Picture yourself hunkered down across the track from a silver Porsche Cayman S. The green flag drops and you sprint in a “LeMans start” the 35 feet across the tarmac to the waiting product of Zuffenhausen. Fling open the door, grab and turn the ignition key with our left hand, jump in, shift into gear and you’re off.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Several things. For starters, they quit the LeMans-style start years ago. Second, this scene only exists in this author’s boy-racer fantasies. And third, the Porsche Cayman S wasn’t around at that time. But no matter. It’s one of the best-sorted sports car designs to arrive from Zuffenhausen (by way of Finland) in some time.

What is it?
The Cayman S is a mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-seat sports car. It now sits squarely in the mid-level range of two-door vehicles from the venerable German marque. It gets its name from the alternate spelling of Caiman, a small alligator-type reptile (not the Islands). Sharing its platform and some of its body parts with that of the Boxster, it could be considered one of the more affordable Porsche cars, affordability being relative, you know. It is currently built in both Zuffenhausen and Finland.

What’s it up against?
Although the field of mid-engine cars is rather sparse, consider the Lotus Exige, and the Cayman’s stable mate, the Boxster, as its two major competitors. There are others (Ferrari, Audi and Lamborghini to name a few), although they outweigh the Cayman in both horsepower and price.

Any breakthroughs?
Direct Fuel Injection makes an appearance for the first time in the segment. The PDK (Porsche Double Clutch – translated from the German) transmission now takes up space formerly occupied by the traditional Tiptronic automatic transmission, and features a 16 percent fuel savings. Comprised of two transmission units, one controls gears 1,3,5,7 while the other operates 2,4, and 6. The result is an automatic transmission that shifts faster (as Porsche claims) than a “highly skilled” driver shifting through a six-speed manual gearbox. In essence, while the car is driving in second gear, the alternate transmission “loads” third gear in anticipation of the next gear change.

How does it look?
Looking like a cross between the Boxster and its bigger brother, the 911 Carrera, the Cayman what we would call a “right-sized” Porsche. It just looks well balanced and sorted, even while standing still. Some have termed it a Boxter with a hardtop but it is really more than that. Although sharing a platform and similar dimensions, it has a personality of its own, which brings out the joy of the road for driver and passenger alike. The two cars share some body panels and appear to be proportioned similarly, but they have totally different personalities. To our eyes, the Boxster does not possess the sporting pretentiousness that the Cayman does. It does have rather nice looking character lines that flow from front to back, leading to “gills” just forward of the rear wheel wells.

A fastback design, it lacks the backlight built into its larger sibling, the 911. Instead we are presented with a roof that swoops down just ahead of the rear area, and actually accounts for a trunk space underneath. Under the hood area is a cargo storage hold about the size of a large Rubbermaid storage bin that you would find in someone’s garage.

And on the inside?
As we mentioned before, the first thing that you notice is that the ignition key is placed in the dash, to the left of the steering wheel. This was a throwback to the old days of racing with the LeMans-style starts where drivers would sprint across the racetrack, open their car doors, hop in, start it up, and take off. Porsche’s racing engineers decided time could be saved by placing the key on the left side of the wheel so the driver could start cranking it before he even actually landed in the seat. Never mind about buckling their seat belts. That usually happened within the first couple of laps.

A three-spoke Porsche steering wheel greets the driver, and this is a no-frills affair. Stylized paddle shift levers are laid out at the three and nine positions. We’ve nicked Porsche on these “paddles” before for their tendency to “get in the way” while turning the wheel. It seems rather common to accidentally touch a part of a hand causing the PDK to up- or downshift. We like the concept of paddle shifting, but would prefer more prominent levers located behind the wheel instead of on the face of it. And by the way, we love the beefy feel of the steering wheel itself. The traditional triad of speedometer, tachometer, and temperature meters make up the gauge binnacle directly in front of the driver.

A center stack is located to the right with the optional Bose high-end audio system with Bluetooth. Curiously, there was no provision for satellite radio built in. Climate controls are located south of the head unit.

The PDK shift lever figures prominently between the seats, which look and feel like the traditional Porsche seats of old. Our tester’s monochrome meteor-grey interior was offset by a series of brushed aluminum accents and pieces, including a strip across the dash that opens to expose a hidden set of cup holders. We can hear the purists up in arms over that one. A nice touch is the extra power port under the glove box on the passenger side to keep the radar detector cord out of the way and out of sight.

A cargo net is located on the deck/engine cover behind the seats to secure small items while driving.

But does it go?
It’s from Stuttgart, right? Then of course it does. The engine in the Cayman S is based on the new six-cylinder units in the 911 Carrera. Displacing 3.4 liters, this boxer engine produces 320 horsepower and produces 273 lb-ft. of torque. Combined with the Cayman S’ curb weight of 3,031 lbs., the engine yields a power to weight ratio of slightly under 9.5 lbs to every single horsepower. Not bad.

A raspy vroom greets the ears as you crank the ignition. The boxer six-cylinder gets to work as you squeeze the accelerator, which has a surprisingly high amount of throttle tip in. Once underway, the familiar whine of the engine worked its way into the cabin, not as an annoyance but more a reassurance that everything was as it should be.

The front and rear independent MacPherson struts with aluminum control arms and coil springs up front helped to keep the car firmly planted during high-speed maneuvers through familiar south Florida roads. We found the rack and pinion set to offer great road feel as we rack it left and right. Perfectly balanced, it hugged turns as we stressed the stabilizer bars with hard right and left hand turns. The 12.5-inch front and 11.7-inch rear brakes with four-pot calipers and cross-drilled rotors, tossed a rather large anchor out the back of the two-seater, bringing the car, and its 18-inch alloys to a rapid halt, as you would expect.

We like the 0-60 mph time of 4.8-seconds. And more than that, the top speed with the PDK of 171 mph. But best of all is the 20-mpg city and 29-mpg highway EPA ratings. Although chances are you won’t see those same numbers if you like playing with the skinny pedal, to us, it’s the equivalent of a beer with all the taste but none of the calories.

Why you would buy it:
Because you have been priced out of the 911 market, what with their prices scraping north of $104,000, and you see $60,200 as affordable. It’s the 911 of 1995.

Why you wouldn’t:
You think front engine/rear wheel drive is the way to go. Or front engine, front wheel drive.

Leftlane’s bottom line:
The Cayman S represents the new “affordable” coupe in Porsche’s stable. With that, it has a lot of heritage riding on its nearly 71-inch wide shoulders. A well-balanced sports car with power and panache to boot, it will reward its driver on nearly every level.

2009 Porsche Cayman S base price, $60,200. As tested, $68,890.
Metallic paint, $710; Auto-dimming mirrors, $690; PDK transmission, $3,420; Heated front seats, $500; Automatic climate control, $550; Bluetooth, $695; Bose audio system, $990; Floor mats, $90; Universal audio interface, $95; Destination, $950.

Words and photos by Mark Elias.

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