New versus used: Porsche Cayman S or Lamborghini Gallardo

Hitting the road first is the Cayman S. Were this a track exercise, I’d have been glad of the bucket seats’ security, but their limited adjustment and thin padding do little for comfort. That aside, the driving position is ergonomically sound.

Within moments, you’re treated to what could be the sweetest manual gearbox on sale. It’s light yet mechanical feeling, with a joyous lubricity that seems to suck the shifter into each nook.

With the hard-biting carbon-ceramics making in-roads near the top of the brake pedal, you need to be pressing on to make heel-and-toeing tenable, but a rev-matching function (part of Sport Chrono’s Sport Plus mode) lets you enjoy rasping, seamless downshifts even during dull commutes.

I could leave the £1530 sports exhaust, though. The contrived fun of the grumbles that it emits on the overrun in Sport mode is outweighed by its overbearing constant-throttle volume, even in Normal mode, and the flat six – from its tractable bottom end, 4500rpm pickup and free-revving, howling upper reaches – already offers plenty of entertainment.

The Porsche is genuinely rapid when pushed, but power is dispatched with incredible composure thanks to the Sport Chrono pack’s vibration-quashing active transmission mounts and the assured deftness of the chassis.

PASM’s Sport mode gets knobbly on rippled B-roads, but even in Normal mode, the Cayman retains excellent body control and you can feed it through corners with huge confidence. Get over-exuberant with the throttle mid-corner and the torque vectoring brakes the inside rear wheel to keep the car turning, while the limited-slip diff produces very strong grip on the exit.

But the Porsche isn’t just at home on twisty roads – it’s pliant in town and calm on motorways, too. This is an extremely usable sports car.

The Gallardo’s gearbox is a delight for different reasons. Its open gate lets you gaze inside at the greased linkage and rings with every strike of the lever. It’s a delightful point of interaction with the charismatic 5.0-litre V10, which needs fewer revs to come on song than the Cayman’s six-pot and lets out a race-worthy scream towards its 7750rpm red line.

The approach of a corner initiates an indulgent sequence: lean on the powerful, ventilated discs, blip the skinny throttle pedal between downshift ‘clacks’ and a single ‘pop’ of sniper fire follows from the exhaust.

Roll is marginal and the four-wheel drive system lends a totally planted cornering stance. You can feed power in early, but the pace it produces is in a different league from the Cayman’s, so full throttle can’t be laid on with anything like the same abandon without triggering the traction control.

The firmness of the ride – which, on a bumpy road, affects comfort more than it does confidence – only highlights how well tuned the Cayman’s set-up is. But although we once reckoned that the Gallardo was short on steering feel, its hydraulically assisted helm is a veritable flibbertigibbet compared with the Cayman’s slick yet relatively monotonous electric set-up.

The Lamborghini is never quiet, but it’s no louder than the Porsche when cruising. And usability isn’t compromised: all-round visibility is surprisingly good, the turning circle usefully compact and the steering light when manoeuvring, although the boot is far too small to cope with extended trips.

Because of its age, the CO2-heavy Gallardo nevertheless costs the same in VED as the Cayman, at £285, but that’s where parity on running costs ends. Services are due annually or every 7500 miles for the Lambo, with one major for every two minors. BHP charges £1680 for the former, £600 for the latter.

The Porsche operates on two-year/20,000-mile intervals, which alternate between £480 and £610 at Porsche Centre Reading, and it uses less than half as much fuel.

The verdict

So which wins? The Cayman S is easily the more multi-talented and rounded proposition. But you could arguably retain the bulk of its most endearing skills by spending less than £40,000 on the entry-level model. If you’re buying for weekend thrills more than daily duties, though, it has to be the Gallardo.