In reading some reviews about my car online, and seeing some videos about the car, it would appear that everyone in the world loves my Cayman S except for Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear. He hates Porsches in general (he’s a Mercedes fan), though on occasion, he’ll admit that some Porsche models are brilliant – just not the Cayman S. He says that Porsche has “crippled” the Cayman S by not giving it a large enough engine, and had they given the Cayman a larger engine, it would have easily outperformed most 911s. He’s probably right – The Cayman is all about balance. On a “curvy” track, the mid-engine Caymans (and Boxters) would give the rear-engine 911s (the non-all-wheel-drive ones anyway) a run for their money. In the straights, however, the Caymans and Boxters lack the oompf of the 911s. As Clarkson’s summary chart clearly showed, Porsche doesn’t want any performance cross-over between the various models. They do this so they can charge accordingly for each step in performance. The Cayman S is designed to fit nicely between the Boxter and the base model 911. If the Cayman S had a 3.8L like the 911 S, no one would buy the 911 S.
The current Cayman S 3.4L engine is plenty big for me – I’m not that good a driver (yet).
If I were trading up (and money were no object), then a 911 Turbo (997) or a 2011 Speedster or a 2009+ Cayman S or a GT2 are the models I’d take over my 2006 Cayman S. All are stunningly beautiful – far prettier than the rest – and the Turbo is probably the prettiest of them all. Of course, the new electric Porsche 918 is simply the best – absolutely fantastic in speed and beauty – but it is currently unobtainable at any price. If/When it ever goes into production, it will be priced at around $660K. Guess I’ll need to start saving my pennies.