Porsche Cayman S India review, test drive

The cabin, as ever, is evolutionary and typically Porsche. The new car’s insides are very similar to the new Boxster and the Cayman now comes with the raised centre console, which both looks good and is very functional. Apart from the plastic buttons, which are quite ordinary, the build quality of the cabin is exceptional, right up there with the best Audis and Mercs. A band of aluminium segregates the lower and upper halves of the dash and the vents have detailing that remind you of Porsche’s ‘air-cooled’ engine legacy. But the cabin is short on essential stowage. There’s no place for you to keep your cell phone, for example, the air con controls are small and fiddly to use and the pop-out cup holders are flimsy and only useful for smaller bottles. The touchscreen, however, works well and phones pair quite easily. Slide down in the driver’s seat and you also realise that this car is clearly roomier than the one it replaces.

The new Cayman is built on a much longer wheelbase, and the wider track at both front and rear results in more space inside the cabin. Porsche now shares a lot of bits among all its sportscars and that means this car has many common parts with the 911. The Cayman also uses the same high-strength steel-aluminium combination in its construction – this, and a better design, helps make it a full 40 percent stiffer; and that’s despite the much longer wheelbase. Sure there is more room, but the Cayman still feels compact. You are very aware that you’re sitting just ahead of the mid-mounted flat-six engine, you can almost sense the presence of the four massive tyres packed in tight around you, and once on the move the car also clearly tells you where its centre of mass is located. We were expecting a bone-jarring ride, but we soon discover that despite the ultra-low 35-profile tyres, ride is surprisingly good. Good for a low-profile tyre, that is; you do feel the bumps and lumpy roads tend to unsettle the car, but the Porsche doesn’t crash through bumps like you would expect it to. What does cause us to slow right down are big speedbreakers, which have to be attacked diagonally.While there’s little scope to experience the handling of the new Cayman on the way out of the city, we do encounter large enough gaps in traffic where we can enjoy a quick blast.