There are a handful of cars out there that just feel right. Porsche’s Cayman is one of those, as it has the knack of shrink-wrapping itself around your limbs and feeling like an extension of them within a few kilometres of hustling down the road.
Porsche is going to rebadge their Boxster and Cayman as “718” models this year, complete with 4-cylinder turbo engines, the first of which have just been revealed. However, the GTS models will get a stay of execution from the turbo era for now. We drove the last of these naturally-aspirated mid-engined Porsches late last year in Stuttgart, Germany.
Porsche is extending the GTS principle to the Boxster and Cayman for the first time ever. Featuring upgraded engines and adaptive chassis, the Boxster GTS and Cayman GTS stand as the most powerful and fastest iteration of these mid-engine sports models from Porsche.
At the recently-concluded 2013 Qatar Motor Show, Porsche did three regional premieres, for the Cayenne Turbo S, new generation Cayman and 911 Carrera 4, and they showed off one of the first Panamera Platinum Edition models that arrived in the GCC market.
The new Porsche Cayman made its debut at the Los Angeles International Auto Show. Lower and longer than the previous generation, under the hood are no surprises as the Cayman shares the same engines as the Porsche Boxter.
Driving while sitting two inches away from a raspy high-revving engine is rather uncommon for most people. It’d mean you’re either driving a Ferrari 458 or a Toyota Hiace. But somewhere in between is the Porsche Cayman, supposedly the most balanced sports car in the world. We can now confirm that, after our stint with the Cayman R.
The Porsche Cayman R does not need to exist. It is merely a stripped-down Cayman S with 10 extra horses and tighter suspension. Maybe we need to correct ourselves — the Cayman R does not need to exist as a car that the general public can buy. What Porsche should do is slap on some stickers and sell it only as a professional track race-car.
The last Porsche World Roadshow for the UAE was held two years ago at the Dubai Autodrome. It was a superb event for highlighting the entire Porsche line-up in one go. Seemingly open only to existing Porsche customers and us media types, it was a well-organised event that got us some wheel-time with the 2009 models. We haven’t driven any 911s or Cayennes in the past two years since then, simply because Porsche refuses to give us test cars for more than a few hours, but they did invite us to the 2011 edition of the Porsche World Roadshow,
Expanding its limited range ever further with model variants, the Cayman will now be offered in a stripped-down version that is 55 kg lighter and with 10 horsepower more than the Cayman S. Dubbed the Porsche Cayman R, it made its world debut at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show last week.
The Porsche World Roadshow is a 10-day event that is held in various cities around the world, usually reserved for Porsche customers, and usually for a fee. The Dubai stopover was from February 4th to the 14th this year. Attending the event itself involves a single day of various activities held from 9 am to 4 pm, using the latest Porsche machinery at the Dubai Autodrome. One of these days was reserved for the media, and I was invited for the first time.