Drove a Porsche Cayman this weekend...

[Hokiefyd]

...and would now be an owner had I the dough to roll.

A friend at church has one, and we went golfing this weekend. He's told me before he wanted to let me try it, and I've been itching to do so. After golf, we took the Porsche out for a little bit. I really liked the interior: it was nice and tight without being cramped. I loved how close the gauges are to you, but you still have a lot of leg room. I don't care for the current trend of pushing the dash so far forward in current vehicles.

The drive was, of course, excellent. The 2.9L H-6 starts with a rasp, and has a snarly exhaust note. The clutch pedal feel is nice...firm but not too awful heavy. The throttle (DBW I'm sure) was very stiff and was mapped to be rather soft (in response) for the first inch or so of travel. I kept trying to stall it from a stop, not giving it enough gas. Once moving, it felt fine. The brakes were outstanding. I like the hill start assist: when stopped on a hill with the clutch in, if you release the brake pedal, the car will stay still for about 2 seconds, and then will start rolling backwards. Purists probably don't care for that kind of stuff, but I appreciated it.

The owner is a fair number of years older than I am, and I'm not sure how hard he's driven it before. I barked the tires on the 1-2 shift a few times, and he thought that was neat. It's a 2010, and only has about 2,900 miles on it. Fun car. Won't hold a set of golf clubs, but still, nice car!

 

[TomYoung]

A Cayman will hold two sets of golf clubs.

 

[hate2work]

Did it have the dual clutch transmission option? Or was it the straight manual tranny?

No room for golf clubs? Even in the front trunk?

 

[daves87rs]

Nice!

 

[scurvy]

Originally Posted By: hate2work
Did it have the dual clutch transmission option? Or was it the straight manual tranny?


Sounds like a proper manual transmission to me.

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
The clutch pedal feel is nice...firm but not too awful heavy.


Hokiefyd, you sure it won't hold a couple sets of clubs? I thought that was mentioned during the Top Gear review of the car.

I've seen one in person, and it is mighty... big. For a Porsche.

 

[dailydriver]

Aesthetically, I like the Cayman much more than it's larger, more powerful 911 type series siblings.

It would be downright dangerous with one of those GT2/3 or RSR powerplants installed (if that were even physically/logistically possible).

 

[Jim 5]

I can't remember whether it was a C&D or a R&T review but they said they couldn't understand why a person would buy a 911 when the Cayman S is 95% as good for way less money.

My neighbour has a one year old Cayman S and it's a nice looking car and sounds great, though I'll admit it's fairly loud (too loud in my mind) for an unaltered factory exhaust.

I've never driven one but would like to.

 

[MCompact]

I'd like to pick up a CPO Cayman S in a few years; it's a very nice car- and a wonderful track rat.

 

[Audi Junkie]

My 1st choice in a sports car.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I'm not sure about the golf clubs. The owner claims it won't hold a set. When he plays, he has to put his clubs in the front seat. We took my car to play golf.

It was a true manual 6-speed.

The exhaust was surprisingly loud to me for a factory exhaust. I liked it, and didn't think it was inappropriate, but it was louder than I figured.

The engine was not as smooth as I thought it would be. More NVH in the engine than I expected.

 

[CivicFan]

It probably will require some logistical effort to fit two sets of golf clubs. In my Z4, I can fit two sets of clubs in the trunk but it's a long process. It's much easier to carry them in the passenger seat area.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
I'm not sure about the golf clubs. The owner claims it won't hold a set. When he plays, he has to put his clubs in the front seat. We took my car to play golf.

It was a true manual 6-speed.

The exhaust was surprisingly loud to me for a factory exhaust. I liked it, and didn't think it was inappropriate, but it was louder than I figured.

The engine was not as smooth as I thought it would be. More NVH in the engine than I expected.

They are interesting cars eh, an old friend from university was visiting and he had a boxster, and offered me a drive. I was also surprised how loud it got when you got into the gas compared to normal driving, but it sounded to me like porsche really spent alot of time on getting the exhaust and intake noise to sound good in the drivers seat. I was also surprised by the on throttle understeer coming out of slower corners but I guess mid and rear engine cars are a bit prone to that with a safe stock alignment and steam roller back tires. I'm sure on a track it would be a blast.

 

[Craig in Canada]

I haven't been following more recent developments, but I know that Porsche offers a "motor sound" (may go by other names) option on some cars. I think they also have "sport exhaust" and other options which buyers can choose which will make it louder than the base system.

That being said, I've never found a factory-tuned Porsche exhaust system objectionable no matter how "loud" it was. I spent some time with a 1995 993C4 with the "motor sound" option and I thought it was great. It's worth noting that the sound is not only from the exhaust, but there are several intake modifications which are also done to give it that pleasant barkiness.

Whenever the time comes that I can get another one, this option will be on my list of desired options when shopping. In a car designed with that purpose, a nice soundtrack is highly desirable.

 

[Doug Hillary]

Hi,
I had a Cayman on loan for a day recently - quite nice

My two 928s and my current Boxter (hardtop & softtop) were/are very very quiet - with almost inaudible exhausts. The Boxster is generally quieter with the hood down, except for wind noise of course although the wind deflector devices work very well indeed

Porsche sells a "sport" audible exhaust kit as a Factory option

The Privateer Caymans racing at the 24Hr at the Nurburgring were the quietest of all - the BMW Z4s sounded just great!

 

[rpn453]

Originally Posted By: dailydriver
It would be downright dangerous with one of those GT2/3 or RSR powerplants installed (if that were even physically/logistically possible).

Though probably not nearly as dangerous as hanging one of those engines behind the rear axle!

I like the looks and concept of the Cayman. I'd love to take one for a drive.

 

[jaj]

Originally Posted By: dailydriver
It would be downright dangerous with one of those GT2/3 or RSR powerplants installed (if that were even physically/logistically possible).

There was a story early on, perhaps apocryphal, perhaps not, that Porsche made a public commitment not to put a production engine in the Cayman that would allow it to outperform a 911. That doesn't stop privateers and my understanding is that there are shops that will happily (and expensively) install a GT3 engine in your Cayman. It fits, apparently, without a lot of fiddling. The wiring harness and the exhaust are the complex bits.

Porsche's strategic problem with the Cayman is that it's actually a better chassis than the 911 chassis - it's stiffer, lighter, has better weight distribution and a lower polar moment of inertia with the engine mounted ahead of the rear axle.

 

[Audi Junkie]

Maybe it has the sound tube to the interior like some new VWs. That would make it seem louder than TUV limits would normally allow.