JCviggen

Embargo = done!

Some requested tech facts first:

- Spring rates: 100 N/mm (570 lb) square. Compares closely to the Swift spring setup of 80F 100R that I use on my car (I wonder now if I should bump the front rate even higher)
- More front brake bias. Slight change to ABS sensitivity (increased)
- Weissach pack does not change the intake sound. There is a slight difference at high speed with WP due to the scoop but it’s minimal. No power gain from the scoop, it’s just visual.
- OPF on US cars: the head of GT engines told me there aren’t any. He claimed there’s a catalyst in the rear section instead of the inert honeycomb of the GT4. I repeated to make sure and he confirmed but I’m not totally convinced we were talking about the same things.
- C40 spec oil in non-OPF cars: he said there was no requirement from the engine guys to switch oil spec. They were happy with A40 and are equally happy with C40.
- Downforce: 25% more than GT4 but that’s the only thing they can say, no exact numbers published as it varies by speed and nobody would understand it.

I spent a lot of time with Bergmeister in and out of the car, he’s been personally responsible for setting up the GT4 RS so he’s driven it a lot. Was happy to find out we fundamentally agreed on the main things that needed improving in particular a big increase in front spring rate and a brake bias that lets you trailbrake properly. He didn't have to use my hack of using much lower friction rear pads though, just tell an engineer with a laptop what he wanted.

The published Nurburgring lap was quicker than any other he did with the car. There was the small mistake into Bergwerk but the time lost on entry was mostly recovered down the next straight with a better exit. Only 0.3s lost. The rest of the lap was his best ever in this car. And he really doesn’t agree anyone else would’ve done much better, pointed out he was only 0.6s from Lars Kern around the Nordschleife in a GT3 R Target time was 7:20 (full lap) and they went more than 10s below that. He also pointed out correctly that the weather on the day makes a huge difference in lap times on the Ring so you can’t ever truly compare anyway.

How did the car feel to me?

Like a much better sorted GT4 out of the box (suspension wise) with one hell of an engine. The engine takes centre stage, it’s hard to notice anything else about the car as it fills the cabin with a huge volume of that GT3 sound. It’s raw, it’s mean and it pulls like a train. Sound volume in the interior can’t be far off 100 db at full chat. Feels slightly faster than a GT3 probably because a Cayman always seems to give me a bit more sense of speed than a similarly powered 911.

Really, the car is about the engine. The rest of it is close enough to my medium modified GT4. It’s much better out of the box however, as you would expect. I was particularly surprised by the grip and traction of the N1 cups we were driving on considering I really hated the one set I bought for my GT4. The RS suffered much less from traction loss out of 2nd gear corners, possibly because the PDK has a better LSD than the manual. Highest oil temp I saw pushing on track was 115C. Way cooler than my GT4 or any other 981/982 runs (130-135C). The shortened PDK gearing is perfect. I half suspect they did it just to shut up the journos who kept complaining.

A GT3 is still faster around most tracks, but the GT4 RS with the sensation of sitting right on top of that 9000 RPM engine is much more of an event. It’s as close to a race car experience as I've come across. You’ll have to fit a pretty loud exhaust to the car to hear it all at full throttle over the intake. At modest throttle angles though the car is relatively quiet. It sounds even worse than a regular GT4 driving slowly through a village. Lots of ticking and other non-exotic engine sounds coming in. Exhaust is very muted and GT4 like to the public, the complete opposite of what it sounds like inside with mucho throttle. Apparently the RS is subject to stricter noise regs than the 992 GT3 as it was launched later.

This car absolutely belongs on track and is wasted anywhere else. On the road it only comes alive once you start doing things you really shouldn’t, it eggs you on to floor the throttle to get that hit of flat six motorsport sound turbocharged into your ear canals but then you’re doing stupid speeds very quickly. Couldn’t find any roads with speed limits that I didn’t need to double to have fun with the car. A GT3 would be considerably more suitable for double duty.

If you haven’t yet seen the track driving video I posted here a while ago, it’s in my YouTube linked in my sig.

Westcoast

Thanks for sharing the details JCviggen, nice to have the information to go with your video!

Seems that the GT4 RS is meant for what I expected, hard core track oriented use, not really suitable for those weekend runs to chat with the C&C crowd!

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TDT

Bravo JC. Excellent review.

Ksdaoski

👍 congrats on getting to drive it!!!!!

SpyderSenseOC

Pardon my possible ignorance but I don't see a YouTube video linked in your sig.

enduro

Thanks for the review, and congrats on getting to wring it out.

YMGT4

Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts as well as useful comparisons to the GT4 and GT3. Your opinion as a valued poster on Rennlist (especially regarding track work on the GT4 platform) carries much more weight for me personally than any journalist review.

lovetoturn

I would second that motion big time. All so concise and hits all the points of interest that we who go to the track and drive hard would like to know about. Thanks JC.

wintershade

Thanks for this very helpful summary!

Can you elaborate on why you’d take the GT3 (presumably 992) over the 4RS for double duty? Is this due to MT availability in the 992 making it a bit more engaging at lower/legal speeds, or is there something else about the car (NVH, etc.)? I’m cross shopping.

UncleDude

Nice review, post your youtube links, some (like me) have signatures turned off

Mojonito

Do you have an opinion on the carbon brakes versus the regular brakes on this car?

Burren

Chances that anyone not in the 918 VIP group can get one without a $100,000 mark up? I know Porsche says "anyone who wants one can get one", but I don't believe that for one second, after what's happened in the GT3 world.

SpyderSenseOC

Isn't that what Rolex said?

JCviggen

Sure, it was 4 AM for me when the embargo lifted so I just woke up to press the post button here and not sure the YT link is even still there lol

JCviggen

There was no opportunity to compare, they had PCCB on all of them. I was happy with the pedal feel and modulation but nothing stuck out as all that different from my steel setup. The unsprung weight loss helps of course and they made these cars as light as they could - they even had the PCM delete.

992 GT3 is also a very firm ride but it is definitely more refined to drive slowly. Less unwanted sounds from the engine coming in for a start, but the overall comfort level is just higher. And yes, the option of a nicely geared manual box certainly makes the 992 more attractive to those who want MT.