Well, this exact Cayman to be precise.
It's a car I've had on loan for a week whilst mine was in the workshop, and having never had a Cayman for an extended period of time I thought it might be a good idea to get some thoughts about down in writing, and a comparison to a Zed as a fairly direct competitor.
It's a basic non-S Cayman, so that means just 265bhp and a weight of about 1430kgs. The car did have the PDK 'box, and a few other fripperies like the Bose stereo, heated seats, multifunction steering wheel, satnav... Sounds very familiar to the spec of a 370Z, doesn't it? It's about £50K in this spec (!), so considerably more than a 370! Is it worth the extra? Well, yes and no.
I'll start with the caveat that this particular car had the 19" wheels off a 911 Turbo on it, instead of the 17" wheels it should have as standard. Granted they do look better, but they're incredibly heavy for a car this light which very much blunts the nimbleness you would expect from a mid-engined car. You turn the wheel and the car almost stops to think about what you're asking of it, before actually turning in. The ride is atrocious because of this, as it's on the fixed rate dampers which again would be fine with the smaller wheels on, but here the car fidgets and crashes over the slightest mark in the road. A comfortable, flowing ride it is not.
Then there's the powerplant positioned aft of your shoulders. At 2.9L it gives away nearly a litre to the Zed, and 65bhp with it, so you'd be expecting performance to suffer a bit. Thing is, it really doesn't, at least not from the sense of "Can I go quick enough to scare myself?". Even forgiving the fact that this was a brand-new car with a tight engine, when you were prepared to press on and keep the revs high there's genuine momentum to be found, and the gearbox is smooth and swift in the changes which almost make the car feel like it's got one giant perfect-ratio gear. Pootling around through town is a bit of a pain as it wants to get to the highest gear possible, which at 30mph is 6th, and while it's happy to trundle about like that there's no pull from low down. If you want to get a shift on, expect the 'box to be swapping cogs regularly. It doesn't make you sound like a bad driver from the outside though as no-one will hear it, such is the lack of aurul pleasure from the engine. It sounds tinny and weak, like a sewing machine at stitch, and certainly not what you'd expect from a Porsche flat-6. If you thought the V6 in the Zed was pathetic, prepare for a whole other world of disappointment. Never has a car needed a sports exhaust more than a base level Cayman: Luckily there's one on the option sheet for about £1500, which would be a must-buy. In actual terms of pace between the two cars though I don't think there's much in it at all, I really don't.
I lost count of the amount of times I almost put my head through the windscreen, which for a change wasn't down to me going for the imaginary clutch but more because of how bloody sharp the brakes are. Bearing in mind these are the poverty spec normal brakes, they are absolutely as sharp as a needle borrowed from the earlier mentioned sewing machine. They stop with definite aplomb, and once you get past the initial grab there's plenty of feel there too. I personally found them a bit too sharp, but then maybe I'm just used to the larger brakes on my own car which are far more progressive. I suspect the Cayman brakes are designed to be like this to make up for their lack of capability on repeated stops, although you'd need to be at a track to be remotely disappointed. They really are superb in this application.
It's such a shame that Porsche specced this particular car with the larger wheels, as with the smaller brakes found here I suspect you'd end up with one of the greatest driver's cars available without smashing the bank. Leaving aside the compliance issues, there is a wonderful sense of balance to the chassis as you tip the car on the turn in to a fast sweeping corner, and a confidence looms over you like a favourite snuggly blanket. It's very pliable at this point, and you can feel the adjustment from understeer to oversteer controllable with just a poke of your right big toe. Get more aggressive with it and the car will still play along, and the steering input allows for a sharp correction if you're deliberately provoking things without any sense of taking too much on. The fat steering wheel gives you plenty to grab onto, although I'd prefer the paddles rather than the push-me-pull-me buttons here. Where a Zed always feels at its best when you're bullying it around, the Cayman is happy to play at either end of the spectrum.
You may find yourself seeking out the fun roads more often than not in the Cayman not only because you want to, but because you know that you need something to take your mind off how uncomfortable the standard seats are. On a short-ish trip of 40 mins, I couldn't ever find a single seating position that was totally comfortable nor supportive. The Zed's big luxury armchair seats are a million times better in comparison, despite having the same amount of adjustment (albeit electric on the Nissan, manual on the Porker). That's about the only place you'll find the 370 better than the Cayman though: Once again, the Germans really go have this interior design stuff down well. Where the Zed is a mis-mash of buttons, colours and textures, the Cayman is simple but elegant, and all controls have that very precise click when you caress them with a fingertip. The satnav alone has a load of different view points to change from (2D, 3D, north facing, rotatable, scalable, multi-routable) which almost makes up for the lack of full postcode search, and the Bose stereo is how you would expect a Bose to sound like: It's full and rounded, with Audiopilot software decoding and separate tonal controls for all inputs. I couldn't find a setting on low volume that didn't muddy the sound though, although I guess they expect you to crank it up to make up for the awful engine note.
With two boots it's more practical than the Zed, although the rear one isn't as big as you would hope but the cavernous front one more than makes up for this. Fuel economy was very good, and I was seeing somewhere around 35-40mpg on a run, dropping down to maybe 20mpg if I was really pushing it. Seriously impressive figures, if you care about that sort of thing. I don't.
So overall, is it better than the Zed? I refer to my earlier remark of both yes and no. In this spec no, it isn't, as those vile wheels just kill all the fun. I don't care if it looks better, I don't buy a sports coupe to look pretty on the outside but handle like a hamstrung dog when I want to push on. Remove them (and the £1300 they cost) and you'd be very hard pressed to pick a winner. If it's lots of long drives you do then a Zed may be the better choice here, unless you want to spec the sports seats for the Cayman in which case the pendulum is swung back to the Porsche. In terms of outright pace a good driver will get more satisfaction and speed from a well-driven Cayman than a 370Z, but you'd have to put up with that harsh note at revs which is far cheaper to remedy in Nissan. Assuming base for base, no extras on either side, a Cayman at £40K is a better car than the £30K 370Z, but for another ten grand you'd expect it to be too. What it doesn't do is absolutely walk away from the Japanese motor, and honestly I'd say it's swings and roundabouts between the two here. I'd be happier with a 370Z and £15K in the bank than the Cayman in the spec tested, which just goes to show how the right choices can kill a car.
Now, if we were talking about a Cayman S with PDK and the PASM suspension, or even better the Cayman R...
