Porsche Cayman Style Edition 2024 review – substance to match the Alpine A110?

There is a school of thought that claims the most basic, option-lite Porsches are among the best you can get. Arguments to that effect can certainly be made for the 911, but does that same logic apply to the Porsche 718 Cayman and Boxster, which so-specified are bereft of a pair of cylinders, adaptive damping and a limited-slip diff? Helping bolster the case for the bog-standard 300hp four-cylinder Cayman and Boxster are the new Style Edition versions, with a selection of touches that add a bit of visual flair.

These touches include 20-inch Porsche 718 Spyder wheels, that stand out quite spectacularly in white on our test car, along with the matching livery. The livery constitutes a Porsche decal along the side and a stripe down the bonnet that springs from the badge. A Cayman isn’t exactly a shrinking violet but in Guards Red or Ruby Star Neo and with these white highlights, you crick more than a few necks. 

In the 718’s eighth year – twelfth if you consider the age of this platform – the Cayman and Boxster have taken on something of a timelessness. The next-generation cars, whenever they arrive, whatever they’re powered by, are sure to retain this shape, albeit with a 992.2 911-style light bar at the rear and Taycan-esque headlights.

For now, though, the 718s endure, at least in the UK, as in Europe new cyber security regulations have meant they can no longer be sold. Best we enjoy what we’ve got, while we’ve got it.

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There’s much to enjoy, too. The Style Edition may have extra visual presence on the road but the Cayman remains as it ever was, a compact car with precise controls and a good view out, making it easy to place. The Spyder wheels are nominally lighter than other optional 20s and, as such, suffer less as the middle party between rutted English lanes and the standard passive suspension – PASM active damping is a £1112 option that lowers the car by 10mm. The passive set-up affords the Cayman reasonable control and while the ride is certainly not cossetting or cushioning, it’s not exhausting or egregiously crashy. Option accordingly, depending on your sensitivity to these things. 

We would advise adding the mechanically locking limited-slip differential, a £926 option, that lends what is as standard a light and lithe car a bit more rotational agility. The steering reflects the rest of the package, in that it’s very crisp and very well-judged in terms of weighting and ratio, if not fizzing with feel – granted, not exactly original commentary when it comes to lower, earlier-spec Porsche EPAS.

> Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS review: the ultimate mid-engined sports car?

As ever though, the biggest question mark in a base 718 is around the engine. Your first impression with these mills – be it the base 2-litre fitted here, or the more muscular 2.5 – is never good. Insert and twist the positively old-school 911-shaped fob and you’re met with the gruff grumble of four opposed cylinders, rather than the exotic zing of six. The search for redeeming features isn’t as desperate as you might think, though, being shorn of the musicality you typically associate with a Porsche sports car. 

There’s a barrel chest to it – a punch down low that has its own utility in normal driving scenarios, even with the hesitancy that comes ahead of it finding boost. The full torque figure of 280lb ft arrives at 2150rpm and runs to 4500rpm, giving the Cayman an up-on-its-heels feeling out of corners when you’re not wringing its neck. The full 295bhp comes in at 6500rpm but the 2-litre engine feels far from heady, to the point you feel more compelled to short shift through the gears and ride the torque curve than seek out that peak power figure. It’s an engine more than a little at odds with the delicate character of the car it motivates.

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And there was something else that didn’t feel entirely appropriate in the particular Style Edition we tested – its PDK transmission. While many performance cars these days would not suit having a stick and three pedals, a sports car like a lower-end Cayman is not one of them, because this is not a GT4 RS where you’re stuck between managing that furrow-hunting chassis while bathing in the metallic rort of a Motorsport flat-six buzzing up to nine; this is a Cayman where you have the bandwidth to enjoy more points of interactivity. The six-speed manual would certainly help when looking to steal a point or two by comparison with something like an Alpine A110 where a manual isn’t an option at all.

Inside, the 718’s years are catching up with it. We might complain about buttonless cabins with nothing but an innavigable touch panel with which to control many of the vehicle’s functions, but in 2024, the Cayman (and Boxster) cabins are starting to look a little low-def. The quality is exceptional as usual – clicky buttons are a vanishingly rare joy these days – but a clunky out-of-date UI and visible pixels on the screen date it.

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Price and rivals

To be clear, the person plumping for a Cayman Style Edition in 2024 is still getting an extremely enjoyable, exploitable and attractive sports car with some distinctive dress-up. But I’d much rather glaze a manual Cayman GTS 4.0 in some Sonderwünsche decals and get the same effect, only with a drivetrain that doesn’t censor the essential Cayman experience. Yes, that does mean finding the extra £17k for the price of entry, but it’s worth it.

If that’s a stretch too far, there are other options. The Cayman Style Edition is priced right in the Alpine A110’s arena, a car that has capitalised on being the more compelling alternative to the Cayman Lite on price. The drive is an experience of enlightenment and it looks fantastic too. The Alpine really only loses out to the Cayman in terms of raw badge power and perhaps areas of interior quality, with a more charismatic four-cylinder, a lower kerb weight and a freer-breathing approach to lightweight sports car dynamics. Starting from under £55k, it’s a good £5k cheaper than the Style Edition, though it’s £600 more than the most basic Cayman. 

Those looking into a new four-cylinder Cayman should always be aware of how much used Cayman can be had for the same money too. In the case of this £59,150 Style Edition, more than a few 981 Porsche Cayman GT4s are similarly priced and should hold on to that value.

Porsche Cayman Style Edition specs