wouldn't be worth being without the car for me. 

[LF1]

On 20/11/2016 at 17:29, Stubox said:

Plug into either aux or iPod (not the 7 obviously) if you want some music. They work like normal ear phones , but then switch on the noise cancelling and you take away the hi pitch noises leaving the engine noise etc as background hum. I've often used them without plugging them in just with the noise cancelling on. They don't take away all noise - you still hear car horns etc...but they take away the 'din'.

Had mine for nearly 3 years now, happily last a days driving , think I used them for 7 hours straight on a long euro drive.

 

Don't try these if you have no roof   They "pop" trying to cancel out what I assume is changed in pressure as you drive along. Cracking headphones for a V6 though. 

[Swiss380Cup]

On 20/11/2016 at 21:58, Tim Raven said:

Don't worry about me and gear ratios, I'm just a silly old s*d, I like the thought of pulling a big gear at motorway cruising speeds, comes from knowing what it's like to be a poor boy and wanting to save fuel ( when you are wearing out brake pads, brake discs and tyres at an astonishing rate ).

One thing that might interest you was an experience I've had a couple of times at Silverstone, pulling onto the hanger straight behind a Cayman GTS, and finding it took most of the length go the Hanger Straight to get passed it ? On checking with the car's driver, it was a completely standard car but with PDK. It seems those perfectly optimised super quick changes really make up for horsepower, also the GTS isn't dragging a big wing through the air, I've always said how much better the GT4 would have been with PDK.....some people are never happy !

It's a very valid point.... I've owned and tracked 2 GT3 RS and 1 GT3 and one of the major advances in performance on Porsche cars was the PDK.... look at the 991 MK2 GT3....back on manual option... the penalty from 0-100 is 0.6 s for the manual vs PDK.... on a track it's several seconds a lap.....every lap.

The main reason I came to Lotus is for the light is right concept and the raw experience... I would always try to get rid of all sort of parts on Porsches to lighten it.... but on an Lotus it's getting difficult to do..... but I reckon that these cars are unbreakable...... I had 1 GT3 with which I did 42'000 MKS probably 60 % on tracks... Icould drive three days at Spa at the Porsche days than go to the Nurburgring for 1 day and drive back to Geneva and have the car service for an oil change and brake liquid change and a "review" fo potential issues without ever having found one..... 

But..... stilll I Love the Exige V6....

Would have numerous ideas on how to improve it but I'm A very creative mind....

Edited April 29, 2017 by Swiss360Cup