{"id":28950,"date":"2022-03-24T11:07:17","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T15:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=28950"},"modified":"2022-03-24T11:07:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T15:07:17","slug":"payne-screaming-gt3-powered-cayman-gt4-rs-achieves-porsche-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/payne-screaming-gt3-powered-cayman-gt4-rs-achieves-porsche-perfection","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Screaming, GT3-powered Cayman GT4 RS achieves Porsche perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Streets of Willow Springs Raceway, California<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 When I was a kid, my buddies and I used to imagine the dream basketball player.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0mid-engine chassis of the Cayman?<\/p>\n

Best player ever.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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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 \u2014 beginning in 2025, Caymans will be battery-powered.<\/p>\n

Storming into Willow\u2019s tricky\u00a0double-apex Bowl turn, I\u2019m at full throttle in fourth gear \u2014 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\u00a016-inch brakes grabbing,\u00a0the 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\u2019m flat on the throttle again as the mid-engine chassis drifts beautifully across the apex and on to its next corner conquest.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0and twin-turbo V-8 is a visceral delight.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
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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,\u00a0last-generation, gas-powered sports car into a pleasing shape to rival the 911 in timeless appeal.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been a mid-engine racer all my life, and the GT4 RS (rough German translation: RS stands for \u201cracing fun\u201d) fit me like a glove. Add an IMSA-like\u00a0swan-neck wing and aggressive\u00a019-inch wheels, and GT4 RS gets its sinister on.<\/p>\n

\"Detroit<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n

So natural did the Cayman feel in my hands that within a lap I could give\u00a0full 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 \u2014 and minimal steering pulled it back in. No drama, no gray hairs.<\/p>\n

But like the McLaren 720S, it\u2019s the engine that makes this car special. And makes purists nervous about the coming\u00a0silent EV age.<\/p>\n

I flogged the same mill last fall at Road Atlanta in the Porsche 911 GT3, its 500-horse\u00a09,100 RPM redline an addictive drug. Porsche turns the engine around in the GT4 RS, adds different exhaust plumbing\u00a0and extracts 493 horsepower.<\/p>\n