With a powerful engine and amazing dynamic dexterity, Porsche’s new two-seat coupe can be fierce and exciting to encounter. Yet with its sleek exterior lines and luxurious interior, the newest Porsche sports car provides an environment as calm and comfortable as a chic Caribbean resort.
While based on Porsche’s acclaimed two-seat roadster, the Boxster, the Cayman’s fixed-roof design adds rigidity that enhances the mid-engine architecture’s dynamic balance and capabilities.
To better suit this enhanced potential, engineers built an even more powerful horizontally opposed “boxer” engine for the Cayman S. The 3.4-liter engine punches out 295 horsepower (SAE). With the Cayman S enclosed in a sleek and aerodynamic body, the engine propels the newest Porsche from a standing start to 60 miles per hour (96 km/h) in just 5.1 seconds. The car eclipses the quarter-mile sprint in 13.6 seconds and achieves a top speed on the test track of nearly 171 mph (275 km/h).
In testing around Germany’s famed Nurburgring racing circuit, the Cayman S turned laps faster than the Boxster S, but slower than its big brother, the acclaimed Porsche 911 Carrera. It did, however, eclipse other high-performance two-seat sports coupes by some 15 seconds per lap.
Yet because of engineering that carefully optimizes weight and with a design that provides outstanding aerodynamics, the Cayman S established new standards on the famed circuit for turning the fastest lap while using the least fuel. Porsche engineers found that while the Cayman S engine makes 15 more horsepower than the powerplant in the Boxster S, over the course of 100 kilometers (62 miles) traveled it uses only four-tenths of a pint more gasoline.
The Cayman S is rated at approximately 19-mpg city and 27-mpg on the highway (12 liters/100 km city and 8 liters/100 km highway). The engine’s efficiency also qualifies the sports car as a low-emission (LEV II) vehicle in the United States.
For all of its power and nimble handling, the 2007 Porsche Cayman S is more than a performance car. It was designed to be aesthetically appealing outside and in, comfortable and well appointed for long-distance driving, whether on two-lane mountain roads or wide stretches of Interstate.
Some may look at the 2007 Porsche Cayman S and be reminded of the Porsche 550 Coupe or the Porsche 904 Carrera GTS Coupe, legendary cars from earlier eras. Others will notice how Porsche designers incorporated elements of both the Boxster roadsters and the 911 Carrera models into the new two-seat, fixed-roof coupe. Still others will see the Cayman S for its unique design, purely Porsche but with distinct elements such as its nose section, the way the rocker panels sweep up to the side-mounted air vents like hockey sticks, the graceful if complex curves where the long sloping roofline narrows as it plunges between the voluptuous rear fenders.
To classify the Cayman S as merely the coupe version of the Boxster does disservice to both vehicles, each of which is unique with its own special characteristics.
For the Cayman S, those special features include an interior that combines luxury-class materials with the controls and support required by the enthusiast driver and spirited passenger, whether they are traveling across the country with a surprising amount of luggage or hustling down a winding stretch of road.
