After a year of "maybe, well OK, where, which, how..." I got my Cayman S last Saturday:
2007 Arctic Silver
1050 miles
Black interior
Mats
Leather Sport Seats
Sport Steering Wheel
Sport Chrono w/o PCM
Bi-xenons
Looked at my local dealer, test drove one last year, was torn between a new one and a low-miles used. Winter slowed things down a bit. Decided that a used one was a better value for me, so searched within 500 miles. I'm in Upstate NY (north of Syracuse), found one that looked promising in NH. Drove over, drove it, liked it. OK
really liked it. Went back and drove it home last weekend. Turned a lot of heads on the Mass Pike and NY Thruway. It was a great drive.
This is my third Porsche. Cut my teeth on VWs in the 60's and 70's (two bugs, bus, wife's Ghia). First Porsche was a Togo Brown '64 356C rust-bucket fix-er-up-er. Welded in new floors, suspension parts, rockers, etc. Painted it, rebuilt the engine (solexes, mild cam, lightened flywheel..) autocrossed it and took it to PCA Drivers School at the Glen twice (still grinning..
). Sold it to pay off credit cards when the kids came along (go ahead, kick me. I still am). Second was a Burgundy '68 912 that I still have (read on...). Bought it in '91, rusty but driveable, so I rebuilt the engine, drove it for a few years until it wouldn't pass inspection. Stripped it down, got it up on a rotisserie, new floor, new suspension, (starting to sound familiar?). It's now in year 15 of its two year rustoration (still on the spit).
I still love the 356s and early 911s the best. When the Boster came out I thought they looked nice, but I'm not a convertable-type guy. When I saw my first Cayman in an Autoweek preview I went gaa-gaa- "Well the boys in Zuffenhausen sure got it right with THIS one!".
I figured I'd have to wait 15 years to get a well-used one (damn 10 year body warranty
..). A simple (complex, really) twist of fate plopped some money in my lap and the Credit Union helped with the rest, and I figured I'd better do it now- or it might be never.
I've been to the factory museum twice on work trips to Europe (The most spectacular tiny museum in the world), also drove the Nurburgring twice (once in a rental van!). I'm into F1, used to get to the Glen for the races in the 70s, got to every Indy F1 except the last, made it to Silverstone and Spa once (ahhhh...!).
The relationship between the Cayman and the 904 is very appealing to me. Mid-engine is something special- mechanically and balance. And the styling is just drop dead. This one had to be Porsche Silver. But I am reminded of the joke we used to tell when the first water-cooled Porsches came out- "Water cooling? We still don't know why they need the extra two cylinders???". I'm a long-time PCA and 356 Registry member.
Still looking forward to getting the 912 finished, it should satisfy my need to keep my fingers dirty until the Cayman ages gracefully into maintenance time. I plan on her being my daily driver in the summer, but with over 130 inches of snow here, she's going to get put away for the winter- which is where my 1985 SAAB 900T with 240,000 miles comes in!
Great forum here, I've enjoyed getting up to speed with everyone's experiences and advice. This will get to be home now that the Silver Queen is in the garage. I still really can't believe it. I go down to the garage regularly just to make sure.
And Drivers School at the Glen is only 10 weeks away!!!
Croc On!
Good luck with the gator.
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