2019 718 Cayman GTS

Written By:

Mike G

The 2019 718 Cayman GTS feels like an older car in a good way! Let me explain, the cabin in the car is much more intimate than the bigger brother 911.  Additionally when you are outside of the car and from an optical perspective the car looks proportional to an air-cooled 911 which is a very good thing! So needless to say we were pleasantly surprised on these fronts on how the car presents itself. We were like most people in the Porsche world where as we thought 911 or nothing. It is funny; you don’t know what you don’t know. I am sure a lot of you have heard that saying in the past but it really does rain true in this case. We really didn’t know what we were missing with this car. 

Let's discuss some stats because everyone loves to compare things on paper. So what are we talking about here 2.5 liter turbocharged flat four producing 365hp, 309 lb-ft of torque. Launching this thing to under 4 seconds in the zero to 60. So for all you watercooler folk like that to talk about what cars can do from a stat sheet there you go! Now, for the real world stuff. Is it fast? Yes it is very fast; especially considering it’s a flat four. Butt dyno says very very fast. So much so that it seemed violent under sport plus hard acceleration and shifts, which is a very good thing in case you didn’t know. Interior very nice, alcantara everything in the GTS trim. Only drawback is on the interior door handles are covered in the stuff and that is wear point and could look pretty bad after some repetitive closing and opening of the doors. Tons of storage in the frunk and the rear hatch, the mid-engine nature helps with the storage. The clutch engagement was very soft; it could be used in stop and go traffic without a problem. Oh, did I mention the one we tested was a manual transmission! It was very well suited for this vehicle, the transmission was easy to use and felt really good through the gears. Visibility was outstanding, and you didn’t feel as if you couldn’t see out of it even though the cabin was tight. Brakes were very good and had a good feel on your foot under braking. 

To sum it up, we really enjoyed the time we had with the car. It reminded me of time and place when Porsche made smaller more nimble cars. We believe this car is a special regardless of people whining about the engine note on the car. We didn’t find it to as bad as people make it out to be. Also, this car has so much after market potential you put a tune and aftermarket exhaust on this car you’re looking at a 450hp weapon. For 80k new and a couple more thousand for the bits we talk about you have a 911 killer on your hands! So you if you are like us and Ricky Bobby and just want to go fast and do it for less the 2019 Cayman GTS is your running mate. We would like to thank Porsche of Tampa for providing this vehicle for us to review, make sure you visit their website and Instagram for more reviews from us!