The new Cayman's 7-speed PDK.
By Douglas Kott
Crimony! Just when you'd reached guru status with heel-and-toe downshifting, Nissan comes out with SynchroRev Match to make it wholly unnecessary — a dagger through the hearts of purists. Porsche knew to leave well enough alone; with the new 2009 Cayman and Cayman S, the 6-speed manual remains blessedly traditional. But instead of the 5-speed torque-converter Tiptronic automatic, the gearbox aft of the longitudinal flat-6 is now the 7-speed twin-clutch PDK unit (a $3420 option) that's already been introduced in both the 911 and Boxster ranges.
Actually, the '09 Cayman is significantly revised, with new closed-deck boxer engines that are lighter, stiffer, have reduced reciprocating mass and more power (the base 2.9-liter has 265 bhp; the S's 3.4-liter makes 320 bhp). Appearance has been tweaked too, with a nose that incorporates Carrera GT-esque bi-xenon headlight clusters, and taillights whose arched rows of LEDs echo the forms of RS 60-inspired fenders.
The 2009 models weren't available at the time of our comparison test, but we did drive PDK-equipped S models at a preview in southern Spain. Paddle-shifting the PDK is an exercise in rev-matched bliss — the rev-matching on downshifts not only acceptable, but encouraged in an "automatic." And when the Sports Chrono package is ordered, you can invoke the Launch Control feature for repeatable standing-start launches with an optimized amount of wheelspin. We'd venture that an '09 S would be a couple/three-tenths quicker to 60 mph than an '08 by virtue of additional power and quicker shifts, the latter claimed to be 0.1 second quicker than humanly possible. Remember, a PDK's ratios are preselected; only then is the power transferred from one multiplate clutch to another (incidentally, the clutches are arranged concentrically in the transaxle's bellhousing). It's truly a paradigm shift.