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GT Purely Porsche logoMilltek Sport Porsche Cayman S - a Sound Investment

GT Purely Porsche: November 2006 issue

Extract from page(s) 28-30 of the November 2006 issue of GT Purely Porsche

Visit an Internet forum, or scroll through the GT Purely Porsche inbox, and it won't take you long to find a flurry of correspondences with one thing on their mind: performance exhausts. Anyone who's visited the Porsche options list (in all its hardback book glory) will have come across the 'Porsche Sports Exhaust' option and the four figure price tag that accompanies it. We've tried it a number of times on a variety of new machinery and it does exactly what it says on the tin: which is enhance the acoustics' of Porsche's flat-six engine but providing nothing in terms of increased performance. Which is where the after-market exhaust manufacturers come in.

Phil Millington, MD of Milltek Sport is one such manufacturer and his company's latest exhaust system, for the 3.4-litre Cayman S has been receiving high praise from all who have sampled it. Not surprising considering Porsche does not yet offer its sports exhaust option for its baby coupe.

"We sent one of the first systems to the Cayman Club in America and they have independently tested it and reported back with some encouraging results" explains Phil. Those results were an at the wheels increase of 21bhp to the standard car's 295bhp and an additional 10lb ft of torque to add to the 251lb ft already produced, endowing Porsche's baby coupe with near 997 Carrera levels of power. But Phil is quick to point out that Milltek are not in the market of claiming wild performance gains; "Porsche has to design and manufacture its products to meet global legislation, and the result is that compromises have to be made, and with an exhausts system it will be in areas such as sound and performance.

"With this new system for the Cayman S, like our existing Porsche exhausts, we have set about removing the restrictions Porsche are forced to put in place - these are traditionally to do with the engine's breathing - and set about developing a system that gets the best from the engine. In the Cayman's case we felt the engine tailed off from around 5000rpm, but there was still plenty on offer, and so set about developing a system that tapped into these restrictions"
And indeed they have. The Milltek system - which can be ordered as a full system (as tested) or a cat-back system - has a distinct, woofly tone on start-up but instantly settles to a solid tone little louder than the standard system. Commute around town and cruise along at a moderate speed and there is no booming resonance, embarrassing parps or ridiculous burble you'd associate with a traditional after market exhaust system. Climb into the Cayman's power band and the exhaust note climbs with measured aggression, and when the engine's VarioCam Plus kicks in and the revs climb higher the engine continues to push with renewed vigour to the red line. It's not the increase in power you first notice, but the freedom the engine now has to rev when stretched to its maximum velocity. And while there may be noticeable increase in the power department the Cayman's athleticism is as strong at the redline as it is when powering through the standard car's factory programmed peak outputs...

 
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