Potent Porsche

Wedged curiously in between the Boxster and the 911, Porsche have come up with a BMW M3 fighter called the Cayman.

The Cayman S makes its debut in Brisbane and from early assessments is singing all the right tunes.

The mid-engined Cayman is priced at $148,500 for the six-speed manual and undercuts the coveted 911 by the best part of $50k. Underneath it is based on the Boxster and has tasty performance.

And the numbers are tasty to boot.

According to in-house testing at the famed Nordschleife Nurburgring, the Cayman is merely four - repeat four - seconds in arrears of a 911 after a 100-plus turn and 21km tour of this fabled piece of bitumen.

Although it is a hatchback, Cayman S is unlike any ordinary hatch, and will compete with the Mercedes-Benz SLK and the planned BMW Z4 coupe.

Its 3.4-litre boxer six delivers 217kW of power and 340Nm of torque for a 0-100km/h time of 5.4 seconds and a top speed of 275 km/h.

Porsche says the Cayman S body is 50 per cent stiffer than the open-topped Boxster and sets new standards for torsional stiffness in the sports coupe market.

The coupe is practical too, with 260 litres of luggage space under its hatch to supplement the 150 litres up front where Porsches traditionally hold their luggage.

Porsche expects Cayman S to win about 100 to 150 Australian owners in the course of its model life, with demand likely to outstrip supply for quite some time.