Getting a phone-call early on a Saturday morning isn’t something most people would be happy to get, but when I was greeted by Matyas telling me to get ready to come out to a Porsche track day, I was more then happy to oblige. So I packed away my camera gear, a jumper and a helmet for if I was able to get a ride in any of the cars out there.
Once arriving Matyi and myself did the usual rounds to say hello to Sam and his father, whilst scouting the car-ports for stand out cars (well actually they’re all amazing :P) I noticed that a familiar Cayman S was parked towards the end of the pit. This particular car belongs to a fellow named Guy Harding owner of Harding Performance. I had met Guy at a previous Porsche track day that I spontaniously attended one morning, if I recall correctly it was one of Guy’s first days out with some of his upgrades. They were getting some testing done before they traveled to Sydney for the Motor Magazine- Hot Tuner Challenge. Sadly the car broke an axle in the drag racing event and was unable to compete anymore.
I continued taking photos around the pits and of course some track action until I saw Guy pulling out into the staging lanes, so I quickly went and grabbed my helmet and ran over to his car and asked if I could go out for a session with him. Lucky for me he was more then happy to take me out on the track. After a brief chat to Guy in the pit-lane he told me that it was their first time back out to Queensland raceway in the Cayman since I previously saw them. The car had been repaired and had some more tweaks since last time.
So off we went for some laps. The track was still slightly damp in areas so the car was fitted with Hankook Ventus TD Time attack tyres over full slicks. After a few laps I was left all but speechless, under-brakes the car was like you’d hit a brick wall at 100kph, due to it’s turbo kit the car had fantastic straight line speed and being rear mid-engine it had great balance through the corners aswell. On the third lap Guy decided to drop back and let a fellow drivers GT3RS overtake so he could compare the cayman to it. Not surprisingly we kept up fairly easy, even with my added weight and Guy’s lack of seat time in this particular car. After finishing our cool-down lap we pulled into the pits and checked the racelogic lap timer, with my added weight, the lack of seat time and a slightly damp track we netted a 1:24 on the national circuit. Very impressive!!
I went and took a few more photos and had a look at a certain Lamborghini LP670 SV (as featured in Matyas’ post) then thought, whilst i’m out here why not approach Guy for a impromptu photoshoot, although the car was dirty from the rain I couldn’t pass up the chance. After having a quick chat to Guy he was more then happy to let me shoot it, as we were walking over to the car I asked him if he could move it over to the empty area of the car park, much to my suprise he said “the keys are in the ignition, you can move it around if you like” at this time I think a small amount of wee came out, to say the least I was extremely excited/shocked/happy. So not wanting to be rude I said i’d be happy to move it (probably still shaking a bit from the excitement at the time). Driving the car was a dream, recaro seats (similar to my own), rollcage, harness, etc. So off I went and moved it to the carpark, whilst moving it the looks I got were hilarious (19 year old driving a $200,000+car) but nothing was going to wipe the smile off my face. I parked up and got shooting, I only had one lens on me so I had to make the most of it, which I don’t think the photos came out too bad.
Anyways, enough rambling on, time to get to the photos.
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Some photos from Matyas
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Car info:
Porsche Cayman S
Jacquemond widebody kit (6”’ wider rear over stock)
Will take 255 fronts & 355 rears
TPC Turbo conversion, 450 – 550hp depending on fuel & boost.
TPC Clubsport Suspension set – Coil Overs / Sway Bars / Toe Arms
Quaife Differential
Oz Racing Allegerita Wheels
Hankook Ventus TD Time attack tyres
Brembo 6 pot 355mm front upgrade
Clubsport interior – GT3 seats & half cage
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More photos and high resolution can be found on:
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Special thanks to Guy Harding from Harding Performance
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Thanks,
Andrew Foy