In late 2021 Porsche introduced it had lastly completed the bodily engine swap we’d all been wrenching on mentally for what appeared like eternally. It dropped a real 911 GT3 engine right into a Cayman to create the 718 GT4 RS, the quickest, strongest manufacturing Cayman ever constructed, and in addition the costliest by some margin.

The Cayman GT4 RS prices $149,100 / £113,700 and there are a few methods of dealing with that bit if information. You may have a look at it and suppose that it seems nice worth for an RS Porsche, provided that the brand new 911 GT3 RS prices a hefty $223,800 / £178,500. However you may additionally suppose it appears costly as compared with the common Cayman GT4 ($106,500 / £81,700). And also you might need additionally found out that for not far more than a inventory GT4 RS, or for a similar cash as one plus a few of the fancy choices many homeowners will add, you can have a 911 GT3 ($169,700 / £135,700).

The bottom 911 GT3 won’t have these legendary RS letters after its title, however it’s a 911 and a GT3, and meaning it carries big kudos. It additionally has a handbook transmission possibility denied GT4 RS patrons as a result of Porsche couldn’t make the 911’s field match within the Cayman’s shell, and the common GT4’s handbook had the mistaken ratios and couldn’t hack the loopy 9,000 rpm redline.

Why does it price 40 p.c greater than a GT4?

Yeah, what in regards to the common GT4? It’s an excellent automotive in its personal proper, prices a large $42,600 lower than the RS and might be ordered with a handbook field. However it doesn’t have the RS’s trick suspension elements, its super-short gearing and it doesn’t include the GT3 motor, it’s 4.0-liter six being derived from the common 911’s engine and delivering 79 fewer horses and working out of revs at 8,000 rpm. I do know, 8k. It’s virtually a diesel. Most of all although, it doesn’t have the noise. Not even the 911 GT3 makes a noise just like the Cayman GT4 RS.

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Not even hypercars sound this foolish

Loud exhausts are thrilling, however once I consider a few of the finest automobiles noises I’ve skilled kind the driving force’s seat through the years, it’s been those with the nice induction sound which have stayed with me: the E46 BMW M3 CSL and its carbon airbox, the McLaren F1; yeah, even the ratty 1380cc Mini I had a as a child with an enormous Weber 45 carb poking by the dashboard into passenger house.

And now the 718 Cayman GT4 RS. The common GT4 sounds fairly fruity, however for the RS Porsche didn’t solely drop within the GT3’s engine however opted to attract air for the flat-six by the world that’s usually occupied by rear-quarter home windows, and down into an airbox positioned contained in the cabin proper behind your head. No kidding, the primary time you crack the throttle open on a GT4 RS, you’ll swear the automotive is damaged. I imply, it may well’t actually be this loud, this uncooked, can it? Positive, you may come throughout a loopy automotive modified by the aftermarket with a customized inlet that sounds brutal, however we’re speaking right here a couple of huge, smart OEM that sells 300,000 automobiles a yr and has simply hit the inventory market. It’s thoughts blowing that one thing that sounds as wild because the GT4 RS bought signed off. And I completely wish to kiss whoever put pen to paper to make it occur.

Happily on your sanity, and your eardrums, the RS truly cruises comparatively quietly, however put some load into the engine and it strikes from a growl to a scream that’s quickly blended in with howls of laughter from the grinning idiot behind the wheel. The sound modifications in tone and quantity relying the place you might be within the rev vary, and since this engine picks up and discards revs just like the flywheel is made out of polystyrene, the soundscape is consistently shifting.

No handbook, however PDK is an ideal match

Equally snappy are the modifications from the obligatory PDK paddle-shift transmission, each up and down by the ratios. Positive, it could have been good to have a handbook possibility, however the PDK is such an excellent gearbox and fits the GT4 RS motor so nicely, it’s exhausting to not have enjoyable, particularly because you get a correct lever to rock again and ahead to swap gears as a substitute for the paddles.

The RS’s chassis misses out on some key {hardware} that you simply’ll discover in a GT3, together with the e-diff, double wishbone front-end and rear-axle steering. The rear-engined automotive has noticeably higher traction and I’m not satisfied that the GT4 RS’s steering is as communicative because the GT3’s, although it’s nice by most another yardstick, and possibly that’s partly all the way down to the wishbones. However the different tools isn’t missed. The rear-engined 911 makes use of methods just like the e-diff and rear-steering to assist it flip into corners, however the 718 doesn’t want any assist as a result of its engine is within the center so it already loves to alter course and has an beautiful stability. It’s additionally noticeably smaller than the 911 (4.6-in / 115 mm shorter; 1.2-in / 30 mm narrower), and that conjures up actual confidence when firing down narrower roads.

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GT3 engine means GT3-matching acceleration

When it comes to efficiency, there’s nearly nothing in it. The 911 GT3 makes 502 hp (510 PS) to the GT4 RS’s 493 hp (500 PS), which Porsche says is all the way down to the Cayman’s mid-engined structure requiring a extra convoluted exhaust path, reasonably than an try and peg the little man again. However evaluating the PDK variations of every, the three,120 lbs (1,415 kg) GT4 RS’s 44 lbs (20 kg) weight benefit cancels out the ability deficit. Each hit 60 mph (97 km/h) in 3.2 seconds and the 197 mph (317 km/h) 911 holds a minuscule 1 mph (0.6 km/h) benefit on the high finish.

Which seems to be higher? We’ll go away that as much as you however it’s price highlighting that your legendary no-options $149k GT4 RS doesn’t look something just like the one in these photos. The UK press automotive I drove was outfitted with the $13,250 / £11,186 Weissach bundle that replaces the inventory hood, rear-quarter air consumption surrounds, decrease rear-quarter air consumption surrounds and rear wing with carbon variations of the identical.

The Weissach possibility additionally provides a titanium roll cage, six-point harnesses, a carbon airbox behind your head and numerous “Weissach Package deal” logos, plus it unlocks the provision of a set of 20-inch magnesium wheels that prevent 22 lbs (10 kg) of unsprung mass, however will price you an extra $15,640 / £10,521.

I’d fortunately dwell with out all of that stuff. Yeah, I’m certain the flowery wheels in all probability contribute somewhat to the 23.6-second benefit the RS (7:04.511) has over the plain GT4 on the Nurburgring (the 911 GT3 is 9 seconds quicker once more). However I guess the non-Weissach GT4 RS drives very almost as nicely on the street, sounds precisely the identical, and probably seems to be higher should you’re the type of one that finds all that uncovered carbon somewhat too vulgar, or just not stealthy sufficient. Take a look at the grabs of the white automotive from Porsche’s on-line configurator (above) to see what a inventory RS seems to be like. Nonetheless fairly cool, proper?

So, 911 GT3 or GT4 RS? Some individuals nonetheless get a bit snooty about Porsche’ mid-engined automobiles, robotically assuming that the 911 have to be higher. Walter Röhrl isn’t one. He as soon as instructed me that introduced with a twisty street and keys to a Cayman and 911 he’d take the Cayman “each time.” On this event, I’m with Walter. I’ve liked driving each the present 911 GT3 and Cayman GT4 RS and liked each, however the compact dimensions, mid-engined stability and sense of cheeky playfulness, the traditional analogue dials and above all that induction noise seals the win for the Cayman for me.

Fifty years sooner or later when your grandkids ask you why on earth we nonetheless drove soiled combustion automobiles within the 2020s when sporty EVs had been already on the scene, that is precisely the type of automotive you’d wheel out and lightweight as much as make them perceive. Their ears received’t know what’s hit them.

Photographs Chris Chilton / Carscoops