RE: Driven: Porsche Cayman S
Discussion
I think this is now very much a looker, where I wasnt really keen on the first one. I wonder about the steering though. You may have forgotten about it after 10 mins Mr Harris, but what about a year or so later after you were used to every other aspect of the car, would the lack of feel begin to annoy then? 
OlberJ said:
Does the Evora cost 60k or start at 60k?
The slow one is £51,450 without options (I think that's the 2+2, with back seats, in which case you could have the more useful 2+0 configuration for less). The supercharged one is £58,750. Currently, they're offering a special edition with just about every extra for £65,900.I've owned both Porsche & Lotus in the past & I love both, although I find it frustrating that both produce very good cars that are spoiled by serious flaws that could seemingly be eradicated by just a tiny bit more effort at the design & build stages.
The MY12 Evoras are a big improvement on the earlier cars & I'm looking forward to getting one of these next. A Cayman would be my 2nd choice but the Evora is the clear winner for me.
RobM77 said:
SidewaysSi said:
True, it is perhaps not a true Cayman rival but both are new designs at about the same price. As a car hit with 60 large, it would be hard to look past the Lotus. I expect the Exige to have better residuals too. As well as being faster, harder, more exciting and British.
The Exige is an awesome car, but unlike the Cayman, I doubt many will use one every day (althougn that is of course possible, my Elise was my only transport for 3 years). I've been in the position to buy an Exige twice now, both times as a second car, and I just can't get past the fact that if it's just a weekend car, I'd rather have something lighter and rawer. The first time I went single seater racing instead, and this time round I bought a 2-11. That said, not everyone has my tastes, and the Exige and Cayman are both fine cars.
tony993 said:
The The MY12 Evoras are a big improvement on the earlier cars & I'm looking forward to getting one of these next. A Cayman would be my 2nd choice but the Evora is the clear winner for me.
I agree...I dont know why, but I find the EVORA very desirable. Its the rareness, I think, plus the shape which I personally love, plus the knowledge that with a Toyota engine it will probably never break down, which may not be the case with the porsche, which I understand from "Which" has a pretty poor reliability record! Factor in the "anti-porsche" mentality which still hangs over from the 1980s for many people and the positive reaction the Evora gets from most UK based car people, I imagine the Lotus may prove to be a more satisfying car to own...Im only conjecturing, as Im unlikely to own either!!Having said all that Im also a huge Porsche fan, the last Cayman S was my favourite Porsche of the time and I LOVE this new one. I drove an old shape base model at Thruxton and liked it as much as the R8 they put me in after.
This Wednesday, looks like we'll have an alternative to Steve 'Pawshhh' Sutcliffe's Cayman S vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRljbS3B1AI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRljbS3B1AI
kambites said:
I find the Cayman (at least the old one, I haven't driven this one) such a frustrating car. Porsche build a car that's so good in so many ways, then completely ruin it by setting up the suspension completely wrong for our roads and giving it a frankly appalling steering system.
I would say the 987 cars were generally sensitive to porsche options and tyre combinations.In comparison to a 911 Turbo, these cars literally glide over british roads.
If you are concerned about the ride on these mid-engined Porsche cars, you can just drop down a tyre size and this sorts out the ride and lightens the handling even further.
I have also found that the official 987 Bridgestone tyres are much harder than Michelin and not as good in the cold.
Zumbruk said:
Asterix said:
Unless they've made a real improvement, forget the Bose system. Waste of money. Hardly better than the standard system and that was s
te.
That's because Bose "hi-fi" is a con.te. kambites said:
I find the Cayman (at least the old one, I haven't driven this one) such a frustrating car. Porsche build a car that's so good in so many ways, then completely ruin it by setting up the suspension completely wrong for our roads and giving it a frankly appalling steering system.
Always found the 987 ride on PASM offered a very good balance of qualities for UK roads. DoubleSix said:
kambites said:
I find the Cayman (at least the old one, I haven't driven this one) such a frustrating car. Porsche build a car that's so good in so many ways, then completely ruin it by setting up the suspension completely wrong for our roads and giving it a frankly appalling steering system.
Always found the 987 ride on PASM offered a very good balance of qualities for UK roads. kambites said:
DoubleSix said:
kambites said:
I find the Cayman (at least the old one, I haven't driven this one) such a frustrating car. Porsche build a car that's so good in so many ways, then completely ruin it by setting up the suspension completely wrong for our roads and giving it a frankly appalling steering system.
Always found the 987 ride on PASM offered a very good balance of qualities for UK roads. Have had a bit of wheel time in an Evora S and whilst the car handles impeccably there's certainly no gulf between it and a 987, in fact any (minor) handling advantages are vastly outweighed by a lack of character from the the engine bay. But hey, I love Porsches and you obviously like your Lotus' so vive la difference as they say.
Edited by DoubleSix on Monday 18th February 22:19
DoubleSix said:
Without wishing to appear glib; it's a highly focused sports car, I WANT it to be stiff,
It is not a highly focussed sports car, it's a lowly focussed sports car and even if it was highly focussed it should NOT be that stiff, at least in my opinion. It's far harsher than an Elise or than something like a Noble or a Ginetta - they are focussed road-biased sports cars and ride infinitely better than the Porsche as well as handling much better. I hate the German obsession with eliminating body-roll. To my mind a certain amount of body-roll is a positive handling characteristic for a road car because not only do softer spring rates improve comfort and increase lateral grip levels on rough surfaces, but it tends to soften breakaway characteristics and improve progressiveness.
The fact that the Boxster's CoG is so low gives them even less excuse for the overly high spring rates. One of the primary advantages of a low CoG is that you can lower the spring rates without introducing excessive body movement under changes of direction/speed.
Each to their own, I guess. If you like suspension as hard as the Boxster's then fine, but for me it completely ruins the handling of the car on the road. That combined with the weird steering make the car a thoroughly unintuitive thing to drive, for me.
Edited by kambites on Monday 18th February 22:23
I added some edits while you were typing Mr Quickdraw 
But anyway I've been here before and know your views on this subject.
BUT My experience of most cars is that without owning them and running them for a significant period of time it really is difficult to form an accurate opinion of what their true qualities are...
I respect your reasoning but think you may be relying a little too much on second hand information rather than direct experience.
But anyway I've been here before and know your views on this subject.
BUT My experience of most cars is that without owning them and running them for a significant period of time it really is difficult to form an accurate opinion of what their true qualities are...
I respect your reasoning but think you may be relying a little too much on second hand information rather than direct experience.
I certainly don't love "Lotus" as a brand. I like some Porsches, I like some Lotuses, the badge on the nose has no effect on how good a car is.
I just don't rate the 987 as a driver's car because I think, despite being a remarkable platform in many ways, it's let down by a couple of dire fundamental flaws. More annoyingly, they're flaws that it seems to me (with my limited knowledge of vehicle engineering) that Porsche should easily have been able to solve if they'd wanted to without really harming the package in other ways.
ETA: I suppose to sum it my feelings on it - Lotus (and a host of other smallish car companies) seem to be able to produce cars which are greater than the sum of their rather mediocre parts; Porsche produce cars which are much less than then sum of their exceptional parts, and that's a pitty.
I just don't rate the 987 as a driver's car because I think, despite being a remarkable platform in many ways, it's let down by a couple of dire fundamental flaws. More annoyingly, they're flaws that it seems to me (with my limited knowledge of vehicle engineering) that Porsche should easily have been able to solve if they'd wanted to without really harming the package in other ways.
ETA: I suppose to sum it my feelings on it - Lotus (and a host of other smallish car companies) seem to be able to produce cars which are greater than the sum of their rather mediocre parts; Porsche produce cars which are much less than then sum of their exceptional parts, and that's a pitty.
Edited by kambites on Monday 18th February 22:41
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