The Porsche Cayman is a two-door fastback coupe available since 2005.
Porsche Cayman Design and Introduction
The beginning of the Porsche Cayman can be traced back to 1996 when the Porsche Boxster was released. While the Cayman itself wouldn’t be released until 2005 as a 2006 model year, the Cayman is very closely related to the Boxster. But instead of the open-top roadster design found in the Boxster, the Cayman features a coupe design. The release of the Cayman coincided with the second generation release of the Porsche Boxster. The mid-engine design is shared between the two vehicles, along with most of the major components, including most body panels, interior, and drivetrain. The coupe design allows for a small storage area that are placed on top of and behind the cover of the mid-engine. While not an overly spacious cargo area, it does add a bit of practicality to the lineup. Additionally, the fixed roof of the Cayman provides for additional support, causing the chassis to be more rigid and came with accompanying changes in the suspension to compensate.
Engine and Performance
The first generation Cayman featured a 2.7L flat-6 boxer engine with 246 horsepower, but the Cayman S featured a 3.4L flat-6 boxer engine, derived from the 3.2L used in the Boxster S. It produced 291 horsepower and could go from 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 km/h) in 5.4 seconds. A 5-speed manual transaxle is standard on the base model, but the Cayman S uses a 6-speed manual Getrag transmission. A 5-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission was also available on both models, the base Cayman and the Cayman S. In 2009, a 7-speed PDK dual-clutch transmission replaced the Tiptronic option, and a limited slip differential was now available. In that same year, both engines were revised. The base model received a 2.9L engine with 266 horsepower and the Cayman S received a 3.4L engine with 316 horsepower. One of the biggest design changes was removing the intermediate shaft, which proved to be problematic in the previous engine designs. The race-focused Cayman R was released in 2011. It takes most of the Cayman S components, but adds significant performance upgrades. Many of these upgrades were done to save weight, including the use of additional aluminum body panels, fiberglass seats, and the removal of various non-essential components such as the air conditioning and radio, resulting in over 120 pounds of weight savings. The suspension of the Cayman R utilized a new passive sport suspension, lowered to increase handling capability. It featured a 3.4L flat-6 engine with 326 horsepower and could go 0 to 62 mph in 5 seconds.
Second Generation Changes
The second generation Porsche Cayman (981, which is the third-generation Porsche Boxster) was released in 2013 as a 2014 model year. The exterior was heavily redesigned, bringing the Boxster and Cayman closer to the look of the higher-performance Porsche 911 model. The chassis was made to be more rigid, while front and rear track widths increased, plus many new mechanical upgrades improved performance. It featured a 2.7L engine with 271 horsepower in the base model and a 3.4L engine with 321 horsepower in the Cayman S option. In 2014, the Cayman GTS was released, with a 3.4L engine that produces 335 horsepower and can go from 0 to 62 mph in just 4.9 seconds. The Cayman GTS also features a new body kit, including different bumpers, side skirts, and other body panels. In 2015, the Cayman GT4 was released, with a track-focused design that uses a 3.8L engine from the Porsche 911 Carrera S, producing 380 horsepower and getting the 0 to 62 mph time down to just 4.4 seconds.
2016 Porsche Cayman Updates
The third generation Porsche Cayman was released in 2016. It changed up the engine design and swapped out the naturally-aspirated flat-6 for a turbocharged flat-4. The base model used a 2.0L version with 247 horsepower, while the Cayman S featured a 2.5L with 345 horsepower. In 2017, the Cayman GTS was upgraded to used the turbocharged 2.5L flat-4 engine, tuned to produce 360 horsepower. In 2019, a new 4.0L engine was released on the Cayman GT4 with 414 horsepower, which was also used on the 2020 Cayman GTS 4.0 but tuned to 395 horsepower. The most powerful Cayman released came in 2022, which is the Cayman GT4 RS. It uses the same 4.0L engines in the other high-performance Cayman models, but is tuned to an impressive 493 horsepower. It can go from 0 to 62 mph in 3.4 seconds.