Porsche 718 Cayman S: Performance Car of the Year 2018 3rd Place

HERE’S A fun fact for you, kids: this is the slowest, cheapest Porsche we’ve had on PCOTY for at least four years now – and it’s the only one that hasn’t won, either, so there’s that, too.

It’s on the podium, though, and boy it gets close to scoring the silver. Just half a point pushes it down from the second step on the rostrum – though it’s daylight between the two runners-up and this year’s victor.

As good as the 911 is, thanks solely to decades of bloody-minded development, it’s still essentially a rear-engined freak of physics, where the Cayman is patently not. The engine is in the right place, the drive is sent to the right end; in fact, it took years before Porsche – begrudgingly, it feels – let the Cayman off the leash with the 2016 GT4.

Despite a power deficit of multiple hundreds of kilowatts to the cars behind it, the Cayman shows that brains can outrun brawn in the right conditions.

Its chassis prowess – improved as it was by the expensive addition of Porsche’s adaptive damper system and a rear diff that could run NASA’s engineering department – stood it in good stead around Winton, too, where its phenomenal front end is remarked upon by almost every judge. And with a better set of tyres than the Pirelli P Zeros it was equipped with, it could have been even quicker and sharper.

Again, the steering bits simply allow maximum exploitation of the already excellent inherent balance of the mid-engined Cayman, and its old-school oversized, thin-rimmed wheel feels so right. It’s a clinical kind of right, though, and seldom do I feel like the Cayman S is working with me, as opposed to for me.

The much discussed sound is not as natural or organic as the old car, and it’s exacerbated by the almost gapless PDK shifts that match-rev without thinking – and can undeniably do a better job than a human in picking the right cog for the right moment.

As a Cayman rookie, the noise certainly didn’t offend me – in fact, I quite like the start-up chatter – but the issue does underline the general lack of emotion we all felt for the Cayman.

“It’s fast. I respect it, but I didn’t have as much fun in it as I thought I would,” opined The Ed. “It sounds interesting, rather than good.”

For me, the Cayman feels computer-game good, both out on the circuit and up in the hills – but what really intrigues me is just how little attention or conversation it attracts over the course of the event.

The froth factor about our victor is off the scale, but the Cayman – quite literally – flies underneath the radar to claim its third place trophy. Given the judges’ scores show a distinct lack of X factor, the Cayman’s bronze medal could have been a much brighter shade of, say, silver?

2018 PORSCHE 718 CAYMAN S SPECS: Body: 2-door, 2-seat coupe Drive: rear-wheel Engine: 2497cc flat-4, DOHC, 24v, turbo Bore/Stroke: 102.0 x 76.0mm Compression ratio: 9.5:1 Power: 257kW @ 6500rpm Torque: 420Nm @ 1900rpm Power/Weight: 190kW/tonne Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch Kerb weight: 1355kg Suspension: struts, coil springs, adaptive dampers, coil spring (f); multi-links, coil springs, adaptive dampers, anti-roll bar (r) Brakes: 330mm ventilated/drilled discs, 4-piston calipers (f); 299mm ventilated/drilled discs, 4-piston calipers (r) Wheels: 19.0 x 8.0-inch (f); 19.0 x 10.0-inch (r) Tyres Sizes: 235/40 ZR19 (f); 265/40 ZR19 (r) Tyres: Pirelli P Zero Price: $150,490

0-100km/h: 3.95sec (4th) 0-400m: 12.02sec @ 189.12km/h (5th)

Morley – 2nd I have no idea how Porsche made this thing so fast. Still missing a pair of pistons, but.

Campbell – 3rd A sublime driver’s car and seriously fast, but I don’t want one like I used to.

Newman – 3rd Virtually flawless as a machine, but respect it rather than desire it.

Robson – 5th Clinically brilliant, but it lacks emotional connection of old six-potter.

Reynolds – =2nd Easy to drive, best gearbox, ace brakes, but didn’t like bumps.

JUDGES’ SCOREBOARD