Racing Yellow In South Of France
I test drove a Porsche 718, the new model where a 6-cyl naturally aspirated flat six engine has been replaced with a new turbo 4-cyl engine, the first time in Finland last June. The car was a lava orange Porsche 718 Boxster S, the one with a 2.5L engine producing 350 hp, but sadly without PSE (Porsche Sports Exhaust). I returned the car to Porsche Finland quite disappointed with the sound. When you think of four-cylinder engines you might expect it to sound a bit like a Subaru Impreza WRX STI, or perhaps an Alfa Romeo 4C, and both are actually cars that in my opinion have sounds that suit them. They sound like they should. Today I am glad I got a second drive in a 718, this time the Porsche 718 Cayman with a 2.0L engine producing 300 horsepower. The Cayman came packed with a little less power than the Boxster S mode had, but this Cayman press car had the sports exhaust I think is essential to have in a car like this.
However the more important thing was that I got to drive a 718 on roads where a car like this belongs - mountain passes in South of France. The only negative was that I had to do it on winter tires late December, on dry tarmac, but it certainly did not slow us down. I spent many hours in the car. The longest one day round trip was 716 km and began in the middle of the night in Nice, and ended six in the late afternoon when I returned back to Nice. I know many people might shake their heads when they see this but I am showing you reliability. A sports car you can wake up in the middle of the night and drive more than 10 hours on highways, through towns and on mountain roads. I want to be able to do this in my cars and I have faith a Cayman would work every time. You would have to stop and rest yourself before the car needs a break. You would struggle to want to get out of it though, because it makes driving almost irresistible.
If the test was how enjoyable it is to spend a long day in a Cayman, the car passed the test with the highest scores possible. In my world the long drives are not uncommon, I often spend early morning to late evening just driving. Sometimes for a reason, sometimes without a reason because you do not always need a reason if the car is great. Why I want to mention this is that I want to put a lot of emphasis on the fact that the Cayman is a sports car you can use as your daily driver. It can be your one and only. However once you reach the mountain roads it will be scary, from an I-wish-to-keep-my-drivers-licence point of view, how confident you feel driving this car very fast even on narrow roads. If someone asked me to recommend them a first sports car to buy I would tell them to get a Cayman.
One of the best modern cars to have fun in, and stay safe. Despite the 鈥渕issing two cylinders鈥?the 718 is still a true Cayman, and a Cayman is in my opinion of the world鈥檚 best sports cars you can buy. Especially if you can not afford a 911, which of course is the dream car of many including myself, the Cayman deserves a thought and a trip to the local dealership for a test drive. I have had people telling me they think it even drives better than a 911 because the Cayman is mid-engined. And although it does not have those iconic 911 body curves you can not take your eyes off, the new 718 still has an impressive design. A good track car might not always be a good mountain pass car, and vice versa. A race track has mostly smooth curves and not that extreme altitude changes.