As soon as reserved for die-hard fans prepared to place up with excessive entry prices, partake in costly racing occasions, and sustain with dear upkeep charges, the track-capable sports activities automobile has gone mainstream. Opposite to what logic could recommend, it appears the extra hardcore a given mannequin now turns into, the extra individuals are drawn to it, its worth mattering little so long as it’s capable of ship an exhilarating expertise.
The ubiquity of Porsche’s membership racers for the highway and the huge growth of its GT vehicles over the past decade starkly distinction rising business tendencies. In the hunt for luxurious versatility, efficiency vehicles have usually grow to be heavier, overly remoted, and thus much less dynamically thrilling, whatever the mind-boggling efficiency stats they’ll ship. Monitor-capable sports activities vehicles, 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 vehicles supply.
The driving power fueling the widening attraction of those loud, agency, and sometimes compromised machines facilities solely round this rarified expertise behind the wheel. Who cares about suspension harshness or noise isolation whenever you’ve bought a 9,000-rpm naturally aspirated wailing flat-six seemingly bolted to your proper foot?
Nevertheless, as these track-day specials grow to be much more hardcore with every new era, they fall into an sudden catch-22. What good is a sports activities automobile if it could solely ship tantalizing thrills at speeds unachievable on public roads? Can a Porsche GT automobile succeed if it solely gives these sought-after thrills on the precise highway underneath very best situations? These extremely centered sports activities vehicles, which, let’s face it, will spend most of their time on the road, must strike an ideal steadiness 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 likely one of the few remaining vehicles capable of stroll this tightrope. Attributable to constricting emissions laws, vehicles like it would quickly vanish eternally, changed by faster however most definitely heavier, muted EVs. Nevertheless, from the second you agree 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 sport.
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 composite supplies, it sports activities a carbon fiber hood and entrance fenders as commonplace. In complete, it’s 49-lb lighter than a PDK-equipped GT4.
Nevertheless, this automobile 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 Package deal, and its entrance trunk lid, aspect air intakes, aspect view mirrors, and rear wing will commerce a uninteresting plastic end for an uncovered shiny carbon weave.
The RS continues its elements 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 handbook choice 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 singular 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 listing is how these cherry-picked elements nonetheless handle to come back collectively to ship a memorable driving expertise. It takes seconds behind the wheel for the GT4 RS to rapidly remind you of how gentle and small it’s, particularly by fashionable requirements. Sliding into its carbon bucket seats, you sit low, deep in its chassis, along with your again nearly completely upright and parallel to its small buttonless steering wheel.
Because 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 continually communicates even minute particulars of the highway floor under whereas precisely indicating the out there 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 unbiased throttle our bodies open and the revs climb, you get a real crescendo whose pitch heightens till its quantity all of the sudden 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 carefully 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 push of noise. Though the GT4 RS isn’t the one borderline painfully loud automobile on sale, because of the proximity of its intakes, gasping for air simply behind your seat, it’s as if the air is speeding by your head and into the engine. There’s genuinely nothing else prefer it.
Like most high-downforce vehicles, diving right into a nook within the GT4 RS requires a mixture of ability and religion. Drive it cautiously, and also you gained’t correctly warmth its Cup 2 tires or circulate 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, providing you with extra efficiency the faster you go.
On the correct velocity, its entrance grips up tremendously properly, which, because of this automobile’s gentle curb weight determine, is at all times 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 large power, and the RS stays completely balanced. It’s a automobile whose capabilities far exceed something you possibly can totally recognize on the road, nevertheless it doesn’t require ultra-high ability ranges to train and revel in correctly.
Nevertheless, as with most track-prepped sports activities vehicles, a abandoned again highway or a finely paved circuit is the one place the GT4 RS needs 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 automobile as centered as this could solely obtain the heights of efficiency it does by abandoning the widespread pattern of attempting to be all issues to all individuals. 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 overlaying the GT4 RS and uncommon Porsche vehicles normally. For 2024, it begins at $163,650, together with a $1,650 supply and a $1,300 fuel guzzler charge. Because of 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 current years have proven us, this on-paper worth 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 recognition. Though a good portion of the market views Porsche GT vehicles as very like blue-chip shares, a devoted sector understands that what really drives the worth of those vehicles is the expertise they’ll 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 attraction will solely rise with time as individuals clammer for vehicles from a soon-to-be-forgotten age of participating and thrilling efficiency.
