Photo: dalomas/instagram
Have you ever seen courage through the eyes of an automaker? Well, you're looking at it right now: the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS.
You see, the German carmaker has always been worried by the risk of its mid-engined sportscars, with their natural handling balance, cannibalizing the backbone that is the 911.
So when Zuffenhausen finally decided to give us a GT version of the Cayman (think: ex-generation model), this didn't get a PDK. In fact, rumor has it that the lap times the dual-clutch prototype could deliver went too deep into rear-engined territory, which is why the setup never made it to the showroom.
And while the majority of the 718 range migrated to four-cylinder turbo boxers, the new GT4, along with the Spyder, have fortunately maintained the naturally aspirated flat-six tradition. However, the two-pedal setup is still missing.
Nevertheless, now that Porsche has been spotted testing what appears to be a 718 Cayman GT4 RS, the PDK should be inevitable. How so? Well, using Porsche's logic, which dictates that the RS Neunelfers have lost their optional manuals due to the badge being focused on track activity/lap times, this mid-engined toy should come with an extra clutch. Of course, the Germans could always bring back the R designation of the first-gen range-topper and thus avoid having to stick to their PDK rule, but a move of the sort doesn't seem likely.
Speaking of stopwatch numbers, the 718 Cayman GT4 can blitz the Nurburgring in 7:30, which is still 5s behind the 992 Carrera S.
Then again, the RS treatment would bring much more than a second clutch for the tranny. For one thing, we'll get extra power. After all, the all-new 4.0-liter boxer of the GT4 delivers 420 hp, so there's plenty of room for improvement by Porscha standards.
We should also factor in added downforce (the prototype portrayed below sports NACA ducts on the frunk lid (probably for cooling the brakes), a massive wing (this will be refined en route to production), along with louvered panels replacing the rear windows, which probably feed that flat-six with fresh air.
The suspension, brakes and probably the steering will also be touched, while we should even see the scale footprint going down.
Of course, it will all come at a price and since the GT4 already requires one to part ways with $100,000 of that hard-earned cash, that price won't be a kind one.
Now, as Nurburgring settler Dale Lomas, who brought us the images in the post below, aptly points out, there might be a reason for which this 718 Cayman GT4 RS test car was out on the Nurburgring before the hot lap time session scheduled on the circuit.
Update:As you can notice in the comments section of the Insta post below, Dale has confirmed that this test car comes with a PDK soundtrack (at least at full tilt, there's no way to mistake this for a manual shift).
So when Zuffenhausen finally decided to give us a GT version of the Cayman (think: ex-generation model), this didn't get a PDK. In fact, rumor has it that the lap times the dual-clutch prototype could deliver went too deep into rear-engined territory, which is why the setup never made it to the showroom.
And while the majority of the 718 range migrated to four-cylinder turbo boxers, the new GT4, along with the Spyder, have fortunately maintained the naturally aspirated flat-six tradition. However, the two-pedal setup is still missing.
Nevertheless, now that Porsche has been spotted testing what appears to be a 718 Cayman GT4 RS, the PDK should be inevitable. How so? Well, using Porsche's logic, which dictates that the RS Neunelfers have lost their optional manuals due to the badge being focused on track activity/lap times, this mid-engined toy should come with an extra clutch. Of course, the Germans could always bring back the R designation of the first-gen range-topper and thus avoid having to stick to their PDK rule, but a move of the sort doesn't seem likely.
Speaking of stopwatch numbers, the 718 Cayman GT4 can blitz the Nurburgring in 7:30, which is still 5s behind the 992 Carrera S.
Then again, the RS treatment would bring much more than a second clutch for the tranny. For one thing, we'll get extra power. After all, the all-new 4.0-liter boxer of the GT4 delivers 420 hp, so there's plenty of room for improvement by Porscha standards.
We should also factor in added downforce (the prototype portrayed below sports NACA ducts on the frunk lid (probably for cooling the brakes), a massive wing (this will be refined en route to production), along with louvered panels replacing the rear windows, which probably feed that flat-six with fresh air.
The suspension, brakes and probably the steering will also be touched, while we should even see the scale footprint going down.
Of course, it will all come at a price and since the GT4 already requires one to part ways with $100,000 of that hard-earned cash, that price won't be a kind one.
Now, as Nurburgring settler Dale Lomas, who brought us the images in the post below, aptly points out, there might be a reason for which this 718 Cayman GT4 RS test car was out on the Nurburgring before the hot lap time session scheduled on the circuit.
Update:As you can notice in the comments section of the Insta post below, Dale has confirmed that this test car comes with a PDK soundtrack (at least at full tilt, there's no way to mistake this for a manual shift).
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