Autocar sends its top man Steve Sutcliffe out to test the new Porsche Cayman. Having enjoyed the previous Cayman’s handling, Steve wants to know if the new car is any better. And indeed it is. You don’t get much more power than before, but Porsche has done such a great job fine tuning that chassis that it doesn’t really matter.

Still, we are having a hard time making sense of the Cayman. If you want a brilliant sports car, what’s wrong with the Boxster 981? It gives you all the good things that Cayman does, plus a folding roof.

Technical Specifications

Porsche Cayman – 2.7-litre flat-six cylinder engine with 275 PS (202 kW); rear-wheel drive, six-speed manual transmission, optional seven-speed Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (PDK); acceleration from zero to 100 km/h in 5.7 seconds, with PDK in 5.6 seconds (5.4 seconds with Sport Chrono package); top speed 266 km/h, with PDK 264 km/h; fuel consumption (NEDC) 8.2 l/100 km, CO2 192 g/km; with PDK 7.7 l/100 km, CO2 180 g/km.

Porsche Cayman S – 3.4-litre flat-six cylinder engine with 325 PS (239 kW); rear-wheel drive, six-speed manual transmission, optional seven-speed Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe (PDK); acceleration from zero to 100 km/h in 5.0 seconds, with PDK in 4.9 seconds (4.7 seconds with Sport Chrono package); top speed 283 km/h, with PDK 281 km/h; fuel consumption (NEDC) 8.8 l/100 km, CO2 206 g/km; with PDK 8.0 l/100 km, CO2 188 g/km.