The Search – McCarthy's Car

The search

I have always admired cars particularly classic British cars such as the MKII Jag and may still get to own one of them but for now my search focused on a car with a touch of originality that could carry two in relative comfort and perform well on some of the more challenging European roads. The process of car selection often becomes a balance between form and function, often, particularly when a family car is involved, function dominates along with a limited budget. While outright top end speed and straight line acceleration is a useful comparator I was looking for something that was well balanced and could take the twists and turns of an Alpine road in its stride. Having recently helped my son to buy an early MK I 225 BHP TT; that was immediately in the mix. I was always a little wary of the TT a truly beautiful design that still looks great today but appeared not to be held in high esteem by the motoring purists.

I looked at a few tired examples often modded/customised without thought for the original design intent before finding an original example. It had around 100k on the clock some very minor age related marks but was in surprisingly good condition inside and out and drove very well. The deal was done and it has served him well now for a couple of years. I was so impressed with the build standard and drive that I considered it, or the 3.2 derivative, for a car to do some serious touring in Europe. The 225BHP MKI version is easily distinguished from the lower 180BHP version by the twin exhaust, rightly or wrongly I discounted the 180 BHP variant as there were plenty of 225’s to choose from. The car is also deceptively spacious with a fair bit of room in the boot and a couple of seats in the back. Although they are only really suitable for children or those vertically challenged. My son is over 6 foot and sat in the back for one of our test drives resembling something out of ELF, he’s not sat in the back since. However, the seats can be laid down for extra space so luggage capacity for two is no problem. The majority of the 3.2s come with the DSG automatic box but although I have heard good reports on the performance of the auto somehow I think it’s just not as engaging as a manual but good 3.2s with a manual box are harder to find and somewhat sought after.

I was also looking at the Porsche Cayman a mid engined hard top variant of the Boxter with beautiful lines. In terms of balance, handling and driver experience it appeared to have it all and after some test drives I was convinced that it was the car for me. Like all car purchases, particularly on the older second hand market, there is risk and problems with the Cayman Gen I engine are well documented. The main problems appear to be the intermediate driveshaft (IMS) bearing and bore scoring, both of which have the potential to write off the engine. Hartech have extensively researched the problems and have developed some engineering changes to reduce the risk and there are other modifications you will find online from similar specialists that may reduce the risk of failure. It is difficult to get real data about the number of cars that are affected, if you look at the forums you will see the opinion on the subject is varied, although understandably more people with a problem tend to voice their anger on the web rather than those who are content. Ultimately you need to assess the risk and make the decision if you want to buy or not. If you want to mitigate risk and you have the budget then go for the Gen II with the 2.9 engine. For me, I was content to accept the risk and go for a Gen I with good history, the 3.4 is such a great drive with the available torque throughout the gears and with the mid engine position providing probably one of the best balanced cars in the price range.

I was looking for a while but narrowed down my search to the Cayman S, and while it should really be about the car I was attracted to black, blue or darker shades of grey, sat nav would be nice but not a deal breaker and 19 inch wheels and Bose were also desirable. I looked at a number of cars from local dealerships and a couple of my local specialists are worth a mention, while I did not eventually purchase from them they were both knowledgeable and straight forward to deal with. Huw from Oxford car specialists, http://www.oxfordspecialistcars.co.uk/, mainly deals with Porsche and I saw two of his Caymans one in GT silver with an unusual brown interior and then a meteor grey example that particularly took my eye, both cars drove well had good history and mileage ranging from 50 to 60k.

The other specialist local dealership I used was Wentworth Cars based in Wokingham, they had a few high end cars and at the time I looked a couple of Caymans in black and midnight blue. Nick Spackman, who runs the business, was again knowledgeable and allowed time to view and thoroughly inspect his cars. I drove a black Cayman that was offered at a lower price and had recent major work done, new clutch and flywheel, but just did not drive as well as other Caymans I had driven so was discounted quite early. The midnight blue one however drove beautifully and was stunning with navy blue leather interior and powder blue carpeting; it was a 2008 that had covered 69k. The history was not available at the time of viewing, if it had been I may have gone for it as Nick was willing to swap the wheels from his black Cayman which were 19 inch Porsche Sport Design alloys and my wheels of choice.

While waiting for the history to be available I saw a Cayman S advertised on Piston Heads from a private seller in Cambridge, a good few hours drive away but worth a view as it was in my preferred colour meteor grey with Porsche Sport Design alloys, a very good history complete with a Carnewal GT exhaust, 2007 and had only covered 37k. I eventually made arrangements to see the car at the end of the week on Friday and the car drove spot on was in excellent condition apart from some minor stone chipping and the Carnewal GT exhaust sounded superb. I made an offer but it was not accepted so decided to give the midnight blue car a final test on the Saturday before making my mind up. The history for Nick’s midnight blue car was sent thought to me and I had checked it out, it was sound, in fact much better than I had expected as I managed to speak to the former keeper and RPM of Yorkshire who had previously prepared the car for sale at considerable expense. To cut a long story short I ended up with the grey Cayman and ended paying full asking price but believe it was the right choice for me.

The Search.....choosing the right car

The one