PORSCHE 718 CAYMAN GT4 RS

After 17 years of hopeful speculation, the genius of the 911 GT3 is applied to the smaller, lighter, mid-engined Cayman

- MATT SAUNDERS

TESTED 23.2.22, LISBON, PORTUGAL ON SALE APRIL PRICE £108,370

This ultimate Porsche Cayman has been coming for 17 years – although, as some have held, it was never coming at all. Back in 2005, just as the motoring world realised how much handling potential was locked up in the brilliant mid-engined chassis of this two-seat sports coupé, some wondered whether, if given enough power and dynamic purpose, it might even go on to eclipse Porsche’s GT-department poster boy for outright driver appeal: the all-conquering 911 GT3. Others ventured that Porsche’s product strategy needs must exclude that eventuality by simply preventing such a Cayman derivative from ever being signed off.

But thanks to the vision of one of Porsche’s more colourful senior executives of recent years and the subsequent commitment and skill of his cohorts and deputies, the 718 Cayman GT4 RS was signed off, and it’s coming to the UK this spring.

Initially championed by former Porsche head of R&D Wolfgang Hatz (almost as a parting gift before he became implicated in the Dieselgate emissions-cheating controversy), it was the simplest of conceptions. What would happen if you put the epic, high-revving flat-six from the 911 GT3 into the Cayman? Could you even manage to? And would you make a saleable product with sound business credentials if you did?

Well, they have managed to. And yes, there are plenty of customers who would buy one, even for a low six-figure sum, because they’ve been battering down the doors of their local Porsche dealers asking for such a car for years.