Jim Michaels

Back seat was replaced with parcel shelf, but the seat "wells" were underneath. "Flat doors" yes, with pull straps to open doors and no storage pocket. A little less sound deadening, including thinner carpeting. Regular glass, sunroof delete, but sunroof was one of the options. It was called a "light-weight" by some, but it was only about 78 lbs lighter than a basic 964, and that was reduced as options were added (about 50 lbs for the A/C alone). Other than the sport suspension, the biggest difference in terms of driving feel was no power steering; fine for track, but a lot of work for autocross and parking. The no-options version didn't sell well at the time.

MikeN

So your not an "enthusiast buyer" if you want a sunroof?.......I will whole-heartedly disagree. I am an avid enthusiast with plenty of track days under my belt with 4 different Porsches.......and a sunroof is one option I really enjoy
when I'm not at the track.....which is most of time. Hell, I have a buddy that tears up the track in a 996 C4 Cab. all the time......I guess he's a real non-enthusiast!

Somewhere along the line hard core track dogs are forgetting that the only reason Porsche is in business today is because 99 out of 100 buyers use their Porsche for general street driving, nothing more. The only reason the GT3 and other such Porsche cars are in existence is due to the "normal" buyers of 911s, Boxsters, and Cayennes, not the track junkie. If all Porsche built was track cars.....they would not be long for this world......they know it, now the rest of the world needs to accept it. You don't get to be one of the most profitable car companies in the world by building track cars.

I do agree that they should have a lower priced version of the GT3 and the Cayman would be perfect for it........but just as many people thought it was going to be a track drivers dream car, Porsche knew it would not fly as such......not enough buyers to make it worth while or even profitable......so they made it a street car, which could possibly be used at the track. Lets hope the Cayman S garners enough interest for Porsche to really think about a CS version of it to satisfy all.

I also like the idea of having a lot of delete options......it seemed to work well in the past to suit a lot of peoples needs.......but simply not offering the option in the first place would be dumb.

bet

I never meant to imply a sunroof = non-enthusiast, I guess I failed to communicate what I was trying to say. I was trying to convey that “deoptioned” cars don’t sell well and in that great of numbers and that even among the enthusiast (not the general buying public) who seem to want an affordable car from Porsche that is more purpose built (i.e. an affordable GT3) there is dissention to what should be included and/or an option. In discussions of a car that could be construed as an attempt by Porsche at this type of vehicle, invariably someone will complain that there is no sunroof. There are other examples of these comments, I just choose sunroof at the time because it was the first thing that came to my mind. Personally I consider myself and enthusiast and not a track junkie. I have drive my Porsche every day and take it to the track every so often, but the vast majority of my driving is on the street. I too am sunroof fan, although in the 996 Porsche somehow couldn’t (or didn’t) get the aerodynamics correct so that I don’t have to have the window cracked at certain speeds to prevent the severe “buffeting” (but that is another discussion). At the same time I would like to see a more affordable alternative to the GT3.

I agree that Porsche is very smart with the cars it sells. Porsche is a product/profit driven company which designs and produces cars that are going to sell in specified volumes with very good profit margins, with limited runs of specialty cars at even higher prices and profits. There is definitely a higher demand among those who can afford new Porsches for all the latest features and comforts such as power everything, navigation systems, blue tooth, more civilized rides, better interior materials, better HVAC systems, better sound deadening, etc.

Lets face it, for the enthusiast (and the definition of enthusiast is different fore everyone b/c track/autocross driving is not required to be an enthusiast) who drives a car on the street and then goes to the track on occasion the addition of some options are understandable and desirable if not all of them. If the extra .1 second a lap is that important than it is time to look at a dedicated track/race car. Although I still say the “delete” option is a good idea.

Delesh

MikeN, I agree with you and I am sure a lot of people here feel the same. Having a car with which I can have a blast at the track and then take out in comfort to the theatre is great and one of the reasons I bought a 987S over an elise. I will be able to use the 987 on so many more occasions. I also realize the need to make the cayman as a street version first. However, I feel that porsche has enough models already geared towards refinement and enough profit on those models in order to start taking some risks with a performance version of cayman. If you've got the bases covered with some of the most refined performance cars on the market, why not give the hardcore porsche enthusiast something to get really excited about and improve porsches sporting image, even if the profits are not as high? I would love to see porsche build a car that is more accessible than a GT3 and yet set a level of performance that others will look up to. Mitsubishis evolution for example, although probably not able to save the company, is recognized all over the world as a serious performance machine and surely helps mitsubishis image. Its true that porsche is still independent because of their street cars (cayenne), but you are also forgetting how porsche grew its image of world class engineering and innovation through racing and building lightweight and really not overly powerful cars which people could buy off the showroom floor and race successfully in local SCCA events and such (james dean). The enthusiast buyer may not be the most numerous but they tend to be fairly vocal and I feel they have a great influence over the image of a manufacturer as they tend to get jobs reviewing cars.

MetalSolid

Porsche will build a Cayman CS, they have to, its the whole reason for having a Boxster coupe. An affordable amateur trackday car with the Porsche badge.

There are plenty of hardcore Porsche enthusiasts that want a lightweight car without sunroof, sat-nav and other foo-foo stuff, but they can't afford to track a GT3, GT2 or CGT, these people are currently driving EVOs, STIs, ZO6s, etc... The Cayman is the Porsche that will attract these hardcore enthusiasts to actually buy a new Porsche. But Porsche aren't completely stupid, they're not gonna introduce the Cayman CS first, as this would kill sales of the Cayman and Cayman S; now they can get people that really wanted a CS into a Cayman S and still get their business a second time once they introduce the Cayman CS - which they will.

MikeN

If Porsche really thought that a Cayman CS would sell more examples than an S or non-S version they would have easily brought it out first......remember they aren't stupid and love to sell cars and make money. Did they bring the GT3 out before the 996? No, they brought to market their bread and butter cars first (including an SUV) and then spent money on the rest. The Cayman S is a Boxster coupe through and through and designed for one purpose only, to make money for Porsche.......in fact I don't really think they care what you do with it just so they sell it. Only when it is successful will other variants follow, and lets hope they do. A Cayman CS would sell, but not at the levels Porsche expects to sell the S version. Will Porsche sell more GT3 versions of the 997 over the S or non-S versions?......no-way. Remember most Porsches are street driven and never once go close to a track, and I expect the Cayman to be the same.

The fact of the matter is that Porsche wants to be a very successful car manufacture today......they built their name on performance and still build some of the best performance machines out there, but who pulled out of racing to get their house in order and take care of core business first?? From a financial aspect Porsche is much better off now catering to the casual buyer than the hard core track enthusiast.....may be tough to swallow, but its a fact.

Look at Chevy......put a bunch of money and resources into a new Z06.....pretty much a track car focused at a very limited audience and what happens.....the rest of their cars are pretty much junk and their financial status is the same....junk. The Z06 will sell well, but not near the level it would take to truly help Chevy out. Take care of the everyday buyer first and that will enable you to supply the racing enthusiast with what he wants.......not the other way around, even Porsche figured out that the tail doesn't wag the dog anymore.

Now Porsche may be looking to get some of that racing prestige back and attrack some new enthusiasts with the Cayman, but their not about to throw caution to the wind with a CS first. They know it won't be the best seller of the line and having one hard core racer in the family with the GT3 is just fine with them at the moment.......those hoping for more from the Cayman will just have to get over it until a real CS is confirmed.

Johan K

Something like this would be awesome:

http://www.pbase.com/pb12/image/39476346/original.jpg

soltino

C & D or Autoweek has mentioned the GTS possibilty.

tino

Delesh

Johan, I would love to see something like that become reality.

carreracup21

Don't forget the only real RS that Porsche ever brought here and sold. Abeit, it was a mistake of sorts for them. The 1992 USA Carrera Cup, which was a thinly disguised version of the real 964 RS. 45 lucky owners took them home from Porsche dealerships. They are fully US street legal and true gems. I would love to see a "Cup" version of the Cayman for dedicated track duties, perhaps something that would fit into Grand-Am Cup, or another amatuer series like the one currently running with IMSA. That is probably too much to hope for though.

GrantG

Yeah, those USA Cups are sweet, but I think it's overly optimistic to expect another wonderful "mistake" like that for the Cayman