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Interestingly the GT86 was the warmup/evaluation car they used on a Porsche experience day (high praise if you ask me). I didn’t get a huge amount of time in the Toyota, just 2 laps of the tightish multi-surface track to make sure I was safe enough to let out in the expensive cars. They said the suspension was stock but the car was rolling on 225/45R17 & 255/40R17 PS2 (all the cars were on Michelin tyres). The other thing was I stepped out of the Toyota straight into their Cayman S (PASM equipped)
On the smooth surface sections the Twin was really good, felt absolutely planted & was very adjustable. Very close to the Cayman in terms of grip & handling ability, I think the Cayman was on PSS not PS2! However on the sections of the track with rough or uneven surfaces I was left with the GT86 skipping off the top of lumps & bumps. On those surfaces the Cayman absolutely destroyed the GT86 due to its composure, the Porsche was also a lot more comfortable in the cabin.
This tells me that fundamentally the Twins are 90% there in terms of a Cayman equivalent chassis but the suspension is lacking in the spring/damping balance compared to a PASM chassis. From what I’ve read the problem lays in the damping being too strong & not letting the wheel move fast enough. So the first order of business with the car is to sort the damping/ spring synergy out which means you do one of two things
1) Get slower/weaker dampers to allow for faster wheel movement.
2) Get stronger springs to allow for faster rebound reaction.
While it maybe cheaper to ‘fix’ the spring weight to get the better movement I think a PASM Cayman will ace a stiffer Twin on UK back roads. So you’re looking at the more expensive route of sorting the damping. Normally I’d head for Bilstein B4 dampers, but it doesn’t seem they exist for the Twins so maybe the B6 dampers.
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