
Robb Review: Porsche Cayman GT4 RS
‘Baby brother’ has grown up. Get behind the wheel of the most powerful and hardcore Cayman ever produced.
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It seems absurd, or perhaps just ignorant, to suggest that there is a better sports car your sub-supercar money could buy than the Porsche 911, but it seems simply sacrilegious to suggest that the vehicle in question also wears the famous Stuttgart badge.
But the fact is, to drive the new Porsche Cayman GT4 RS is to want one, and after a few brilliant, ballistic days spent in it Robb Report was willing to whisper the blasphemous thought that it might be an even better thing than its bigger, more famous brother.
The Cayman has recently been New Zealand to the 911’s Australia, belittled by its slightly rubbish-sounding four-cylinder engines, but the GT4 RS gets a very special heart transplant — taking the 4.0-litre, naturally aspirated six-cylinder purist’s power plant from the 911, with all of its glorious 368kW and 450Nm.
While that engine hangs out over the tail of the wider, larger and heavier 911, in the Cayman it sits right in the middle of the vehicle, and right behind your ears, with seemingly nothing between your left shoulder and its supra-wolf metallic howl.
That mid-engined balance means that, particularly on a track but even just on your favourite bit of winding road, the GT4 Rs feels just a little bit more… perfect. The balance is just so right, the power-to-weight ratio so kidney-punchingly brutal and the steering so Samurai sharp that it makes you feel almost nakedly connected to the driving experience. It’s the car equivalent of a high-speed luge ride.
You’ll find yourself smashing your way to 100km/h in just 3.4 seconds, but stretch its wiling engine towards its 9000rpm redline and you’ll quickly leave that pedestrian speed behind, and you’ll be tempted to do this constantly as the noises it makes as the revs rise beyond 5000rpm are simply irresistible.
The car this monster was built on, the Cayman GT4, was quite something, but the RS version is such a track-focused leap ahead that it is an incredible 23 seconds a lap faster around the legendary and much-mentioned Nurburgring.
If you have the $300,800 spare, then, is there any reason why you wouldn’t buy one? Well, its heavily carbonified construction is on the stiff side, the ride can be a bit bone rattling at times and, day to day, you’d be far more comfortable in a 911.
And so the answer is obvious – you need a Cayman GT4 RS, and a Porsche 911.
Sorted.
Available now; porsche.com.au
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