wordplay: Greg Bloom

While the season for topless rides is all but stifled, the ’08 Saab 9-3 Convertible was a great ride for the last warm week of the year and a spring hopeful in’09. I will revisit that one again soon as Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow 6 or so months from now. Meanwhile, back at the halls of justice, this week’s outrageous fortune has yours truly in a ’08 Porsche Cayman, the newest member of the Porsche family, not to be confused with the Cayenne.

This 245 hp 2.7 liter engine looker has a 24-valve flat-six boxer engine designed specially for this model, does 0-60 in 5.8 seconds and is capable of top speeds around 160. Finally, a Porsche for the guy who always had a poster of one with a hot chick bent over it in her daisy dukes thumb-tacked to the underside of the top bunk! At right around $50k, just about anyone with a decent income can rock one of these bad boys. The look and feel, unless you are really counting the horsepower and torque of, say… the $200k 911 GT2 who’s 530 horses take it 0-60 in 3.6 seconds and tops out around 204mph, is still aerodynamically very much classic Porsche. You’ll certainly still turn heads driving one in Denver! The Cayman S model gets you a tad closer to where you want to be as a Porsche owner with 295 hp, getting to 60mph in 5.1 seconds and 171mph top speeds. $62k will get you in one of these.

Everything you’ve ever heard about a Porsche is true, especially the most popular characteristic… You really can take a corner at 40-50mph (don’t tell the DPD I tried this). Something you may not have heard about Porsche is its attention to the importance of environmental consciousness. Low emissions come along with high performance at Porsche. In fact, it was the first car maker to fit race cars with catalytic converters. Yes, it is safe to say that the Cayman not only comes in Forest or Malachite Green… but it is green! I want one!

Porsche.com