Porsche Cayman By Andrew Frankel of The Sunday Times
A little bit of a blot on the badge
You have to hand it to Porsche. At the press conference for this, its new Cayman (as opposed to the existing, rather quicker, Cayman S), it made two statements. One was about the car but the other was about how clever and profitable Porsche was.
Immodest to the point of arrogance, but then Porsche is a company that appears unable to do wrong. Even when it produces something as inappropriate, ugly and flawed as the Cayenne it still becomes a bestseller. So it is perhaps understandable and even excusable that this appears to have gone to its head, particularly when little more than a decade ago Porsche appeared to be beyond economic resurrection.
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Nor should we forget that most Porsches are still dreams to drive. There's no slickly marketed mediocrity, no sense that you can cut mechanical corners just because a large proportion of Porsche drivers couldn't tell a fine-handling car from a milk float. Porsche's engineering values are as high as they come: if you are BMW or Mercedes you simply cannot ignore engineering integrity like this.
Which is why it feels so strange to be writing about a slightly disappointing Porsche. If you forget the Cayenne, as I try to, there is no other Porsche I've struggled as hard to appreciate.
It's like a £44,080 Cayman S that's had the stuffing knocked out of it. Its 2.7 litre engine develops just 245bhp instead of the 295bhp of the S, its gearbox has just five gears, there's softer suspension, smaller wheels and smaller brakes. Sure, it's cheaper than the S and the £36,220 price tag sounds like a decent saving.
Until you realise it's still £3,050 more than an identically powered Boxster, which uses the same platform and comes with a convertible roof.
This is marketing gone crazy. When the apparent anomaly is pointed out,
Porsche says the Cayman is quicker than the Boxster, although that is impossible to detect. It also says it has more luggage space than the Boxster, as if that's a serious concern to anyone looking to buy a small two-seat sports car.
The truth that dare not speak its name is that the Cayman is positioned above the Boxster in the model hierarchy, so it has to cost more. In the same way, Porsche refuses to equip the Cayman S with a limited slip differential, not because the car does not need one (it does), but to do so would make it quicker around a track than a much more expensive 911. And that would never do.
Seen in isolation it's rather easier to make the Cayman's case. It steers with that easy fluency Porsche finds so simple but which eludes its competitors. Its control weights, from the wheel past the gearlever to the pedals, seem not only individually ideal but perfectly matched. And if you show it the whip, the engine responds with all the energy and enthusiasm you'd hope from a car wearing the shield of Stuttgart on its nose. Push it to the limit in the corners and you'll find it involving, indulgent and sometimes little short of inspiring.
I just wonder who's going to bother. The only people I know who would push the Cayman as hard as required to savour it at its best are not the sort who would buy one knowing that the proper Cayman, the one that delivers far greater thrills for considerably less effort, is but a few extra quid away on the monthly drip.
And if you're not going to thrash it to within an inch of its life, why would you not save the money, buy a Boxster, drop the roof and really pose? Time and again in the Cayman I was taken back to the cockpit of a Nissan 350Z I recently drove. For £10,000 less than the Cayman, Nissan provides a two-seat coupé that's better looking than the Porsche but with the same power as the range-topping Cayman S. It's a riot to drive, too.
But it's not a Porsche, and that's what Porsche is banking on. The company's experience with the Cayenne has told it the Porsche brand is so strong not even something as absurd as a two-ton off-roader can damage it. It knows that faced with the choice of a Nissan or a Porsche, the former's power and value count little against the image of Germany's most coveted car maker. But were I faced with that choice, would I really take that Nissan over this Porsche? If it meant an extra £10,000 in the bank, you bet I would.
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