CARLOS LAGO: Hey, Carlos Lago here with Edmunds, and that's
a 2021 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4.
What's that long combination of names, and letters,
and numbers mean?
Well, currently, this is the ultimate expression
of a mid-engined sports car that you can get from Porsche.
It uses racey suspension hardware, sticky tires,
big brakes, and a high-revving, naturally aspirated engine.
It cares very little about anything else
than going fast and having a great time, which,
come to think of it, reminds me of college.
Anyway, in this video, we're going
to explain the parts that make this car this car
and, most importantly, how much fun it
is from behind the wheel.
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Why are the expectations so high for this Cayman GT4?
Well, there are two major factors involved.
The first is the name, and the second is the price.
The GT name is something Porsche enthusiasts take very seriously
and Porsche, too.
You've probably heard of the 911 GT3, the 911 GT2
maybe, or the Carrera GT.
They just don't put GT on any old car.
And this GT4 acts as sort of the entry point
into the GT pantheon.
I'll promise I'll stop saying GT so much.
Anyway, the second thing that people will probably
recognize more is the price.
The GT4 starts at $40,000 more than a base Cayman.
It roughly equals the price of a Porsche 911.
This one, as it's equipped, costs roughly $130,000.
That's a lot of money.
Just one quick caveat, though-- this specific car
is a European spec version with the optional club sport package
that we don't get in the US, so you'll
just have to ignore that bolted-on roll
cage in the back.
But let's take a look at some of the other parts on this car.
Why is this car so expensive?
Let's start by talking about the chassis.
Overall, it's about an inch lower than a regular Cayman,
but more impressively, it borrows
a number of features from the 911 GT3,
a car that I personally like a lot.
You get the same breaks and literally
the same front suspension, too.
Keeping with the motorsports inspiration,
let's say, are a number of adjustable features,
from the anti-roll bars, the ride height,
and even the rear wing.
Now, the wheels are 20 inches in diameter, front and rear,
8 and 1/2 inches wide up front, 11 inches wide in the rear.
And they're wrapped with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup
2 tires, which have a ton of traction,
and that improves everything from acceleration, to handling,
to braking.
Speaking in the brakes, these are the optional $8,000 carbon
ceramic brakes, which add just massive, over 16-inch diameter
rotors up front with six piston calipers.
That's a lot of braking performance,
and combined with these tires, there's
a lot you can explore there and I'd be surprised
if you could find the limits of, considering
how light this vehicle was on our scales.
As for the centerpiece of the GT4, it's here-ish,
and it's a real shame you can't actually see it.
But first, explaining why the engine is important
requires some history.
When the Cayman came out and this generation of the Cayman
came out in 2016, the engine was a turbocharged four-cylinder.
That was powerful, and fuel-efficient,
and, in my opinion, the worst part about the car
because it was noisy and coarse.
And you didn't really want to rev it out,
which is the exact opposite of what you should
expect from a Porsche Cayman.
This, though, has a 4-liter flat-six
with 400 horsepower roughly and some amount
of torque but, more importantly, an 8,000 RPM red line.
That's a beautiful thing.
The transmissions are, of course,
a six-speed manual or, like this car,
a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.
And of course, you get a limited slip differential as well.
Now let's talk about what it's like to actually drive
the thing.
Before we get started driving this Cayman,
I would just like to say, this is the literally
my first time driving the GT4, so you're
going to see a very honest reaction to what
it's like behind the wheel.
Let's get started.
[GIGGLING]
OK.
Yep, yep.
That's-- yep.
Oh boy.
That is delightful.
That is just delightful.
OK, I would just like to start out and say
it's a real shame that I have to actually talk
to the camera while doing this because this
is just tremendous.
OK, so let's talk about the engine
first because I thought that would
be the most impressive thing out of this platform,
that 4-liter six-cylinder.
It does make the right sound.
It's doing what I want a Cayman to do.
It sounds the way I want a Cayman to sound.
It's exciting as it starts going through its power band.
The closer you get to the red line, the sweeter it sounds.
I'll be honest and say, it's not the best-sounding Porsche
six-cylinder ever, but it is such a nice upgrade.
And the way that power swells with the engine speed
as that moves up to is just tremendous.
It makes the experience of approaching a red line that
much more exciting, and that's what driving a sports car
like this should be all about.
It's that race to the next gear as you navigate corners.
This is a quick car.
It has not so much a ton of power, but it's a light car.
And that means it's able to accelerate rapidly but not
overwhelm you with acceleration.
I feel like I can manage this speed.
It's not more response with acceleration
than I can take care of from behind the wheel.
This is balanced wonderfully and not just in the right quality
sense, but in the power delivery sense, and that relationship
between the ride and the engine response.
You hear that phrase "harmonious,"
and that's truly the experience you're having here.
Oh, that's delightful.
So let's talk about ride handling, steering
because that, to be honest, is what I'm
feeling the most out of this.
The engine is just sort of the icing on that cake.
The Cayman has always had those really magical handling
properties, really good performance,
really exciting feel from the steering wheel,
from the handling, and all that.
And this elevates those responses
without giving any more speed than you know what to do with,
or at least, the speed that it's delivering,
you have the sense of control through confidence
behind the wheel, through traction from the tires,
through incredible braking performance.
There's a linearity between my inputs
and the feedback from the car that
just feels so nicely balanced, and the way
this accelerates out of a corner just feels so sweet.
I can do this all day.
When it comes to numbers, yeah, this is fast.
It goes very quick in a straight line.
We've measured that.
It stops very short in an emergency situation.
We measured that.
It generates lots of lateral G. We've measured that.
But the thing that you can't put a number on
is the satisfaction you get behind a wheel
because if you could, you'd need a chart with an awfully
tall ceiling.
I always knew the Cayman could be like this,
and it always had the handling and the steering
to make you feel like you were driving
something truly special.
Now that those parts are even better
and now that there's an engine there
that truly delivers the excitement that this car always
deserved, it makes this GT4 feel like a very, very
special thing.
Just the way this goes into a corner and you power out,
you can trust that when you power out the traction
will be there, that it'll get you out of the corner smoothly.
Oh, the way this must feel around a curving mountain
road or a racetrack just has to be the best.
Oh, I'm in love.
I'm absolutely in love, such that I don't mind these bucket
seats, such that I don't mind this car doesn't
have remote entry or dual-zone climate control.
It just has a gauge that says Cold or Hot.
This is terrific, just terrific.
I may not have given the most succinct feedback
while driving this car, but I'll just
say that's a sign of how pleasureful
driving this car quickly is.
I don't want to talk about all the nuance or subtleties
of driving because I was so enraptured in how
this car drives.
That's beautiful.
Oh, oh, OK.
OK.
Oh, beautiful.
The Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 is a truly special car,
and it's not just because of any individual components, not just
that engine, or the racey suspension,
or the sticky tires, or massive and very expensive brakes.
No, it's the combination of everything working in concert.
It's a mechanical symphony, if you will,
even though that does sound kind of cheesy.
But honestly, this car, in total, does what all of us
would expect a sports car to do when we
think of our ideal sports car.
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