^^^ Easy, easy... I have one.

 

Not to change the topic of this thread, but what year solstice did you own? I owned an 06 and that was a fun little car!

 

I used to have a 128i, and I do miss driving it from time to time. It was lowered, and the rwd handled great. Evo is decent at that too :P

Part of me still wants s2000 (been infatuated since 2000, haha). It is a fantastic little machine.

 

I use to have a 330ci but I think the evo x is a upgrade which doesn't have me looking back. Then again this is my 1st awd car so I think I am just in the honeymoon stages of this relationship with my car

 

I've been in numerous higher-end performance Porsches and Audis, the feel is obviously very different. Although the Cayman S is nice, overall I'd miss the Evo.

 

That's a nice looking car

 

2009 Miata was an interesting car, cheap to operate, fun to drive, but when you throw it into a curve the body leans alot then the body meets chassis and it holds on ..its a weird feeling, not entirely bad just not all that confidence inspiring. It was low on torque (140) like the RX8, so that was a bit of a bummer. Id like a 6 cyl rwd coupe (no nissans or hyundais) prefferably BMW 128i 135i or 135is is more realistic, doubt I will ever be able to own a Cayman due to cost. Id consider another Miata if they had a current Mazdaspeed version. Id also be interested in the Subaru BRZ if it had a turbo. Id attempt to keep my EVO as well.

 

Here's the thread you need:
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...man-owner.html

Besides the Cayman owner's Evo impressions, later in that thread an Evo owner (me) shares some Cayman impressions.

I was doing a lot of research on Caymans a couple of years ago, and cost and reliability were the two biggest factors that dissuaded me from the Porsche.

I've had the opportunity to drive some awesome drivers' cars: Ferrari F430, Viper, Vette, M3, M5, S4, Cayman, Boxster, 911 Turbo, Miata, Mini Cooper JCW, Evos (VIII, IX, and X). I've even gotten track time in some (M5, Boxster, Vette) and been a passenger on track in several others. If I won the lottery today, tomorrow I would buy a Cayman. It's that good.

 

I get that this is totally opinion based but awd is by far my favorite platform to drive. I had the ls2 gto and that car had some serious tq. Simple bolt ons made it a bear to drive and control. Now the gto isn't exactly a vette, but I would assume it would be the same for me. While driving at the limit I had some crap the pants moments that was quite hard to correct. Not exactly fun for me. In all of my awd cars I always felt in control and able to push harder. That was fun.

But some want that oh crap momments, Like Jeremy Clarkson. I do not. I agree with s2k though. Drove my friends and that was a great machine.

 

Thanks Berserker! Great Info and you sure do have alot of experince.
Have you ever driven the Base Cayman, not the S or R...
If so what do you think of that in comparison to the R or S and also the M3.
Thanks!

 

Agreed, why pay an arm and a leg to keep that overpriced piece of junk status symbol Porsche on the road?

 

Well played. :-)

Cayman vs Boxster
I only drove one Cayman: an S with PDK (the auto-manual gearbox), PASM (the adjustable suspension), and the ceramic brakes. I was only public roads so didn't drive it near the limit, but the guy I was with was way more comfortable than me and really spanked it. The Boxster I drove was a base Boxster with Triptronic (shiftable automatic); I drove this car on streets and on track so got to spank it harder. The Boxster was good car, but it didn't overwhelm me with awesomeness. I drove the Cayman a few years later and by then had experienced a lot more cars, so had a wider basis for comparison. I was actually prepared to hate the Cayman, so was surprised that I liked it so much. I think the extra power (Cayman S vs base Boxster) and hard top (I personally despise convertibles), and the better trans are what made the difference (through Triptronic was actually very good, even on track; it was better than BMW's auto-manual SMG, even though SMG had a clutch). Sometimes a manufacturer can ruin a solid car with a few poor choices (see BMW further below).

BMW M Cars
I drove an E46 BMW M3 several hundred miles on a road trip. I got to back-to-back it with an Audi S4. I had an opportunity to drive the M3 and S4 on track but declined because I did not feel comfortable with the track. (A few years later I also declined an opportunity to do a couple of laps of the Nurburgring.) But I rode shotgun in the M3 with a guy who really knew how to drive. The M3 was amazing on track. Very impressive.

But as a road car I despised the M3, which surprised me. And all the things I despised were ergonomics-related. The seat had thousands of adjustments, but on a several hour road trip I could not find a single one I liked. The steering column was at a slight angle to the rest of the car. I've since noticed that this happens in many cars, but the BMW was the first car I noticed it in and it angled so much it was distracting. But the real killers were SMG and iDrive. Either individually ruined the car. SMG slammed every shift, not matter how you were driving. I found myself trying to modulate the throttle to lessen the severity of the shifts. I cannot overstate how bad the transmission was. iDrive at the time was so horrible there are simply no words to describe it; you would have had to experience it yourself. The E60 M5, which I drove on track and on a 2000 mile road trip, was also ruined by SMG and iDrive. If the Evo or Cayman came with either SMG or iDrive I would not buy them. That's how bad they were. (SMG has since been discarded, but some form of iDrive still exists; I have not played with the latest iDrive.)

Cayman vs M3
For me there is no contest: Cayman all the way. For 2 people the Cayman is surprisingly practical (it has 2 decently-sized trunklets). If I needed a back seat, of course, I'd have to consider an M3. But if I need that kind of practicality, had that kind of money, and could acceptable the lack of reliability inherent in cars in this class, I'd probably rather have an Audi S4 or RS4. The S4 I drove was competent on track and much better on the street than the E46 M3. I never drove an RS4, but a friend who did said it was next-level awesome, and the nose-heaviness was dialed out. (Audis are weird. Look under the hood of an older S4 and you'll see that the entire V-8 appears to be in front of the front axle line. They are amazingly nose heavy.) EDIT: I have not driven the latest E90 M3.

Surprise
You might have noticed that in what I wrote above I kept getting surprised by cars. I hated cars I thought I would love, and loved cars I thought I would hate. At the time I consumed lots of automotive journalism and thought I knew about cars, but when I started getting the opportunity to drive cars I learned that a lot of what makes a car appealing to people is very personal. Which makes a lot of internet arguing about what's "best" kind of pointless.

But beyond the personal stuff, I found that some of the cars had very important characteristics that never (or rarely) got mentioned in articles. One of my first big surprises was to find that Corvette pedals were not set up for heel-and-toe. The steering was also utterly devoid of feel. Another was to find out how bad the stereo and navigation were in a Ferrari. The F430 had a single-DIN stereo, and the navigation was somehow integrated onto the face of that single-DIN unit. It was a joke! If Hyundai came out with "navigation" like that the press would excoriate them. But in a Ferrari? It's all good, bro. Probably the most surprising car was the Viper. I had it in my head that a Viper was just a Vette on steroids. And it sort of was; it even had the same transmission, I think. But the Viper had steering that was utterly sublime. You could feel everything. It was actually delicate to the touch. I simply could not wrap my mind around this. It was better steering than I had felt in any American car ever. It was comparable to Evo VIII and Cayman steering.

 

i had an s2000. then i went to an evo x. then i came to an evo viii.

when you own an evo, you do miss the s2000.

when you own an s2000, you wish you own an evo MORE. WAY MORE.

dont let this sudden "crave," "wondering mind" lets you forsake your evo.
evo > s2000/cayman.








trust me.


the best way is to own both. be a Rich Mind. have both. never limit yourself.

 

I've been pondering a move to a Cayman S. Not 'cause I think they are "better" cars more because they make more of a statement than an Evo. An Evo impresses the ricer cognoscenti; a Porsche impresses everyone.

 

Thanks for all opinions and experiences, very much appreciated!
I have no care for who I impress, I have the opposite concerns, I dont like to be noticed at all, in fact Id be a little embarrassed for owning such a legendary car as a Porsche...ah but who cares what people think. I drive what I like, I suppose we all do (within our finacial and practical limits of course)...in any case I most likely cannot afford the Porsche but maybe one day...I do immensely enjoy my Evo X, no better all around car for the money in my opinion.