Bugs 77

Have been out in the Cayman, or as much as is socially acceptable with the movement restrictions here at the moment, mainly between home and work. It really is very good, would have to say I wouldn't want a sports car any bigger, this does feel bigger than the IB as it is. The level of performance fits well with road use and still gives some feedback, the torque is enough that the gear ratios are fine in more relaxed driving, really effortless, just a bit long if you want to redline in more that just 1st gear in the suburbs and keep your licence. I would certainly recommend these as an IB replacement if you have to, and PDK (with flappy paddles) would be fine if you're more city bound. Compared to the IB it's as if it was all Porsche needed to do to cure the air cooled 911s quirks for the masses, with the engine in the middle the base engineering is so good even without a bunch of electronic aids or 4WD, I'm glad this S is relatively low specced and manual with just a sport and loud button. It has Bluetooth, sat nav, air con, heated seats and whatever, I wouldn't use any more performance or luxury ever. The only downsides are in comparison to the IB, not any other car. The build is awesome but the doors have lost that solid feel on closing and after the chatter of the unassisted steering in the IB the Cayman is sharp and clinical but mute. None of this is probably news to many on here, but it possibly may help some wondering if the change would be good, and it is, but they do show how good IBs are. The feel good out on the road was noticeable in the IB too, heaps of smiles and thumbs up, not so with a newer Porsche, was at a friends having a roadside chat and got the old "someone's got too much xxxxen money" from a passing resident. I think this car is a keeper, I don't think for a minute I could buy something that would do any more than this in normal road use, in the future I could track the Cayman and build/buy a nice IB for the road, this time a Turbo, it's still the poster car of my youth.

HI Jonas, very nice early 2.7, they really are great to drive being light and nimble. My first 911 was a 77 ROW 2.7 from the UK and my last a 74 Australian delivered. The cookies are nice, I'd probably refurbish the centres silver again which I think would look sharper with the classic Chocolate? paint, and lower it a bit too. Doesn't look it's been mucked about with too much which is nice, and that's rare. Enjoy it mate, it's a cracker! Cheers, Phil

You know you're right Doc, better go then!

Just to continue, had to do some work! 74 gone and missed. Anyway, in that moment of madness sold the IB first (minimal problems there besides low ballers that hadn't see the car in the flesh) then fire saled the Kombi and suddenly the garage was very empty (work van stays outside mostly, not that precious). With the funds from those two burning a hole in my pocket the hunt was on which resulted in the Cayman in the garage. I'll keep the work van outside or in the shed at work and reserve the last spot for a project later. (things are starting to fill that space though!) It was strange though, I've never spent that much before on a car buying the Cayman and my dear wife was beside herself doing so, it took some convincing that we can do this and have some change left over and that we'd be paying less on insurance, licencing and most likely maintenance for a while, but that's the reality. Better get back to work, at least I'm not being bothered by too many customers right now!

Built the house about 5yrs ago now, garage was the first thing designed and then progressed from there 😁. Requirement was for three cars, wife/family hack, work van/Kombi and the IB with enough workshop space in front of the cars to "do stuff".The Kombi was too nice for work in the end so bought another van for that so the Kombi just sat idol. Was then keen then to sell the Kombi and use that money to finish off the IB but it didn't sell, no one that looked at it said it was overpriced or even offered a lower reasonable amount, just said they only had x amount to spend which was way off the asking and left, why bother coming?

Will be in touch 😎

Hi Troops, After making the momentous mistake of selling the 74 IB I went in search of a replacement, couldn't stand being Porsheless. I felt I should try and move ahead from what I had but realistically I was already there with what I had, looked at and nearly bought a 993 C4 but still needed to sell the Kombi too to get there without eroding the funds too much. Thought about 996 turbos too or even a Mk1 GT3, then went back to looking for a good 3.2 Carrera but here a proper OZ delivered, fully sorted no more to spend car is $AUD120k plus, yes I could find something for say $90k but most likely there could be $30k of sorting to do, for the level of car I wanted in a 911 it kept getting back to $120-130k and way more, nuts really. I do have a few work projects to do in the next few years so getting time to work on the cars was getting harder, hence looking for something sorted, it annoyed me a bit not being able to get to some of the jobs on my last car which is why I sold it I think, really should have chilled a bit and enjoyed it how it was, there was no rush and it wasn't like it was broken or anything, but there you go. I even quizzed the new owner on me buying it back but he loves it. Then I thought about Caymans, had always liked them as a "modern" Porsche if you must go water cooled and the 981 seamed to get all that much better, we all know the 911 has grown a lot, still the sports car that all others are judged against and awesome bits of kit but now not what our aircooled cars are. I felt the Cayman closer to what I like about earlier 911s so I started checking them out. As good as the PDK stuff is, teamed with Sports Crono to have launch control is a tad unsociable at the lights, had an Audi A3 2.0 turbo quattro with dual clutch and flappy paddles which was great but ended up letting the car do it's own thing in the end which made it a less engaging experience so manual the car had to be. Looked at GT4s but I won't be tracking at this stage, GTSs are a bit saner but a lot more expensive than an S for not much more grunt, did some research and all said base Cayman is fantastic but get an S if you can, so it all pointed to a 981 Cayman S in manual for me. To top it off you can get them with low miles and sub $AUD100k, and that's what I found, a 2013 981 Cayman S manual with sports exhaust and only 24,500ks on the clock for $95,000. Has all servicing up to date and a two year extended warranty, just wash and stick oil in it (and check the water!) for a while. I bought it from the eastern state of Victoria, took three weeks to get it over here! but I picked it up from the freight depot yesterday and drove her home (by the way I bought this sight unseen) and I am very, very happy. It drives very similar to a 993 C4 but better, very easy to drive, just noisy enough with sports exhaust on and comes with all the mod cons. Feedback is good, not quite IB like but good enough, it's exactly as I hoped/expected and my wife likes it more than the IB which is good. So this will do nicely for a while, it will be interesting to see what happens to the value of aircooled stuff over the next few years, I will be getting another IB in the future, will most likely be a project, would like to build a RUF BTR replica when the time comes. Will let you all know how the Cayman goes over time, but for now stay safe folks, Cheers, Phil

Good luck with the move Dave, I'll let you know what I do next when it happens.

The blue car now has a new home, it will be here in WA for a couple of months more then shipped across the country to NSW when it's new owners relocate. Having sold her I'm having sellers remorse, I'm not sure it was the right thing to do, really should have kept and developed the car further. Values for good cars here in Aust. are still very high, hence why I sold the car, but the money is helping to get one of my daughters into her first home. My thinking is to wait and see if values cool a bit then look for a 930, at the moment they are still way up there for a good one, so much so that cars like MK1 996 GT3s and MK1 Cayman GT4s are cheaper and look like better investments allround. 964s don't add up either and as good as 993s are they don't quite grab me. So I'll just sit tight for a bit and have a think. The 74 with her new owners, Dave and his wife are long time VW and Porsche enthusiasts and so is in good hands.

I was always under the impression that the alloy front beam was in all Carreras from 73 on and the rest got them from 76 on. My 74 2.7 has steel, a 77 ROW 2.7 I had was fitted with an alloy beam as was my 78SC. If the 74 Carreras were steel that makes me happier for when I up-rate to Carrera spec engine wise so my car will as close as possible to a factory 74 Carrera.

The closest it gets to a drone is at 70-80 kph in 5th but is quieter or lighter tone at our 100-110 kpm (2800-3200 rpm) cruising speed, can still hear the radio or have a decent conversation but no real annoying resonating. But pootling around the streets is where its at, supercar stuff with the sports exhaust button stuck on. You hear everything the motors up to, so the car is now all feedback and fun without having to stretch the law too much.

Ha! doesn't sound that good on there, need better recording gear, much better in the flesh.

Here's a video by iphone of the exhaust. Was a bit cold, should have had a little bit of the old hand throttle on.

Personally I love it, may be a bit aggressive for some. Surprising ok at cruising speed. Have noticed a difference in performance, fitted the Dansk headers at the same time. Will see if I can get a sound bite onto the "Wonder Woman" thread.

Hi Guys, Get the car out most weeks but don't have much contact with other IBs, next to never see them on the road anymore, particularly down my way. So when my mechanic Richard James (RJP Motorsport) let me know he was having a little get together I jumped at the chance to check it out. Richard dose great work and looks after some nice cars, hears a look at a couple of SCs that are going back together at the moment. It'll be good have another look at these when they back together. The silver car is getting the aircon system from Jonny Hart. Went to the Porsche Club WA concourse day for some more mingling, mostly water cooled 911s, Boxters and Caymans. As far as IBs were concerned the usual larger amount of 3.2s were absent, there were a couple of SCs and an 80s Turbo, most were 74-77 2.7s which seemed to attract some attention now when before were basically ignored. All up about 60 cars there. My 74 next to a very nice 73 911E, probably the most colourful corner of the crowd. The next weekend took my Kombi to Day of the Volkswagen in Fremantle, was quite gobsmacked, over 200 cars there and more Kombis than you could poke a stick at! That's my green Kombi next to my daughter's boyfriend's white super low Rat. Someone's interested in buying my kombi so will have some funds to put towards uprating the 74 2.7s motor to Carrera spec. Cheers, Bugs.