LuxuryCarMagazine En Luxury Car Review and News
Just when you thought the Porsche Cayman couldn’t get any better after the addition of the GTS model, Porsche, never one to rest on its laurels, has upped the ante one again.
The new top-spec Cayman is called the GT4, and if those first two letters after “Porsche” in the model name look familiar to you, well, that’s what Porsche was going for.
The GT4’s brake system is lifted directly from the GT3 supercar (and can be upgraded with carbon-ceramic rotors), and for the first time, a Cayman gets the most powerful of Porsche’s naturally-aspirated engines: a 3.8-litre unit shared with the 911 Carrera S, good for 385 hp—the Cayman GTS’ 340 hp looks a little tame, now, doesn’t it?
Those wings and air inlets you see? All functional, and developed specifically with aerodynamics in mind, which is another allusion to the GT3. Incidentally, all of this helps the Cayman GT4 achieve a better lap time around the daunting Nürburgring Nordschleife race track in Germany than did the previous-generation GT3. That’s some pretty special stuff, and it once again shows the Cayman is really coming of age in the Porsche world; no longer does it have to play second-fiddle to the 911 flagship models.
Plus, it just looks so fantastic. Since they don’t’ have to stuff the flat-6 engine behind the rear axle, the rear end is decidedly less lumpen than that of a 911. At the same time, however, the Cayman GT4 manages to hide the fact that it’s mid-engined as well, looking more like a front-engined GT car. Fantastic.
Inside, the GT4 gets a new sport steering wheel and fixed bucket seats for the driver and front passenger; don’t be surprised if these are the carbon-fibre items that Euro-spec Cayman GTS models got, and North American ones didn’t.
The Cayman GT4 will be available soon, starting at $96,500.
