A tale of two Caymans

I switch to the desktop mode to add pics, can't seem to find a way on my phone

Yeah click desktop, reply, add image to post

Let's see if this works.

Anyway - I still don't really like the Pirellis but the car grips well in the dry so the feel is less of an issue in terms of driving fast, at least.
The Pirellis will stay on the car until at least the Autumn and I hope to shorten their lifespan with a trackday or two, later this year.
I remain happy with my overall decision to change cars.

Glad you're enjoying the GTS. It looks absolutely stunning. It's funny though that I think both those shades of blue suit the car they're on but neither would really suit the other car. Gentian blue is too subtle for the GT4 but looks great on the GTS and really suits it well. Sounds like you made the right choice.

Alex - I agree with you about the respective colours suiting the respective cars, and not suiting the other car nearly as well.

franki - I was chatting to my sales chap (James) and he was saying that they have much less stock than usual, but are selling more cars than ever, and cars don't hang around for long. He thinks it's because people aren't going on holidays, eating out, taking cruises (his words...) as they would normally do, so they are spending money on cars instead, and/or 'out of boredom'. And people who have never had a Porsche before but always wanted one are taking stock of their lives during Covid and deciding that they need to do it sooner rather than later.

James - regarding the GT4, I pretty much always blew hot and cold with it since taking delivery in January 2016. It's great in the dry and on smooth roads or a circuit but it's a pain in the arse in the cold or wet, or on bumpy roads, or negotiating any slope of any incline whatsoever. When I test-drove the GTS last July it was more of what I wanted. And it's faster in a straight line than my old GT4.

The deal was OK, given that I was selling it to the OPC at a trade price. I paid just under £73.5k for it back in 2016 and I got £61k for it as a trade in, plus £2k off the GTS (and another £2k off because I took the finance) so you could argue that I got £63k for it, after 4 and a half years and 11,500-ish miles, which is actually on the high side for a GT4. Go figure.

Since selling the car last July, the prices of 981 GT4 cars have certainly not dipped and may even have gone up a bit. They are intrinsically quite scarce (595 were officially sold in the UK including 4 in Northern Ireland) and some people, myself included, prefer it to the 718 GT4, which has kept the values buoyant.

The GTS 4.0 is currently holding its value very well because the new cars are currently on stop, driven by a couple of factors. James the sales guy said that Tewkesbury currently doesn't have any 4.0 allocations available until 2022.

The GTS is more grown-up than the GT4, particularly in terms of its ride and damping, and it's nicer inside and more of an allrounder. It is still a firm-riding sports car (with Sports PASM -20mm versus a standard 718) and not as sweet as my old 987.1S on bumpy roads, but the performance is in another league and the engine is an absolute belter.

I see the new owner of the GT4 has a GT4 git plate.

Your GTS looks very "less is more" in that slightly darker shade of blue with subtler aero stuff and no big rear spoiler. Nice.

Interestingly, I much prefer the GTS 4.0 wheels to the 718 GT4 wheels, and probably marginally prefer them to the 981 GT4 design. Shows that these things are rightly subjective!

I completely agree that the GTS carries off the less-is-more trick very well. At the risk of coming over like a broken record, it really has plenty of performance, certainly enough for me.

I hear you 

Everyone is correct

I don't personally need any more performance than the GTS provides - which is 0-100 in about 9 secs, a top speed of about 180 mph, and a terrifically sharp throttle response - but more is noticeable and you might well want it. But I don't think I need it in a road car in the UK for the driving I do.

Everything is relative: the Yaris will almost certainly be quicker down a twisty bumpy B-road than the GTS - wet or dry - but I fully expect to be thinking 'Oh COME ON...' out of lack-of-performance frustration, even when I'm fully on it!

It's not just that, it's the same in Caterhams, Atoms, and all that jazz. 

The more powerful ones seem utterly pointless when you've destroyed the likes of M division and RS audis on track in what was then the slowest one they make. Then someone says "try this Superlight R / Supercharged Civic engined version / whatever and all of a sudden you are addicted..... Power corrupts, and not having to (indeed being able to) use all of it most of the time is a lot nicer than not having enough at times. 

There are credibility shortfalls as well - I have shown a clean pair of heels a few times in drags against various fairly recent Astons and (non-turbo) 911's and they seemed less than thrilled about it given the relative costs / images of the machines. 

In my (and for the sake of Martin to avoid another printed correction being required I must stress very humble) stable the Boxster feels adequate in terms of performance, the XFR feels fast - almost always too fast to floor it unless at motorway speeds or in optimal conditions, and there is some fun in that, even if worse handling/traction plays its part also.  A 400bhp Cayman appeals indeed