I ordered the GuruRack hidden hitch pre-mounted in a used bumper (supplied by the business owner, Oliver) and swapped it out for my own. The end result is great...I've gotten tail happy with the bike on the back and have no problem cruising at 80 mph. It takes no time at all to mount the rack and attach the bike, and you'd never know there was a hitch hiding behind the license plate. 🔥
Installing the winner (GuruRack hidden hitch + OneUp rack)
I bought a GuruRack hidden hitch from http://www.gururack.com/ for $700, plus another $200 core charge for the used 981 bumper it came in. I installed via these steps: 1) Remove bumper cover 2 Cut a rectangular hole in it 3) Swap bumpers 4) Replace bumper cover 5) Instal license plate slide mechanism It was pretty easy, and I was already taking the bumper cover off for another project anyway (PSE retrofit + backup camera install) anway. I shipped my old bumper back and got the core charge refunded. The business owner claims you can also use this hitch to tow a tiny tire trailer for track use.
The bumper with hidden hitch as delivered to me.
After moving the heat shield and brace to the new bumper.
All done, licence plate is spring loaded so you must hold it down (I prop it open temporarily with the allen wrench I use to tighten the OneUp rack in the receiver).
Bumper cover and bumper removed.
Closed position...you'd never know there's a hitch behind the plate!
Before removing the bumper.
Other rack options (or so I thought)
Before buying my Porsche Cayman, I identified three options for hauling my mountain bike with it. Feeling confident it was possible, I sold my BMW 335i (where the bike fit inside the trunk with the rear seats folded down). It was only after buying the Porsche that I realized two of those the three options wouldn't work, but fortunately that left the GuruRack as the winner.
I bought a used SeaSucker rack on eBay for $200 hoping this would be an easy and inexpensive solution. However, when I mounted it and my bike on top of the car, gently rocking the bike side to side flexed the roof sheet metal a lot. This and the risk of dropping the bike on the car when attaching it to the rack immediately made me abandon this idea.
For $577 total, this Bird Automotive rack seemed like an OK option, but not ideal as the the bike would have to be carefully lashed to the rack to avoid movement. In the end it didn't matter because the business owner retired and stopped selling the product.
How I used to transport my mountain bike in my old BMW. Worked great, but clearly not possible in the Cayman.