I'm 27, live in central London, have 6yrs NCB, and its about £1.5k for me a year. My coupe is lightly modded, and cost about £800. The Cayman S is in group 20, and is obviously worth 10 times what my coupe is, so you have to expect it to cost more to insure. If you have major mods on your coupe, it could be similar - I don't know.



Fair enough, I thought you'd need the electronics and help that a Liner would give you to drive quickly . Raw drivers cars would probably be too much of a handful for you. See, if you are offered the choice of a 997 GT3, or a GTR, the real driver would go for the 997 every time , the "blat in a straight line" hero would pick the liner . So when are you getting your GTR then?



Trust me, I'm not losing any part of coupe ownership . The coupe 5cyl is a good sounding engine, but not a scratch on my Porsche. And you really are dreaming if you think you could drop a Cayman S in 2nd gear in your coop . You'd at least need to change up into magic 3rd gear and use half throttle to go past .

Like I said, I'm more than happy to see how fast your coupe really is, at Santa Pod or a track. So let me know if you ever want to go to either and I'll whoop your ass no problemo (either around the track (yes that includes corners and straights), or on the 1/4 mile) - and my Porsche isn't even one of the "fast" ones. Or have you done better than a 13.2s 1/4 mile? Oh, hang on, that's not a fair race, because it takes traction into account (which you dont have), so it has to be a rolling challenge between 30mph and 180mph on the road where people generally back off due to breaking the law etc.... or you wont play. Boooooo.

Now I've got a car that is usual easy meat to you Wellformed, I'm very happy to prove to you just how slow these expensive german mundane mediocre boats are , are you up for it though? (someone has finally called your bluff in other words)

All good fun as you said, lets see if you step up though.

Come one fella don't be negative about the coops! You loved them once

I'm not being negative, I'm being realistic. Even though the coupe sounds great, there are better sounding cars out there. The coupe is a great bargain for the performance and looks, and always will be in my eyes, but lets not get carried away - there are far more superior cars out there, although the problem is you need to spend a lot more than the coupe's value to step up to something better! Because the coupe is so good (performance & value)!

So, you know what I'm going to ask

Are you kgoing to track it?

Nice choice btw, I do like Porsche.

Hi Dave, I actually got a quote from Competition Car Insurance today, just under £300 for a trackday which is reasonable enough. The £4k excess is a bit steep though!

I'll get a set of 18s most likely for ragging around in, and will be on track for sure. Hows the caterham going?

fair enough, and agreed.

good choice BTW.

Excellent, see if you can come along to Donnington at the end of next month.

The Caterham is going well thanks, really enjoying ownership. Wanting to add a few handling mods now.

I have a Caterham drift day at Brands tomorrow, can't wait.

Cool, I'll check Donnington out - who's organising it? Easytrack?

Awesome Simma, come on WF step up!

<Football Chant> And it's all gone quiet over there..... </Football Chant>

Sing up!

As said above you need to spend alot more than the coop to find something much better than a coop. The problem is alot of these new cars are very powerfull, but they are missing something very important a soul (not to sound cheesy) . Ive sat in an r8, gtr etc and they are missing that very thing. Cars are the same as planes once you stuff it full of cpus is it really a car ? Thats what makes the coop better than alot of these new cars Ps nice car btw, lots round here and they look very nice.

Dunno, sounds like a bit og germin vermin snobbery is already setting there in to me! Coops are suddenly not worthy. Isn't quality of sound a car makes entirely about opinion?

I'd have a GTR because it's a better car, as a fact, and has better street cred, as an arguable point and better looks, as an opinion. I also cannot abide herd mentality, out of principle, and could never have something so common like a porker. But each to their own. I would sya that of all porkers, baring a GT2 or GT3 a Cayman is as rare as they come. There's a reason there's more porkers on the road than another other performance car. It should be about quality, but I would also expect a large part of that is status symbolism and sheeple.

I also wouldn't take a porker on on a track or b-road (I didn't know), that would be dumb. Almost as dumb as a porker taking on a coop in a straight line... Oh no, hang on a sec, that's ignorance and self-superiority that does that, init?

Porkers, abtly named.

Anyway, should be fun ownership. As I say, track it before the warranty runs out!


btw, not at work today, doing some rust repair/treatment on the shitty Coop! so I'm, not bored enough to put in loads of posts on here...

No chance.. the last time he tried to get to a track day he bent the car before he got there.

theres alot of porsches & M3's out there for a few good reasons, they are great all round packages, reliable, well made, fast, practical and fun to drive. This is what people want, and this is why other car makers 'go after' the 911 when maiin a new sports car, its THE benchmark. m3 is THE benchmark for £40k performance car too etc. That is why they are common, not always because of the badge as such.

I know I bang on about EVO mag, but they do seem to know what they are talking about and they rate Porsche very highly indeed, as they say they are very good drivers cars. Remember this is pretty much all they have done for 40 years, it is there specialty.


Much as a Caymen wouldnt be my choice for the money I think you need to open your eyes a bit more WF.

There are a few of us going on the August bank holiday ... see here for more info. It'd be great to see you there

Edit: And it looks like there are still places to be booked

I like the Cayman. Wouldn't buy one but if forced to have a new Porch then that'd be it.
Enjoy

Great car S1MMA ! As much as I love my coop I would have no hesitation in changing. ....If only I could afford it...


Sean

I dont think it's quite roomy enough inside to be used as a house extension. You'd be better off with a passat estate stuck to your house, plenty more room in that to hang up your coats.

Harsh

It'd be great to see the Porsche on track . I think (hope ) Donny is a good circuit for learning a new car.

Nice car Simma

Which tuning parts can you add to the Porsche to make it go over 300 BHP?

Coupe's are worthy of £4k sports cars, even maybe upto £8k sports cars, but not of £40k+ (proper) sports cars, that's the difference. An Audi TT is not a proper sports car, nor is a 330D, or an SLK230, pretty simple.



A GTR is a better car if your definition of better is: straight line speed/perfoamcne/gizmo's/technology etc... I would argue that a Lotus Elise is a better car for a true driver. All depends on your definition. Opinions are fine, yours are as misguided as those that you call misguided. Better street cred? You'd buy a car based on street cred? If it fits in with the image you want to display to the world, then fine. But it's interesting you do think about image. Not everyone has the same view as you though - and they're the people you're portraying your image to. Ever thought of that?



It's funny that you mention ignorance, although you do accept that you'd be beaten by a well driven porker on track, thanks for accepting that. Funny how you don't like even contemplating losing, it shows your insecurities. Even if there's a chance of losing, you turn the other way, look for another easier challenge. A porker taking on a coupe in a straight line? - sorry I forgot, that 997 Turbo that raped you wasn't in a straight line, it was on a slight curve! It's a £110k car, it's going to beat you, there's nothing you can really do about it, just accept it and tip your hat to the guy in a expensive fast car. I don't know why you try to act all clever and say that he's missing out not driving your coupe, or that he's embarrased so he looks straight on at the lights? Do you want him to stare you out with a smug grin on his face? Or wind his window down and ask you if you're running a GT28R or GT28RS?



Don't worry, it won't ever run out in my ownership. The £900 a year to renew it is well worth it!



I can't even access the forum at work any more, sad but true.

I think what you need to do Wellformed is decide what you're really against. Is it mundane powerful German cars that are driven badly, is it people with more cash than you, is it a mixture of both? Your words on how boring all german cars are, is not all wrong. I agree that pretty much most VAG products (leaving out RS audi's (whilst not great drivers cars, still interesting) and Lambo etc...) are mundane and boring, and also a lot of AMG Mercs and BMWs are driven by tossers, even a lot of Porsches. But that doesn't mean they're bad cars. If you owned one, maybe - just maybe, you'd drive them properly, and you'd enjoy them for their engineering and the quality of the drive. And guess what, maybe there are other people out there that don't just buy these cars for the badge or their 18yr old pulling ability. They buy them to drive hard, and to enjoy the engineering brilliance also.

Just a thought mind you, I'd love to show you the car and take you out for a spin to open your eyes juuuuuust a little bit wider than racing 50yr olds in cars with tiptronic transmissions and no interest in cars/driving. I bet you'd change your mind if that happened.

Hi mate, tuning without using forced induction is fairly limited to induction/exhaust and remapping. You'd break 300bhp with any one of the above. I've not done that much research on tuning, although I'd expect to get around 330-340bhp with exhaust/induction/remap. Probably be around a 12.8s 1/4 mile at that level. You can drop in a 997 Carerra S 3.8l engine, the new one with 385bhp if you're feeling like you really want to spend some serious cash. That would be very quick (1350kg weight).

The yanks are supercharging and turbocharging them. There's a £5k kit that gives 480bhp at the fly on the Cayman S, good enough for an 11.8s 1/4 mile @125mph (F40 does 0-124mph in 12s). Could be interesting eh!

A very good choice. It'll last you a lifetime. I'm planning on getting one in 5 to 10 years time when I can afford one... that is a 10 year old one mind!

some new pics:

Cayman 1

Cayman 2

Slightly fuzzy interior


My Fav..............

cars look great indoors

Personally, I have never found Porsches the most appealing cars to look at... but that looks great

Excellent write-up SIMMA. I've been having a running debate with a mate about a Cayman S vs a 996 C4S (both ~35k). I always swayed towards the 911 (love the 993-esque light strip on the boot) but having read your review I think I'd actually prefer the Cayman if I drove both.
Enjoy!
Jim

Excellent choice Simma and a very nice step up from the Coupe.

I watched an S with interest at the last VMax and suprisingly it was almost on a par with the Z4MC that was there, and that had had a mild remap.

Nice car and given your write up definitely the right choice, plus your other half will love it to bits.....you wouldn't have got that with the TVR.

How about entering it in Fighting Torque, most Porsche's are covered but no Cayman S.....

Jules.

Suprised it makes it quicker than an F40, as that has 440bhp/tonne, so 480bhp and 1350kg would be less. Still be quick of course! I've been in one, not sure if I mentioned that on here.....

Spot on about Malformed by the way.

where's the drool icon


Simma just a thought, but I'd obscure your plate in those photos. Cloning is rife on cars like this and car forums are prime targets for harvesting reg's.