EPISODE · May 12, 2026 · 1H 1M
The 987.1 Porsche Cayman Drives Like a 993 — For 1/5 the Price
from Eleven After Nine | A Porsche Culture Podcast
In this episode of ElevenAfterNine, Derek sits down with Jeff Lehman, author of "A Porsche Enthusiast's Guide to the 987.1 2.7 Boxster and Cayman" and the guy people actually trust on first-generation base Boxsters and Caymans.Jeff recently drove a 993, his own 987.1 Cayman, and a 997.1 back-to-back — and his takeaway flips conventional wisdom on its head. We get into why the base 2.7 motor is more fun than people give it credit for, why the IMS and bore scoring panic on 2007-2008 cars is overblown, and why the .1 cars might be the last honest value play left in the Porsche lineup.If you've ever talked yourself out of a Boxster or Cayman because it wasn't an S — this one's for you.📖 Grab Jeff's book on Amazon (proceeds go to car-related charities):A Porsche Enthusiast's Guide to the 987.1 2.7 Boxster and CaymanGIVEAWAY: Drop a comment and STAR rating for the podcast and we'll pick one listener to receive a signed copy of Jeff's book, courtesy of Jeff himself.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 — Hook & Intro: Meet Jeff Lehman, the 987.1 savant02:25 — Why focus on just one generation? The case for the 2.704:36 — Jeff's first Porsche: the 1976 912E06:03 — Porsche history nugget: the original 356 was mid-engine08:04 — Confessions of a reformed "S" guy10:29 — Why base cars sound better (engine, induction, exhaust)13:30 — IMS bearing & bore scoring on 2007-2008 cars: the real data16:36 — The Blackstone Labs 3% figure & forum misinformation18:36 — DIY-friendly? What you can (and shouldn't) tackle yourself24:17 — Why these cars are still actually affordable26:00 — 981 vs 987.1: hydraulic vs electric steering28:30 — The big test: 993 vs 987.1 Cayman vs 997.1 back-to-back32:06 — Power-to-weight: why the Cayman feels closer to the 99335:00 — Do you really need more than 325hp?39:50 — Why the .1 beats the .2: aesthetics, scarcity, and DFI concerns43:01 — The perfect second Porsche45:09 — Buying advice: spec, options, and the rear wiper47:30 — PPI red flags and the importance of receipts50:00 — Importing a Cayman from Canada (and the TPMS gotcha)52:43 — Carrera GT design DNA in the 987.1 headlights53:38 — Mods worth doing (and the Carniwal exhaust trick)57:04 — Final verdict & the signed book giveaway━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ ABOUT ELEVENAFTERNINEElevenAfterNine is a Porsche podcast for people who actually drive their cars. Website: www.ElevenNine.comYouTube: @ElevenAfterNineInstagram: @TheElevenAfterNineListen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere podcasts live.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Porsche #987Cayman #987Boxster #PorscheCayman #PorscheBoxster #993Porsche #997Porsche #PorschePodcast #ElevenAfterNine #JeffLehman #PorscheBuyersGuide #AirCooledPorsche #PorscheEnthusiast #IMSBearing #BoreScoring Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What this episode covers
In this episode of ElevenAfterNine, Derek sits down with Jeff Lehman, author of "A Porsche Enthusiast's Guide to the 987.1 2.7 Boxster and Cayman" and the guy people actually trust on first-generation base Boxsters and Caymans.Jeff recently drove a 993, his own 987.1 Cayman, and a 997.1 back-to-back — and his takeaway flips conventional wisdom on its head. We get into why the base 2.7 motor is more fun than people give it credit for, why the IMS and bore scoring panic on 2007-2008 cars is overblown, and why the .1 cars might be the last honest value play left in the Porsche lineup.If you've ever talked yourself out of a Boxster or Cayman because it wasn't an S — this one's for you.📖 Grab Jeff's book on Amazon (proceeds go to car-related charities):A Porsche Enthusiast's Guide to the 987.1 2.7 Boxster and CaymanGIVEAWAY: Drop a comment and STAR rating for the podcast and we'll pick one listener to receive a signed copy of Jeff's book, courtesy of Jeff himself.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 — Hook & Intro: Meet Jeff Lehman, the 987.1 savant02:25 — Why focus on just one generation? The case for the 2.704:36 — Jeff's first Porsche: the 1976 912E06:03 — Porsche history nugget: the original 356 was mid-engine08:04 — Confessions of a reformed "S" guy10:29 — Why base cars sound better (engine, induction, exhaust)13:30 — IMS bearing & bore scoring on 2007-2008 cars: the real data16:36 — The Blackstone Labs 3% figure & forum misinformation18:36 — DIY-friendly? What you can (and shouldn't) tackle yourself24:17 — Why these cars are still actually affordable26:00 — 981 vs 987.1: hydraulic vs electric steering28:30 — The big test: 993 vs 987.1 Cayman vs 997.1 back-to-back32:06 — Power-to-weight: why the Cayman feels closer to the 99335:00 — Do you really need more than 325hp?39:50 — Why the .1 beats the .2: aesthetics, scarcity, and DFI concerns43:01 — The perfect second Porsche45:09 — Buying advice: spec, options, and the rear wiper47:30 — PPI red flags and the importance of receipts50:00 — Importing a Cayman from Canada (and the TPMS gotcha)52:43 — Carrera GT design DNA in the 987.1 headlights53:38 — Mods worth doing (and the Carniwal exhaust trick)57:04 — Final verdict & the signed book giveaway━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ ABOUT ELEVENAFTERNINEElevenAfterNine is a Porsche podcast for people who actually drive their cars. Website: www.ElevenNine.comYouTube: @ElevenAfterNineInstagram: @TheElevenAfterNineListen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere podcasts live.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Porsche #987Cayman #987Boxster #PorscheCayman #PorscheBoxster #993Porsche #997Porsche #PorschePodcast #ElevenAfterNine #JeffLehman #PorscheBuyersGuide #AirCooledPorsche #PorscheEnthusiast #IMSBearing #BoreScoring Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The 987.1 Porsche Cayman Drives Like a 993 — For 1/5 the Price
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