Indeed, depending on which model you went for and which roads you were on, it was potentially faster than the halo car. It was hardly any slower than the 911 in the real world. The 981 was the closest thing yet to the idea of a ‘bargain basement 911’. For steering, there was no choice – it was electric (EPAS) or nothing. On the transmission front, you could choose a 6-speed manual (the five-speed having been retired) or a 7-speed PDK auto gearboxes. You had a choice of 271hp/214lb ft 2.7 or (in S spec) 325hp 3.4 engines. The rear hatch shape was new too, with vertically extended glass. The headlight and front air intake shapes were sharper and more angular, and LED daytime running lights went into the old fog light spaces. Rear wing vents and new side mirrors attaching to the doors rather than the pillars harked back to the Carrera GT. Aluminium made up 44 percent of the chassis, reducing the overall weight by around 30kg while increasing torsional rigidity by 40 percent. Walter Röhrl took an S around the Ring in 8m 11sec, which was 4sec faster than he managed in a 911 Carrera.įollowing the new 991 911’s design cues, and with more than a nod towards the Carrera GT, the 981 Cayman had a 60mm longer wheelbase and a 40mm wider front track than the gen-one. The Cayman’s suspension was revised to take the extra stiffness of the coupe shell into account, and the result was a spectacularly good balance of handling and performance. An entry-level 245hp 2.7 litre Cayman with a 5-speed manual came out in summer 2006.

The first gen-one Caymans of 2005 were six-speed manual 291hp 3.4 litre ‘S’ models with engines based on the Boxster S’s 3.2 but using cylinder heads from the 997 911’s 3.8. Like the Boxster, it had the classic normally aspirated flat-six motor. Apart from some initial head-scratching about Porsche’s decision to call it after an alligator, the first generation Cayman (which coincided with the second generation 987 Boxster) was warmly welcomed by brand followers. Predictably, it was a smash hit, and better yet it was a great grounding for the introduction (albeit nine years later) of a coupe sibling, the 987 Cayman. The Boxster offered traditional Porsche quality with a modern, open-air driving experience and a whizzy new 2.5-litre flat-six, all for the temptingly low price of just over £30,000. It might sound like an overstatement, but the 996 was hugely important not just in its own right as the first major change to the 911 in four decades but also as a style enabler for a new strain of affordable mid-engined Porsches, starting in 1996 with the 986 Boxster convertible.

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