Well, after much discussing, looking, more discussing, more looking, saving money, more discussing, more looking, I finally picked up a Cayman S (2007 with 62k miles).
I know understand the heaps of praise the car mags have for this car. VERY nice and a good addition to the 993 and 914! (Now to use my excess energy to worry and consider next steps related IMS bearing)

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Here is my 914 (the orange one) at a recent autocross.
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One of my 993 at VIR under heavy braking! With the rise of 993 values, It looks like the Cayman will take the 993s place at the track.
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Nice lookin' Cayman. I like that blue. Lots of luck with it.

Congrats!

My daily driver is a 2009 Cayman. 90k miles and just as fun as when it was new. Interesting also to see how the 914 really feels related, right?

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Beautiful car!!!

I have a 2007 Cayman also. Love it. Still feels like a brand new car when driving it.

Don't you need to disassemble the engine to change out the IMS on that year?

Nice looking Caymans! Yes, there is more than just a family resemblance to the 914!! As for the IMS, I am very interested in details as I was not aware that the 2007 had anything specific to disassembling the entire motor for it, but am learning more each day.

Yes, it is correct that the 987 engines require full disassembly for the IMS replacement.
SO, that means I run the engine until it dies...

Welcome to the Club.

Great looking car and color! Best of luck!!

Great car!

I'm on my third Cayman, and never had a serious problem with any of them (each new one was an upgrade from the previous). They're all a helluva lot of fun to drive on track, and don't require significant mods until you really start going fast.

Sweet car. It is a shame that Porsche never stepped up and took responsibility for the IMS engineering defect. I read elsewhere that the IMS is called "the revenge of the 99%".

The Cayman is my next Porsche! I'm getting tired of 40 year sports cars. :-)

I think you can install one of those Direct Oil Feed bearing covers on a 2007. It puts an oil line directly into the IMS bearing keeping it lubricated with fresh oil all the time.

(Note: I have no direct experience with this product. I just heard about it when I was research some stuff and came across this video on youtube):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzUq2DFpeKw

Interesting, but I think I had to do a full disassembly on the motor to put the feed line in properly so I am back to a full tear down anyway.

I did some looking for used Cayman S motors and they are about $12k, without any papers of condition and just a simple warrantee.

SO, I guess it is time to just drive it and worry later.

THat is a beautiful car! NICE!