2006 Sport Coupe Shootout: BMW M Coupe vs. Porsche Cayman S

Let's face it: The 2006 BMW M Coupe and 2006 Porsche Cayman S are about as close to rear-drive hatchback heaven as it gets. They're exotic enough to capture our collective imagination, and yet they're not so exotic as to be priced out of reach of enthusiasts. They're the kind of cars their manufacturers use to promote themselves. In a larger sense, coupes like the Z4-based M Coupe and Boxster-based Cayman S project an attitude that their drivers care about driving. Even people who wouldn't consider themselves car lovers will look at these cars with admiration. Also, your neighbors will immediately recognize you as the "car guy" on the block when they spot one in your garage. Frankly, this is the kind of comparison test Inside Line loves to produce. There is no better way to spend a week or two than to oblige our test equipment, photographers and readers in the name of automotive journalism.

Orthogonal meets organic
If those black-turtleneck-clad folks at the Bauhaus were to have designed a car, the BMW M Coupe would be it. There is no doubt that a man had a lofty idea about this car's intended effect. The mark of the designer is all over it, and to some, that's a good thing. Watching the orange sunset dance and melt over the M Coupe's planar surfaces, creases and arcs had us thinking that this wasn't the first time the car had been exposed to a cascade of waning light.

Originally, I abhorred the Z4's self-reverent and obviously (over-)designed bodywork. But looking at the M Coupe in the last few hours of a day, with its gracefully integrated roofline and M-spec skirting, I began to appreciate it — and value how precisely the body panels are attached. If the hood, for instance, were 3mm misaligned, the two lines that create an intersection of four surfaces would be disrupted and the whole design effort would be lost. It's this subtle but exhaustive "designery" that grows on us. The more we look at the M Coupe, the more that is revealed. It's not graceful, but it is an intriguing piece of manmade industrial design.

In stark contrast to the BMW's cerebral design is the Porsche's corporeal inspiration. Perhaps it's because the Porsche "bathtub" shape has been around for decades, and thus it's so familiar. Or maybe it's because the Cayman's curves are so gentle, organic and sensuous that it simply looks so right, so appealing. You don't need a design degree to appreciate it. The Cayman is immediately attractive and effortlessly so. It invites you to run your hand over it the way you would a white-marble Michelangelo figure, and feel every nuance of headlamp, roof and hips. We're certain as much midnight oil was burned in the design studios in Stuttgart as in Munich, but the final result is unforced and equally effective, if not more so.

Powerful competition
On with the business at hand: The reason you're reading this is to see which one we'd recommend to a person shopping in this segment. For the moment, we'll pretend that the $8,700 base-price gap doesn't matter. Later we'll also address the larger $16,260 as-tested chasm.

The basics are these: The M Coupe brings 330 silken-straight-6 horsepower to bear on a 3292-pound two-door BMW hatchback. That rounds out to 10 pounds of car to propel with each pony. Do the same math for the Cayman S hatch, and you'll discover a 10.5 pound/hp ratio for the lighter (3106 pounds) Porsche, with its snarling 295-hp horizontally opposed, or "flat" six.

Both engines are far more powerful and tractable than their respective 3.2- and 3.4-liter displacements would suggest. No turbos or superchargers are used, and there's no V8 variant offered either. Both feature slick six-speed manual gearboxes and impressive brakes plus robust, sporting tires to make it all worth a damn. These are light and agile sports cars in the purest sense. A drag race comes down to who gets the launch right. A canyon dash will be a test of either driver mettle or stability control systems.

At the outset, this looked like it would be a close one. When we looked at the scorecard, however, even the price discrepancy couldn't protect the BMW from the Porsche's coup de grâce. Simply put, the Cayman S is a more capable, adaptable and livable sport coupe.

The manufacturers provided Edmunds these vehicles for the purposes of evaluation.