Porsche 911 Carrera S vs Cayman S, which should you buy? 997 & 987 test drive and review

Straight six 911s and Caymans! 😂

Have an 08 Cayman S 6spd. Will never sell it.

I struggled with this choice for a while. Someone in my family already had a 987, its very practical, sounds great and handling is sublime. I ended up looking for 997 because I didn't want to buy the same car and to be honest found the seats and driving position slightly uncomfortable. Eventually, I settled on a 4.7 Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Both are brilliant cars.

Boxer 6 and pronounced "Poor sha"! Come on, man

I’ve had my 2006 Cayman S for a little over two years now and driving it always puts a smile on my face.
I did think about getting a 996 911, but I reckoned it would send me off the road and prices went crazy while I was looking.
Also, I can get my road bike inside the back of the car, which I wouldn’t be able to do with a 911.

Started with a 987 cayman and moved to a 997 for a lot of the reasons you called out. While the cayman feels like it will bail you out in a corner, the 911 has a lot more down low grunt and noise, and the handling feels a bit more special when pinning the accelerator through a corner exit. Also, I always had the 997 as my screen saver growing up, not the cayman. That said, I think I’ll go back to a cayman one day, but maybe a newer one. 981 or 718 4.0 feel more like the successor to the 997 than the increasingly large grand tourer 991 and 992.

Just paid £40k more to trade-in my 718s ( which was a big step up from my 981) to get a high spec’d 991.2 . It’s definitely worth it.

Neither

🤦 ᑭяỖｍｏ𝓼𝐦

Everyone should note the styling of the front ends of these two generations of 911 and Cayman, they are very similar. Yes of course this did not last; Porsche intentionally made the cayman progressively uglier and less like the 911 front end with each subsequent generation.

FLAT SIX! A straight six is an in-line 6

A fascinating change-of-mind!

FWIW, it’s practically impossible to induce meaningful lift-off oversteer in the 997, unless you’re being wantonly reckless (as I was on a skid pan with an instructor alongside me). Mechanical grip from the rear tyres, plus PSM makes it very surefooted in normal driving, even in the wet.

My own experience of moving from a 987.2 Boxster S to a 997.2 S? That the 911 is a more special, more grownup car. Not objectively better necessarily; simply a richer experience.

If you want a Cayman, you'll get a Cayman
If you want a 911, youll get a 911.
I got a 997.1 (2006) manual transmission Carrera S coupe (only had 14,000 miles). I'm keeping it.

Really great review - thanks so much

I just bought a 997 c2s in manual... I was going to buy a Cayman S, as it was cheaper, which I had tried years ago... I can tell you one thing, the 997 is by far the better car! The Cayman S left me rather miffed as it didn't give me any sense of driving something special. The 997 is a totally different machine and the extra power is very noticeable indeed. I really don't regret one bit buying the 911 over the Cayman S. Maybe I should have bought a Cayman S, then move up to the 911, but now I don't see how I could ever drop from the 911 to the Cayman... To be honest, the one I bought is likely to be a keeper, for a very long time, I am totally in love with it😳😎. First Porsche... I don't see how I could ever buy something else for what I use it for. For daily... I just use the old doggy car (Diesel Estate)🤣

A aua This has to be one of the worst wannabe comparison of Porsche ever. You don’t know crapdycke what your talking about. And that had nothing to do with you beer belly and reformed navy tattoos. Clearly out of your leave mate !

You’re not much on shifting gears, so I can’t take your opinion on these 2 that seriously. You have to really push these cars into their higher rpm’s and you didn’t do that at all. Beautiful cars, but poor performance reviews

So they both have straight 6 engines ??? Really???

My god and your a car sales guy !!!

Cayman to drive. 911 to get gold diggers

2016 Cayman owner here. The confidence in driving is amazing. I dont give a crap about the luxury of the 911. I like a sports car

Straight 6, that's something new.

Unless your buying a turbo S or a GT car the Cayman always beats the 911 of the same gen.

Great video, thanks for the advice. I’ve been throwing up which one of these two id like and always thought that there wouldn’t be much difference between the two but very interesting comments and point of view.

Thanks so much for this!

lost me at straight six the second time

great insight man thanks

Personally I went cayman s for the handling and how it feels to drive. Love most Porsches though. 👍

It's Porsche not Porsh.

I own a 2nd gen Cayman S and all most of us wanted, at the time, was to tick the box so we could get the 3.8 with more HP, but more for the TQ and Porsche wasn't going to let that happen at the time. The page finally got turned here lately with the GT4 RS (982) that gets the GT3 (Evo) engine (500 HP); not to be confused with the GT4 (718) that has a different 4.0 engine (413 HP) derived from the 9A2 911 engine or the 2016 GT4 (981) that got the 911 S (9A1) engine detuned to 380 HP instead of the 911 GTS 3.8 with 408 HP.

My birth is sep.11th=911. Got to have one

Thanks for the video!!! Really needed to compare!

Boy, are you wrong!

Is a 981 base cayman good or too slow ?

Caymans are stright 6?

I`d say a glass sealant was used on the windscreen, causing the wiper judder.

What about driving dynamics, especially comparing how both the 997 and 987 behave on turns, breaking, acceleration, weight transfer, oversteer vs understeer? Also, what about the longer gear ratio on the 987 compared to that on the 997? Would that be a deal breaker for the 987?

Non si possono confrontare motorizzazioni così differenti nella potenza. Se confronti la macchina, nel complesso, dovresti confrontare con motori simili. In quel caso non c'è confronto. Un Boxster con montato motore da 355 cv distrugge qualunque 911 aspirata.
Velocità in curva, dinamiche di guida e piacevolezza di un'auto con motore centrale non saranno mai raggiungibili da un'auto con la stessa potenza e motore non centrale. È una certezza immutabile, come la gravità.

25k for a 997 is dumb cheap I can’t find one for less than 40k with 100k miles