As soon as reserved for die-hard fanatics prepared to place up with excessive entry prices, partake in costly racing occasions, and sustain with dear upkeep charges, the track-capable sports activities automotive has gone mainstream. Opposite to what logic might counsel, it appears the extra hardcore a given mannequin now turns into, the extra individuals are drawn to it, its value mattering little so long as it’s capable of ship an exciting expertise.
The ubiquity of Porsche’s membership racers for the highway and the huge enlargement of its GT automobiles over the past decade starkly distinction rising business tendencies. Searching for luxurious versatility, efficiency automobiles have usually turn out to be heavier, overly remoted, and thus much less dynamically thrilling, whatever the mind-boggling efficiency stats they will ship. Observe-capable sports activities automobiles, just like the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS, now thrive due to a rising counter-culture, a nook of the car-buying public that seeks the sense of event solely a shrinking variety of sports activities automobiles provide.
The driving drive fueling the widening enchantment of those loud, agency, and infrequently compromised machines facilities solely round this rarified expertise behind the wheel. Who cares about suspension harshness or noise isolation if you’ve obtained a 9,000-rpm naturally aspirated wailing flat-six seemingly bolted to your proper foot?
Nevertheless, as these track-day specials turn out to be much more hardcore with every new technology, they fall into an sudden catch-22. What good is a sports activities automotive if it might probably solely ship tantalizing thrills at speeds unachievable on public roads? Can a Porsche GT automotive succeed if it solely affords these sought-after thrills on the precise highway underneath preferrred situations? These extremely centered sports activities automobiles, which, let’s face it, will spend most of their time on the road, need to strike an ideal stability between providing efficiency apt for the monitor whereas delivering a driving expertise that’s nonetheless thrilling at slower speeds.
This brings us proper again to the aforementioned Porsche 718 Cayman, which, any longer, I’ll seek advice from primarily because the GT4 RS. After every week on the highway, I’m satisfied it is without doubt one of the few remaining automobiles capable of stroll this tightrope. Attributable to constricting emissions laws, automobiles like it should quickly vanish eternally, changed by faster however almost certainly heavier, muted EVs. Nevertheless, from the second you compromise into its fixed-back carbon fiber bucket seats, twist its key left of the steering wheel, and ignite its 911 GT3-sourced 4.0-liter flat-six, you get a way that because the GT4 RS will get able to bow out, it’s retiring on the high of its recreation.
Though barely detuned to 493 horsepower and 331 pound-feet of torque, 9 horses shy of the GT3’s 502-hp determine, the GT4 RS counters the loss with a decreased curb weight determine of three,227 kilos. Achieved primarily by means of composite supplies, it sports activities a carbon fiber hood and entrance fenders as normal. In complete, it’s 49-lb lighter than a PDK-equipped GT4.
Nevertheless, this automotive is virtually outlined by its aerodynamic goodies. An adjustable entrance splitter balances out a configurable swan-neck spoiler, a là 992 GT3, which generate as much as 220 lb of downforce at 125 mph mixed. Go for the $13,250 Weissach Bundle, and its entrance trunk lid, facet air intakes, facet view mirrors, and rear wing will commerce a boring plastic end for an uncovered shiny carbon weave.
The RS continues its components borrowing by mirroring the 991.2 GT3 RS’ gear ratios whereas inheriting the 991.2 GT3’s limited-slip differential. Even its dual-mass flywheel comes from the GT4 Clubsport. Though it lacks a guide possibility just like the GT4, Porsche particularly developed its seven-speed dual-clutch, permitting for a 3.2-second dash to 60 mph, a ten.9-second sprint to 124 mph, and a 196 mph high velocity.
Moreover, the GT4 RS is structurally completely different from an ordinary 718 Cayman. Its entrance finish comes from the 991 Carrera 4S, whereas it retains the bolstered spring towers launched for its GT4 and Spyder siblings. As such, it’s now inflexible sufficient to supply a front-axle raise system; a should given how far its entrance splitter extends. Its elevated structural rigidity pairs with a novel set of dampers and a bigger set of ordinary metal brakes, though my tester wears an $8,000 set of carbon-ceramic stoppers.
Extra spectacular than the size of its gear checklist is how these cherry-picked components nonetheless handle to return collectively to ship a memorable driving expertise. It takes seconds behind the wheel for the GT4 RS to rapidly remind you of how mild and small it’s, particularly by trendy requirements. Sliding into its carbon bucket seats, you sit low, deep in its chassis, along with your again virtually completely upright and parallel to its small buttonless steering wheel.
On account of this decrease seating place, paired with a decreased sound deadening, a extra inflexible chassis, and crucially firmed-up dampers, the GT4 RS overwhelms the senses with suggestions. It consistently communicates even minute particulars of the highway floor beneath whereas precisely indicating the obtainable grip. At velocity, you possibly can even really feel the small rocks flying up from its sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber and bouncing off its bodywork.
Nevertheless, so far as theatrics go, nothing compares to the wailing sound of its raspy, high-revving, naturally aspirated flat-six. It’s as if its intakes are bolted to the again of your cranium as a result of they virtually are. As its six impartial throttle our bodies open and the revs climb, you get a real crescendo whose pitch heightens till its quantity instantly spikes as you cross 8,000 rpm.
It’s as if the numerous bolts and studs holding this 4.0-liter engine collectively get able to explode as you max out at 9,000 rpm, click on the precise paddle, and do all of it once more. Though a quick-shifting PDK transmission is nothing new, its intently spaced gears imply you possibly can sit on the very high of the rev vary effortlessly as your ears ring and your mind melts from the frenzy of noise. Though the GT4 RS isn’t the one borderline painfully loud automotive on sale, as a result of proximity of its intakes, gasping for air simply behind your seat, it’s as if the air is dashing by your head and into the engine. There’s genuinely nothing else prefer it.
Like most high-downforce automobiles, diving right into a nook within the GT4 RS requires a mixture of talent and religion. Drive it cautiously, and also you received’t correctly warmth its Cup 2 tires or move sufficient air over its entrance splitter, leading to undesirable push from the entrance finish. Nevertheless, decide to exploring its limits, and it’s fast to reply, supplying you with extra efficiency the faster you go.
On the correct velocity, its entrance grips up tremendously properly, which, because of this automotive’s mild curb weight determine, is all the time keen to alter course. With its large wing buttoning down the again, you possibly can lean into the throttle early, leading to increased nook exit speeds. Even underneath heavy braking, its carbon-ceramic brakes cease with great drive, and the RS stays completely balanced. It’s a automotive whose capabilities far exceed something you possibly can absolutely recognize on the road, but it surely doesn’t require ultra-high talent ranges to train and luxuriate in correctly.
Nevertheless, as with most track-prepped sports activities automobiles, a abandoned again highway or a finely paved circuit is the one place the GT4 RS desires to be. Though its characterful engine and feedback-rich chassis ship low-speed thrills, it’s depressing to cruise round in. Nevertheless, that is exactly the purpose: a automotive as centered as this may solely obtain the heights of efficiency it does by abandoning the frequent pattern of attempting to be all issues to all folks. It shines above most different efficiency machines, even these costing twice as a lot, by honing in on serving these particular targets.
Pricing is a sticky topic when protecting the GT4 RS and uncommon Porsche automobiles normally. For 2024, it begins at $163,650, together with a $1,650 supply and a $1,300 fuel guzzler payment. Due to choices like its $8,000 carbon-ceramic brakes, $3,040 front-axle raise system, and its $1,500 LED headlights, to call a number of, my tester is available in at $182,680. Nevertheless, as latest years have proven us, this on-paper value is virtually irrelevant, with most examples promoting means above this determine in each the brand new and used markets.
This huge demand, simply overcoming the comparatively low provide of those track-focused machines, is a transparent instance of their skyrocketing reputation. Though a good portion of the market views Porsche GT automobiles as very similar to blue-chip shares, a devoted sector understands that what really drives the worth of those automobiles is the expertise they will present.
Individuals are prepared to overpay for the GT4 RS and machines prefer it exactly due to the thrills it delivers and contemplating how good it’s. As laws make a direct successor virtually unimaginable, its enchantment will solely rise with time as folks clammer for automobiles from a soon-to-be-forgotten age of partaking and thrilling efficiency.
