Video: 2017 Porsche 718 Cayman Review

Now, if you are not familiar with the car, one thing you don't know is what makes it special to begin with. Very rare in the market is the mid-engine layout which means the engine is ahead of the rear axle but behind the occupants. Now, what does this mean? Well, it means you've got a trunk in front as well as some cargo space in the back. But that doesn't really matter nearly as much as what it does for handling, keeps all of that heavy mass between the axles makes the car a handling champ and the changes for 2017 only help. Porsche has added a Crossmember to the rear subframe for added stiffness. And stiffness is kind of the whole story here. There are higher spring rates, shock absorber rates and stability bar rates. But, as before you can still get Porsche Active Suspension Management for a multiple personality, anything from super firm and sporty to soft and comfortable. For 2017 Porsche also has gone with a faster steering ratio which works really nicely with the overall handling characteristics. This is a car that just changes directions so nicely. It feels so neutral. If you look at the weight distribution, it's 45% front, 55% rear. And if you just look at the numbers that might seem a little bit tail happy but again, having the mass of the engine ahead of the rear axle like that really makes it feel much more neutral than would be a car with a traditional front engine or even rear engine design. Now the big changes in the new generation are new engines. The previous generation had horizontally opposed six cylinders, now it's two different horizontally opposed four, both turbocharged. The base Cayman has a two liter and the Cayman S which I'm in here has a 2.5 liter. Both of them are up 25 horsepower over the previous generation up to 300 in the base in 350 horsepower in this one. Torque is also up 280 pounds feet and in this 309. I'm gonna have to say the Cayman S is the way to go. And not just because it's more powerful, but because it responds better. There's still a little kind of classic turbo lag in the base engine. It requires about 20 PSI of boost in the turbo whereas this one between the higher displacement and the Variable Vane System in the turbo needs less, about 14 PSI. What that translates to is when you're driving, it's always on the ready. It's not as peaky as the car used to be. You get pretty steady pull all the way up the rev range and it's adequate from a standing start as well. The 0 to 60 time has come down about a half second to 4 seconds in the Cayman S and 4.5 in the base model. Thankfully you can still get a manual transmission with this car, but it is definitely not as quick as the PDK dual clutch, seven speed automatic option which really makes the most of the different modes that you can select. A really clever little interface here is a wheel, a knob. You just rotate it You've got normal mode, sport, sport plus and the configurable individual mode and each step up you'd go, it varies the throttle response, the shift points for the transmission, the suspension settings if you have the adaptive suspension and the exhaust if you have the active exhaust and you do want that. One of the things that I think is the neatest is the button in the middle that you can press to activate sport response mode and that gives you even higher shift points. It closes the Wastegate in the turbo to build up pressure and give you absolute maximum acceleration for 20 seconds. And there's even a countdown on your display. What this does is, you might not even realize it, but for those of you who switched from a manual to an automatic, you find that it still gives you something you can do to interact with your car. Very tricky Porsche, very tricky. The changes for 2017 make a great car, even greater. Now, we don't always recommend that you get the most expensive version of a car but in this case, you probably have to. The Cayman S is the better choice 'cause it gets rid of that throttle lag problem and you also want Porsche Active Suspension Management. And I also recommend the Sport Chrono Package which gives you active engine mounts. What they do is they allow more compliance and isolation in normal mode, less vibration in the cabin but really kind of lock it into the chassis when you're in the sport mode in addition to keeping the engine from moving around and throwing your grip off, it really gives it a more visceral feel something that we've been losing as engines have become more and more isolated from the cars that we sit in. So that's another one that's gonna add costs. There's obviously a lot we like about the new Cayman, but there's one final downside. And that is the great new engines don't sound so great. Now it helps if you have the Active Exhaust System that makes the most of it but there's no change in the fact that you got two fewer cylinders than the previous generation and you've got turbochargers in the exhaust stream. It really makes you rethink the approach some automakers use when they augment the sound through the stereo.