Driven: The Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS. This Or A 911 GT3?

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In late 2021 Porsche introduced it had lastly executed the bodily engine swap we’d all been wrenching on mentally for what appeared like without end. It dropped a real 911 GT3 engine right into a Cayman to create the 718 GT4 RS, the quickest, strongest manufacturing Cayman ever constructed, and in addition the costliest by some margin.

The Cayman GT4 RS prices $149,100 / £113,700 and there are a few methods of dealing with that bit if information. You may have a look at it and suppose that it seems nice worth for an RS Porsche, provided that the brand new 911 GT3 RS prices a hefty $223,800 / £178,500. But you may also suppose it appears costly compared with the common Cayman GT4 ($106,500 / £81,700). And you may need additionally found out that for not far more than a inventory GT4 RS, or for a similar cash as one plus a few of the fancy choices many homeowners will add, you might have a 911 GT3 ($169,700 / £135,700).

The base 911 GT3 may not have these legendary RS letters after its title, nevertheless it’s a 911 and a GT3, and meaning it carries big kudos. It additionally has a handbook transmission choice denied GT4 RS consumers as a result of Porsche couldn’t make the 911’s field match within the Cayman’s shell, and the common GT4’s handbook had the incorrect ratios and couldn’t hack the loopy 9,000 rpm redline.

Why does it value 40 % greater than a GT4?

Yeah, what in regards to the common GT4? It’s an ideal automobile in its personal proper, prices an enormous $42,600 lower than the RS and might be ordered with a handbook field. But it doesn’t have the RS’s trick suspension elements, its super-short gearing and it doesn’t include the GT3 motor, it’s 4.0-liter six being derived from the common 911’s engine and delivering 79 fewer horses and working out of revs at 8,000 rpm. I do know, 8k. It’s virtually a diesel. Most of all although, it doesn’t have the noise. Not even the 911 GT3 makes a noise just like the Cayman GT4 RS.

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Not even hypercars sound this foolish

Loud exhausts are thrilling, however after I consider a few of the greatest automobiles noises I’ve skilled kind the motive force’s seat over time, it’s been those with the nice induction sound which have stayed with me: the E46 BMW M3 CSL and its carbon airbox, the McLaren F1; yeah, even the ratty 1380cc Mini I had a as a child with a giant Weber 45 carb poking by the dashboard into passenger area.

And now the 718 Cayman GT4 RS. The common GT4 sounds fairly fruity, however for the RS Porsche didn’t solely drop within the GT3’s engine however opted to attract air for the flat-six by the world that’s usually occupied by rear-quarter home windows, and down into an airbox situated contained in the cabin proper behind your head. No kidding, the primary time you crack the throttle open on a GT4 RS, you’ll swear the automobile is damaged. I imply, it might’t actually be this loud, this uncooked, can it? Sure, you may come throughout a loopy automobile modified by the aftermarket with a customized inlet that sounds brutal, however we’re speaking right here a couple of large, wise OEM that sells 300,000 automobiles a 12 months and has simply hit the inventory market. It’s thoughts blowing that one thing that sounds as wild because the GT4 RS obtained signed off. And I completely need to kiss whoever put pen to paper to make it occur.

Fortunately in your sanity, and your eardrums, the RS truly cruises comparatively quietly, however put some load into the engine and it strikes from a growl to a scream that’s quickly blended in with howls of laughter from the grinning idiot behind the wheel. The sound adjustments in tone and quantity relying the place you might be within the rev vary, and since this engine picks up and discards revs just like the flywheel is made out of polystyrene, the soundscape is continually shifting.

No handbook, however PDK is an ideal match

Equally snappy are the adjustments from the obligatory PDK paddle-shift transmission, each up and down by the ratios. Sure, it will have been good to have a handbook choice, however the PDK is such an ideal gearbox and fits the GT4 RS motor so nicely, it’s laborious to not have enjoyable, particularly because you get a correct lever to rock again and ahead to swap gears as a substitute for the paddles.

The RS’s chassis misses out on some key {hardware} that you simply’ll discover in a GT3, together with the e-diff, double wishbone front-end and rear-axle steering. The rear-engined automobile has noticeably higher traction and I’m not satisfied that the GT4 RS’s steering is as communicative because the GT3’s, although it’s nice by most some other yardstick, and perhaps that’s partly all the way down to the wishbones. But the opposite tools isn’t missed. The rear-engined 911 makes use of methods just like the e-diff and rear-steering to assist it flip into corners, however the 718 doesn’t want any assist as a result of its engine is within the center so it already loves to vary path and has an beautiful stability. It’s additionally noticeably smaller than the 911 (4.6-in / 115 mm shorter; 1.2-in / 30 mm narrower), and that conjures up actual confidence when firing down narrower roads.

Related: The 2022 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport Is A $229k Toy Reserved For The Track

GT3 engine means GT3-matching acceleration

In phrases of efficiency, there’s virtually nothing in it. The 911 GT3 makes 502 hp (510 PS) to the GT4 RS’s 493 hp (500 PS), which Porsche says is all the way down to the Cayman’s mid-engined structure requiring a extra convoluted exhaust path, somewhat than an try to peg the little man again. But evaluating the PDK variations of every, the three,120 lbs (1,415 kg) GT4 RS’s 44 lbs (20 kg) weight benefit cancels out the facility deficit. Both hit 60 mph (97 km/h) in 3.2 seconds and the 197 mph (317 km/h) 911 holds a minuscule 1 mph (0.6 km/h) benefit on the prime finish.

Which appears higher? We’ll depart that as much as you nevertheless it’s price highlighting that your legendary no-options $149k GT4 RS doesn’t look something just like the one in these photos. The UK press automobile I drove was outfitted with the $13,250 / £11,186 Weissach bundle that replaces the inventory hood, rear-quarter air consumption surrounds, decrease rear-quarter air consumption surrounds and rear wing with carbon variations of the identical.

The Weissach choice additionally provides a titanium roll cage, six-point harnesses, a carbon airbox behind your head and varied “Weissach Package” logos, plus it unlocks the provision of a set of 20-inch magnesium wheels that prevent 22 lbs (10 kg) of unsprung mass, however will value you an extra $15,640 / £10,521.

I’d fortunately dwell with out all of that stuff. Yeah, I’m positive the flamboyant wheels most likely contribute a bit of to the 23.6-second benefit the RS (7:04.511) has over the plain GT4 on the Nurburgring (the 911 GT3 is 9 seconds sooner once more). But I wager the non-Weissach GT4 RS drives very almost as nicely on the highway, sounds precisely the identical, and probably appears higher if you happen to’re the type of one that finds all that uncovered carbon a bit of too vulgar, or just not stealthy sufficient. Check out the grabs of the white automobile from Porsche’s on-line configurator (above) to see what a inventory RS appears like. Still fairly cool, proper?

So, 911 GT3 or GT4 RS? Some folks nonetheless get a bit snooty about Porsche’ mid-engined automobiles, mechanically assuming that the 911 have to be higher. Walter Röhrl isn’t one. He as soon as informed me that introduced with a twisty highway and keys to a Cayman and 911 he’d take the Cayman “every time.” On this event, I’m with Walter. I’ve cherished driving each the present 911 GT3 and Cayman GT4 RS and cherished each, however the compact dimensions, mid-engined stability and sense of cheeky playfulness, the traditional analogue dials and above all that induction noise seals the win for the Cayman for me.

Fifty years sooner or later when your grandkids ask you why on earth we nonetheless drove soiled combustion automobiles within the 2020s when sporty EVs have been already on the scene, that is precisely the type of automobile you’d wheel out and lightweight as much as make them perceive. Their ears gained’t know what’s hit them.