Monday 16th October 2017

Porsche Cayman S: Spotted

Well if your small, mid-engined Porsche must have six cylinders, this one looks delightful

---

Call us cynical if you will, but the four-cylinder sports car debate is too rich a mine of opinions to leave alone at the moment. It's a fascinating argument, assessing just how important the engine is to a sports car - does it become less of one with four cylinders instead of six? What about three? And what will happen when the sports cars have to be hybridised?

OK, probably don't need the wiper...

We'll leave those questions to be answered in due course, and instead today focus on another one: what's the best six-cylinder Cayman you can buy? Because, well, it sounds like quite a fun way to wile away a Monday.

GT4 is the obvious answer, of course, but they do still look jolly expensive at £80K+. At that money you really should be looking at 997 GT3s as well, and that's not really the point of this story. A late GTS is appealing as well, though values of those are now influenced by their enviable status as the last six-cylinder Cayman: this car is for sale at £64,000...

Thing is, of course, there were plenty of very good six-cylinder Caymans before the GTS; though potentially less desirable now, there's an awful lot to recommend the plain old Cayman S. From 2013 - yes, it really was nearly five years ago - the 981 Cayman S had 3.4-litres, 325hp, 273lb ft, a 175mph top speed and a kerbweight on the favourable side of 1,400kg. It was, and remains, a compelling sports car formula.

... or the PCCB either, but they're nice to have

With it having been around for a few years now, the choice is reasonably broad. You can get it into a 2.7 non-S for less than £30K, but finding an S is actually more difficult - of the 159 post-2013 Caymans for sale, only 71 have the bigger engine; take out the 30-odd GT4s and it's a reasonably small pool of cars.

This one is especially nice. Narrow down your search to just the manual, 3.4-litre 981 Caymans and there are five on the PH classifieds. Why this particular one? White won't be to everyone's taste, but look at the spec: ceramic brakes, a limited-slip diff with torque vectoring, the sports exhaust and sports seats. You won't find many, if any, like it.

It's been a third car - so has just 11,000 miles recorded - serviced only at Porsche and, at £47,500, is more than £15,000 cheaper than that GTS with the same sort of miles. The biggest issue we can see so far is that Carrara White is spelt incorrectly...

Manual too - bravo!

What else might you have? People who've not driven a Cayman will say you might still want a 911, with early 991s not far away if you're tempted. An F-Type will do plenty on the drama and theatre front, particularly as a V8, but won't be quite as sharp to drive. And you could buy a newer Alfa 4C if you really want to, though we wouldn't recommend it.

Nope, it really is quite hard to argue against this Cayman. Six cylinders aren't coming back any time soon, manuals don't look to have an especially rosy future and such a driver-focused spec is the icing on the top. It will always be a car in demand if you did come to sell, but why on earth would you want to get rid of it?

---

PORSCHE CAYMAN S 981
Engine: 3,436cc, 6-cyl
Transmission: 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 325@7,400rpm
Torque (lb ft): 273@4,500rpm
MPG: 35.3
CO2: 206g/km
First registered: 2013
Recorded mileage: 11,000
Yours for: £47,500

See the original advert here.

[anonymous-user]

[redacted]

[anonymous-user]

This thread is a PH classic.

When 981 was launched PH was full of,

• Porsche has ruined the Boxster/Cayman
• Useless gear ratios
• Chocolate engines
• Too plush
• Too wide
• Too heavy
• Not sharp enough
• Poor image

... and now manual 981s are revered as one of the great Porsche sportscars of all time.

[anonymous-user]

Scottie - NW said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Correct cmoose, I have never seen choc engines mentioned in relation to either 981 or 987.2

You two now share the wisdom of 20:20 hindsight!

Back around launch of 981 PH was filled with horror stories about Porsche engines and cmoose was one of the proponents, having blown up his own car IIRC. Example from 2012,

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Even today many owners pay through the nose for extended warranty based upon unjustified engine fears.

Fortunately the scare stories proved unfounded and 981 has a solid reputation.