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Would the Porsche Cayman Make a Good Race Car?

Posted by: David Hurth  /  Category: Porsche, Racing, Video

All Porsche sports cars were meant to be raced. The cars while quite good at the normal daily driving, really come alive on a track, especially when race prepped. While Porsche mainly races the Porsche 911 and at times special race variants, cars such as the Porsche 914, Porsche 944, Porsche Boxster and Porsche Cayman (just to name a few) have shown to be very good on the track.

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Need proof of this? Just look at what Dan Clarke has done with a Porsche Cayman S in the Intercontinental Trophy Cup Series. Last Sunday at the New Jersey Motorsports Park he dominated the competition in the series. While I love the Porsche 911, one does wonder why Porsche doesn’t look at the possibility of a Porsche Cayman race car. Just think of a Porsche Cayman RSR with the same power as the Porsche 911! The handling would be brilliant and then it would have a lot of power (although the 330 hp in the Porsche Cayman that Dan drove is not bad). It could be such a good car that it could possibly beat the Porsche 911 on many tracks.

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While the Porsche 911 makes a great race car and a good driver can do some really amazing things with the platform, one has to wonder if the more balanced Porsche Cayman would end up being a faster car overall. You would loose a lot of traction, but should be able to take the corners a bit faster and if the power was the same it could make for an interesting race. While I don’t think Porsche will (or should) abandon the Porsche 911 race car, the addition of a Porsche Cayman race car would be interesting (it may also help increase sales as people like to drive what they see raced). I doubt it will ever happen, but then at one time Porsche did race the Porsche 924 Carrera GT at Le Mans, so anything is possible.

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The below is more information about Dan Clarke and his has this last weekend in the Intercontinental Trophy Series.

Former Champ Car and Indy Lights racer, Dan Clarke, had the perfect start to his sports car career at New Jersey Motorsports Park last Sunday. The Indianapolis, Indiana based Englishman totally dominated the Intercontinental Trophy Cup Series in his Isringhausen Motorsports with Chris Smith Racing Porsche Cayman. “Speedy” Dan more than lived up to his nick name by topping the time sheets in every session, qualifying the car in pole position,1.4 seconds quicker than the field, winning both 25 lap races and picking up fastest lap in each.

Clarke was offered the chance to drive the 330 bhp Porsche Cayman S car and did not need to be asked twice. “Having spent much of last year coaching team boss Geoff Isringhausen, I was delighted when I was able to complete the deal to race the car in both events in New Jersey”, Dan explained. He went on to describe how much fun the car was to drive and how great it felt to be back on the top step of the winners podium. “I had pole positions and good results in Champ Car but nothing beats the feeling of driving into victory lane.” The Yorkshire born driver has clearly regained thirst for victory, “I would love to do more races this season for Geoff’s team, they are a terrific set of guys and do a really professional job at every event”.

Team mate and Clarke’s student, Geoff Isringhausen was thrilled with his coach’s efforts. “Isringhausen Imports was voted one of the top 25 Porsche dealers in the USA for 2012 and I love the fact that Dan along with Chris Smith Racing is helping Isringhausen Motorsports mirror the performance and achievements of our showrooms on the race track”.

The next round of the series for the Porsche Cayman S cars will take place on June 3rd at Watkins Glen, New York and Clarke is eager to keep this developing hot streak alive, “Geoff and I are working hard to ensure that I can maintain this momentum at the Glen next month and hopefully for the rest of the season”

The below video is from inside the car. The sound is incredible and it shows the potential of a Porsche Cayman S race car.

You can find out more about Dan here.

Quoted portions of this post are from the 9 Sixty Two Media press release.

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