A Serious Contender
by David Morgan (Thu 02 Mar 06)

Driving a Porsche Cayman S is like wearing a speed skating suit - slick, quick and very revealing. Slick because it's the most aerodynamic coupé on the block, quick because its 295bhp delivers breathtaking power and revealing because it separates the men from the boys when it comes to probing its potential.

I was not convinced a baby 911 would work. The two-seat Cayman is based on the 550 Boxster which is a work of art in itself, and after many miles in a 997 model I firmly believe the latest 911 is simply a superlative supercar.

But I was wrong. The Cayman is a star - a finely-honed, thoroughly engineered performance machine with the agility of a track car and the quality of limousine.

Few supercars left me feeling quite so satisfied as the Cayman S. Its precision, feel, agility and poise single it out among the world's best production sports cars. And then there's its 295bhp flat-six boxer engine. With nearly 87bhp per litre it's a masterpiece of the engine-builder's art: flexible, responsive with the exhaust bark of a beast. It was a lot more raucous than I expected and turns heads in long before you get a chance to explore the speed envelop.

With 251lb/ft of tugboat torque on tap from 4400rpm to propel it through a slick, close-ratio, six-speed manual gearbox, the Cayman S demands revs and concentration. It's one of the quickest cars I've driven for a long time and even with Porsche's electronic anti-spin intervention it's easy to provoke the rear end to step sideways. Switch off the standard PSM (Porsche Stability Management) and you have to deal with yaw and the rest of the laws of physics ganging up to add you to the scenery. Far better to leave it engaged and let this impressive safety system smooth the rough edges off your driving.

I jumped at the chance to visit an airfield and explore its handling, with and without PSM. It was here I learned that the optional £1030 PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management) really does enhance handling in extreme situations. On the open road switching to Sport mode loosens fillings, curdles milk and induces double vision. But on an open track it helps the Cayman hunker down onto the surface and turns up the handling heat.

Few owners will ever want to use their pride and joy as a track car, but isn't it nice to know that if you have to mix it with the helmet brigade your road-legal Cayman is a match for them all? It's a delight. Nimble, accurate, controllable and exceptional fun. The short-throw gearchange is fast and I can see no reason why you would want to reduce the connectivity it delivers by opting for an optional Tiptronic transmission (£1760).

Back on a twisty road, with PSM engaged and PASM back to Normal, the Cayman is still a fast, responsive two-seater - but the beast is tamed, almost refined and genuinely comfortable as a mile eater.

There's around 192lb/ft of torque available from just 1500rpm, but you need to use the revs to experience scorching to 62mph from a standing start in just 5.4 seconds.

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