Last year I test drove the Porsche Cayman GTS for the first time. I was completely blown away by both the straight line performance of this car and the change of direction. I don’t think many people know just how good the Cayman GTS is.
The Porsche Cayman GTS has around a £15,000 premium over the standard Cayman, which is a considerable amount of money, but what you are actually getting is Porsche’s ultimate mid-engined car, which is not just a monster on the track but is also a brilliant everyday usable sports car.
The Porsche Cayman GTS is the current top of the range Cayman that you can buy. It has an additional 75 bhp over the standard model and it is the ultimate representation of a mid-engined sports car from the Porsche manufacturer.
The Porsche Cayman GTS is powered by the same engine as the Cayman S but has been tweaked to produce more power. The tweaked mid-mounted engine produces 340 bhp and uses a 6 speed manual gearbox to drive the rear wheels. Because of this the car can get from 0 to 60 mph in the 4.9 seconds and will go all the way up to 177 mph. This is very impressive performance.
Just How Good is the Driving Experience?
Getting into the car you feel exceptionally low to the ground and are bang in the centre of the front and rear wheels. Turn on the ignition and you hear the sports exhaust fire up and that rumble from the V6 engine behind you. Moving off in the car in the default driving mode you are very much aware that you’re in a sports car, you can feel the road underneath you and the car just feels ready to fly straight from the off.
Even driving the car slowly felt fantastic, and very encouraging to drive too, even in the normal performance mode. Once up to temperature I put it into Sport Plus mode, for the track, and this is where the GTS really came alive. Sport Plus mode adjusts the throttle response, firms up the suspension, and applies rev matching when changing down gears. So now as soon as you hit that right pedal the Cayman launches as if it has little to no weight about it.
How Does it Compare to the 911?
This Cayman is only 10 bhp away from the standard Porsche 911 and I find it interesting how the mid-engine Cayman compares to the 911. They’re both very different beasts but there is an element about the mid-engined Cayman that just seems to make sense, especially on the circuit. I wonder, if the Cayman had the same amount of power as the 911 would it be faster around a circuit? I think it would be for sure.
Porsche Cayman GTS Driving Experience
The Porsche Cayman GTS driving experience is one that has really captured my heart. When you’re looking at sports car design there are a few things that are key in the recipe for a good car, one of them is rear wheel drive, another is plenty of power and the other is a good balance of weight distribution. The Cayman hits all of these points very well. There is so much fun to be had in this car and it doesn’t even have to be driven at high speeds to enjoy it.
You made the wrong choice then Ed! 😉
The minor dynamic and power improvements of the Cayman pale in insignificance to the added enjoyment of putting the roof down in the Boxster 🙂
As I told you all along