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
