The 2022 Porsche mid-engine Cayman GT4 RS benefits from a 911 GT3 heart transplant

A full-face helmet does little to take the edge off the 9000-rpm shriek of a naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six when it’s mounted amidships just behind your seat, as it is in the 2022 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS. We start to wish we’d also worn earplugs (but not really, because its glorious sounds may well be worth hearing aids in retirement) as we feed in the power exiting a slow corner, then bang through the gears on our way to storming headlong into a banked sweeper at Streets of Willow Springs raceway.

It’s a prime example of what a Porsche engineer told us in matter-of-fact terms: “Whenever the GT4 RS engineering team came to a development crossroads, we made a point of always choosing the path of greatest performance.” Boy, does it show.

That starts with the engine itself. This is not some massaged version of the enlarged and de-turbo-ed 911 engine that powers the Cayman GT4. Instead, the GT4 RS is fitted with the same 911 GT3 Cup–derived engine that powers the vaunted 911 GT3, but spun around and mounted beneath the rear liftgate glass, a placement that virtually puts it inside the passenger compartment. In the GT4 RS, this high-revving, naturally aspirated, dry-sump flat-six makes 493 horsepower at 8400 rpm and 331 pound-feet of torque at 6750 revs. It’s worth noting that the same mill puts out 502 ponies and 346 pound-feet in the GT3, which makes one wonder if the difference is truly the result of an exhaust packaging limitation related to the midship engine placement or a case of preserving the on-paper superiority of the 911 GT3.

Full story Car and Driver: https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a39496792/2022-porsche-718-cayman-gt4-rs-drive/