hi all

just got back from Siena where the Cayman is having its official launch. roads were very good, and suited the car's strengths quite well (tight and twisty, lots of camber changes). unfortunately the weather refused to cooperate and it rained much of the time.

"Bottom-line" impressions then:

1) looks better in the metal than in pictures. ok, so that's a platitude true for many cars, but it definitely applies here. still a bit disappointing that Porsche didn't further distance the car from the Boxster in the looks department, but taken on its own, its quite nice. there are some angles that are more flattering to the car than others, but shod with optional 19" wheels, it looks the biz.

2) handling-wise, its a peach. but we already knew that. it has twice the flexional rigidity of the Boxster, and 2.5x the torsional rigidity, which just about puts it on a par with the 997. which is to say quite stiff indeed. tight as a drum then.

3) Power... to be honest, i couldn't really tell much difference compared to a Boxster S. The roads were rather tight as mentioned, so I rarely got it out of 4th gear, except for a brief blast down the motorway. I'd say power is adequate, and in keeping with the overall philosophy of the car-- i.e., balance, nimbleness, instead of sledgehammer power.

4) Interior. If you've sat in a Boxster... its identical, as far as I could tell.

Some final random notes...

It looks good in just about all colors, though IMHO, yellow seems to bring out the car's lines. maybe it was just coz the weather was so drab... I haven't seen it in white though.

The manual was WAY better than the tip. This could have been exagerrated by the type of roads we were driving on, but the tiptronic just felt a lot slower, lazier, generally a bit unsatifying. When I got into the stick though, it changed everything.

Walter Rohrl was present once more at the event. Though no rides with him this time, unlike with the C4S launch. I had a number of very interesting conversations with him over dinner-- in particular over his opinion of competitors' cars that he's driven (F430, Gallardo, M6). Pretty surprising obervations really. He's very candid!

So have Porsche got another hit on their hands? I'd have to say yes. If you're used to, or looking for a turbo or GT2 like "hit", then this is NOT the car for you. But for a canyon carver, or a trackday car for tighter, more technical tracks (as opposed to "power tracks",) then absolutely this car rocks!

I imagine there's a lot of people out there who'd love to have a Boxster, but just can't get their head around owning a convertible (in many markets with poor weather conditions, air quality and horrible potholes, roadsters simply make no sense at all,) the Cayman should hit the bulls-eye.

A few pics then... Sorry, i'm no professional photographer, and these were taken with a dinky 5 megapix Sony. the cars here have optional 19" wheels by the way.

 

great pics....... as I was glancing it dawned on me that the car looks a bit like a mazda RX-8.

 

Thanks a lot. I saw my first on the autobahn 2 weeks ago.
I guess the Cayman is built in Finland as well

I want to go as long as to say as I think the Cayman is part of a new (long term) strategy within Porsche to get rid of the rear-engine concept in favour of mid-engine. Mark my words, but in 10 years you'll know what I mean.

 

I would agree based on the photos of your observations about looks from certain vantage points and the yellow looks best. Thanks for the observations and do dish on the comments WR had about other cars you tease!

 

that cayman looks pretty cool... My aunt is getting one!

 

tee hee!

ok ok, promise i will post at length in a couple hours as soon as I get home.

am still at the office and should be working!

 

Nice writeup and pics. thanks.

It will be interesting to see how this car is welcomed.

 

not a huge fan of the Cayman, in general, but you are right about the yellow one. The yellow looks pretty darn good! Thanks for he pics and the writeup. Very informative.

 

any shots of the rear of the car?

 

So what did Walter Rohrl say about the other cars i.e. F430, Gallardo, M6?

 

Nice Pics. Thanks for taking the time to share.

I think the red one with the flowers up front (nice artistic touch) looks an awful lot like the 350Z.

Have I missed some sort of marketing explanation here? Is this model supposed to be everyone's track car? I can't imagine that there is such a disparity between the three models to warrant this one in the middle.

I have the Boxster S and the TT. Yes, they are completely different cars. I'm not sure that I need another one to bridge the gap.

 

Give me the Cayman RS.

Or the RUF Cayman with a compressor... Ohh!!!

 

couldn't help myself, so I indeed asked him what he thought about some of the other cars Porsches compete with. Immediately he said he likes the Gallardo: good handling, good power, good brakes. He didn't like the E-gear tranny too much though, said he'd stay with the stick.

I asked what else he'd driven that he respected, and this was met with loooong silence! Eventually he said that BMW make good cars. Said the M6 is quite nice, though a bit too heavy.

I was totally surprised by his comments about the F430! He said-- and i quote-- "I simply cannot believe that someone actually signed-off on this car!". He found the steering way too twitchy for his liking, and said that in the wet with the traction control off, the car was all over the place.

There apparently was a head to head test on some short German track between the Gallardo and the F430. He was some 10 seconds faster in the Lambo than in the Ferrari. He DID say however it was wet, so the AWD Lambo had an advantage.

What seemed to truly kill his opinion of the Ferrari was when he tested the car on the 'Ring. On his first lap, he got an 8:18. Halfway thru the 2nd lap, he experienced a horrible grinding sound from the brakes, and when they inspected the brakes, the pad material was coming off in chunks ("and I'm known to be easy on brakes!"). So that was his brief experience of the F430. In fairness to the car however, he said that maybe he'd just gotten a dud of a car, and it was not representative of F430's in general.

He also mentioned that about a week after the Ferrari versus Lambo test, one of the big German magazines printed a story on the two cars head to head, and proclaimed the Ferrari the winner. When I asked him if this was a case of the Ferrari mystique (or PR machine?) working its magic on journalists, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said he had no idea.

Note that by the time I'm typing this, he will have had another opportunity to test the F430 (more on this below).

So I then had to come to the "big one"-- asked him about the Enzo versus the CGT. He readily admitted that in terms of straightline speed and brute acceleration, the Enzo is clearly faster, especially from the mid-range.

He also said that at lower speeds, the Enzo "feels like a racecar," referring to the quickness of its steering, and how the whole car is razor sharp. But at higher to silly speeds, he said that it doesn't inspire confidence in the same way the CGT does.

"When you get into the GT after driving their car, our car feels like a lorry!". But as you pile on speed, the feeling of stability and confidence that the CGT inspires is much better.

Rohrl has never had the opportunity to test drive a Macca F1, though he has been wanting to for some time. Apparently, there were a number of times in the past when he was scheduled to test one, but each time, the car would become unavailable just before the test, generally as a result of an accident!

Finally-- and this is what I found really exciting-- he said that on Sept 26 (yesterday!), there was a magazine sponsored test on the 'Ring for several supercars:

1) Carrera GT
2) Maserati MC12
3) MB CLK DTM
4) Ferrari F430
5) Bentley Continental GT
6) BMW M6 (delimited)

The drivers involved in the test are just as exciting as the cars:

1) Walter Rohrl
2) Hans Stuck (sp?)
3) Heinz-Harald Frentzen (ex F1 driver)
4) Klaus Ludwig (multiple DTM champion)

Format will have each driver getting 3 laps in each of the cars.

Rohrl mentioned that Olaf Manthey told him that there was a customer Macca F1 at Manthey's shop, in for some mods. And Walter was hoping that the owner would allow the Macca to be included in the super test.

I have no idea how the test went, or even if it pushed thru (any German 6Speeders know?). I did my first ever laps of the 'Ring a few days prior, on Sept 21-22, and went back on the 25th to watch the public 'Ring day. Sadly, I had to fly back home to Asia on the evening of the same day, so i missed the bloody test by a day! (oh, and I made sure to visit Manthey Racing, and sure enough, there was a gorgeous blue Macca F1 parked right inside the office lobby!)

I can't remember which magazine was sponsoring the test. Though i'm pretty sure it was neither Sport Auto nor Auto Bild.

Hope you guys out there in Germany can let us know!

Sorry for the long winded post... it was my 2nd time meeting Walter Rohrl, and its always great hearing his views and his stories. Thought y'all would be entertained by what he told me.

Cheers!

 

nice post.

do you know when this article will be published?

 

Great post! Thank you.

Very interesting speaking w/WR, what a great opportunity for you.

If you find out more about the test in Germany, post it up.

Thanks again, and your pics were really very nice.