The big test: Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS

Ever wondered what would happen if Porsche's GT department really let its hair down? The result might just be the wildest RS model to date

- JACK RIX

PORSCHE 718 CAYMAN GT4 RS £108,370/£127,828 as tested

Finally, I get to relay what really happened that day we went to shoot the Cayman GT4 RS in a studio near Stuttgart, in October last year.

Andreas Preuninger, boss of Porsche's GT department, rocks up in a black-wrapped GT4 RS prototype, delivers a meticulous interview on his latest creation then moves to leave. I politely suggest that taking me for a drive in ‘his' stealth spec GT4 RS might be the perfect way to help us understand the car. He loves the idea, the Porsche PR man starts sweating, but on the promise that it's all off the record and I can keep schtum until now... grants permission.

We go for an enthusiastic lap of the local roads and I return to the studio jacked up like the Energizer Bunny. My ears have just been treated to one of the finest and rowdiest noises I've ever heard a car make... and I'm babbling incoherently to whoever's prepared to listen. In that moment I make a vow: the only way a colleague will get their hands on the first drive invite is to prise it from my dead lifeless fingers.

Team player, me. And here we are, an hour north of Lisbon on a road that wriggles and clings to the rock on its way up to the highest point for miles. The views are spectacular, the sounds are better.

To start a review of this car anywhere other than the acoustic experience would be like trying to appraise an Adele album without mentioning she can sing a bit - it's the dominant sensory dish. Ragging a GT4 RS is like having thick treacle poured into your ears... and then an entire wasp colony crammed in after it. It's just ridiculous.