vbb

Congrats and welcome to Porsche ownership! I have had similar cars to you in the past...a 335i tuned, an IS-F, and two other more powerful Porsches (the last being a 911 Turbo). I also have a base 981 Cayman now, but I do not have any buyer's remorse. I took a good, hard look at what I wanted in a sports car and how I used it, and came to the conclusion that I didn't need anything more than the base. It is very easy to get caught up in the horsepower wars, and it is cool to pull up to a light and know you can blow the doors off of the car next to you, but I rarely drove any of my much more powerful cars hard. Due to my job (and a sense of self restraint), I am very opposed to driving at high speeds on public roads, so having a car that can do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and a top speed of +180mph is a total waste for me, and too tempting to have at my fingertips. The base 981 handles well, is a BLAST to drive on twisty back roads at slightly above the speed limit, high in the rev range, and is more than enough for me. It is truly more fun to drive a slow(er) car fast than a fast car slow. Go-Karts are silly fun, and most of them can't even do 35mph. This is my go kart.

So, I say all of that to say don't beat yourself up with remorse. Learn to love your base cayman and not feeling that you got something inadequate. This is the slowest sports car I've owned in over a decade, and it is the one I enjoy the most.

Dave in Chicago

At risk of drawing fire (albeit friendly fire), my 2 cents on mods...

A bone stock Porsche, in proper operating order, working as designed by the factory... is a pretty highly capable car. Need to add safety items for a track car? Sure. Stuff you can bolt in / out, even better.

Else, one will be hard pressed to reach the design limits of the vehicle in anything short of heavy (not just occasional) track duty. Leaving the car stock is A) kinda handy for resale; B) good for daily use and relationships (spouse, family use, toting parents around, etc.); and C) eminently satisfying when you can drive circles around all those cars that came to the track on a trailer.

Hey, I've done both ends of this spectrum. First car stayed stock and lived the life described above (at 158 hp, no less!). 2nd P-car is now SP3 (track beast, no plates). 3rd P-car (avatar) is current daily driver, best one yet.

YMMV. Again, love that color on your Cayman!

Dave

'05 987S
'92 968 SP3
'88 944 NA (gone)

zirrah

Base 981's are a ton of fun to drive. You can push them alot more than the S. Congrats!

ekam

I went from a base 986 with 225hp to 310hp on my 987.2 S, and it has even more hp at this point with headers, catback & GT3 TB...

There are times that I wish I got a base because it can hit impound & 7 day suspension speed by end of 3rd gear...

Boxsterman

Congrats! Use it well. And When I say use it, don't make it a garage queen. I drive mine daily and get incredible joy out of it. Worth every mile driven.

alvitdk

Thank you all for your comments. Don't get me wrong, it is by far the best driving machine I have owned., and after a couple of weeks I just wished it had a little more low end torque.
However, I absolutely agree on the way she handles and works above 4k rpm, it's a dream and untouched by any of my previous rides. She is a keeper and I have no "real" regrets, taking her to the first Hill Country ride was a blast and a perfect match to my other passion, going into the twisties on my bike. Will it take some time to get used to the power delivery in a different rpm range, yeah for sure, but I know I will have tons of fun riding her as intended. Certainly no garage queen, but since I run my business from home and do not commute, I'm afraid the fun is limited to weekend rides and every other week Austin airport highway runs.

Read up a lot on mods and came to the conclusion, besides some adjustments to the interior and exterior, like getting rid of the CRM radio, adding a dual exhaust tip and little winglets to get rid of the buffeting, I will likely stay away from any performance enhancing mods. Price/Value on any of those mods like a full exhaust, headers, SW tuning and so on, just do not seem to be justifiable for my purpose, but that's just my humble opinion and you know what they say about opinions.

ekam

I agree, no point to do power mods on a base car since you'll get less gain number wise.

Just keep buying sticky tires and enjoy.