Pitting The Cayman GT4 RS Against The 911 GT3 Is Cruel But Necessary
Porsche didn’t need to make the Cayman GT4 RS, but they did. And we really need to thank them for it.
The fact that Porsche’s Cayman GT4 RS exists is somewhat of an oddity. Sure, the math on paper says it will be great, but the 911 GT3 is already great. And that’s the flagship. Not the smaller, lower pedigreed Cayman. John Howell, host of PistonHeads YouTube channel, understands the dilemma. “You can’t just go and upstage the son of God, can you?”
And the GT3 is one of the last of its breed. “It is all about pure, undiluted fun,” Howell remarks on the naturally aspirated 4.0 flat-six engine. When everything else has gone hybrid, even turbo, they miss the magic of building the revs and going into high RPM territory. It makes the Porsche GT3 special. And it’s the same engine in the GT4 RS.
How dare they potentially topple the icon, right? Well… Porsche’s best cars have been mid engine. The 550 Spyder, the Carrera GT, and many more flagship cars have all had the engine in front of the rear axle. The 911 then… it’s the result of a half century of perfecting an imperfect design. It works amazingly well. But what about starting from the known layout that produces the best results?
“There can’t be too many things that make you think of the GT3 as sounding a bit weak and flat, because it simply isn’t. Yet, that’s genuinely what I thought about it after getting out of the GT4 RS,” Howell notes.
It’s some particularly high praise, given the level the 911 GT3 has reached. And the target audience. But here’s the thing. Any true Porsche enthusiast has to concede that the GT4 RS is the right way. The 911 will still be king of the hill with Turbo models, special anniversary editions and 58 years of development. But its main – and arguably best – personality traits will always stem from its one biggest flaw.
Now, of course, there’s no worry of the king being toppled, even the GT3. The 911 GT3 RS has just debuted. And it will happily keep its crown, thank you very much.
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