Porsche Cayman R

The dilemma of liking Porsche.

The flagship model is a beetle designed by Hitler with its engine in the wrong place.  Everything else is held back.

Case in point is the Cayman -- also known as a Boxster with a roof.  It's a simpler, more basic car with its engine in the right place.  Unfortunately, Porsche holds it back.  Until the Cayman R, they didn't even fit it with a limited slip differential.

The Cayman is a great design that is held back by Porsche.  They don't fit the top engine from a 911 into it, let alone the turbo.  They don't give it the 911's AWD system.  And there's a reason for it.

Back in the mid 70s, Porsche wanted to move on from the 911 design -- which was based on the Volkswagen Beetle, which was designed by Hitler.  It has the distinction of having its engine in the wrong place -- all the way in the rear, behind the rear axle.  This makes the 911 handle like a pendulum.

When people design a car, the ultimate place to position the engine is in the middle -- between the driver and rear axle.  High end sports cars (such as the Ferrari 458, Lamborghinis since the Miura, etc.) use this configuration.  The next best solution is a front engine with a rear transaxle (the engine and transmission are split so one is over the front axle and the other is over the rear) -- cars like Corvettes and Aston Martins use this configuration.  Common cars have the engine and transmission all in the front.  The rear is just about the worst place to put an engine because it makes the front end light and makes the car susceptible to terrifying snap oversteer (spinning out).

Porsche originally intended to replace the 911 with the V8 grand tourer 928.  The evolution of the 944 into the 944 Turbo a few years later saw another Porsche finally challenge the 911 Turbo at the top of Porsche's range, for half the price.  It's a widely known secret that Porsche makes a hefty profit on the 911 and the fact that another Porsche at half the price could match its performance laid it out for all to see -- that Porsche had the 911 on a pedestal.

Porsche learned the lesson well -- don't threaten the 911's supremacy at the top of the lineup.  Even if that means making other models worse than they could be.

That's the lament I have with the Cayman.  It has a proper mid-engine design and is a simpler, back-to-basics sports car design.  But Porsche holds it back.

 "...the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw. " -- The Trees, Rush