Porsche Cayman GTS ‘Nürburgring Edition’ Now Comes in ‘Wrecked Red’
Surely, a $115K repair estimate means this 718 Cayman GTS is totaled–and the airbags didn’t even go off.
Some folks still refer to the Cayman as the poor man’s Porsche. Ah, you can’t afford the 911 so you settled for the lesser Cayman. Well, the Cayman GTS is a fantastic car in its own right. And if people see it as a car for the less than well-heeled then perhaps a look at this repair estimate will convince them otherwise. The Cayman parts are just as expensive as what are found in the big brother 911. Recently a 718 Cayman GTS is totaled in a crash at the Nürburgring. The repair estimate was nearly 98,000 Euro or a little more than 115,000 USD at the current exchange rate. And the car doesn’t even look that bad.
Misha Charoudin recently posted a video to his YouTube Channel explaining the crash and the damage that resulted. Charoudin is one of the owners and instructors at Apex Nürburg. He was instructing a student in the car when it left the track at nearly 125 mph and became a total write off. Cars running off a racetrack, especially the Nürburgring is nothing new. What is especially intriguing in this particular case is that the car obviously has some damage but doesn’t look to be totaled. In fact, the airbags didn’t even deploy. However, looks can be deceiving and fixing a Porsche is never cheap.
Don’t Lift!
The crash was caused by our old friend lift throttle oversteer. The driver was coming into a turn a bit too hot and instead of making a slight steering correction decided to lift off the gas. This upset the balance of the car and threw it into the barrier. Very common mistake for drivers that do not have much track experience. If you are new to driving on track yourself, or thinking of getting started, let this serve as a lesson to you. It may seem counter intuitive at first but a sudden lift off the gas or applying brakes while turning can in some cases have dire consequences.
Damage
You might be thinking, that will buff out, but this was a big impact, and many expensive parts were destroyed. The itemized repair estimate calls for the replacement of the front crash structure. That part alone is about $30,000. The exhaust system needs to be replaced; the headlight needs to be replaced. There is damage to the front and rear suspension that needs to be fixed. All in there are about $70,000 worth of parts alone that need to be replaced. On top of that is another $45,000 in labor. Still think the Cayman is the poor man’s Porsche?
The driver that wrecked the car was also surprised to learn that the car would be so expensive to repair. This poor chap has to pay for the damage to the track on top of the car damage. He destroyed about $6,000 worth of barriers at the track that he is on the hook for. Unfortunately, he also is responsible for the remaining deductible which in this case is about $41,000 dollars. He has not taken too kindly to that and has retained a lawyer. He feels that there is no way that this car sustained damage this costly to repair. We feel bad for him, but he is not likely to win this case. Crashing any Porsche is an expensive proposition.
Cayman GTS Afterlife
The 718 Cayman GTS is sadly done for. It will not be repaired. It will be sold for parts and that is going to be the end of it. Hopefully some of the undamaged components that can be salvaged go on to live a long life in another car. Perhaps the engine can go into a project car that someone is working on, and maybe even run at the Nürburgring again. We don’t know where the parts will end up but as we see here, sometimes what looks like moderate damage can be much worse when you start adding up the parts list.
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