cbzzoom

Yeah the Cayman does have more headroom when sitting in the optimum upright position.

However, if you're tall at all you have to put the seat all the way back to get maximum leg room. In that case your butt is right up against the engine and your only choice for the seat back is right upright.

That may be ideal for spirited driving, but for any length of drive at all, the fact that you have zero room to adjust for different positions is pretty punishing.

I think the Cayman also has more luggage room, and having the trunks for isolation is really nice (like, I could keep my tools and oil and spare in one trunk, and luggage in the other one, that would be nice). But, the nice thing about the 911 is you can actually carry something really big in the cabin if you put the passenger seat down and use the back seats.

Of course if you have a Targa you can open the rear hatch and carry a surfboard

Edgy01

This is a real question?

McGarrett

I would say only in the cabin. Front and rear trunk vs... bla bla bla.

1BlinkGone

I hate front seats set like a Barcalounger.... leave that to the den at home. For me, just a slight bit of recline is perfect. Not too upright, but hardly easy-chair status. I tend to think the latter can promote some very unsafe, lackadaisical driving habits.

That said, I'm 5'9" and have long legs (33" inseam). I love the Crocs, but give me a 911. In many ways, not just legroom (in which there is a real difference between the two), the cockpit feels less confining in a 911.

FI Flyer

I have driven my (now sold) 2006 Cayman S across country and back so I have spent some long hours -- days -- behind the wheel. I found that I was most comfortable in the Cayman with the seat tilted back considerably. I think the seat was all the way back and my legs were not straight but bent out to the sides with my right leg against the center console. There was more room on the left side than on the right.

My current 911 seems to have more legroom. While I occasionally play with the angle of the seat back, I never find myself having to splay out my legs in order to get adequate room for my legs. And, as noted in a previous post, the seat back position is less constrained than in the Cayman which has the 'wall" of the engine compartment to contend with.

Perhaps because the Cayman did not have a sunroof, it had more than adequate headroom. (As does my 911 coupe even with the sunroof.)

There is a simple reason that the dimensions for the seats in the Cayman and the 911 are identical: they are the same seats. That said, I seriously doubt that the legroom for both cars with the seats fully back and the backs at the same angle (and all other adjustments identical) are the same. There is more legroom in the 911.

yemenmocha

That was my point. I meant humor and not necessarily offense when I said it was gangsta style seating, but the Barcalounger description is just as accurate.

Either way, in a respectable driving school they'll go over the proper range of seating positions. If you have to have your legs locked out or scrunched up, it is wrong. If your arms are locked out with little bend at all, it is wrong. If the only way to have my head not hit the ceiling is to have a reclined "gangsta lean" so the chin of the helmet hits my chest, the car does not fit. This is not subjective. Violating these is bad technique for serious driving. It's just as wrong as driving with your hands at 11 & 1 o'clock, or driving with one hand only the entire time and the other hand on the shifter the entire time. I can't believe there is actually argument over this.

Regarding headroom, the problem is with the mandatory sunroof and sloping roof of the 997 - for many people there isn't enough headroom, even as much headroom as there is in the Cayman. It is that bad. The Cayman has more headroom for proper seating position for tall people.

Even this is unacceptable, especially now that there's no bend in the arms:


And what I mentioned earlier...

mander

Spend some time in both see what you think. To each their own. I found the Cayman too confining and couldn't get a good position but I am 6'3". One of my colleagues at 5'9' prefers the Cayman. It really is a personal preference.

Nugget

I'm sorry your body shape doesn't fit in a 911 coupe, and I'm sorry that the Carrera can't be bought with sunroof delete here in the States. It's clearly a frustrating issue for you, and I can understand why. Maybe it's just the universe telling you to buy a GT3?

But this issue is the very definition of subjective. We're all different shapes and sizes and what works for you doesn't necessarily work for other people. The outcome and perspective is dependent on the subject. For many people the 911 cabin affords them more room due to the differences in adjustment available.

Long legs/short arms, short legs/long arms, long torso, short torso, helmet or no helmet -- they all demand different settings, adjustments, and seat angle for proper driving position. The 911 cabin affords a wider range of adjustments than the Boxster/Cayman does and that's important for some people.

mossjn

OK. 6'5" and I have read the stats on many a car over the years and know that regardless of how they are measured, they are not a great measure of room and fit. The 997 definitely fits much better in terms of legroom than the cayman/boxster. Have tried them both and decided against Cayman, at a minimum, for this reason. I would not have purchased the 997 if it fit like a cayman.

Ignore the stats and get in the different cars.

raspritz

I am, among other things, a concert cellist. I shopped for P-cars by going to the dealership to test which would versus which would not accomodate my full-size cello in its case. The 997 could hold it. The Cayman and Boxter could not. End of shopping (I'd intended to buy a 997 anyway). The salesman said that he'd never seen anybody shop that way before. I'm not sure he quite grasped my meaning when I noted that the cello was worth substantially more than the car.

winkingchef

Pix of cello plz.

greenpdk

I own 2009 CS2 and a 2009 Boxster. I know that the measurements up front appear to be the same but the 997 just feels roomier. Even with the 997 seats moved up to the same as the max for the Boxster it just seems like more space.

odurandina

wow. i thought i was the only one. and i am also 5'8".

fast1

It's a bit heartbreaking actually, because I was very set on making a Boxster Spyder my next Porsche

Hell,you live in SF. Why would the Spyder's headroom be an issue for you?

cbzzoom

A firewall right behind your seat will gives you that "not so roomy" feeling

In seriousness, one of the things I love about the 997 is that it has retained the old fashioned car design of the "glass house". You really do have lots of glass all around, and the body and doors don't come up to high. That gives you a great feeling of spaciousness because of all the light.

For example I think a GT-R actually has about the same interior cabin size, but I feel totally claustrophobic in there because the doors come up to my chin and there's no glass behind my head. So many modern cars are built like tanks - not in the solidity of their construction but rather in the lack of viewports.