History: November 2005 I picked up the Cayman S, one of the very first delivered in the UK. This replaced my BMW 330i Sport Saloon, which I generously passed onto Lisa, my wife.
Shuffle forward 20 months and after a little badgering and shopping around, I managed to persuade Lisa that she couldn’t possibly live a day longer without an 07 Audi RS4 Avant. Found a nice example in the right color, right spec, and most importantly, the right price, and on 10th August we picked it up.
So, for now, the ultimate “Real World” garage has been assembled.
So the Cayman: Well, it’s a Cayman S, obviously, 2005 build, Basalt Black with Black interior, Carrera S 19” Wheels, Pilot Sport 2 tyres,
Sport Chrono, Auto Aircon, Sport Steering wheel, and that’s it.
It is my first Porsche. Although I’ve toyed with the idea of a Boxster for many years, I could never get past the convertible aspect, and knew I wouldn’t be happy with anything but a coupe. I put in a letter of intent with my local dealer 2 years prior to actually taking delivery of the Cayman S, the week I saw the first “Boxster Coupe” concept rumours in the motoring press.
The car has been awesome. There is little more I can say that has not already been said. This car is my daily driver and has been used every day of the past near-2 years (barring holidays and business trips) by both myself and my wife (yes, she drives it too), and has been driven very very hard on almost every one of them. 31,000 miles, several sets of tyres, several sets of pads, one trip on a flat-bed truck after worries of a very small coolant leak (turned out to be a faulty clip near the front radiator), a couple of interior rattles, no clutch issue, 2 sticky oil pressure release valves, and a peppering of stone-chips and scratches, and a brush with a hard object whilst under the care of the dealership, but the car has never let me down.
Summer 2006 took us down through France to the Riviera, via probably the best driving road in the world, the Route Napoleon. 2500 miles of motoring bliss, yet complete comfort and 8 hour stints a breeze. A truly epic drive.
Complaints? None.
Would I buy this car again? In a heartbeat.
Trading it for…? Nothing. Can’t think of another car anywhere near this price that will give such visceral thrills, every day, in a bullet-proof way that inspires confidence to use it and abuse it like it were a truck. Yet have the finesse, and polish, and performance, composure, handling, and togetherness that allows you to demolish any road, in any weather, any time of day and night. And inspires me, every day to just want to get in it and drive. Anywhere, for no reason.
It is a truly great car.
Now if it only had 2 more seats………………
Enter the RS4: 2007 RS4 (B7) Avant. Phantom Black with Black Nappa, Tech Pack (Nav, Adaptive Lights, iPod), RS4 Buckets. Oh, and a little matter of a 4.2 ltr V8 with a red-line at 8200rpm and 420bhp, Quattro, and some sticky rubber.
All the usual Audi traits are there: Build quality that puts Porsche to shame, and cabin ergonomics that are perfectly suited to everyday use. The doors open with a silky smooth feel. They close with a thud that gives the impression that the whole door is one, solid component, and not hundreds of separate parts clipped and screwed together.
Then there are the very un-Audi traits that really set the RS4 way way way above any other Audi I’ve driven or passengered in: The noise!! Press the Sport button on the wheel and the exhaust opens to deliver a truly thunderous note. The kind that scares animals and small children, and makes grown men cry with joy or laugh out loud. The bucket seats close in around you, their inflatable side bolsters gripping like a vice.
Flick the gear lever between ratios and it makes you wonder; why isn’t my Cayman like this? So smooth, so positive, no sponginess, no slack. Perfect? No, if it had the length of throw of the old Integra Type R, then Yes, it would be.
Touch the brakes, and the 8-pot Brembos have real bite. Much more than the Cayman. They are progressive too, not over-servoed like standard Audis. The only downside being that the car has a wayward feel under very heavy braking. The rear fidgeting and moving left and right slightly.
Then there is the ride. My god, is the ride good for a car with these sporting pretensions. Other A4s with S-line suspension, including the S4 feel harsh and strangely “pogo-ey”, but without any real dynamic character. No feel or composure. The RS4 feels like a Porsche. It is firm, but completely unflustered by pot-holes, ridges or broken tarmac. But it takes the Cayman ride-characteristics, and then filters out all the little crashy bits. Where you wince at the Cayman wheel, you can relax and feel unflustered by the RS4 experience. It is very impressive, if not just a little “too” isolating. But then you have to remind yourself, this is a family lugger, and not a sports car. Is it?
The Driving Experience: Having driven lots of cars (all my previous cars, plus all of my friends performance cars) over these same roads that I travel every day, I like to think that I have got the measure of what makes a good car for these particular style of UK country lanes. With cresting corners, rapid camber changes, mid-corner pot-holes and lateral ridges, it is like the local council paved the roads purely to test the damping and composure of sports cars to the extreme.
I have had a few “great” cars by magazine standards. Renault ClioSport, Ford Puma, etc and I’ve had **** ones, MGF VVC being the most notable. I’ve also driven Honda Integra Type Rs, Lotus Elise, S8, 997s etc of friends on the very same roads.
What has really stood out for me is how far ahead of everything else the Cayman has been. I mean light-years ahead. The damping is just sublime. Some think the standard suspension is too soft, particularly for the track, but on these roads, for attacking, 10/10ths driving, it is, so far, peerless. It’s hard to describe (for me, at least) how the jinking motions created by these insane camber changes are soaked up. How mid-corner ridges hop the car, but then it settles instantly, first time, with zero drama, and digs for traction. Lesser cars bounce around, get pushed off course, struggle to find grip (both front and back) and shudder as the shocks ripple through the bodywork and suspension components
So it was with little expectation and much excitement that I hit those roads behind the wheel of the RS4. A few days playing around, getting used to the drive, getting used to the brakes, gear change, clutch bite and steering, and then off we go.
Wow…………..it just DEMOLISHED that road. It can’t be right. Do it again…….WOW…….it destroyed it…………again!
But the way it does it, compared to the Cayman, is different. The Cayman also demolishes these same bits of road, but it’s satisfying in a different kind of way. The composure is there for sure. The damping is just unreal. Bits of the road that you “feel” in the Cayman are just pulverised by the RS4. It feels a bit like sub-sonic steam-roller, mashing rough road into a flat, sinewy ribbon of pristine black-top. OK, there are a couple of points where you can feel the rear end lifting and yawing, where you know the Cayman would be planted, squat and driving hard. But in other places you know the Cayman would be struggling for traction with the
PSM light flickering on and the rear moving around or the inside rear spinning as it un-weights, and the RS4 is digging claws into the tarmac in a way that seems impossible.
It’s brutally fast too. The acceleration is relentless. In a straight line, flat out, change from 2nd to 3rd gear and the traction control cuts in to stop wheel spin every time. In anything other than hot, dry conditions, it does it from 3rd to 4th as well.
But it is unfair to say it is all about speed. There is a real balance to the set-up. You can flick it through quick-fire corners like a cart. You can balance it on the throttle mid-corner too. Though there is nothing to play with at the rear end. Not like you can get a Cayman to play…..
There is no doubt these cars are closely matched in their abilities. Either offering a sublime slice of what makes a real-world, honest-to-god, drivers car.
The current B7 RS4 Saloon was released at a very similar time to the Cayman S (the Avant version in spring 06). In fact several UK motor magazines had them in a head-to-head shoot out. Most results were too close to call, with the RS4 having more out-right speed, but the Cayman being the delicate, drivers tool.
Well, my view is pretty similar. The RS4 feels phenomenally fast. I mean, “FAST”. But the biggest surprise (because a 8.2k rpm revving, 4.2 V8 420bhp engined car is always going to feel fast!!) is that it feels fast “everywhere”. Not just on a straight, but on my favourite very twisty local roads it feels as fast, if not slightly faster than the Cayman. The steering is super accurate, the grip just MIND-blowing and the traction out of tight bends doesn’t seem possible.
But driving home from the cinema the other day Lisa had to ask the question: “If you could only have one or the other, which would it be?”
Not a very fair question really, as since I’ve had my Cayman, we have adopted little Jake, so I thought I had to take that into consideration.
“No, which car would you choose, just for you?
“Ah, now that’s an easier question! The Cayman S please!! As long as we’ve got the RS4 to drive us all around in at the weekends……………”
Jack Wood
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PSM - Porsche Stability Management
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While it can’t overcome the laws of physics, the revolutionary Porsche Stability Management (PSM) system does lend an added degree of balance and control to the Cayman’s mid-engine driving dynamics, inspiring surefooted confidence in corners and extreme situations.
A standard feature on the Cayman and Cayman S, PSM continuously monitors steering input, road speed, yaw velocity and lateral acceleration to calculate the actual direction of travel. If the car begins to steer off line, PSM instantly intervenes with precision brake inputs on individual wheels to help bring the car back onto the driver’s intended path.
If braking alone isn’t enough to correct the vehicle’s cornering line, PSM then calls on the Cayman’s engine management system, adjusting engine output as needed to help stabilize handling. PSM can also compensate in an instant for mid-corner changes in load resulting from deceleration or braking. When Sport mode is selected with the optional Sport Chrono Package, PSM’s threshold for intervention is raised, allowing for greater driver involvement. If you prefer driving without automatic PSM assistance, the system can be set to standby at any time. In this case, it will only intervene under heavy braking, where both front wheels exceed the ABS threshold.
For all of its technical ability, PSM goes virtually unnoticed in everyday driving situations, preserving the Cayman’s natural agility. |
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