The 3.4-liter flat-6 in the $66,300 Cayman R adds 10 horsepower, peaking at 200 rpm higher than the engine in the $62,100 Cayman S and $61,800 Boxster Spyder. It retains the same 273 pound-feet of torque that arrives at 4,750 rpm. The big news, however, is the 121-pound weight loss over the standard Cayman. In fact, the Cayman R, fixed roof and all, is only 44 pounds heavier than the Boxster Spyder.

And for sheer hard driving, the premium paid for the "R" hardtop is justified by the knowledge that you've got the most focused model the company makes — at least as far as physics is concerned. Porsche brought us here to prove just that.

Go, Green!

Wouldn't you know it, the Cayman R setups we most wanted to test ended up painted "Peridot Metallic" — a.k.a. Fruit Roll-Up green. Hues aside, the Mallorca track very soon showed us what configuration was best should one want to spend weekends on racetracks. Roughly 45 percent of all U.S. Cayman buyers opt for the $3,660 dual-clutch PDK seven-speed and also grab the Sport Chrono or Sport Chrono Plus option, so we started with that version.

Besides the 55 added pounds of the PDK transmission, our first car lacked the $8,150 optional ceramic brakes. On the tight Mallorca track this wasn't optimal, but the conventional stoppers never let us down. Even in Sport Plus, downshifts are sometimes slow enough that we had to anticipate the shift, which shouldn't be necessary. Then, after five or six hot laps, we had to slow our pace as pedal feel from the conventional brakes began to suffer. Put all that together on club day and you lose ground.

We then grabbed a greenie with ceramic brakes and the manual transmission and the clouds parted to show us the light. Between the gears being right there exactly as we envisioned (thanks some to the shorter-throw $765 sport shift option) and the all-day late braking from the 13.8-inch ceramic rotors, laps were noticeably quicker. But on a more relaxed and faster track, we'd have a harder time arguing against the PDK. In any case, you'll want the ceramic brakes unless you just want to use the Porsche Cayman R for posing at fashion shoots.

Chassis Changes

Eberhard Armbrust, Cayman vehicle dynamics leader, took us through the balancing-act changes that have gone into the Cayman R. There is no Porsche Active Suspension Management available. Rather, there's a specifically calibrated set of Bilstein dampers and higher-rate springs that lower the R 0.8 inch relative to the Cayman S.

Negative wheel camber front and rear has been increased to improve turn-in response while cornering. Standard wheels are the forged 19-inchers from the Boxster Spyder, which, at 8.5 inches wide front and 10 inches wide rear, add half an inch of width over the Cayman S wheels and drop 11 pounds of rolling weight (24.8 pounds each vs. 22 pounds each).