So, i drove my mate's Porsche Cayman S...

[the eldest boy]

Hey guys, after the Evolve club meet the other night i went out to dinner and afterwards got to drive my mate's (manual) Cayman S from Festival City to the Marina (all properly insured, of course). It was a car that i had considered buying while i was looking for my M3, but of course that would have meant spending around 180-200k for a decent one versus the 145k i spent on my M3.

I found driving the Cayman S a really good but "interesting" experience - i mean, who wouldn't like to drive a Porsche - but if anything it left me glad i ended up with the M3. That's not to say the Cayman S was bad - far from it - but it made me realise that even when compared to a decent Porsche (most reviews of the Cayman S i've read are positive), the M3 is just stands out as a brilliant car. The 0-100km/hr times are similar at around 5.5 seconds, but that's where the similarities end. The Porsche feels more like a "sports" car - it's obviously lower, the cockpit is smaller, there are no rear seats - everything is just a little bit closer to you and it's a different experince to the bigger, "more comfortable" E46 M3. Less space with a more sporty feel could be considered both good or bad, depending on your perspective - i found it fun, a good experience, but not really to my liking.

The other major difference i noticed was in the drive itself. Although the acceleration times are similar, the M3 felt and sounded a lot quicker - the throttle was more responsive (especially in 2-4th gear), the engine felt more urgent. The Porsche is quick, and i personally think it looks good (especially in metallic blue as my friend has it), but i just didn't find it much fun, which surprised me a lot. I thought that driving a Porsche would blow me away, but it just didn't. Yes, there's a thrill to be had just because it's a Porsche, but the car also has to deliver the goods and, for me, it didn't.

Perhaps i'm being a bit harsh, and perhaps i'm biased because of my love for BMW's, but in this reporters opinion the M3 has the Cayman S licked.

Any thoughts? Has an yone else driven the Cayman S - what did you think?

Can anyone suggest why, from a technical standpoint, the M3 feels quicker, despite the Cayman S being lighter and the 0-100 times being almost identical?

Am i unfair to even compare the two?

Phil

[Bruno]

thanks for writing this review...

as per my experience the M3 is way superior to the caymanS, IMO the m3 should be compared with the 911 models... the lower cheaper ones to be precise.

the 0-100 figures disclosed by bmw AG are underrated... our cars do an easy 5 seconds. Sometimes 4.8 seconds.

Haissam hates them… maybe he should shed some light on his thoughts in regards to the gayman

[Haissam]

a porsche is not a porsche unless it's called carrera ;)

[ghoonk]

Hey Phil,

The cars are pretty different. Hard to compare a low-slung coupe with a regular coupe. The Porsche prides itself on a silkier engine, while the M3's is marketed as a high-strung, zingy, high-revving engine.

You get into an M3, but they say you 'wear' a Porsche, like with an S2000. You don't 'get into the car' so much as you actually 'wear it'. Hard to compare the beasts, but I should think that the Cayman would be more fun on track despite the numbness of the steering wheel on the street. While this seems irrelevant, I find the inside of the Porsche an unexciting place to be, compared to the M3, which is somewhat more practical for daily abuse :)

That said, would your mate be keen to try Revo on his Cayman? I've just finished eating my hat now that I've been proven grossly wrong about what I believed to be 'crap' gains from an NA flash. Did a review on the flash for my RS4 and posted it in evolve.ae (http://evolve.ae/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6135).

While my review was somewhat lengthy, here's theshadow's impression (4th post down):

Your car scares me now. No longer safe.

And I got 2 speeding tickets in the 48 hours after I got flashed, that's how much more fun the car is to drive :P

There's a 30-day money back guarantee, so it's worth a shot -- if he likes it, he keeps it. if not, he gets his stock flash back, and a refund too :)

For the Cayman (2.7l) : http://www.revotechnik.com/products/....aspx?pvID=937

For the Cayman S (3.4l) : http://www.revotechnik.com/products/....aspx?pvID=939

[Haissam]

no honestly the Cayman is a nice car, much better than the Boxter in my opinion.. but the Carrera is a much better car.. that's why i think if you wanna get a Porsche, it has to be a Carrera (S & above for me :D)

from a 2nd gear roll, a Cayman S is approx 3-4 car lengths slower than the Z4M on every gear ;) so i can't see it head to head with an E46 M3

i think it was underpowered in order not to affect Carrera sales :thumbsdown:

[ghoonk]

I test drove a 1999 Porsche Carrera a couple of months back when I started becoming unfaithful to my Evo. Vicky Butler-Henderson from Fifth Gear compared it with the new Boxster RS-something-or-other and it turned out that the 1998/1999 Carrera was still the faster car after all these years. Personally, I hated it as much as I loathed the Boxster that I bought back in April and owned for 5 weeks before enough was enough.

5th gear throw was incredibly long, power wasn't anything to be impressed about, the interior was a grubby affair, and I could easily take corners with greater ease and much less drama (i.e. not likely to sacrifice the car to the curb gods) in my Evo than than overpriced, exagerrated POS.

Now, for daily driving, I'd take an M3 or an RS4 any day. Oh wait, I have an RS4 :D :D :D

For Cayman money, just buy a slightly used Z4MC or Z4MR.

[the eldest boy]

the gayman

lol ;c)

[Moe]

a porsche is not a porsche unless it's called carrera ;)

+1

[Haissam]

For Cayman money, just buy a slightly used Z4MC or Z4MR.

+1 ;)

[petrolhead]

a porsche is not a porsche unless it's called carrera ;)

+100 or a turbo or a gt3 or a gt2

[ghoonk]

Why not a Porsche 911 RSR? :D

[SSense]

Comparing the M3 with the Cayman S ?! Thats not a fair comparison :nono:

[Amarant]

Cayman would go head to heat with the M coupe

i read some reviews that the Cayman was more "thrilling", but the M coupe was better Overall...

i havent driven any, so i cant judge

my mind might tell me: "go get the porsche, it's a PORSCHE!!!"

but i know that i will always go back to BMW ;)

[the eldest boy]

I must say, there was a thrill to driving the Cayman just because it was a Porsche. My mate gave me the key and as we approached the car i was like "wow, i'm about to drive this baby home!". I'd never driven a Porsche before and like i said in my original post, it doesn't disappoint, but it did show me how good the M3 is.

I did love the noise the Cayman made though. The engine is obviously right behind you and the sound is awesome, something which you don't really get to appreciate as much in the M3. Also, as his car is a manual (compared to my SMG), you get that nice sound of lifting your foot off the accelerator to change gear (at which point the engine briefly falls "quiet") and then reapplying the revs once the new gear is engaged. Changing from 3rd to 4th at speed produced a fantastic sound!

[SSense]

I agree with the sound, thats the best music one can get to his hears :) I experience that in my M5 too, because its a manual.