German Car Zone

Perfect Driving Kompanion: Is This Finally a Better Sports Car Than the 911?


As the formal press introduction for the revamped Porsche Cayman S broke up and the international mix of scribes (including some Russians for the first time in my experience) clicked off their interpreter headsets, it was time to mingle around and ask some questions. First stop: the cut-away display of the new doppelkupplung transmission. Or for those of us stumped by words that appear to have come out of the operating manual of a U-Boat, the Porsche double-clutch gearbox, or just PDK for short.

Pointing to the PDK's various exposed innards, I kept trying to cajole a Porsche engineer, through an interpreter, into explaining what's really so different here from the double-clutch trannies right now in Audi and Mitsubishi showrooms. The engineer would stare at the interpreter, listening. Then pause for a long time. And then, almost reluctantly, point to what seemed to me to be minor details: an unusually located oil pump, Or maybe a small, oil-delivery channel to a bearing. To be honest, I was starting to feel sorry for the guy. There didn't appear to be very much original here at all; and then I realized what a short-sighted viewpoint this is.

I mean, this whole, glistening beehive of meshing teeth and concentric clutches was Porsche's baby in the first place. It's just...er, spent a rather long time in the oven. Back in 1981, a PDK-same basic idea-furtively appeared in a 956 race car, and then was quietly salted away until it was deemed that Moore's law of ever-doubling computer power had finally caught up with the necessary software.


Full Article: Motor Trend - First Drive: 2009 Porsche Cayman S PDK


This color is a real eye popper, would like to see a Boxster in this color.


M

I like everything about this car beside color... I mean this color!

What a inusual colour!

Base price $61,150
Price as tested $71,250(est)
Vehicle layout Mid-engine, RWD, 2-pass, 2-door hatchback
Engine 3.4L/320-hp/273-lb-ft DOHC, 24-valve flat-6
Transmission 7-speed dual-clutch automatic
Curb weight 3000 lb (mfr)
Wheelbase 95.1 in
Length x width x height 171.1 x 70.9 x 51.4 in
0-60 mph 4.5 sec
EPA city/hwy fuel econ 21/28 mpg (est)
CO2 emissions 0.82 lb/mile (est)
On sale in U.S. March 2009


That's some of the best uses of power I have ever seen.
Zero to sixty in four point five secounds from just three hundred and twenty horsepower is quite amazing.