All Things Mk5 > Other VAG

Porsche Cayman 981 Black Edition

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rex:
Hi everyone!

Even thought this is not a specialized Porsche forum, I enjoy spending time over here are talking to you.
So, I would like to open this topic to share with you what's happening to the, new to me, Porsche Cayman Black Edition.

First question: why Porsche Cayman?
Simple: Porsche sport cars have always been a dream for me. Of course, I dreamt of 911 variants - because I did not like the styling of the 987 Cayman. But that all changed in 2013 when the 981 Cayman was unveiled. I like the new styling very much and the majority of the car magazines praised the chassis and the handling of the new Porsche. They considered the chassis to be the best in it's class especially for the money (they made some comments that it was the best chassis up to Ferrari 458 money - which says a lot). The handling was considered better that the 911 and, very important to me, very predictable.
I spent many days configuring a 981 Black Edition with LSD, Adaptive Dampers, Sport Exhaust and Sport Chrono Package. But, mid 2016 the 981 was discontinued and Porsche started with the 718 Cayman.
The 718 Cayman was (still is) just a bit better than the 981. The steering is a bit improved, the rear axle is from the 981 GT4, the brakes are better, the infotainment system is much better BUT it gave up the previous 6 cylinder boxer engine for a turbocharged 4 cylinder boxer engine. All the reviews said the new car is much faster than the previous one, but that the engine sound is really not suitable for the rest of the car ("The engine is a normal 4 pot, it's not a Porsche Engine").

By the begging of the year I had enough money to make a down payment for my dream car. The 911 was out of my budget (they were 100k EURO plus) so I had to chose between the 981 Cayman or the 982 Cayman (718).
I originally thought of buying the Porsche new. So I contacted the Romanian Porsche dealer and I settled for 2 configurations:
- 718 Cayman Manual with  LSD, Adaptive Dampers, Sport Exhaust and Sport Chrono Package and a few other comfort bits
- 718 Cayman GTS Manual with all of the above (standard anyway) and a few comfort bits
Out of these 2 I decided to go for the GTS because the delivery date was 2 months earlier than the normal variant. Unfortunately, right when I was suppose to make the down payment, the dealer told me I would have to pay a bit (10% of the full price) more than we agreed initially. I was a bit upset of this turnaround of events and a bit confused because he was not actually gaining anything with this move.
In the meanwhile I was watching the pre-owned cars daily on Porsche.de. I've see a car extremely close to my ideal configuration:
Black Edition which came with the following extras
- black exterior and leather black interior
- 20 inch Carrera Classic wheels
- Bi-Xenon headlights with cornering
- Porsche Communication Module with Navigation
- automatic dual climate control (yes, this is an extra for a 50k+ EURO car)
- heated seats
- parking sensors
- Sound Package Plus
- cruise control
- other bits and pieces

And on top of that the following extras
- Porsche Active Suspension Management - adjustable dampers and 10mm reduced hight
- Porsche Torque Vectoring - rear LSD and individual braking of the interior back wheel
- Sport Chrono - adaptive engine mounts and rev matching
- Sport Exhaust
- Leather Package - leather on the lower door cards.
- multifunction steering wheel
- interior alarm
- exterior Aluminum around the windows
- Porsche Vehicle Tracking System

and after the discussions with the Romanian Dealer, I decided to buy it.

Of course, it was not as easy as buying it straight away... The Porsche Dealer Fulda would not sell the car to me directly because I am from Romania. I am pretty sure the EURO's have the same color over here but some companies have this approach... So I went to my old VW Dealer, who now had a Used Cars division, and I got to buy the car from them (of course with their commission on top). Here are the pictures from the collection day.









And after I brought it home:





First impressions: it is an awesome car. Much, much better than I though.
As you might know, I drive a 1.4 TSI 160hp mk5 and a 1.4 MPI 85hp Ibiza. So, the power of the Porsche is more than enough.
But not the power was not the only thing that surprised me it was:
- the clutch is hard similar to racing cars
- the gear stick is in the ideal position and the gear change is much more mechanical
- the engine sound (intake & exhaust) are coming from behind the driver
- you sit very low and you get to see the nice front arches from inside and the "hips" by looking in the mirror.
- the engine sound is INCREDIBLE
- the rev matching (that comes with the Sport Chrono Package) is probably the best thing on this car
- the handling is different to the Golf, I got to oversteer a few times in the Porsche (by driving it at about 7/10) and the car is still very unpredictable for me (btw, it's the first time I regularly drive a RWD car)

I will leave other pictures and stories for the following posts.
BTW, tomorrow, I am going to Hungaroring to test it on the F1 Track.

Comments are always welcomed, thanks for watching and sorry for the long post  :drinking:

rex:
Just came home from the first track day with the Porsche and what a day it was...
But before I go into more details, I will continue with the events chronologically...

I received the car mid February with summer tires. It Romania winter is not to be taken lightly and since for winter tires and rims I would have to wait until the end of March I decided to use the car with the summer tires but only when the weather allowed it.
In the meanwhile I had to a take a business trip, so I did not miss it that much...
When I returned I started to drive the Porsche more and more and I got to enjoy it that much more.

As some of you know, my Golf has had a lot of modification to everything except the engine. The Porsche is much sportier and much more comfortable than the Golf (even with 16 inch rims)!
Dynamically, the Cayman is totally different to the Golf. I got a few surprising oversteers at the beginning... But I got a bit more used to the rwd and mid-engine feeling.
And as you know, this post is worthless without pictures so:













Next up, the Hungaroring trip.
Stay tuned!  :driver:
 

teo_parvu:
I'm glad that you've decided to stick with the forum and present the car here. This is a dream car and somehow VAG related.
I know that the Hungaroring report will be awesome, can't wait.  :happy2: 

rex:
Thanks buddy!
Well, yes, Porsche belongs to VAG :).

So, like I said, Hungaroring with the Porsche was very, very interesting...
First of all, a bit of intro...
This year I was a bit unlucky when it came to attending trackdays. Whenever a trackday was announced I was either on vacation or on a business trip. So, this year I couldn't attend any.
A friend of mine posted the ad for the 26th of June, when an event was organized at Hungaroring. Of course, I had to be in Italy for a business trip. But, 4 days before going I found out another colleague could take my place so I quickly regrouped and made the reservation to attend the Hungaroring event. I also took a friend with me who rented a 718 Cayman S.
So, on the day of the event I went to Hungaroring to find out it was a very exclusive private event. You can see it by the cars attending:











I carried on like I did not have the cheapest car :). I've setup my cameras, the VBox, reduced the tire pressure and got going.
The track was opened throughout the day (open pitlane) and there were no sessions like there are on a public trackday. I do as may laps I wished but, because the car is 100% stock I set up a target of 30-40 laps in order not to kill it.

During the whole day I got to understand the car better and better. And boy, what a car it is:
- incredible sound - finally my car cars sounds like a proper sports car



- incredible grip and traction - I could really use more power
- the brakes are ok but they get hot very fast - I could only do 3 hot laps per "session" with a cool-down lap after each hot lap. After these the brakes and the tires were no longer ok
- the tires Pirelli PZero were ok-ish for stock tires
- because of the tires the car was a bit unpredictable and not consistent (too low pressure at the beginning, to high pressure at the end and the grip was alternating)
- I left the EPS on (the ESP has a special program if I select the Sport Plus setup, which I did, that allows more movement) and I felt it was restricting me in some parts. But I am not yet brave enough to deactivate it completely.





My best time was 2:15.5 that is more than 6 seconds faster than my best lap with the Golf (2:21.6).
The videos will follow in a few weeks (I have to do a lot of editing to overlay the dashboard) - hopefully before going to Nurburgring (July 21st).
Thanks for watching!  :drinking:

eddie pk:
thanks for this thread not sure how i missed it, a great line up of cars , i cant stop looking at caymans at the moment , not sure where it has come from , i am hoping it will go away - it isnt !... will be interesting to see if the 981 drops much in value over the next few years or becomes even more sort after .. what was your friends view of the rented 718 in comparison?..

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