Teamspeed First Drive: 2013 Porsche Cayman
Do you really still want that 911?
by Peter Burgess—Teamspeed European Editor

What is it? Porsche’s mid-engined coupe now gets the class to match the dynamics.

Why do I care? As great as the latest 911 is, the Cayman offers a tactile, nimble character that is simply unsurpassable on the right road.

How fast is it? 3,436 flat 6, 325hp@7,400rpm, 273b ft@4,500rpm, 0-62mph 4.7sec, 177mph vmax

How much is it? From $63,800

Walter Rohrl, Porsche development driver, double World Rally Champion, legend, takes four of us to one side for a briefing. “You are to follow my 911 around the racetrack in convoy, with the car right behind me peeling off after one lap and falling to the rear of the pack. And no overtaking!”

Oh God. I hate this sort of controlled driving. Like you, dear Teamspeed member, I reckon I know a thing about fast cars and track work. Just point me at the pit exit and I’ll get on with it.

But it was not to be. So be it. I was second in the line of Caymans leaving pit road at the Faro International Circuit in southern Portugal, with Walter controlling the pace up ahead.

Like most journalists there I didn’t know the circuit and was thus unfamiliar with its swoops and sudden, dramatic changes of elevation. It’s a real driver’s circuit and arguably even too dangerous for Formula 1.

Sensibly Walter took it easy for the first lap, then upped the pace a touch for the second lap when I was behind him. Then my turn comes to drop the rear of the field and I use that old qualifying lap trick of falling right back to get a clear run.

Alarmingly, but rather pleasingly too, that coincided with Walter stepping up the tempo in a major way, and I found myself with a serious bit of catching up to do. It was hard, I won’t deny it, but the Cayman provided a simply thrilling, utterly engaging experience.

Switch into Sports Plus and all manner of focussed toughening up Cayman goes on. The dynamic transmission mounts stiffen to reduce the moment of inertia in corners. With PDK transmission there’s a new gearshift strategy. On the six-speed manual cars there an uncanny shift aid that blips the revs to perfectly match the track speed as you downshift. It’s the best manual change you’ll ever achieve in your life. And no one needs to know it wasn’t all-you!

Yet the PDK equipped Cayman will be the big seller. It is a sophisticated, refined sports car that is as easy to drive as an automatic Golf. The shifts are smooth and the performance figures show it be not only fractionally quicker than the manual car but more economical too.

And you can’t argue with a 0-62mph acceleration of 4.7 seconds. That’s serious performance. But jump in a manual car and there’s more for the driver to do, more inclination to hang onto the revs to the near 8,000rpm red line, and simply more excitement.

The S engine starts to get vocal around 4,000rpm and by 6,000 it’s starting to howl. The sports exhaust option makes it even noisier, though the sound has too much low-level resonance to be as pleasing as a 911.



Road and Track
America, it seems, is to blame for the switch from Porsche’s old hydraulic power steering to the current electric assistance. [England is to blame for American Idol—Eds.] Focus groups—how we love them—decided that light steering is great. Now you can even specify a super-light Servotronic option that gives additional power assist below 30mph.

Porsche aficionados will continue to stubbornly long for the old world, but the reality, especially in the Cayman, that you quickly get so immersed in the sheer thrill of driving that these little things are quickly forgotten.

The chassis is the secret weapon. Stiffer than the new Boxster by a factor of 2.3, it allows the suspension to be perfectly tuned for sports car handling. When you get beyond the simply enormous levels of grip, into the area where the rear wheels start to slide, the ease with which the car can be controlled is inspiring. And extremely flattering. There any number of safety measures built in to avoid things going completely pear-shaped, so in the right circumstances such as a track day, the outer reaches of the handling can be explored with an unusual degree of security.

Pick the optional Torque Vectoring and the rear differential lock works with selective wheel braking to stabilise the Cayman in extreme conditions. It means you power out of corners earlier and faster.



Interior
An obvious justification for the higher cost of the new Cayman is the quality of the interior. With a design based on that of the Panamera and latest 911, it is focussed around the wide central console that runs back between the seats.

It brings a new level of sophistication to the Cayman (and the Boxster). At the same time the traditional handbrake lever has been replaced by an electric parking brake button under the fascia.

The seats are fine in regular form but the optional sports seats are better. There also 18-way electric seats that probably destroy all of the 30kg weight saving the new car gains over the old.

Trunk space has always been pretty good in the Cayman/Boxster family, with space under front and rear lids. It’s up a few percentage points this time.

Conclusion
It’s the high levels of involvement and sublime chassis balance that really sets the new Cayman apart. You’ll never convince a 911 owner that this small Porsche has enough power, and don’t even get into a conversation with a Shelby GT500 driver (twice the power, $9,000 cheaper).

But the Cayman is remarkably complete car, finely honed mechanically, beautiful to look at and with a sublime European sports car interior. It’s very impressive.

 

Ahh......the manual.

 

Great write up by Peter !! Love that interior Do you find the 981 Cayman superior compared to the 987 ?

 

Great artiche from Peter, glad he got to test a manual!

 

Is there any chance that SharkWerks or a similar company will produce an engine upgrade for the new Cayman? I would like to see one with power around 375hp/300tq, right in between the 991 Carrera and Carrera S

 

me too !

 

If you're going to pay for an engine rebuild, no reason not to set the target power to over 400hp, imo...

 

Loving the new Audi'esque interiors. Porsche interiors finally getting as nice as the exteriors, started with the 991

 

I want this thing SO bad.

 

Drove one the other day, to sum it up in a few words.....great ride, terrible side mirrors, and needs more power.
~Brad