Kill the 911?

To me, the 911 has morphed into a GT car.

 

Yep. All things must pass. The current 911s have turned into overpriced GTs. (Have you looked at MSRPs for a basic 997?) In fact, it has been this way for a while. You have to step up to a GT3 to get some of that old time religion.

Currently, from the driver's seat forward, the Carrera, Cayman, and Boxster are all the same. Sadly, only the 911 gets the hot rod motor, and its in the wrong place.

My daily driver is a 2009 Cayman, and it is one of the best handling sports cars I have ever driven, bar none. It feels like a downsized and lighter F430. It is that good. (And I'm not even gonna discuss the PDK, which is stunning.) I can't say for sure; but I'd bet if you dropped the turbo motor into a Cayman, it would easily give a GT3 (or a F430) a run for its money.

So maybe what Porsche needs to do is make the new sedan into a slightly smaller two-door cab, drop the 911, and pump up the Cayman and Boxster. If Porsche offered a turbo Cayman for less than $100k, they'd selll a jillion of them.

Dale

 

911 stays!

 

My good buddy has a Cayman S that was turbocharged by TPC Racing. Having spent plenty of time in that car, WOW! It's a light agile Cayman with very usuable power out of the turns. It makes beautiful sounds and is just a rocket! TPC also installed their sway bars (I don't have much handling experience on stock sway bars so I can't really comment on their effect) The thing daily drives like it is naturally aspirated and has a very usuable torque curve. Until Porsche (probably never) offers a hot-rod Cayman, this is really quite a great car!

Not trying to solicit services by any means, I have no affiliation with TPC, just trying to share a great option to persue...

http://www.tpcracing.us/turbos/turbos/cayman_turbo,_available_now.html

 

Personally, Porsche lost me as a new car buyer with the water cooling. I have owned about 9 of them over the years, starting with a 1969 911T purchased new in 1969.

I still have a 1996 Targa 993 for my daily driver - but it will not be traded to a 996 or 997.

My stepson just recently bought a 997S Aero Coupe, but I just don't want one for my own car.

 

don't believe what ya here. Size matters.

Maybe if they made the caymen the size of the 911. But, then...they'd have to come up with another car to replace the caymen for people who like smaller cars.

 

I've owned several 911's: 993's, 996's, 997's and a 997.5 (currently). I've owned one Boxster and have had loaners of several Caymans. The 911's are less crowded on the inside, the seats go back farther, and the overall feel of solidity is far greater in the 911 than the Boxster/Cayman. Whether this quality feel is by design or not I couldn't tell you, but the mid-engined cars just don't feel as vault-like solid. I personally think the Cayman is a better looking car than the 911 and it's certainly cheaper. The horsepower has come up to as much as the 993 version of the 911 ever had except in turbo form. And yet, every time I decide I want to switch to the Cayman, I drive one and change my mind. I would have no problem with the reduced power, but the 911 has a "feel" that is far above the mid-engined coupe. Just my opinion, yours may be different. I like the fact that I have a choice and don't want to kill the cars I wouldn't choose for myself.

 

Why would you? It's a very profitable car that Porsche sells a lot of....

 

me too !!!!

 

make a light weight 904ish model 8)

with a turbo 4 cylinder and no frills

 

STICK SHIFT!!!

 

911 is the one and I like them all, air and water cooled.

 

Most 911s I see are grumbling along in traffic at 10-30 MPH. At best they're running 80 on the freeway. Mid-or-rear driving dynamics don't matter much at those speeds.

 

I've had 8 Ferraris but bought my first Porsche a few months ago---an '07 Cayman S. I could not resist. It was 20 months old with 5K miles, original MSRP was 66K and I got it for 39.5K. The 911 does nothing for me, but I do appreciate the tradition and I think the order of the sports car universe would be disturbed if it were discontinued.

I have a friend with an '05 C2S and he says the Cayman handles better. Also, a local guy who runs a school and has won a bunch of national SCCA titles says it out handles any 911 ever made. I can't compare, but it is really nimble and especially likes the tight, twisty roads I have locally but it is still hard to compare to my 430 which just eats up roads of all kinds and is an animal on the track. I'll know more after this Sat. when I take the Cayman to the track for the first time. All I can say for now is that it drives beautifully.

Design wise, the Cayman is fantastic. Burying the motor deep under the car makes it very practical for a small sports car. Recently, I took it on an 9 day trip to CA totaling 2200 miles. I had clothes, business stuff, a case of bottled beer plus my helmet and driving suit and I still had plenty of room left. The ride is more compliant than the 430 and the 430 is actually pretty comfy.

Dave

 

The 911 will never die. The car has become too much of an icon. It could work as a short term marketing stunt, say, when the 997 is nearing the end of it's life Porsche announce that this will be the last 911 and they are working on new, exciting projects. Six months later, after the dealers offload the last remaining 997's, Porsche announce that the greatest sports car ever is coming back.

It's the real money maker for Porsche and the one that everyone wants to own. Have you ever heard of anyone aspiring to own a Cayenne or a Panamera? The majority of Boxter and Cayman owners will want to trade up to a 911 one day.

This says it all really. Porsche is stuck with the 911, whether they like it or not. 911 customers don't like change - look what happened when they tweaked the headlight design on the 996. On the plus side, the Cayenne and Panamera are apparently on the way out to make way for new, performance focused models.

 

All I know is that at track events is always the 911 leading the pack with the Cayman and Boxters behind. Cayman might out handle a 911, but Cayman drivers seem not to be brave enough at the track or else...

 

Its a bit like Jeep, the CJ/Wrangler will always be their "halo" car, regardless of how archaic it seems, and somehow it is still brilliant in its element. Cherokee/Grand Cherokee are much better cars 90% of the time, but everyone wants a Wrangler...

Tons of owner loyalty too, remember when Jeep changed the Wrangler's headlights to square lamps? Uproar from the loyal Jeep fans.

 

The camaraderie amongst Wrangler owners is almost unparalleled. I've owned a couple of Wranglers in my day and not a day went by when I didn't get a "Jeep wave" from another Wrangler owner.

Awesome trucks.

 

its funny, I get the "Porsche wave" from other 911 owners but almost never from Cayman/Boxster owners.

of course, I get another kind of wave from Prius owners

 

That's a good one, ...and how true. +1. w/ smiles Jimmy

 

It'd be nice if Porsche either offered a mid-engined 911 (perhaps calling it something else), or else beefed up the Cayman spec to equal the 911, and then sold it at the 911 price, and let the customer decide which car to buy. If they're making the same amount of money, why would they really care which car you bought?

IMHO, It's also a little bass ackwards that the 4-seater rear-engined car is engineered to be the better performer - I guess if you put a wide enough tire on any car with that heavy a tail you can get it to corner decently.

Another random thought - perhaps in 30 years the 2-seaters will be coveted, just as the base-model Speedster is today.

 

Hehe
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Outhandling a 911 with a less expensive model (notice I didn't use inferior) isn't new. The 944 turbo was quicker than the 930 around most tracks but it didn't matter to the faithful.