2019 Porsche 718 Cayman
The 718 Cayman comes from a storied pedigree of performance cars from Porsche. The 鈥?18鈥?was tacked on in 2017 to pay homage to a 1957 Porsche race car by the same name. 2019 brings minor changes to the 718 Cayman. Every 718 Cayman sports a lightweight body that鈥檚 a handsome blend of form and function and an engine mounted just behind the front seats. This gives the Porsche its impressive center of gravity, giving it an advantage over competitors like the Chevrolet Corvette and Jaguar F-PACE. There鈥檚 even a decent amount of cargo space: 9.7 cubic feet up front and 5.2 in the rear. There are three trims for the 718 Cayman. The Base setup makes use of a turbocharged 2.0-liter flat 4-cylinder engine with 300 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque that鈥檒l get you to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds. The previously optional sport-exhaust system now comes standard, offering increased amounts of efficiency and auditory drama. For even more performance, the Sport Chrono Package shaves two tenths of a second off of the 0-to-60 time and adds a lap-timing chronograph, rev matching, and actively adjustable driveline mounts.
While the 718 Cayman鈥檚 focus continues to be on the driving experience, it includes a host of creature comforts. Bi-xenon headlights with LED daytime-running lights, LED taillights, partial leather 2-way power seats, keyless start, a 4.6-inch color instrument panel LCD, an 8-speaker audio system, satellite radio, and Bluetooth connectivity all come standard. Options like keyless access, full leather, voice commands, dual-zone automatic climate control, navigation, and Apple CarPlay are also available. That鈥檚 not to mention all of the options like flashier paint, interior finishes, weight-saving wheels, and even a fire extinguisher for track use. The 718 Cayman is relatively light on safety features. But every trim receives a reversing camera and front and rear parking sensors. From there, adaptive lighting, adaptive cruise control, and lane-change assist are the only add-ons. No major agency has released public crash-test data for the current 718 Cayman, but that isn鈥檛 unusual for low-volume sports cars. The Porsche 718 Cayman is a sleek performance coupe that鈥檚 equally at home in daily driving, on a long road trip, or on a track. Kyree is new to the automotive journalism scene, but has voiced snarky public opinions about cars for quite some time. When he's not drooling over the latest European luxury sled, he's designing web experiences or writing backend code.
While most won't find it interfering, my six-foot, two-inch height required me to slide the driver's seat nearly all the way to the rear on its tracks, which meant the pillars block quite a bit of my peripheral vision. Thankfully, the two side mirrors and interior rearview mirror fill in the gaps. As the Targa "hoop" technically replaces the C-pillar on the Coupe and the pop-up roll bars on the Cabriolet as rollover protection, its construction is understandably robust. Buried within the panel is a steel roll bar that reaches all the way to the floorpan on each side. It's finished on the exterior with painted die-cast aluminum and on the interior in soft Alcantara. The three gills visible on the outside of the bar are not functional; they pay tribute to the original 1965 Targa. Porsche's engineers have split the roof into two movable components. The largest piece is the rear glass and its surrounding deck lid, which combines thin laminated safety glass molded in a compound curve with an apron of aluminum that's painted body color.
The other part is the Targa panel, which is a two-section magnesium roof bow covered in a fabric hood that folds into a Z-shape when stowed. In addition to the aforementioned components, there are two cable-actuated flaps, on each side of the rollover hoop that open to allow the arms of the roof to pass through. The full automatic Targa roof, powered by a single hydraulic pump (as on the Cabriolet), only operates when the vehicle is stationary. Not only must the Porsche be stopped, a finger needs to be held on the roof button for the duration of the opening or closing operation, which lasts just under 20 seconds. There is no limit to the number of times the electro-hydraulic system may run through its open/close sequence. It may be run continuously, back-to-back, as often as the owner wishes - this is helpful when showing off at a local Cars 'n Coffee show. The standard Targa 4 doesn't have the low-end punch of the S model, but spinning the engine around the tachometer still delivers brisk acceleration.