LuxuryCarMagazine En Luxury Car Review and News
Man, the Cayman is good.
Review Overview
Styling - 95%
Driving Pleasure - 100%
Performance - 100%
Driving Comfort - 85%
Interior Space - 75%
Fuel Economy - 75%
Winter - 65%
85%
And I’m not talking about the Cayman GTS you see here. No, I’m talking about the base, entry level, $59,900 Cayman. It’s perfectly balanced, it’s has a fantastic seating position, the steering—even though it’s now of the electronic power assist variety—is precise and the styling is…mostly good. More about that in a bit.
So what do you do, then, when you want to create a special edition of such a perfect thing? Add too much power, and you upset that delicate balance of power and handling. Add a couple of fancy decals and an aerodynamic add-on or two, and you risk cheapening the whole affair.
So, like the car on which it’s based, the Cayman GTS has to find a balance in its additions that don’t make it too hardcore, too boy-racerish, or too aftermarket.
And it’s not like Porsche is a master of this, either; the Boxster—with which the Cayman shares a platform—underwent a transformation in its previous-generation that saw it lose its air con, its sound system and even its door pulls, all for more money. The Boxster Spyder, as it was called, was a hit with enthusiasts, but those types aren’t a recipe for long-term success. When that generation of Boxster was replaced in 2013, the Spyder model (and its Cayman R cousin) went with it.
That leaves the GTS as the top-spec Cayman (until the much-ballyhooed GT4 arrives later this year).
Special GTS styling cues include special wheels (ours were platinum-painted, a $1,010 option), black outlines ‘round the headlamps (a classic Porsche touch) and lower ride height. That last feature is part of the standard three-mode Porsche Active Suspension Management system, a $2,050 premium on the Cayman S. It’s standard here, though, providing the GTS with a mean stance that helps the proportions as a whole.
You see, the base Cayman, while quite the looker from the front three-quarter view, looks a little awkward from the rear; that lower ride height (and tall active rear spoiler, once deployed) changes all that and turns the GTS into the best-looking Porsche in the line-up. It’s far from a baby-brother to the upmarket 911; it’s in a class all its own.
Once you’re sat inside, acres of Alcantara suede greet you—it’s on the shifter, the steering wheel, the seats, the a-pillars the headliner—and other GTS-special additions like the red instrument cluster and red-stitched seatbelts do their part to remind you just how special this Cayman is.
An even better (and louder…much, much louder!) reminder greets you as soon as you fire the engine with a turn of the key, which you insert to the left of the steering rather than the right. A little classic Porsche quirkiness for you, there.
That fantastic exhaust note you hear? That’s courtesy of the standard Porsche sport exhaust system, which treats you to a cacophony of pops and bangs as you rev the engine and move through the gears, or just simply as you start to slow down as you arrive at the valet stand; they’ll know you’ve arrived, that’s for sure.
While the aural delight the sports exhaust provides are nice, that wonderful exhaust note is a window into the power upgrades the GTS has; it gets 15 more horsepower than the Cayman S (totaling 340), with torque jumping 7 lb.-ft. for a total of 280. Indeed, this is a car that likes to be revved, which you’ll want to do to get the full slug of power as you move up through the gears.
Such is the pull when you start hitting max power at 7,400 r.p.m. (like I said: it likes to be revved) that any feelings of inertia you may typically experience are kicked to the curb. The Cayman GTS makes full use of its grippy 265-section Goodyear Eagle F1 performance rubber to get all that power down to the road and have you blasting down said road to a 0-100 km/h time of 4.9 seconds, on to a top speed of 285 km/h.
As the straights begin to shorten and the road becomes bendier, meanwhile, the active transmission mounts that come with the standard Sport Chrono package once again do their part to help the GTS and its driver tackle the road with ease. Thanks to them, the transmission’s oscillations are reduced, providing smoother progress when cruising and better performance when pushing it. It all contributes to the Cayman feeling as if it was carved from a single block of steel as opposed to being built from numerous components.
This is a seriously fast machine that should take some real commitment to drive.
But it doesn’t, not even with the manual transmission; a dual-clutch PDK automatic is optional, but for a motoring experience this pure, I wouldn’t even consider spending the extra $4,520.
Even with the manual, the clutch take-up is so light and lever action so positive that when tootling around town, it’s not nearly the workout you’d expect. I do have to caution you, however; the manual features an anti-rollback system that uses the electronic parking brake to stop from rolling backwards down a hill while starting. The sound it makes when it’s doing its job? Well, let’s just say that it’s not broken or breaking, even though that’s kind of what it sounds like.
Of course, get past that and you’ll be satisfied to know that you’re piloting not only the best Porsche driver’s car available today, but one of the best sports cars on the market.
Wait, there’s more: a base Cayman GTS (yes, there are options, like our car’s $4,560 infotainment package which gets you special Bose audio, and $4,200 Communications package which adds GPS, among other things) can be had for a basic price of $85,800; that’s roughly the same thing you’ll be paying for similarly-specced versions of the Jaguar F-Type S Coupe or BMW M4, two great cars that are still eclipsed by the Cayman GTS on the performance front.
