Extreme measures

NEW VS BENCHMARK? TECHNICALLY, YES, BUT THIS ROAD TRIP IS MORE ABOUT REVELLING IN PURE, UNADULTERATED DRIVING THRILLS. STRAP IN, IT'S ABOUT TO GET LOUD...

- ALEX INWOOD

I ALMOST MISS IT at first. Parked up on the side of the road, the Type R's engine ticking and pinging as it cools, I lean against the door and settle in for the Porsche to arrive. It's early in the mountains, the roads freshly washed by rain, and the cold valley below is cloaked in mist that sparkles as it catches the first rays of sun. Sound carries out here but it's still a few minutes before I catch it. The shriek of six cylinders is soft to begin with, its metallic harmony rising and falling as it ranges in and out of earshot, making it tricky to gauge its distance.

Then, suddenly, it swoops into focus, a flash of red that glints in the sun. It screams as it rips past; he's missed our meeting place, the black edge of the Cayman's huge rear wing cleaving the thin morning air as it whips around the next bend, but I don't mind.

It's a few kays until he can turn around and I can hear every application of the throttle, every staccato downshift, every rush of revs as it soars towards 9000rpm. A 718 Cayman armed with the same 4.0-litre flat-six as the mighty GT3? This is the car we never thought Porsche would make.

When he eventually returns, former Wheels editor Dylan Campbell is grinning like a kid who's hijacked Santa's sleigh.

It's easy to see why. Cuts quite a figure, this GT4 RS, doesn't it? All jutting front splitter, expensive-looking carbon gills and enormous swan-necked rear wing. It's a visual riot, the kind of car you make involuntary sounds around as you find yet another fiendishly complex detail to gawk over. It makes the Civic I've brought along suddenly feel a sniff plain...