So I drove a fairly stripped down Cayman on Weds. Very impressed with the handling and ride. Even better than I expected. Was a bit disappointed in the motor. The power band is very high above 5500 R's. Pulls great up their but it is to short lived and then you shift to third and you are out of the power band-wtf? 2nd gear seemed geared way to tall. When you do get it in the power in 2nd your over going over 70. Driving around town you need to be prepared to drop several gears if you want acceleration. Nobody is home under 4K RPM's. Use to V-8's that pull or at least a turbo. No wonder my MINI can pass Caymans and Boxsters on the straight-aways at the track. Usually the MINI is blocked in the corners and the offenders get flagged to let me by on the straight where they need to lift.

I am 5-10 so I fit in the car really well. Sorry if you are over 6ft you wont like it. Interior is a little boring but that's the conservative German's. Just get the check book out while ordering will help that.

So today I will drive and S-PDK. Have not seen a 6 speed manual S in the area yet. I really would most likely order with European delivery. Now the question is will the 50 extra HP from the S wake up the motor at lower revs. Will the PDK solve the issue with its ability to drop 3 or 4 gears instantly. I am not a paddle shift guy but I think that transmission might be a better match for the engine. With the manual you might just get use to skipping several gears when needed. In the MINI the Turbo will compensate and pull hard in a tall gear.

Interested to hear thoughts from owners. I have drive race cars and exotics and I will say it is the best handling production care available today. Stays so flat and would take any line I through at her. Very impressive. Interesting to see how much the extra 50 HP of the S changes the car. Will be harder to tell as it will be PDK vs manual too.

 

The S is an entirely different animal.

 

Drove pretty loaded up yellow S today with PDK, Chrono, PASM, Nav and Bose. Didn't have sport exhaust or Sat Radio which is deal killer for me on this car plus it is there demo. They will give a couple of K off but that's not enough in my opinion. Rather search or order.

Yes it is a totally different animal. 50HP different? Feels more like 100! The PDK works excellent with this engine. Down shifts 3 or 4 gears as needed and she is gone. Had some really nice pulls on a couple of sweeping up hill on ramps and I was very impressed. Sport Mode was perfect for street driving and sport off for highway was smooth and drove and rode like a caddy. Very impressed that a stiff flat handling car can ride so good. Even is sport + mod it was excellent. Sport+ is for track, impress your friends and kicking some butt. Shifts hit very hard and she is a rocket in this mode. Very impressed and the wife loved it. She was way calmer then in the MINI or the Maserati. I want to drive a 6 speed Manual S also but the PDK is going to be hard to beat. It is just so versatile. And the rev matching was very cool. Perfect every time.

I want one. Question now is PDK or 6 speed and locate or order with euro delivery.

 

I leased a '13 Boxster S in early July and am still patting myself on the back as among the best decisions I've made. After MANY test drives of Boxsters...with PDK, S and not-S, 6 speed, along with other variations...I decided on the 6-speed S with Chrono. My daily driver is an '11 Panamera 4S and the Boxster is the weekend car. So far, the weekends have been that much more fun. Give the car high revs and it will show you much love. Using the brakes in conjunction with the gas pedal allows you to shift the weight front and back. The car seems perfectly balanced and planted on the road. Even on open highways, I rarely use more than 4 gears.

 

I'm just under 6'4" and fit pretty good in my friends 14 6 speed cayman s. he did have his checkbook out when he ordered it. A beautiful car. I can't wait for him to let me drive it.

 

The base lacks power, the S is just good enough but, it could use more power. 325hp is enough to drive around town. I don't feel it lacks power unless I am trying to pass Corvettes or something similar. lol It's a great handling fun car but if you are trying to pass everyone on the track, it isn't for you. If you are trying to have the most fun on the track, it is for you.

 

I recently drove both the base and S models... I felt the base was fine for street driving. It was more fun to keep it at higher revs. You can definitely feel more grunt with the S though.

 

I drove the 2014 Cayman yesterday on the track at New Jersey motorsports park. I also drove the 911s and the 911 4s. In my humble opinion the Cayman S is the better car, albeit it could use about 50 more hp and 40 more lbs of torque.
The balance was better. It give you more confidence at high speeds. The 911s is just not worth $120,000, just my opinion. I traded my 2010 base 911 in last September for a 2013 Boxster. I now have 20,000 miles on it. I use it every day, and I still enjoy it. My next car will be a cayman. Rumor has it they are workings on a GT3 version. I'd take a 2nd mortgage on my house for that one.

 

I will agree another 50 HP would make this car off the hook. It is still 6 banger and passing big V-8's at the track on the straightaways is not going happen. On the track I enjoy pushing the HP cars hard in the corners. Get all over there *** and make them nervous. In my MINI no one wants to give me the point by. The corner workers love to flag the high HP cars for slowing me up in the corners. They have to lift on the straights or the MINI can't get by. I was very impressed with the PDK I drove. I can see why guys like it on the track. You don't have to worry about your feet at all. Loved the rev matching down shifts. I am going to drive a 6 speed manual S today to see how I like it. It also has the rev matching on the manual shift which will be very interesting to drive. Yes I have new car fever.
I decided I can't trade in the Maserati. I am still in love with her. I put the offshore boat up for sale as that opens up 2 garage slots.

Does anyone make a chip, programmer or EC Tune for this engine yet? I know on my MINI if I had to drive it stock every day I would have sold it long ago. The tunes just wake the cars up so much more. I had the tune off the car for service and before I left town the wife actually asked me to turn up the wick, lol. I think she is ready for her own track day. The skills she will learn might save her life some day.

 

I couldn't possibly agree with you more.

What's this about a GT3 version?

 

But according to the Manager of Porsche High Performance Cars, Andreas Preuninger, the company’s upcoming upgraded Porsche Cayman is set to be dubbed the Porsche Cayman GT3, and the 'RS" version might have a manual clutch exclusively

 

Curious on how much more power and at what price. How stripped down will it be also? Porsche tends to like to remove all the stuff you want for a DD and then charge you even more to not have it. Does anyone make a tune program for the Cayman/Boxters. You know that the power is there because the 911 makes 25 more HP in the same engine. That 25 HP would be very noticeable if was just a down load away. I have tunes on a couple of my current vehicles and would have traded them both long ago if I had to drive them with the stock set up.

 

i drove an S Boxster PDK - with sc - only got it around town for a small ride but i found that 1st was too high in the rpm's to hold but going to 2nd dropped it down to far on the rpm level. it just did not like that 50kph city speed.

then i got a Cayman S 6 speed manual - wow, first gear takes you all around the city. didn't even have to shift in the 50kph zones - just amazing.

 

I drove a 6 speed Cayman S today with Sport Exhaust and Chrono. In the PDK car Sport Plus would be used for track and only aggressive driving because it shift so hard it would get old in every day traffic fast. Sport would be good for most situations. In the 6 speed car Sport Plus would be on 99% of the time. The enables the rev matching program that is just so sweet. Also the baffles are opened on the exhaust and the sound is just perfect. People turn and stare when they here the down shifts which are perfect every time. The car does not feel as fast as a PDK because you tend to keep the manual car in a taller gear and you can get caught in to tall a gear when you need the power. I think you would get use to the car but it requires you to be up in the R's at track levels to get the most out of the car. The PDK just drops 3 gears when you need it and you are gone. I think the PDK is a better match with the power band of the motor but a good driver in a manual car would be close. Very torn now between PDK or manual. Everything I own is manual and I have not been a paddle shift guy at all. Only car I have drive that performs well with the paddle is a Ferrari 430 Scud. Lambo e-gear blows as does the Maserati CC. The PDK was as good as the Ferrari F-1. I did really like the rev matching of the manual car. You find yourself down shifted instead of going to neutral coasting to a stop just to here the rev matching. Perfect everytime and just sounds bad ***. Dealer wanted to give low book wholesale on my trade in and gave me $0 for the 5K worth of add-on's I just on my MINI JCW. Everything on the car is blacked, full shield on hood and windscreen, dark tinted windows, custom stripe package in flat black. They said it was the best looking MINI they ever saw. Car fax showed it just had its 25K service a week but said they would have to spend 2K in there shop prepping the car. BS about if something went wrong for the next buyer. My response. It has 2 years and 25k of factory warranty remaining including free oil changes and service. All BS. On top of that added 5k worth of extra warranty and window film protection for $1500.
It cost $300 from my detail shop for that. They gave me $0 for that on my car. Oh yes and full sticker for the car no discount. I gave them my numbers and they came back with removing the warranty and wind screen film. Are most buyers this stupid? From the 3 2014 S I saw in Scottsdale last week with less then 1,000 miles I am guessing yes. People with money to throw away. I know I can get a Cayman S at 8% under sticker with no trade involved. I know the dealer and guys who have done it. It farther north but they will come and get your car with a flat bed if it needs service. I just refuse to get hammered on both sides of the deal. will sell the JCW myself and get the dealers in a bidding war for a Euro delivery order. Dealer has a car I would take but they would rather wait for the golden goose. It is a speed manual in black with about everything I want except Sirus and ventilated seats for AZ. Seats I can deal with but no Sat Radio in an 80K car is a deal breaker. Stupid it is not standard on the Bose system. Standard only if you get the 4K nav which is stupid. Hard to use when a tomtom with live traffic for $250 is better and more user friendly. Wife is great. She said why don't you just get the Ferrari 599 which is what you really want. Oh so true and the prices are getting very attractive on clean low mileage cars.

 

No end of threads all over the internet about manual vs automatic transmissions, so it truly is just a matter of preference.

You can't argue that the PDK is better than we are at shifting, but it comes down to involvement.

Pulling paddles just doesn't cut it in a true sports car.