Blue S2

If they are tired of the Boxster look, then this wont be the car for them. Its a Boxster with a roof.

BHANE

Looks alright... but its no 360M. ooOOOOHHH its in Guards Red too, very nice, LOL!!!

either way they call it, here are other ways to avoid the word "Gayman":

Kayman
KMan
CMan
Kayman
HeyMan
CMen

hehe, please add-on...

Moogle

here we go again

i would say mid engine is favoured because it gives more driver confidence and is more neutral on corner entry/exit, where as one must 'unlearn' some common driving sense when driving a 911 fast.

also, mid engine is used in nearly all professional race applications, F1, lemans...

the 911 is indeed a great evolution, they finally tamed the wild nature of the configuration, but the mid engine configuration is still ideal.

Targa Tim

Even if it performs as good as the 997, I'm more than willing to pay a little more and get a bare bone 997.
I predict that its resale will not be strong as it does not have the appeal of a convertible (boxster/boxster S) and the history and prestige of any 911. We don't even have to compare it to M3 or S4 as its direct sales competitor is boxster S and 997.

JFScheck

Good looks, potential for some great performance, pricing and name seem to be the only issues (although big issues they may be for some)...

Good for Porsche. Perhaps if they can make money off of this then they will get back/more involved in the racing circuits...

Of course, this call coming form a prior 944 owner who currently owns a Cayenne and Boxster so I guess I’m not the usual Porsche kinda guy…

Jim H.

Yeah Tom I'm aware of the mid-engine argument. But you've got to ask if auto design as it pertains to very lightweight, high horsepower, high downforce cars like Audi R8 and F1 cars necessarily applies to GT cars.

I think all you can say for sure is that in the rarified air of F1 and LMP, mid-engine design seems to rule. In the "real world" of 2500lb GT cars with more modest horsepower and almost no real downforce, mid-engine design benefits may not apply. Certainly in GT racing, 911s beat F360GTs. Perhaps if they allowed turbos to be competitive in GTS in ALMS, GT2s might rule there as well.

Perhaps the increased polar moment of inertia in "our" class of vehicles is actually better than mass centralization. The race results seem to support this AND like I said, what may be good for F1 cars may not apply to GT cars.

Sorry if this seems off topic but I for one don't firmly believe the Cayman with equivalent HP and rubber will necessarily be faster than a 911.

Serge944

I though the 911s dominated GT due to their reliability and consistency, no? Surely you can't have merely the engine location responsible. Of course this can be argued both against mid and rear engined cars.

Also, speed and the ease of maintaining it are quite different. The 911 will be more twitchy and less forgiving if you make a mistake (you can't defy physics entirely). This reminds me of the grip vs handling argument. A car can grip like mad but still handle poorly overall.

Jim H.

Serge,

I think we're on the same sheet of music. But even though 911s dominate the points because of reliability and consistency, I think the GT3 usually posts the faster qualifying times. Assuming everybody tries their best for the lowest qualifying time, the rear engine still seems to trump the mid-engine design. Reliability seems more applicable to overall win rate verses qualifying ability.

The question is...all other things being equal, would a mid-engine design trump a rear engine design in a GT class car.

I think a GT Cayman with the same weight/motor/horsepower/brakes/suspension, etc. as a GT3 will settle the question. How long before someone puts a GT3 motor in a Cayman and settles the issue? Probably not long...should be a pretty easy transplant, and GT cars seem to suffer more wrecks than non-GT Porsches...we'll see.

jumper5836

If I were looking at buying a 911 today and saw this in the show room, which from the pictures here looks almost exactly like a 911.
It has a nice front like a 996 turbo and has a little turbo wing. In my opinion is better looking then the 997.
I would buy it and not a 911, simply because it is so much better priced and if it really is lighter then a 911 and has 300hp, sounds to me like why bother with a new 977, I could save the cash and buy something else with it.

Honestly I think 997 sales will go down making the 911 more rare and have a better resale value.

Though I really only would consider buying a awd vechical I would have to go with a C4.
Though I would probably pick up a Real 911 like a old 964 or 993 C4 and buy the Cayman with the model insigna removed.

Le Chef

The real beauty of the Cayman is that it allows Porsche to hedge its bets for the future with little real financial outlay. Most parts will be common to either 987 or 997, excluding some body panels. If it eats into base 997 sales, but its from fully loaded Caymans Porsche will be happy. They can reposition the current 997S as the base model, make a 3.8L with 380 hp as the "S" version and away you go. If Cayman does well without cannibalizing profit from 997 sales then they have just created a goldmine for themselves.

Cayman may also be a parallel path to the future. Audi will have it's mid-engined Le Mans along soon using V8's and a V10, Aston have the imminent AMV8 for launch at Geneva with a 4.3L V8, Ferrari have the 430, Lamborghini has Gallardo, Lexus will have it's new mid-engined coupe, etc. Porsche's top 997 will compete here, but with each new generation of competitor (and they all seem to be either front-mid or rear-mid engined) the harder it is for the 911 to stay competitive with a less than ideal layout, an engine that can't be stretched much more, and where adding more cylinders would only make the handling worse not better.

If I were WW I would be testing the Cayman with a 4L V10 derived engine from the CGT to see how it might compete against the competitors listed above. So if anyone starts seeing wide-bodied Caymans at the 'ring making V10 like noises you know what it is.

Blue S2

Make money off this????? Porsche makes money off EVERYTHING lately.

951Porschiste

It will bomb based on the name only:
"So whata you driving there?"
"A Cayman"
"What? A Gayman car?"
"No, no. It's a Cayman. Pronounced 'K'."

MMD

Hey, will be funny for Porsche to see 90% of their orders come in with the "Delete Model Designation" option.

Makes you think how isolated those guys must be in the name department.

Le Chef

[QUOTE=MMD]Hey, will be funny for Porsche to see 90% of their orders come in with the "Delete Model Designation" option.

But Porsche will change its policy and now charge you $250 for the delete option...

JohnnyBahamas

I would not hesitate at the chance of a two-day PDE course at Barber using the Cayman. That would be very telling.

After that, if I were to buy one, it would DEFINITELY be with the "Delete Model Designation" option.