Porsche 718 Cayman

Porsche's legendary GT department finally lets loose on the mid-engined Cayman

Porsche's Andreas Preuninger, the chief architect of every one of the company's revered, hardcore GT sports cars since the original '996' 911 GT3 of 1999, has described the subject of this week's road test as "a wild child". Coming from someone well used to the savagery of so many 911 GT2 and GT3 RSS, those sentiments land loud and clear not that the car he was talking about needs much introduction.

This week, then, the Autocar road test records the benchmark numbers without which the story of Weissach's latest top-level hero sports car couldn't be complete. We are about to document exactly how fast, how loud and how special is one of the most anticipated new Porsches of recent years: the 718 Cayman GT4 RS.

The overhaul that takes this Cayman fathoms deep into track-day-ready supercar territory is the stuff of legend. A story of development carried out in clandestine fashion so the bean-counters and killjoys couldn't abort the car before it had a chance to exist; and of a vision powered by gut instinct and pure curiosity but backed by the passion of a thoroughly enthusiastic team of engineers.

The GT4 RS is built by those who wondered: 'Could we put a GT3 engine in a Cayman?' The 'should we?' part, admits Preuninger, didn't really figure until there was a working prototype and Weissach's key decision-makers had been convinced, both by its mere existence and by the driving experience, that the car demanded a place in showrooms.

DESIGN AND ENGINEERING *****