Griff :plac: on nears full mast... Cayman review and other musings
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 11:24 pm
As some of you may have noticed, I've been eyeing/thinking about changing up the sheet metal. I think I'd like to stay in a somewhat focused sports car, because at this stage of life, I can. This will be my DD/only car, but because of my road job, I really only use my car on the weekends. In a lot of ways, it's tough to really "upgrade" from the C5 from a driving/performance standpoint, it is faster and has more grip than most things, and I'd like to stay in that realm. However, I would prefer something a bit more compliant and nicer that doesn't scrape everywhere. After tracking the Elise SC 220, I really fell in love with the feel and dynamics of the car, so I've somewhat landed on the Cayman as a much less terrible to live with version of that. More on other cars I'm thinking about in a later post, but for now, I'll review the Cayman as I took the ultimate test drive this weekend.
For my gf's 30th birthday, I got her a trip to Las Vegas, she'd never been. I was already in the area for work, so she met me and we saw the sights and took a day trip to Zion. I took the opportunity to rent a 2007 Cayman S on Turo. This was a 5/7 experience. I paid $235 for three days in the car and we drove it about 450 miles. I think this is stupid cheap and told the dudebro he should start charging more. The car was in 3/7 condition with 109k miles and a few issues but it still gave me a great opportunity to try the car out in a lot of different environments. Prior to Allison arriving, I was able to take the car to Nevada 158 by Mount Charleston to hoon for a few hours. We also spent six hours road tripping to and from Zion from Las Vegas.
So, the review:
The drive:
Power is 4/7. It's definitely fun, it feels about as quick as the C5. I'm not sure if the non S will feel a bit underpowered, I'd like to try one out as well. Delivery is... OK, not really what I expected. It feels pretty torquey and has good powah at 2K plus which is nice, it felt a little bit underwhelming in the upper revs. It's fun to wind it up to 7500, but the Corvette is more exciting at 4k plus, which was a bit surprising given they're known as torque monsters and I think of Porsches as a bit more high strung. All in all though, the power is solid and acceleration is strong. I took it up to about 100 a few times, but his tires weren't balanced all that well, so it got a little sketchy above that, but was still pulling well.
The transmission was somewhat of a love hate, mostly leaning towards love. The clutch feel is great and I was great with it immediately, unlike some cars where it takes some time to get used to the action. The gearing is much shorter than my car, which I love. Short gearing is just the best. The gripe is the shifter feel, it kind of blows, worse than a C5 which is known as being terrible. I guess this is just a mid engine thing.
The handling is great. Steering feels good to me, although I missed the small steering wheel I have in my car. What can I really write about the handling of a Porsche Cayman? It's obviously impressive.
The other stuff:
I love the looks, especially this one in dark green with the deep dish black wheels and carbon fiber spoiler.
The interior is pretty nice. This car was a bit worn, but still quite comfy on our road trip. The seats aren't Focus ST Recarbro level, but they hold you in better than most and feel good. It's not a quiet car, but much better than the C5 as far as road noise. Hearing the engine right behind you is neat but unobtrusive. It's narrower than the C5 which I like, but still spacious enough inside and utility is pretty solid with the hatch and frunk.
The sound is great, just not BROla/Ellis great.
The owner was really cool and we chatted about the car a lot. He said it's been perfectly reliable, despite clearly being a "run hard and put away wet" type car. It also felt great running hard, not the "made of glass" feeling I've gotten driving older BMWs.
That was a long post... any other questions about the car, let me know. Overall I really enjoyed it and am thinking hard about considering further. For even more , I signed up for a track day in the on 3/3, so we'll see how that impacts my opinion .
For my gf's 30th birthday, I got her a trip to Las Vegas, she'd never been. I was already in the area for work, so she met me and we saw the sights and took a day trip to Zion. I took the opportunity to rent a 2007 Cayman S on Turo. This was a 5/7 experience. I paid $235 for three days in the car and we drove it about 450 miles. I think this is stupid cheap and told the dudebro he should start charging more. The car was in 3/7 condition with 109k miles and a few issues but it still gave me a great opportunity to try the car out in a lot of different environments. Prior to Allison arriving, I was able to take the car to Nevada 158 by Mount Charleston to hoon for a few hours. We also spent six hours road tripping to and from Zion from Las Vegas.
So, the review:
The drive:
Power is 4/7. It's definitely fun, it feels about as quick as the C5. I'm not sure if the non S will feel a bit underpowered, I'd like to try one out as well. Delivery is... OK, not really what I expected. It feels pretty torquey and has good powah at 2K plus which is nice, it felt a little bit underwhelming in the upper revs. It's fun to wind it up to 7500, but the Corvette is more exciting at 4k plus, which was a bit surprising given they're known as torque monsters and I think of Porsches as a bit more high strung. All in all though, the power is solid and acceleration is strong. I took it up to about 100 a few times, but his tires weren't balanced all that well, so it got a little sketchy above that, but was still pulling well.
The transmission was somewhat of a love hate, mostly leaning towards love. The clutch feel is great and I was great with it immediately, unlike some cars where it takes some time to get used to the action. The gearing is much shorter than my car, which I love. Short gearing is just the best. The gripe is the shifter feel, it kind of blows, worse than a C5 which is known as being terrible. I guess this is just a mid engine thing.
The handling is great. Steering feels good to me, although I missed the small steering wheel I have in my car. What can I really write about the handling of a Porsche Cayman? It's obviously impressive.
The other stuff:
I love the looks, especially this one in dark green with the deep dish black wheels and carbon fiber spoiler.
The interior is pretty nice. This car was a bit worn, but still quite comfy on our road trip. The seats aren't Focus ST Recarbro level, but they hold you in better than most and feel good. It's not a quiet car, but much better than the C5 as far as road noise. Hearing the engine right behind you is neat but unobtrusive. It's narrower than the C5 which I like, but still spacious enough inside and utility is pretty solid with the hatch and frunk.
The sound is great, just not BROla/Ellis great.
The owner was really cool and we chatted about the car a lot. He said it's been perfectly reliable, despite clearly being a "run hard and put away wet" type car. It also felt great running hard, not the "made of glass" feeling I've gotten driving older BMWs.
That was a long post... any other questions about the car, let me know. Overall I really enjoyed it and am thinking hard about considering further. For even more , I signed up for a track day in the on 3/3, so we'll see how that impacts my opinion .