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Weekend Drive by Hormazd Sorabjee: Cayman mentality
The Porsche 718 Cayman zips through Hampi like it’s a race track. Balanced and smooth, is this India’s best sportscar?
I must be one of the few people who can spend two full days in Hampi and not visit a single monument. The town is essentially an open-air museum of the once-glorious capital of the Vijayanagara empire. Tourists come for its crumbling temples and ornate mandapas. I, however came to lose myself in the present – in the company of an outrageously good sportscar and some of the finest driving roads in the country.
The plan was to chill at Evolve Back Hampi, a luxury resort, and drive my Porsche 718 Cayman GTS on the fabulous roads around the temple town. Between long, lazy breakfasts and long, not-at-all-lazy drives, there was no time for sightseeing. But every kilometre spent unleashing what I believe is the best sportscar in India on those incredible roads made me feel richer in a way only a driving enthusiast can understand.
This was a gathering of my fellow Caymen, a small tribe of 718 Cayman GTS owners. Only a handful of these cars ever made it to India before allocations dried up. Porsche has discontinued the 718 Cayman GTS. As lineups everywhere are reshaped by batteries and emissions rules, this naturally aspirated, old-school machine feels like an endangered species, a future classic in the making.
The Cayman has always lived in the shadow of its big brother, the 911. But I’m convinced that the 718 Cayman GTS is the perfect sportscar for India. Where the 911 has grown wider and bulkier with every generation, it’s compact, so it threads through traffic and narrow village lanes without feeling like a supertanker. Its 4-litre naturally aspirated flat-six is the kind of engine on the brink of extinction: 400 horses, a throttle that responds like a reflex, and a sound that builds from a rich growl to a full-blown wail as you chase the 7,800rpm redline.
Being mid-engined, it has that near-telepathic balance; the front goes exactly where you point it, the rear follows faithfully, and the whole car feels like it’s pivoting around your hips. Few cars pull you into the driving experience the way this GTS does.
The plan was to leave the Porsche centre in Bengaluru at 7.18am (the only acceptable flagoff time when you’re in a 718) and drive roughly 400km to Hampi. Joining me were Karan Chandiok, Vikram Damodaran and his daughter Diiya. The dealership played perfect host, sending along a Macan support car with a mechanic, so we could just focus on the drive.
The road surface from Bengaluru to Hampi was, for the most part, brilliant. Traffic was the only spoiler. But as the road opened up, the Cayman came alive, feeling rocksteady, yet surprisingly pliant for something this focused. The last 10km to Evolve Back felt like pure Cayman country: Billiard-smooth blacktop, sharp corners, quick direction changes and flowing switchbacks that showed off its sublime chassis. Between its two boots, the Cayman swallowed a cabin bag and more.
The three cars together made quite the sight everywhere we went. Even parked, they looked every bit like modern classics on a pilgrimage of their own – proof that in Hampi, you don’t always need to chase history to have a memorable trip.
