Porsche 718 Cayman S review: has Porsche's small coupe lost its soul?

Porsche 718 Cayman S review: has Porsche's small coupe lost its soul?

The new 718 Cayman S is faster, even sweeter handling and more efficient dynamically in every way conceivable compared with its predecessor. But there is one key area in which it isn’t as thrilling – and that’s the sound and delivery of its engine. Depending on how much you value such things, therefore, it’s either a mild disappointment or a big step forwards.

Steve Sutcliffe gets to grips with the new 718 Cayman S, but does he fall in love with it?

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You’ll notice that the steering wheel of the car in our photos is on the wrong side. We grabbed our first turn of the Cayman S in the U.K.—specifically, in the Brecon Beacons, the bleak and rugged corner of Wales that the British Army’s elite SAS regiment uses for its selection tests, and where the local roads provide a similarly demanding dynamic challenge.

Sound Off

Much of what we’ve said about the turbocharged engine in the 718 Boxster holds true here, but the Cayman’s fixed roof means its driver has no means to escape from its new, carefully engineered soundtrack. You have to listen hard to discern the loss of cylinders—at idle, there’s a shadow of the sewing-machine noise of an air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle (or, more appropriately, a Porsche 356 or 912). But brush the throttle even lightly, and this gets buried beneath more muscular induction and exhaust noises. These get louder and more forceful as the engine is worked harder, enhanced by a system that augments certain frequencies. It sounds fine—there are even some pops and bangs on the overrun in the punchier Sport mode—but it just doesn’t sound anywhere near as good as its predecessor. Then again, few cars ever did.

More than compensating for the aural deficiency, the 718 feels decidedly quicker than the old Cayman S, and to a greater extent than the raw numbers suggest. Much of this is due to the engine’s boosted output. While the old 3.4 had to be whipped like a racehorse to deliver its best, the turbo engine’s torque curve is as flat as an Iowa cornfield. The peak 309 lb-ft is maintained from 1900 to 4500 rpm, and although there’s a fractional hesitation when making big throttle applications at lower engine speeds—thanks to a lag-reducing variable-geometry turbo, it’s too brief to really describe as laggy—the 718 is much happier to pull its tall gearing than the old car ever was. It feels almost as quick upshifting at 5000 rpm as when it’s revved to the 7500-rpm fuel cutoff.

The new engine is only part of the transformation. Porsche excels at balancing performance with grip, and the 718’s extra urge has required a comprehensive chassis reworking to keep it in check. Changes include firmer springs and dampers and a quicker steering ratio with revised geometry. Our test car had the Porsche Active Chassis Management option that brings both adaptive dampers and a 0.8-inch reduction in ride height. The collective results on a demanding road are nothing short of startling, with the Cayman S extracting huge adhesion from its Pirelli P Zero tires.

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