2007 Porsche Cayman

Porsche has carved a legend for itself by winning large numbers of races and hordes of high-speed hearts since its earliest VW-Beetle-based efforts not long after World War II. And it has done so mostly with tail-heavy rear-engine sports cars that in recent years, through superb chassis engineering and development bolstered by the modern magic of electronic stability control, have become so dynamically good that they seem to defy the laws of physics.

Performance

Yes, there have been mid-engine Porsches (914, 916) and front-engine Porsches (924, 944, 928) and—much to the horror of hardcore Porschephiles—front-engine Porsche SUVs (Cayenne) today and four-door sedans (Panamera) soon to come. But Porsche's road-car reputation has been made primarily by six decades of rear-engine sports cars, most of which since 1966 have been variations of a single model, the legendary 911.


To clarify the difference, "rear-engine" means the engine is hung out behind the rear axle, which—no matter how skillfully it's done—makes a vehicle rear heavy and typically tail-happy, like a dart thrown feathers-first. That is why virtually no new vehicle has been designed that way since the venerable VW Beetle and the ill-fated 1960s Chevy Corvair.


"Mid-engine" means the engine is wedged between the car's cockpit and rear axle (like in most pure racecars), which enables engineers to create a dynamically ideal 50/50 front-to-rear distribution of the car's weight. But mid-engine placement also creates ergonomic and engineering challenges, including engine cooling, complex accessory drives and cockpit roominess and noise, which can be difficult and expensive to resolve. That is why there are precious few mid-engine cars these days, and most are expensive exotics.


So here we have Porsche's modern mid-engine family of sports cars: The terrific Boxster roadster, which debuted in the U.S. in 1997 and was substantially updated for 2005, and the better-still Boxster-based Cayman S coupe, which followed in 2005 as a 2006 model. The lower-powered, lower-priced standard Cayman arrived for 2007.