2017 Porsche 718 Cayman S PDK Automatic

Home / Reviews / Porsche / 718 Cayman / 2017 Porsche 718 Cayman S PDK Automatic - Instrumented Test VIEW 61 PHOTOS INSTRUMENTED TEST 2017 Porsche 718 Cayman S PDK Automatic More holistic than before. NOV 2016 BY KEVIN A. WILSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL SIMARI SHARE TWEET In our previous reviews of the stablemates for this 2017 Porsche 718 Cayman S—the Boxster, Boxster S, and base Cayman—we’ve already detailed the transformation from the previous naturally aspirated six-cylinder engine to turbocharged flat-four power. In short, the new engines are more powerful but sound completely different. This transformation stirs debate. Is a forced-induction four-banger that makes more power “better” than the former naturally aspirated flat-six that needed to be run out to redline to make power but sounded so beautiful while doing it? The new 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder generates 350 horsepower—25 more than the old 3.4-liter six—but it does not create operatic music. It instead emits a raspy, uncouth sound that strikes some drivers as unpleasant and grating in the way people can’t figure out how that nasally Dylan character landed a Nobel Prize for literature. It’s just so artless, they complain. In the case of this S model (and Bob Dylan, for that matter), they’ve got a point about the singing voice, but they’re wrong about artistry.

Linear Power Delivery

With 0.5-liter more displacement and a variable-vane turbocharger that comes into play earlier in the rev range, the S doesn’t suffer the turbo lag we noted in our test of the base Cayman with a manual transmission. It makes less boost (a maximum 14.5 psi versus 20.3 for the 2.0-liter), and its specific output of 140 horsepower per liter is lower than the 2.0-liter model’s 151, which means—depending on who’s reading—either that it’s less stressed or that there’s more room for aftermarket tuning enhancements. The larger point is that there’s a linearity to this engine’s response that, we’ll argue, makes it worth considering an S model with fewer options versus loading a base Cayman with Porsche’s notoriously pricey add-ons, despite a $12,400 gap in their base MSRPs.

Look at a graph of the torque and power curves (depicted in this review of a 2017 718 Boxster S) and you can see why—below 2000 rpm the 2.0-liter engine’s torque output sags like a loosely strung power line before it rises steeply toward the broad plateau from 2000 to 4500 rpm. In the S version, by contrast, the 2.5-liter’s torque curve makes a straight line to its higher but similarly broad peak output. Turn your attention to horsepower and the new Cayman S shows a straighter, smoother line from idle to its 6500-rpm power crest than did the 2014–2016 Cayman S with the flat-six that peaked at 7200 rpm. The latter had an agreeably split personality, mildly entertaining at low rpm but with a pulse-quickening ride to redline once the variable intake-valve system came into play around 4000 rpm. This “on-the-cam” sensation can be delightful in the right circumstances, and the auditory results won praise from drivers of our long-term 2014 Cayman S. That said, the ideal power “curve” wouldn’t curve at all but rise on a constant upward slope, with each additional 100 rpm accompanied by exactly the same portion of added power. The new Cayman S engine comes closer to that ideal than the old one did.

In practice, coupled with our test car’s seven-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic transmission, this results in a more nearly perfect Cayman. Mind you, that’s in the context of a car we’ve been putting on our 10Best Cars list pretty consistently for a decade (it missed joining the Boxster in 2013 only due to a model-year-changeover hiccup). Getting closer to perfection when you’re almost there is an incremental business.