Having previously sampled the fantastically lithe but sadly underpowered 981-generation Cayman S and Cayman GTS, I’m excited for today’s test drive of the 2016 Porsche Cayman GT4. The GT4 will cap my exploration of the excellent, but so far imperfect, 981 Cayman range. I hope the GT4’s additional horsepower will make it fast and fun where the long-geared S and GTS floundered.
Equally exciting to me is that the Cayman GT4 is my third Porsche GT tester. Earlier drives of the 997.1 and 991.1-generation 911 GT3s left me gobsmacked with the performance, sound and soul of these track-focused machines. Is the Cayman GT4 the cheapest way to add Porsche GT magic to my stable? I aim to find out.
But first, a little history. In 2014, Porsche enthusiasts bemoaned the loss of the manual transmission in the 991 911 GT3 and pined for a driver’s car that emphasized driver involvement over lap times. Porsche responded by introducing the 2016 Cayman GT4. This one-year model was priced from $85,595—undercutting the esteemed 911 GT3 by $45k—and was the first Cayman to hail from the GT department.
The GT4’s front suspension and brakes trickled down from the 911 GT3, while its naturally aspirated flat-six was nabbed from the 911 Carrera S. The result was a 385 hp, six-speed, mid-engine toy. Per the spec sheet, it stood nearly eye-to-eye with the older—and increasingly loved—997 911 GT3s. The car rags swooned, calling the Cayman GT4 the enthusiast’s choice of the Porsche range.
I was one of those enthusiasts who tried the 2014–2016 991.1 GT3 and wished for something else. While I loved the 991 GT3’s fury and soul, I found the car bored by my canyon strafing. (Even when I drove at license-revoking speeds.) First and foremost, the 991 GT3 was a track car honed to weapons-grade perfection; its grip and thrust were overkill on the street. So I was left looking for a new hero car that could be as enjoyable on Angeles Crest Hwy as at Laguna Seca.
My second GT tester was a 2007 997.1 GT3. To my delight, the 997.1 GT3 was a master class in old-school analog driver involvement. Its steering was perfection, ceaselessly communicating and brimming with feel and flow. Its Mezger engine swelled with low-rpm torque—especially when compared to the 981 Cayman GTS I drove on the same day—and delivered frenzied motorsport magic above 8k rpm. Then there was the sound! The tailpipes sang ballads of battles against Vipers, Corvettes, and Ferraris on the world’s great racetracks. Although the gearbox was stiff and tired (my tester had 85k miles), it asked for my best as I blissfully rowed through the Monterey hills. The 997.1 GT3 was a steed that needed a jockey, and I was ever so happy to be holding the reins.
So now I meet the 981 Cayman GT4. With a six-speed manual and a reasonable 385 hp, I hope the GT4 will be fun on the street where the 991 GT3 snored.
My GT4 tester has 8k miles on the clock. I have no illusions of these miles being easy since this one wears (paint protection film) battle armor that is custom cut for catching race rubber. Though the PPF is starting to cloud, the performance consumables are fresh: The Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires have full tread and the brake pads and rotors are thick.
A salesman finishes disinfecting the car and then hands me the GT4’s key. I have a meager 20 minutes for my drive. Let’s go!
I plop into the deep carbon-fiber bucket seats—they taunt me to test their hold with insane lateral loads—twist the key, and fire up the flat-six engine. Though this is a Cayman, 911 music erupts. (Thank you, 911 engine!) My foot finds the stiff clutch pedal, and my hand covers the snickety gearshift. I muscle the clutch, slip into first, and then ease GT4 ease into motion.
Prior to today, the Cayman GTS was the highest-performing 981 I’d driven. The GTS was surprisingly light and easy in town. It wafted over bumps on its compliant PASM suspension and demanded little me thanks to its well-weighted clutch and buttery-smooth shifter.
After three minutes of driving the GT4, I can tell it’s a much harder-edged sword. It clomps over broken pavement, catches (slightly) between the shift gates, and tells me to add leg days to my gym schedule. The GT4 feels hardened for race duty. The GT4 requires more fortitude from its owner in the city, but they should be ready because they purchased a track-hardened GT4 over a luxury-line GTS! That said, I’d wager that after a few weeks of daily GT4, my leg would acclimatize to the stiff clutch, and my head would adjust to the firm ride.
The story flips if I cast the 997.1 GT3’s spotlight on the Cayman GT4. The 997.1 GT3 had the heaviest clutch and shifter of any car I’ve driven. (Was my 85k-mile GT3 tester representative of the breed?) While the 997.1 GT3 was torture to work through traffic, I’d gladly brave Friday rush hour in the Cayman GT4 if a fun weekend in the mountains awaited. On the other hand, the 997.1 GT3’s steering and engine reward in ways the Cayman GT4 can’t match. More on that later…
Soon the highway onramp comes into view. I quickly jab the sport and loud exhaust buttons—in the Cayman GT4, these are easily accessible on the center console—and romp onto the highway. The throttle response is as crisp and clean as an autumn morning. The GT4 rips through second gear as I rush to highway speeds. Though the traffic is cruising at 75 mph, there’s no need to upshift to third; like all manual 981 Caymans, the GT4 is quizzically geared for 82 mph in second!
The run to redline reminds me of my quibbles with the lesser Cayman S and GTS: Their 325 hp–340 hp 3.4L engines felt woefully torqueless below 4k rpm. Paired with long gears, it was too easy to upshift and drop the revs into the torque doldrums.
The GT4’s larger 3.8L engine pulls heartily and evenly, surging from 3k to the 7.6k rpm redline on a steady wave of torque. The GT4 feels fast through second gear and doesn’t penalize me for an early upshift if I want to enjoy a gear change.
I slow to let traffic pull ahead, then make more runs up the rev range. After a few blasts, I decide that the GT4 is fast but not furious. (Nevermind that the big wing says otherwise!) Its 385 hp and 309 lb-ft are enough to delight but not enough to frighten. As such, the GT4 is better suited for street driving than the overwhelmingly fast—and freedom-endangering—991 GT3.
Porsche economized when it fit a 911 Carrera S powerplant in the Cayman GT4. I am sorry to say, but from the driver’s seat, the penny-pinching is obvious: this is no true-blue GT3 motor. The GT3 engines spin to 8.4k rpm (997.1) and 9k rpm (991.1), and at their highest octaves transforms from well-mannered Mr. Jekylls into maniac Mr. Hydes. The Cayman GT4 never has that high-rpm transformation, and it never tingles with hair-trigger throttle response. Sadly, it feels like the Pinocchio who missed his chance to become a real boy.
Oh, where is the fairy dust I can sprinkle on the GT4 to turn it into a real red-blooded GT car?
I exit the highway and then sweep over it on an overpass. A large bump that is hidden before the arcing bridge tries to unsettle the car. However, the GT4 absorbs the impact well, finding a nice balance between wheel control and passenger comfort, and continues cleanly on its course.
I’ve exited here to test the hooning credentials of the GT4. The road offers a U-turn that will send me back to the highway. It’s as good a place as any to test the GT4’s limited-slip differential. I stab the “ESP + TC Off” button to defeat the safety systems. (This button is not present on the lesser 981s.) With the steering cranked for the U-turn, I hammer the throttle; will the Cup 2s slip or grip? Slip! The rear steps wide, very wide, before I catch it and depart in haste. (The Cup 2s must need more heat before they become gumballs.) The GT4 has scored two more points on the GTS: It has easily defeatable stability control and enough torque to enable stupid on-demand.
Back on the highway, I note that the GT4’s steering is mild on-center. I won’t leave my lane if I swivel my head to read passing signs. Yet when I duck into a nearby cloverleaf, the steering ratio quickens and the resistance firms; minute corrections are immediately obeyed. I’m not pushing hard enough to challenge the chassis, but the GT4 feels neutrally balanced through the long corners. If I try to flirt with the limits through ham-handed steering inputs or ham-footed throttle inputs, the GT4 responds with hints of understeer or oversteer (respectively).
The GT4 doesn’t flit into corners with the hummingbird-like agility of the x73 sports suspension Cayman S of GTS. Those cars changed direction as freely as puppies. The GT4 moves with the mature and deliberate motions of a lioness on the hunt. I’ll attribute the GT4’s contrasting attitude to its hand-me-down GT3 front end and GT department chassis tuning.
The hand-me-down GT3 brakes are unequivocally impressive. They have a phenomenal feel as I muscle them to scrub speed. Their travel is short, maybe two inches at most, and their resistance gets progressively firmer as the pedal travel is exhausted. Once I’m past city-appropriate braking force levels, the pedal hardly compresses, and braking is done more through leg effort than foot movement. As such, heel-toe downshifts become easy. (Active rev-matching is there to help if you want to keep your foot fully on the brake pedal.)
The steering in the GT4 is noticeably EPAS. It has that telltale rubber-bandy return to center and fails to relay engine tremor or road texture. Boo! (Those rumblings do come through the carbon-fiber seats.) However, the steering clearly communicates the impacts of cracked pavement and the tug of changing road camber. While the GT4’s steering is an improvement over the other 981s’, it’s nowhere as loquacious as the new 718 Cayman GTS’s, and it can’t hold a candle to benchmark-defining hydraulic steering from the 997.1 GT3.
My 20-minute test drive is nearly over. It’s a short stint in the optional carbon-fiber buckets, but I already wish for the standard sports seats. Unfortunately, the carbon buckets are constructed as one shape fits all, and I don’t fit them perfectly. I want more lumbar support and a smidge more recline, and neither is available.
With my drive time expired, I return to the dealership. Thanks to its improved steering feel, sublime brakes, and ample horsepower, the GT4 is undoubtedly the best-driving Cayman of the 981 range. It’s also the only 981 Cayman with enough power to make the long gear ratios acceptable.
I can see now why the Cayman GT4 was the belle of the automotive ball in 2016. With its sub-$100k price, feelsome transmission, and reasonable 385 hp, the GT4 engages and rewards on backroads in ways supercars like the 991 GT3 do not. Save for the early EPAS steering, it’s an analog driver’s car in an age where the competition had gone digital.
But I can also unequivocally say that the Cayman GT4 is missing the magic and madness of the 911 GT3. The GT3’s head-spinning motorsport engine gives it an eye-widening, sphincter-tightening frenzy that is sorely missing in the Cayman GT4. It’s the not-so-secret sauce of the GT3, and without it, the Cayman GT4 will always be a logical—but lustless—second best.
Mike's Steering Column 