Cayman to Cayman S

[T1547]

Recently replaced my 07 Cayman base with an 11 Cayman S.

The old

Spec: PASM, 6 Speed, Carnewal Exhaust. 2.7 245bhp. Arctic Silver.







The new

Spec: PASM, 6 Speed with factory short shift kit, Porsche Sports Exhaust, Nav and Sound Plus, Heated Sports Seats and Full Leather Dash. 38,000 miles. 3.4 320bhp. GT Silver.












No immediate plans for modifications as the car is under OPC warranty, but have replaced the alloy wheel centre caps as they were starting to show some age on the logo and planning a trip to Centre Gravity for an alignment along with new tyres at some point.

Long term plans are to change the cats for 200 cell and a Softronic remap.

One thing I can't make up my mind on is the front grills under the fog lights being painted silver (as opposed to black which most Caymans are), I think they might be colour coded as the car is the paint option GT Silver, but think the standard matt black might look better. If anyone's up for a photoshop and able to change them to black it would be greatly appreciated!





Final pic from handover day...

[AndySW]

I have to agree, I think the black grilles would look a tad nicer.



Couldn't help having a little play in photoshop whilst I had it open.

Edited by AndySW on Monday 4th March 18:54

[5mileofdeath]

Lovey cars OP.. nice upgrade

[SiT]

Both look lovely! Think black grills look better also front plate delete looks great albeit a tad illegal.

What’s a ‘softronic’ map? Not heard of that before.

Si

[Heaveho]

I regard your choice of Caymans as eminently sensible, given the issues with the earlier 3.4 versus the reliability of the later model. It's exactly what I'd have done. And yet here I am with a 3.2 Boxster 987.........

[T1547]

AndySW said:

I have to agree, I think the black grilles would look a tad nicer.



Couldn't help having a little play in photoshop whilst I had it open.

Edited by AndySW on Monday 4th March 18:54

Brilliant, thanks Andy Much appreciated.

I think that’s confirmed my suspicion that black grills would look better so very helpful.

I like the black mirrors too btw (could combine with a black badge on the rear) but probably a step too far away from my preference for looking standard for now

Cheers
Tim

[T1547]

SiT said:

Both look lovely! Think black grills look better also front plate delete looks great albeit a tad illegal.

What’s a ‘softronic’ map? Not heard of that before.

Si

Thanks!
Softronic are a tuning company that make performance maps, got a good reputation for Porsche tuning and critically for my warranty purposes the maps are supposed to be undetectable by Porsche garages (after you’ve flashed the standard map back on the car - easy diy). Not huge gains but combined with the 200cell cats should sharpen things up a bit.

[T1547]

Heaveho said:

I regard your choice of Caymans as eminently sensible, given the issues with the earlier 3.4 versus the reliability of the later model. It's exactly what I'd have done. And yet here I am with a 3.2 Boxster 987.........

Thank you for the kind words

I always thought the bore score paranoia I’d have owning the 3.4 gen1 might take the shine off ownership. Although supposed to be a lovely engine.

Am I right in thinking the 3.2 is not known for bore scoring though? A nice amount of power for the road I’d imagine. One thing I loved about the 2.7 was being able to frequently rev the nuts off it (whilst not going crazy fast).

[T1547]

5mileofdeath said:

Lovey cars OP.. nice upgrade

Thanks

Edited by T1547 on Tuesday 5th March 12:55

[MrOrange]

Can I inquire as what was the cost to swap? Aside from a power hike to make the car mostly too fast to be fun on UK roads, what’s the new one give you over the old one?

[T1547]

MrOrange said:

Can I inquire as what was the cost to swap? Aside from a power hike to make the car mostly too fast to be fun on UK roads, what’s the new one give you over the old one?

A combination of factors really, newer car under warranty, fancied trying more power, some nice extras on this particular car, it was pretty much my ideal spec so potentially a long term keeper. For the price I could have got into a newer 981 2.7 but gen2 987 ‘S’ cars in manual are quite rare and a sweet spot between feeling modern but still having ‘feel’ I.e hydraulic steering, n/a flat 6 etc in my opinion. But can’t claim it was a particularly financial decision!

[AndyB180]

Not a problem, here's another just to really convince you.

[Hitch]

You could get the grills and the mirrors wrapped very cost effectively.

Can you discern a real difference between the cars OP?

[BenLowden]

Following! a Gen II Cayman S is on my shortlist for my next car and yours looks lovely OP. I've read that PASM is a 'must' in a few places, but how important was it to you when buying? I don't know if Gen I cars had it or not, so would appreciate your thoughts on whether there's a big difference in ride/handling with the change.

[T1547]

AndyB180 said:

Not a problem, here's another just to really convince you.

I can confirm I’m fully convinced! Thanks!

Tim

[AndyB180]

• cough* side intakes too *cough*

[T1547]

Hitch said:

You could get the grills and the mirrors wrapped very cost effectively.

Can you discern a real difference between the cars OP?

Yes definitely, 70bhp extra in the S. The overall feel of the car handling wise is very similar but the character of the engine is surprisingly different. In a nutshell the 2.7 is very revvy, the 3.4 noticeably torquier and pulls stronger up top.

The interior of the gen2 is considerably nicer IMO particularly with the sports seats, nav and leather dash.

[T1547]

AndyB180 said:

*cough* side intakes too *cough*

I was starting to think about that too

Keep them silver or go black... ? Hmm

[T1547]

BenLowden said:

Following! a Gen II Cayman S is on my shortlist for my next car and yours looks lovely OP. I've read that PASM is a 'must' in a few places, but how important was it to you when buying? I don't know if Gen I cars had it or not, so would appreciate your thoughts on whether there's a big difference in ride/handling with the change.

Thanks Ben. It was a must for me personally for PASM. Had it in the gen1 (it was available in both gens) and enjoyed pressing the button to firm things up now and again if on a nice smooth road surface (it was too firm turned on permanently). I’ve heard it suggested PASM in normal mode is a bit softer than non-PASM suspension and turned on a bit firmer, so best of both worlds perhaps.

Another equally important reason for me though is the car sits a bit lower with PASM specified and so looks better stanced.

Good luck in your search if you go the Cayman route, what else is on your shortlist?

[BenLowden]

Amazing thank you, great insight. I've been watching this car for a little while and the dealer has dropped it from £26k to £22k in the space of a month! Seems incredible value but doesn't look like is has PASM, which coupled with the 19s I've read is a bad combo.

I'm not going to be in market for another month or so but current shortlist is Gen II Cayman S, Mini GP2, Megane 275 Trophy, Elise 111R or Mk2 TT RS. After doing some research I've been pleasantly surprised at the running costs on the Cayman, I'd always assumed they would be horrendous. No way I'd be leaving it 20K miles for a service though!