stout

To CGT: While your wish list is close to mine, too much of it is pie in the sky against Porsche's current economic angles. 345-360 hp, short gears, better than Spyder weight savings, and the -20 suspension would have made the car a smash hit in my book — and the only thing there that would cost Porsche much is finding more weight savings than the Spyder. Oh, and a half cage with HANS prep — even as an option — would further legitimize the car.

To the OP: CGT is right; you raise fair criticism of the critics. A lot of my criticism, and I suspect that of others, comes because the name of the car really bothers me (I think the marketing folks are selling the company's soul or, at the least, raping its heritage), and the car itself seems lazy. If those aren't issues for you, I see no reason you shouldn't buy it. I bet it will be a great drive. I've owned several cars other people didn't like/thought were ugly/etc. and had a blast owning/driving them, and if there's one thing they taught me, it's that a great car is worth driving no matter what other people think of it — because they're not driving it.

niche

Cause it's gay...

zellamsee

LOL!! Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

ir_fuel

The problem is that the majority of the people spending lots of hard-earned $$$ at Porsche will never pay $120K+ for a Cayman, be it a Cayman with carbon bodywork, a 435hp engine, half-cage, bucket seats and 6 point belts. Spending the double on a special-series 911 however is not an issue.

I really wonder: of all the people that think the Cayman should be available in a much more hardcore version, how many would actually buy that Cayman if for the same price (or let's say $5000 more) they can get a GT3.

9972RS

I'm going to laugh my a__ off when the GT3RSLE is named GT3R, with just minor cosmetic changes, a higher cup wing, a "R" badge, and fixed "fully loaded" options. They'll mark it up to 225k and it'll be just another rape my a__ car.

kyrocks

LOL!! It's funny 'cause it's true!

Carrera GT

Over here. I'll take one.

To continue my "pie in the sky" (no question about it) daydreaming, I'd ask for 2500lb, 450hp and $150K ... and I'd like to have PDK, but either way, I'd still prefer it to be a 911 and not a Cayman ... a legitimate 911R and worthy successor. I dare (double dare!) Porsche to call me on this and see if I'm bluffing. : )

This notion of the "entry level" cars cannibalizing the 911 sales is 20th century uninformed fears, not practical reality. Porsche is afraid of its own shadow. If they could overcome their fears, they would see the light: Build a Cayman GT3 side by side a 911 GT3 and build them to the exact same spec (even appearance of the body down to the millimeter) to the point where everything inside and out is identical, cosmetically and mechanically including the suspension and weight; Except one is rear-engine and the other mid-engine. Priced exactly the same. Let the customer decide.

From the rumor mill, it seems that we can expect the 991 to be such a bulbous lard-***, we won't know where the engine resides anyway. If you look at how gargantuan the 997 looks beside the 993, the 991 is going to look like a two door Panamera (and of course, we'll surely see one of those soon enough.)

If Porsche continues to merrily load the scatter gun for the product planning with all these models and variants, why not build one that drivers actually want to buy?

If Porsche can see their way clear to sell the yawn-fest Sport Classic and the "only for the well healed collector" Speedster, then they can sell a thousand Caymans in "my" spec as "mini" GT1's. I'd take one.

When Pete Stout was hinting at one more moniker to get its skirt lifted and taken roughly from behind, I wasn't thinking of the 911R (perish the thought) but I was thinking of the GT1 or the 912 (a four cylinder 911, for the sake of discussion, but also a shorter wheelbase with "finesse, not force" as the motif) but now, if this is their idea of an "R" then I loathe the thought of what abomination my drop from their over-productive womb onto the floor between their legs as gracelessly as their birthing of this green bugaboo that is the Cayman R.

KBS911

Why all the fuss? Did anyone really think that Porsche was going to make a world beater at this price point? That it would smoke our GT3's or shame the 911 into submission? Please...........The Cayman S gets raves in just about every publication you can name. By all accounts, and by any other name this is a better Cayman. Thats pretty damn good by any account. Most of these posts seem to revolve around the disdain over the "R" designation. I'm just glad they didn't name it the Cayman X15 or Cayman SR71, blasphemy indeed. I like it and think it would be a blast to drive. Will I be buying one......................ummmmmn...... No!

stout

Hmm...remember these days?

911T
911E
911S

When Targa was a body style, and options like airport/short gears, LSD, etc were merely options? 1973 added the Carrera RS, RSR 2.8, 1975 the Turbo. Later on, Porsche did option packages like M471 and M491, resulting in Carreras that today get their own names. Porsche's marketing right now kinda reminds me of the days when Oldsmobile decided the Cutlass name was worth something and then applied it to every model. The last 4-4-2 was especially iffy. A few years later, the deal was up: no more Cutlasses.

I wasn't bothered when Porsche moved from 993 to 996; I seemed to be one of the few Porschephiles who saw the new car as better than the old (driving-wise, at least) and said so despite getting lots of nasty letters. I wasn't bothered when Porsche ditched Le Mans and decided to start building trucks, and I am not sure Ferry would have been, either. I am, however, now more worried about Porsche's direction than I have been in the last 10-15 years. There are still some great sports cars (personally, I feel the Spyder is the best new Porsche sports car I've driven since the 996 GT3 and CGT, while the latest GT3s and GT2s are/appear to be very good) in Porsche's lineup, and its work on the Cayenne and Panamera is impressive in many ways. It's too early to start bagging on the next generation, but there have been some disturbing signs out of Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen of late...

The truth is, there are many within Porsche who don't care about what they term "cast-iron fans" because a lot of them don't buy cars. They're right,Strekbut losing the respect of those fans by building cars that don't measure up to the legend only works for so long.

stevecolletti

+1
I love my RS's mechanicals, but every time I drive it, I think to myself, why can't they be in a mid-engine car. It's all available in the aftermarket, but I want an finished, engineered, tested car, not a kit car. If Porsche made a Cayman, or whatever they'd call a mid-engine GT3RS, (with the looks of either, BTW), it is what I'd spend my money on.

timothymoffat

Thankyou.

Having the enthusiasts' attention and respect, both new car buyers and those who will buy "previously owned," is essential to Porsche's survival I believe. If/when these enthusiasts lose interest in the current Porsche offerings, the "lure" of the marque slowly disappears.

To the OP's question. To me the Cayman "R" was pretty much the car I expected. A nicely (un)equipped, performance-biased Cayman. My disappointment lies with Porsche's need to give the model it's own identity. The car is mostly a collection of options that if not already available should be (-20, NON-PASM "sport" suspension that's you), a questionable power increase, and "package" pricing. Porsche has always made many options, performance and not, available on their cars. This gave the buyer the opportunity to create a car that met their own needs. Why the need to roll out a "new model" every other week exploiting their own past?

Another item; why so many "limited edition" models? This is truly annoying. Add all the "limited editions" together and you realize they're all par of the same not-so-limited family.

MM3.9GT3

It is called Marketing. As long as people fall for the hype of Limited Edition models, and keep buying them, Porsche will continue making them. Is the GT2 RS worth $250K+? I don't think so, but it does not matter. They sold every one of them.

At least they didn't call it the Cayman RS

Porsche and the Cayman R
BMW and the new M SUV's
Aston selling the Cygnet
Mercedes selling an AMG version of almost every car and SUV they make
Bentley Continental - Just how many versions can you have?

aussie jimmy

it's all about new business. getting more people to come over from other marques. the die-hards will always buy p-cars; they need new business in new markets. new people are scared, they need cajoling. cars can't be too hardcore for them. the problem here is using revered monikers without really respecting the historical significance behind them.

stout

Forget a Cayman with the GT3 engine. Leave that to the 911, and do something different with the Cayman. It's won some friends, and deservedly so, but it hasn't sold well as a more expensive Boxster coupe.

How about a Cayman that really is exclusive, one based on the next platform with the Panamera's V8, maybe a wheelbase stretch, Panamera-like weight saving technologies, and new front and rear suspension? Add new bodywork, a trick interior, and feel free to price it up there...then it would be truly different than the 911 and GT3 line. And, with twin-turbos, it would be a worthy real-world successor to the CGT and a rather nasty rebuttal to Ferraris et al.

But what the hell do I know? What I wouldn't give to become part of the product-planning discussions. Porsche was on the right track for a long time, I sure hope we'll see that it still is with the next generation.

aussie jimmy

ruf ctr-3