Cayman R numbers and spec breakdown
Discussion
Taken from the survey done on Planet9:-
Ok, Data summary 9 / 19/15:
Background:
It is believed that there were 1421 total Cayman R's produced in the transition from the 987 to the 981. There is no 2013 Cayman model year. All Cayamn R's in North America were considered a 2012 model year. Cars for the rest of the world are sometimes designated (in advertising)as either model year 2011 or 2012. I believe Porsche considered all Cayman R's model year 2012. It is documented that there were 563 Cayman R's exported to the US market and 61 to the Canadian market. That leaves 797 cars for the rest of the world. It was believed that the production serial numbers ranged from 792065-793487, and we know that cars were produced and assembled in Finland as well as Germany. It is believed the early production cars were built in Finland under contract with Valmet Automotive and later cars were built at Porsches factory in Germany. You can identify the location of your cars build by the letters proceeding the last 6 digits of the Vin number. CS stands for Cayman's built in Germany and CU are Caymans built in Finland. As we know,the Cayman R came well equipped and is a car that is very comfortable on the track as well as the street. The Cayman R was available in 11 Standard/ metallic colors and in general 4 interior packages. It has been postulated that most cars were ordered by the dealers and consumers in the tradition popular Porsche colors. Guards Red, Carrera White, Black and Platinum Silver. All of Porsche's advertising used a new special color formulated for the R called Peridot Metallic. This was a non-tradition color and it was estimated that only 10% of the cars produced were in this color. Of course special order cars were always welcome. Among other things, it came standard with a 6 speed manual transmission, and either sport leather seats or carbon fiber (GT3)race seats.
When i was doing my research on the Cayman R it was clear that the details around it's production cycle was spotty at best. Yet this is truly a limited production very special car. It had been 40 years since that last time Porsche Management had approved the R designation for a model, and clearly the first time it was ever assigned to a Cayman.
So enough of history and what we thought we knew.
Current data summary:
I started this Registry to try to fine tune our basic knowledge of what the actual numbers for some key measurables might be.
Mix of U vs S produced cars, manufacture date, manual vs PDK, sport leather seats vs Carbon fiber bucket seats, color, and current location of the cars.
The response to the registry has been great. I first posted it on this site and since then the post has been linked to at least 4 other sites that address the world wide market.
I was able to clean up some inconsistencies in the prior data report. Here is what i have found so far in the data from the first 132 cars registered. The last data update we had 94 cars. So great job in getting registered....
I have included only cars with complete data...except I have included cars that have all data except the actual build date as many folks didnt know or register that information.
We have 19 people that have registered with cars from out side the US. We believe we have 2 of the 3 Cayman R's that are believed to have been delivered to New Zealand, one from South Africa, two from Germany, one from France, 11 from the UK, and one from Canada. All the rest are US cars.
We have vin numbers ranging from 790085-793544 a range of 3459?
It seems true that early cars(early Vin number and manufacturing dates) are manufactured in Finland...but not all! The earliest U (Finland) car is 790085 and the last U car registered is 793103. Interestingly enough we have 3 sets of cars, where one is manufactured in Finland and one in Germany with the same numerical Vin number. One having a CU prefix and the other an CS prefix? I am not sure yet how that plays out?We also have 2 sets of US cars that are different in color but have registered with the same Vin. number. These are probably typo's but are still unresolved.
The range of manufacturing dates on the cars registered range from 2/11 to 3/12. Unfortunately, not everyone registered has entered the build date.
The % of the cars registered by color are as follows; Peridot Metallic 32 cars 23.4%, Carrera White 30 cars 22.7%, Black 29 cars 21.9%, Platinum Silver 13 cars 9.8%, Aqua Blue Metallic 10 cars 7.5%, Guards Red 9 cars 6.8%, Meteor Gray Metallic 5 cars 3.7%, Speed Yellow 2 cars 1.5%, Vesuvio (special order) 1%, 1 car 1% in Ruby Red Metallic,
The split between manual and PDK is , 57% manual and 43% PDK.
Percent with sport carbon fiber seats is 40% the majority of the cars have leather sport seats.
Only 15% have PDK and Carbon fiber seats, 25.7% have manual transmission and carbon fiber seats.
It looks like the change over time frame for German only manufactured cars may be around 6/11. But, up until that date we have cars produced at both factories?
It is still early and the data base is clearly biased by US cars, but I am hopeful that as we gather more data we will get a clearer picture of what occurred and how accepted the original estimates were.
We are working off of some big assumptions, one of which is that all Cayman R's Vin numbers were unique and sequential. I am not sure that Cayman R serial numbers are unique. I looks like they may have fallen into the regular build sequence for the Cayman. You do see a series of serial numbers in sequence that are R builds so maybe the factory pooled R orders at times and that accounts for the pooling as well as the break and range in serial numbers. If we new exactly how many Caymans(all Models) were built in the time frame that the R's were built we could solve some of the mystery.
I will continue summarize the date as we get more.
Ok, Data summary 9 / 19/15:
Background:
It is believed that there were 1421 total Cayman R's produced in the transition from the 987 to the 981. There is no 2013 Cayman model year. All Cayamn R's in North America were considered a 2012 model year. Cars for the rest of the world are sometimes designated (in advertising)as either model year 2011 or 2012. I believe Porsche considered all Cayman R's model year 2012. It is documented that there were 563 Cayman R's exported to the US market and 61 to the Canadian market. That leaves 797 cars for the rest of the world. It was believed that the production serial numbers ranged from 792065-793487, and we know that cars were produced and assembled in Finland as well as Germany. It is believed the early production cars were built in Finland under contract with Valmet Automotive and later cars were built at Porsches factory in Germany. You can identify the location of your cars build by the letters proceeding the last 6 digits of the Vin number. CS stands for Cayman's built in Germany and CU are Caymans built in Finland. As we know,the Cayman R came well equipped and is a car that is very comfortable on the track as well as the street. The Cayman R was available in 11 Standard/ metallic colors and in general 4 interior packages. It has been postulated that most cars were ordered by the dealers and consumers in the tradition popular Porsche colors. Guards Red, Carrera White, Black and Platinum Silver. All of Porsche's advertising used a new special color formulated for the R called Peridot Metallic. This was a non-tradition color and it was estimated that only 10% of the cars produced were in this color. Of course special order cars were always welcome. Among other things, it came standard with a 6 speed manual transmission, and either sport leather seats or carbon fiber (GT3)race seats.
When i was doing my research on the Cayman R it was clear that the details around it's production cycle was spotty at best. Yet this is truly a limited production very special car. It had been 40 years since that last time Porsche Management had approved the R designation for a model, and clearly the first time it was ever assigned to a Cayman.
So enough of history and what we thought we knew.
Current data summary:
I started this Registry to try to fine tune our basic knowledge of what the actual numbers for some key measurables might be.
Mix of U vs S produced cars, manufacture date, manual vs PDK, sport leather seats vs Carbon fiber bucket seats, color, and current location of the cars.
The response to the registry has been great. I first posted it on this site and since then the post has been linked to at least 4 other sites that address the world wide market.
I was able to clean up some inconsistencies in the prior data report. Here is what i have found so far in the data from the first 132 cars registered. The last data update we had 94 cars. So great job in getting registered....
I have included only cars with complete data...except I have included cars that have all data except the actual build date as many folks didnt know or register that information.
We have 19 people that have registered with cars from out side the US. We believe we have 2 of the 3 Cayman R's that are believed to have been delivered to New Zealand, one from South Africa, two from Germany, one from France, 11 from the UK, and one from Canada. All the rest are US cars.
We have vin numbers ranging from 790085-793544 a range of 3459?
It seems true that early cars(early Vin number and manufacturing dates) are manufactured in Finland...but not all! The earliest U (Finland) car is 790085 and the last U car registered is 793103. Interestingly enough we have 3 sets of cars, where one is manufactured in Finland and one in Germany with the same numerical Vin number. One having a CU prefix and the other an CS prefix? I am not sure yet how that plays out?We also have 2 sets of US cars that are different in color but have registered with the same Vin. number. These are probably typo's but are still unresolved.
The range of manufacturing dates on the cars registered range from 2/11 to 3/12. Unfortunately, not everyone registered has entered the build date.
The % of the cars registered by color are as follows; Peridot Metallic 32 cars 23.4%, Carrera White 30 cars 22.7%, Black 29 cars 21.9%, Platinum Silver 13 cars 9.8%, Aqua Blue Metallic 10 cars 7.5%, Guards Red 9 cars 6.8%, Meteor Gray Metallic 5 cars 3.7%, Speed Yellow 2 cars 1.5%, Vesuvio (special order) 1%, 1 car 1% in Ruby Red Metallic,
The split between manual and PDK is , 57% manual and 43% PDK.
Percent with sport carbon fiber seats is 40% the majority of the cars have leather sport seats.
Only 15% have PDK and Carbon fiber seats, 25.7% have manual transmission and carbon fiber seats.
It looks like the change over time frame for German only manufactured cars may be around 6/11. But, up until that date we have cars produced at both factories?
It is still early and the data base is clearly biased by US cars, but I am hopeful that as we gather more data we will get a clearer picture of what occurred and how accepted the original estimates were.
We are working off of some big assumptions, one of which is that all Cayman R's Vin numbers were unique and sequential. I am not sure that Cayman R serial numbers are unique. I looks like they may have fallen into the regular build sequence for the Cayman. You do see a series of serial numbers in sequence that are R builds so maybe the factory pooled R orders at times and that accounts for the pooling as well as the break and range in serial numbers. If we new exactly how many Caymans(all Models) were built in the time frame that the R's were built we could solve some of the mystery.
I will continue summarize the date as we get more.
fridaypassion said:
That number sounds a bit high for the R?
Not really when you look at the proof chassis numbers in North america have exceeded 3500 and for ROW one car in the UK had a chassis number ending 1636 near end of build! Equates to in excess of 5000 total build! The UK received some 250 cars from the ROW allocation!The 987.2 spyder which had much a lower demand/build was circa 2000 cars!
It was not a niche model it was a normal production model like the current 981 Gts. There was no limit in production numbers and the car was a big hit in the USA where most cars sold! If250 cars sold in the UK ,and then if the same for Germany France, Spain ,Italy and the rest of Europe then some circa 1250were most likely sold in Europe alone!
itsybitsy said:
It was not a niche model it was a normal production model like the current 981 Gts. There was no limit in production numbers and the car was a big hit in the USA where most cars sold! If250 cars sold in the UK ,and then if the same for Germany France, Spain ,Italy and the rest of Europe then some circa 1250were most likely sold in Europe alone!
But all the rest are left hand drive!HokumPokum said:
Itsy is spot on. Cr was popular in the u.s
Porsche built as many as could be sold.
You will find that the spyder is a rarer car
Erm... Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a Spyder with the "tent" more of a USA type vehicle given the fact we only have 1 week of the year when it's sunny Porsche built as many as could be sold.
You will find that the spyder is a rarer car
itsybitsy said:
It was not a niche model it was a normal production model like the current 981 Gts. There was no limit in production numbers and the car was a big hit in the USA where most cars sold! If250 cars sold in the UK ,and then if the same for Germany France, Spain ,Italy and the rest of Europe then some circa 1250were most likely sold in Europe alone!
As a matter of interest, where did you get your facts/figures from and where did you research your info? I'm not saying you're wrong but I know the researcher from Planet9 spent a lot of time and did a lot of research over a long period. You can't both be right 
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