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Payne: Screaming, GT3-powered Cayman GT4 RS achieves Porsche perfection
Posted by Talbot Payne on March 24, 2022
Streets of Willow Springs Raceway, California — When I was a kid, my buddies and I used to imagine the dream basketball player.
Sports car fans have played the same game with Porsche. What if you put the high-revving, 4.0-liter flat-6 engine from the 911 GT3 track weapon into the nimble mid-engine chassis of the Cayman?
Best player ever.
Ladies and gentlemen, the dream has been fulfilled. I give you the 2022 Cayman GT4 RS stuffed with the 911 GT3 engine. It puts an exclamation point at the end of an era — beginning in 2025, Caymans will be battery-powered.
Storming into Willow’s tricky double-apex Bowl turn, I’m at full throttle in fourth gear — the flat-6 wound out at 9,000 RPM, its spine-tingling aria tickling my eardrums like a Wagner opera. I stomp on the brakes across the first apex, the big 16-inch brakes grabbing, the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires sticking. Dual-clutch transmission snaps off rapid-fire downshifts. Cayman drifts up the banking, then rotates left on a dime and I’m flat on the throttle again as the mid-engine chassis drifts beautifully across the apex and on to its next corner conquest.
Folks often ask: What is my favorite car? Were price no object, my stock answer is the $300,000 McLaren 720S. Its combination of beauty, mid-engine balance and twin-turbo V-8 is a visceral delight.
The Cayman checks all the same boxes for $143,000. Despite a lackluster design for its first-gen Cayman (and topless Cayman sibling), Porsche has evolved its entry-level, last-generation, gas-powered sports car into a pleasing shape to rival the 911 in timeless appeal.
I’ve been a mid-engine racer all my life, and the GT4 RS (rough German translation: RS stands for “racing fun”) fit me like a glove. Add an IMSA-like swan-neck wing and aggressive 19-inch wheels, and GT4 RS gets its sinister on.
The Detroit News was one of the first journalistic outlets to get behind the wheel of the GT4 RS (deliveries coming this summer). It was also my first taste of the Streets of Willow course.
So natural did the Cayman feel in my hands that within a lap I could give full attention to learning the course. The RS exhibited no excessive push, no rear grip issues, no transmission hiccups. I pointed it where I wanted to go and it followed. When I pushed too hard, the rear stepped out — and minimal steering pulled it back in. No drama, no gray hairs.
But like the McLaren 720S, it’s the engine that makes this car special. And makes purists nervous about the coming silent EV age.
I flogged the same mill last fall at Road Atlanta in the Porsche 911 GT3, its 500-horse 9,100 RPM redline an addictive drug. Porsche turns the engine around in the GT4 RS, adds different exhaust plumbing and extracts 493 horsepower.
I chased Patrick Long, Porsche hot shoe and one of the best sports car drivers in the world, in a 640-horsepower Turbo S. The S would squirt away under power, the GT4 hauling it back through the twisties. We turned ridiculous 1:20-minute laps — not far from the 911 GT3 track record. On the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife, the GT4 RS clocked a staggering 7:04-minute lap — just nine seconds slower than 911 GT3, and better than GT4 by 23.6 seconds.
You want to hear the engine’s siren song all day — it’s a reminder the flat-6 is the natural sound for the Cayman, unlike the much lamented turbo flat-4 that comes with the base Cayman. It makes a sound satisfying only to environmental agency nags.
Pity the flat-6 can’t be had until you lay out $100K for the GT4. The RS brings a $20K premium over the standard GT4.
I’ve been down the dream Porsche road before. Years ago, I bought Porsche’s entry-level 944 ($22,000 at the time, $55,000 in today’s dollars) — then stuffed it with the Porsche 968’s 3.0-liter, 237-horse mill, the most powerful 4-banger the Stuttgart brand made. Engine + conversion set me back 30 grand (in today’s dollars) for a total, inflation-adjusted cost of $85,000.
That’s a more accessible price, and — as it happens — is about the same cost as a new 495-horse V-8, mid-engine Corvette with track package at $85K — nearly half the GT3 RS price! Of course, Corvette’s 30,000 sales unit volume brings advantages over the Cayman’s 3,000-unit production.
That said, the 911 RS engine requires serious, expensive upgrades of the Cayman body. To feed the beast within, the rear windows have been remade as air intakes. The lower rocker panels are refashioned to let more air into the side intake. Front panels have been remade with carbon fiber, then punctured vents and airfoils to redirect air over the hood, through the wheel wells, to suck it to the ground.
It’s a barely disguised race car (in race livery it debuted with a dominating win at the Michelin Pilot Challenge GT4 race at Daytona in January), and its natural habitat is the track. Don’t buy it if you don’t track it. You’ll never know how good it is.
For those with $140K in their pocket, they may prefer the faster GT3 for $20K more. But for those seeking the dream of a 911 engine and Cayman handling, the GT4 RS is your athlete. It sets a high bar for the coming EV age.
2022 Porsche Cayman GT4 RS
Vehicle type: Mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, two-passenger sports car
Price: $143,050, including $1,350 destination fee ($162,600 Racing Yellow and $195,190 Arctic Gray with Weissach package as tested)
Powerplant: 4.0-liter flat-6 cylinder
Power: 493 horsepower, 331 pound-feet of torque
Transmission: 7-speed automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph 3.2 sec. (mfr.); top speed, 196 mph
Weight: 3,227 pounds
Fuel economy: EPA, 15 mpg city/20 highway/17 combined
Report card
Highs: Marriage of Cayman chassis, 911 power; flat-6 at 9,000 RPM
Lows: No manual; big sticker price
Overall: 4 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.