Photos by Tyler Clemmensen
Running errands in a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS sucks. And maybe that sounds like a no-duh-no-brainer to you, but we live in a world where people who buy hardcore sports cars and exotic supercars still expect some notion of daily-driver livability. I’ve seen more 911 GT3s at coffee shops than I have on race tracks.
The GT4 RS, however, refuses to make such concessions. It’s a bastion of brutality – a make-no-apologies sports car so hyper focused on all-out performance that it doesn’t care about things like sound deadening or ride comfort or cargo space. Adaptive cruise control? Please. The fact that this thing has automatic climate control is kind of a miracle.
Because of this, my sincere hope is that anyone who buys a GT4 RS won’t relegate it to weekend Cars & Coffee duty or simply ripping it between red lights in Santa Monica. This car begs for a race track – or at the very least, a sunny canyon road.
After all, Porsche put a ton of work into making this Cayman an absolute banger. The entire front-end structure is borrowed from the 911 Carrera 4S, which not only makes the GT4 RS more rigid, but means it’s the only Cayman that has an electronic front-end lift (a total must-have). The RS sits 1.2 inches lower to the ground than a base Cayman thanks to unique dampers and majorly stiffer spring rates. 245/35 front and 295/30 rear Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires wrap 20-inch centerlocking wheels, and you can even option super-duper-sticky Cup 2 Rs, but you have to get them from the dealer, not the factory. Legal mumbo-jumbo and all.
Big ducts are housed where the Cayman’s rear quarter windows once were, feeding cool air into the 4.0-liter naturally aspirated flat-6 engine. This is the same motor you’ll find in the 911 GT3 – and, coincidentally, the 911 GT3 Cup car – making 493 horsepower and 331 pound-feet of torque. More importantly, this flat-six will rev its heart out all the way to 9,000 rpm, and sweet holy Christmas, it’s a sound that’ll send shivers down your spine.
Above: Some of the things you get if you opt for the Weissach package: bare carbon-fiber hood; carbon-fiber rear-quarter-window intakes; bare carbon-fiber rear wing. Opting for the Weissach pack unlocks the ability to opt for the pricey yet lightweight magnesium wheels.
Porsche says the GT4 RS will run to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds, but quickly sprinting in a straight line is not what this car is all about. Instead, it’s the sheer amount of speed you can carry through a corner, the Cayman never once feeling loose or unstable. The Cup 2 tires give way to tiny bits of oversteer when provoked, but a small correction from the beautifully weighted steering snaps it all back in line. The more time you spend behind the wheel of the GT4 RS, the more it goads you on. Go faster. Brake later. Dive in now.
The Weissach pack also replaces the plastic intake box with a carbon-fiber one.
Carbon-ceramic brakes are optional, but the RS’ standard stoppers are still an upgrade over what you get on the base GT4. More impressively, all those scoops and vents give this car incredible aerodynamic prowess, and the big ol’ swan neck wing on the back keeps the back end firmly glued to the ground. Everything about this car is designed to make the otherwise brilliant Cayman GT4 even more aggressive. It’s borderline unhinged in the best way possible. Raw and raucous, it’s a car that only seeks to thrill.
Opt for the $13,250 Weissach package and the GT4 RS gets even better, simply through the addition of $15,640 magnesium wheels – and the weight they take away. The difference might only be 22 pounds, but it’s unsprung mass, so it improves turn-in and increases feedback through the steering wheel. Yes, $28,890 sounds like an insane amount of money to pay for a package on an already razor-sharp car, but when the GT4 RS originally launched, Porsche told me 95% of its pre-orders checked the Weissach option, with 80% of those picking magnesium wheels. Money talks.
In every tangible facet, the GT4 RS is the ultimate expression of what a Cayman can be. That is, this car never feels like it’s holding back, like it’s muting any part of its most insane experience for the sake of accommodating your daily-driving needs. Does that make it rough to drive in traffic or while slogging through the city? Definitely. But attempting to use this as your Starbucks runner is to miss the point completely. Porsche pulled out all the stops to make this Cayman a real firecracker, and to not exploit its capabilities as often as possible would be a damn shame.
Is it cheap? Of course not – you can’t get into a GT4 RS for less than $163,650, including $1,650 for destination. But no one’s rationalizing the purchase of a Cayman GT4 RS. They’re paying for an experience unlike any other, and man oh man, the RS more than delivers.
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