The Actual “Poor Man’s Porsche”?

[steviegunn]

Surely the poorest Porsche is the MK1 Seat Ibiza, see engine cover:

[Castrol for a knave]

I suppose the 912 was the affordable Porsche back in the day.

When they designed the 928, the engineers locked the accountants out of the room.

[CABC]

161BMW said:

surely a Porsche 911 at £80k cannot be double the fun of £40k Boxster MANUAL ?

can a 40k Box be double the fun of a 20k MX5?

i tease, a little. I had 50k ready for my first Porsche (Boxster) many years ago. had several test drives and decided to stick with my common hairdresser's MX5 as it was more fun as a w/end car. seriously.
Move to daily duties or longer distances and for sure the Cayster wins hands down, but for a b road blast at the w/end without any posing a Porsche is overkill. For the road a Cayster is easily the best Porsche anyway. When 911s had the engine hanging out the rear it took a very skilled driver to use that pendulum to his advantage, there is some excellent footage of driver doing that at the Ring many moons ago. really impressive watch if someone can find it. That isn't the majority of current 911 owners though...

[161BMW]

CABC said:

161BMW said:

surely a Porsche 911 at £80k cannot be double the fun of £40k Boxster MANUAL ?

can a 40k Box be double the fun of a 20k MX5?

i tease, a little. I had 50k ready for my first Porsche (Boxster) many years ago. had several test drives and decided to stick with my common hairdresser's MX5 as it was more fun as a w/end car. seriously.
Move to daily duties or longer distances and for sure the Cayster wins hands down, but for a b road blast at the w/end without any posing a Porsche is overkill. For the road a Cayster is easily the best Porsche anyway. When 911s had the engine hanging out the rear it took a very skilled driver to use that pendulum to his advantage, there is some excellent footage of driver doing that at the Ring many moons ago. really impressive watch if someone can find it. That isn't the majority of current 911 owners though...

I have never driven Mazda MX5 so could not comment although i not really a fan of them.
I guess they are like a modern and reliable interpretion of British sports cars roadsters of yesteryears.

Also what is a "Cayster" ?

[Nerdherder]

161BMW said:

CABC said:

161BMW said:

surely a Porsche 911 at £80k cannot be double the fun of £40k Boxster MANUAL ?

can a 40k Box be double the fun of a 20k MX5?

i tease, a little. I had 50k ready for my first Porsche (Boxster) many years ago. had several test drives and decided to stick with my common hairdresser's MX5 as it was more fun as a w/end car. seriously.
Move to daily duties or longer distances and for sure the Cayster wins hands down, but for a b road blast at the w/end without any posing a Porsche is overkill. For the road a Cayster is easily the best Porsche anyway. When 911s had the engine hanging out the rear it took a very skilled driver to use that pendulum to his advantage, there is some excellent footage of driver doing that at the Ring many moons ago. really impressive watch if someone can find it. That isn't the majority of current 911 owners though...

I have never driven Mazda MX5 so could not comment although i not really a fan of them.
I guess they are like a modern and reliable interpretion of British sports cars roadsters of yesteryears.

Also what is a "Cayster" ?

Use our imagination. Or the force. Or some brainpower.

[craigjm]

161BMW said:

Also what is a "Cayster" ?

Pistonheads slang for Cayman Boxster

[skinny]

Wozy68 said:

Big GT said:

I always thought the best 911's are the standard Carrera's TBH.

This ^^^^^^ for 95% of the time and its generally a better ride on the standard wheels.

I’ve yet to notice a base spec might have dodgy exhaust tips

When the 997 came out there were quite a few reviews the the base Carrera was a better everyday every road type car......

Single or twin tail pipes all come out the same muffler in any case. And basic fluid dynamics tells you that one larger pipe flows better than two smaller

Quite happy with my poor man's porsche. Park it on the street, modify it, service it myself, thrash it. I do look at 30-40k Porsches but just can't justify spending 3 times as much.

[g3org3y]

craigjm said:

g3org3y said:

My neighbour on one side has a Cayman, my neighbour on the other side has a Boxster. I'm poor and own a Z4. Looks like the poor man's Porsche is actually a BMW.

You can see your neighbours? Pauper

Tell me about it.

[Pericoloso]

I never buy a car with "bland tailpipes".

What's the question again ?.....

[Otispunkmeyer]

I’d probably have an R8 4.2 over a Porsche but if I did have to have a Porsche it’d be a Carrera 2 or 2S, manual.

If I wanted some wind in hair Porsche, a Boxster in 3.2S form.

[V8RX7]

Having ran an air cooled 911 for a few months I can tell you that you're missing nothing IMO

Flat six howl - my arse, it sounded like a Beetle, the most disappointing motoring experience in my life

My 944 Turbo was a better car in every way and I wasn't massively keen on that either

[greenarrow]

I'd be more than happy with a "poor man's Porsche" of any description. Keep looking through Autotrader at cheap 996 Porsches and wondering if I could be brave enough to take the plunge.

All this poor man's Porsche stuff is nonsense though. Any true car enthusiast can surely see the merits in either Boxster, Cayman or 911. I remember playing Porsche Challenge back in the day on my Playstation with the original 986 Boxster 2.5. I have such a soft spot for those cars even though by the standards of the day they weren't quick.

Just buy what you want and ignore the naysayers.

...Just occurred to me however that a current new car contender for a true poor man's Porsche award could be the Renault Twingo.... rear engined and rear wheel drive. Pretty unique for a current mass market supermini.

[craigjm]

greenarrow said:

...Just occurred to me however that a current new car contender for a true poor man's Porsche award could be the Renault Twingo.... rear engined and rear wheel drive. Pretty unique for a current mass market supermini.

Ha I had one of those as a hire car from enterprise Heathrow once and the guy doing the handover said it was just like a Porsche

[T-195]

Couldn't really care less what people think about what I drive, the Cayman and Boxster have never looked as nice as the 911 or stuff like the 944.

[CABC]

T-195 said:

Couldn't really care less what people think about what I drive, the Cayman and Boxster have never looked as nice as the 911 or stuff like the 944.

i think the 992 is a car that looks worse in the flesh though. 997 last good looking one that didn't look bloated. Cayman looks lean and purposeful.
to my eyes at least.

[LordHaveMurci]

CABC said:

i think the 992 is a car that looks worse in the flesh though. 997 last good looking one that didn't look bloated. Cayman looks lean and purposeful.
to my eyes at least.

991 looks great, just a shame it's so big!

992, should've gone to Specsavers...

[Ultrafunkula]

No ones described my Cayman as a poor man's Porsche to me yet, I think most normal people can't tell the difference between the Cayman and 911 anyway...

[T-195]

LordHaveMurci said:

CABC said:

i think the 992 is a car that looks worse in the flesh though. 997 last good looking one that didn't look bloated. Cayman looks lean and purposeful.
to my eyes at least.

991 looks great, just a shame it's so big!

992, should've gone to Specsavers...

997 was great. The new one is rather large.

[anonymous-user]

languagetimothy said:

G u l f said:

languagetimothy said:

I had four 944s back in the day (first one was three years old that's how long ago) I just liked the look of them and the practicality (able to carry my amps and guitars)

Some years ago I had a bit of cash and sold an S2. Because I wanted a Cayman S. I could easily have bought a 911 of some description but I liked the look of the Cayman. Was also running an old Polo as a daily.

I got what I wanted Cayman S, silver, 18s, all the toys couldn't be happier. Had a comment from 911 owner at my sports club (tongue in cheek) about why I didn't buy a 911. I just said I got the car I wanted. Job done.

If I could afford it now I'd still buy a Cayman over a 911.

This, and the comment a few posts above (guy getting angry) oh, and the OP are exactly the reasons why non-911 Porsche owners have such a chip on their shoulder. They say it doesn't bother them, but it clearly does as they've remembered and quoted the exact phrases people have said to them about their cars. It's all really sad.

The one I've quoted is the next one "I could easily have afforded a 911 ...but I bought a Cayman" I bet he tells everybody that.

I think mr Gulf you are the kind of tt the OP was referring to. My budget was 35k+ I wanted a Cayman so I bought Cayman luckily for me I found the exact spec I wanted for 28k. I'm sure a 911 is a very good car, but I wanted Cayman. Add that to your list of sad quotes for future posts. Get the idea now?

Errr.. No, you're the 'tt' the OP is and I was highlighting your insecurity about your Porsche. If you actually want to read what I said again - doubtful as you clearly didn't take it in the first time - I never said there was anything wrong with the Cayman or any Porsche for that matter - I actually think the Boxster and Cayman is a better car than a 911. I'm highlighting a number of posts (and yours) where you clearly do care what others think - no matter how much you protest - and the line about 'being able to afford a 911' who's that for? It just adds to your insecurity about you purchase.

If you're still failing to understand all that, I'm not the one saying it's a poor mans Porsche, I'm the one calling out those owners that say it doesn't matter what other people think but then go on to contradict that.

[Chamon_Lee]

highway said:

No one calls a Ford Fiesta a poor mans Mondeo.
Nor is a 3 Series a poor man’s 5 series.
When cars become more aspirational some feel justified in trying to stiletto the ‘perceived’ ego of the owner. Hence a Boxster is a poor man’s 911. I’ve heard similar jibes about Gallardo.

Remember these snide comments, made under banner of jokes, come from resentful individuals who inevitably aren’t happy with their own lives in some aspect.

I’ve always thought there was something nonchalant about a base spec 911 with a manual gearbox of any generation.

There’s certainly a lot of truth to this from my experience. I have never even regarded the boxster cayman as a poor mans anything but have heard the comment thrown about. Said comment is usually thrown about by people who couldn’t even dream of having anything from the Porsche range let alone have the balls to have it serviced or repaired accordingly.

These comments usually come from people who wish they had the car, wish they could afford to buy one or had the balls to buy one.

Best to ignore them. Different cars in the Porsche range fit different and suit different audiences as with any brand.