Change History

Without doing a meta analysis of several sources, I find the numbers acceptable. Convertibles are generally heavier than a permanent roof version of the same platform. Yes, the Boxster was designed from the ground up to be a convertible, and that doesn't contradict its having added structural material built in. For the Cayman, perhaps Porsche took a page out of Tony Chapman's book and "added lightness." For a given amount of stiffness, a fixed roof requires less material than would be needed to achieve the same stiffness in a convertible. Whatever the glass/hatch etc. adds is more than compensated for by the lesser amount of stiffening material required in less effective locations. As far as the numbers themselves, the Porsche site probably uses a DIN specification of some sort, whether there's a full gas tank, etc. (I recall the 912 shop manual calling for a full tank and certain weights being put on the floor when doing a suspension alignment.) Other publications, if using independent measuring methods, could come up with different numbers, even with identically equipped examples of the same car.

Without doing a meta analysis of several sources, I find the numbers acceptable. Convertibles are generally heavier than a permanent roof version of the same platform. Yes, the Boxster was designed from the ground up to be a convertible, and that doesn't contradict its having added structural material built in. For the Cayman, perhaps Porsche took a page out of Tony Chapman's book and "added lightness." As far as the numbers themselves, the Porsche site probably uses a DIN specification of some sort, whether there's a full gas tank, etc. (I recall the 912 shop manual calling for a full tank and certain weights being put on the floor when doing a suspension alignment.) Other publications, if using independent measuring methods, could come up with different numbers, even with identically equipped examples of the same car.