2015 Porsche Cayman GTS - Porsche’s Mid-Engined Coupé Gets More Power, Less Weight And Honed Dynamics (Part 2)

Dial in some optional sports seats and, if you’re feeling flush, the optional carbon-ceramic brake discs as well, and what you end up with is (a) the exact spec of the car that I drove on the launch, (b) the sweetest Cayman GTS combination it is possible to buy and (c) one of the most compelling driver’s cars that sensible money has ever been able to buy.

You can pick a GTS from its lesser brethren outwardly, too, if you look closely enough. The light lenses are a couple of shades darker than normal, the light surrounds and lower spoiler at the front and valance at the rear are black and there are new 20-inch wheels. The whole lot also rides a little bit lower, which will always lend any car a certain edge.

In GTS form, the compact Cayman feels wonderfully responsive and connected, especially with the optional sports chassis

The car that I drove had optional sports bucket seats, with fixed backs à la GT3, and although they made entry and egress a touch undainty, once ensconced in them they felt fantastic. But it’s the way that the Cayman GTS steers, rides, handles, stops, goes and sounds that will send you – and it – to another dimension.

There is a cohesion to the way that this car goes down the road that is rare, if not unique, in my experience. There are 911 fans who claim that the bigger car is still better to drive – that the Cayman remains its lieutenant, no matter what form it might take or how good it may be to drive. But I am no longer one of these people.

2015 Porsche Cayman GTS Wheel

The Cayman GTS feels connected and compact and responsive to your inputs – be that to its throttle, steering, brake pedal or gear lever, which slices quite beautifully up and down its six-speed gate – in a way that a 911 no longer does. The last time that a regular 911 felt this alive, this keyed in to the part of your brain that revels in the simple art of driving, was a very long time ago.

Indeed, you need to look to some fairly special versions of the 911 to match the satisfaction that the GTS Cayman provides – to the second-generation 996 GT3, perhaps, or the 997 GT3 RS and the current GT3. And this puts the Cayman GTS in very high company and me right out on a limb among Porsche’s commentators, some of whom will take great offence at such heresy towards the sacred 911.

2015 Porsche Cayman GTS Rear Badge

But, for me, that’s how extraordinarily good the Cayman GTS with sports chassis, manual gearbox, carbon-ceramic brakes and sports seats feels. Which is some statement. But then the Cayman GTS really is some car.