Porsche makes a lot of great cars that car lovers love to drive, and that trend continues to this day with the 2021 Porsche 718 Cayman. While Porsche has diversified its offerings, Porsche understands that its sports cars are its bread and butter. That’s exactly why the latest 718 Cayman will still please the driving purists. 

Great transmissions on the 2021 Porsche 718 Cayman

While many cars now come standard with an automatic transmission and a most cars only offer automatics, Porsche actually offers a manual transmission as standard on the latest 718 Cayman, according to Car and Driver.

Not only is the six-speed manual transmission standard on the 718 Cayman, but Car and Driver also wrote that it’s, “perhaps the best one on the market.” 

Car and Driver preferred the manual transmission since it’s more fun to use than Porsche’s automatic option, but it’s actually a pretty close race. Porsche also offers an optional seven-speed dual-clutch automatic for the 718 Cayman, and similar to the manual, Car and Driver said that both options were “flawless.” 

The automatic gets a slightly better fuel economy than the manual does, but not by much. At the end of the day, Car and Driver loved both systems, but of course, driving purists would go with the manual any day of the week. That said, Car and Driver also mentioned that Porsche might be removing the manual transmission soon.

The 2021 Porsche 718 Cayman is extremely impressive

While the 718 Cayman comes standard with a manual transmission, Porsche has made leaps to improve the automatic option. For example, Car and Driver reported that, in the 2021 model year, Porsche has made its automatic transmission compatible with the 718 Cayman’s most powerful engine, a 4.0-liter flat-six that gets around 400-hp. 

Porsche has two other engines available on the 718 Cayman, the first being the standard 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder that gets about 300-hp, and the other being a 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder that gets 350-hp. However, since these engines are less powerful than the six-cylinder, and since they have a “coarse” noise, Car and Driver prefers the six-cylinder engine. 

With the standard engine, the 718 Cayman can accelerate from 0 to 60 MPH in about 4.1 seconds, and it can also hit a top speed of about 180 MPH, according to Car and Driver. These specs are likely better with the more powerful engines, though at the cost of a worse fuel economy. 

A truly great sports car

Fuel economy aside, at the end of the day, the Porsche 718 Cayman is a sports car, and it’s meant to perform well on the road. That’s exactly what it does, as Car and Driver said that it handles really well. This makes the 718 Cayman very fun to drive, especially given the fact that its price tag starts at about $61,000. 

Compared to its competitors, which include the likes of the Chevy Corvette and the Toyota Supra, Car and Driver said that the 718 Cayman is more expensive than them. That said, due to these impressive specs as well as all the features that it offers drivers, Car and Driver said that the 718 Cayman was “the most focused and satisfying choice in the segment.” 

Simply said, for driving purists who want a great, fast car, the 718 Cayman is a great choice. However, it’s not completely devoid of creature comforts. Car and Driver said that Porsche has put quite a few new standard features in the 718 Cayman for the 2021 model year. These new standard features include Apple CarPlay compatibility as well as a standard dual-zone climate control system.