2016 Porsche Cayman GT4: Can The Cayman Finally Beat The 911? - Ignition Episode 138
On this episode of Ignition presented by Tire Rack
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 (car engine revving)
00:03 Oh, you thought I was Carlos.
00:08 I may not be Carlos, but at least I'm not Johnny.
00:10 Hi there.
00:11 Hi there.
00:12 Hi there.
00:13 Hi there.
00:14 Hi there.
00:14 I'm standing in front of the car
00:16 that everyone said Porsche would never build.
00:18 The car that proved that the 911 was wrong all along.
00:22 It is perhaps the most important sports car of the year.
00:25 The Cayman GT4.
00:26 (car engine revving)
00:29 (upbeat music)
00:31 (car engine revving)
00:38 Porsche's modern mid-engine sports car
00:54 was born in 1997 as the Boxster.
00:57 And immediately the purists started to whine.
01:00 Because it didn't have a roof
01:01 and thus wasn't a real sports car.
01:03 Not because it was water-cooled.
01:04 It was because it was way too slow.
01:07 And over the years, the Boxster got more and more power,
01:09 eventually grew a roof and became the Cayman.
01:12 And that wasn't something to whine about.
01:14 That was a violation of international sports car law.
01:17 The conspiracy theorists had the misguided argument
01:22 that a mid-engine layout is somehow superior.
01:25 And if Porsche ever gave the Cayman a 911 power,
01:29 it would prove that the 911's recipe was wrong all along.
01:32 So it would never get powered,
01:35 it would never get a limited slip differential,
01:38 it would never have a chance
01:39 to beat a 911 anywhere, anyhow.
01:42 (car engine revving)
01:45 They were wrong.
01:52 It did take 19 years, but hell finally froze over.
01:56 The GT4 is a mid-engine Cayman with rear-engine 911 power.
01:59 Not just the base 911's 3.4 liter motor,
02:03 but the 3.8 liter monster out of the 911 Carrera S.
02:08 It's detuned a little bit, but at 385 horsepower,
02:11 this thing needs to apologize to no one.
02:13 The fastest way to launch a Cayman
02:16 is probably the most abusive thing you can imagine.
02:20 First gear, rev it to 4,000 and dump the clutch.
02:22 (car engine revving)
02:27 Zero to 60 miles an hour is over and done with
02:39 in just 4.1 seconds.
02:41 That's quicker than a 911 Carrera.
02:44 The quarter mile comes up in 12.3 seconds
02:46 at 115.2 miles an hour, also beating the 911.
02:50 For the first time ever, we have a mid-engine Porsche
02:53 that's faster than the 911.
02:55 And the sound of this motor.
02:58 (car engine revving)
03:01 It's like fabric ripping through a trumpet.
03:04 (car engine revving)
03:13 The GT4 uses the 911 GT3's electric power steering,
03:17 both its hardware and software.
03:19 And that means, unlike the rest of Porsche's lineup,
03:22 it actually has some steering feel.
03:24 It's electric assist, so there's really not much going on
03:27 when you're straight ahead.
03:28 But once you're in the corners,
03:29 it actually starts to communicate.
03:31 More importantly though, the steering is so responsive.
03:35 And it's like there's no play anywhere
03:37 in the front end of this car.
03:38 It's like driving a race car through the street.
03:40 It's so good.
03:42 (car engine revving)
03:44 It's really low in the GT4.
03:45 In fact, these optional carbon seats are not adjustable,
03:48 and they're from the 918 Spyder.
03:50 So is the steering wheel.
03:52 And you sit so low in the car that it almost feels
03:54 like you're hanging off of that wheel like it's monkey bars.
03:57 (car engine revving)
03:59 You're really supportive in the corners.
04:01 And actually, despite the fact
04:02 that they don't have a lot of padding,
04:04 they're really comfortable.
04:05 (car engine revving)
04:08 But really, it's all about this engine.
04:10 It pulls and pulls and pulls.
04:13 (car engine revving)
04:14 And the noise!
04:16 (car engine revving)
04:19 It's the 3.8 out of the 911.
04:22 It's got a lot of torque,
04:24 so you don't really have to work it hard,
04:26 but of course, you want to.
04:27 (car engine revving)
04:31 The shifter is perfection.
04:33 You're in the middle of a corner, it doesn't matter.
04:35 You can make really fast shifts.
04:37 It's tight, there's no play in it.
04:39 Every manual transmission should shift like this.
04:41 (car engine revving)
04:44 Problem with the shifter is that
04:47 you don't get to play with it.
04:48 First gear, good for 46 miles an hour.
04:51 Second, 82.
04:52 (car engine revving)
04:56 Third, I don't know, you're going to jail.
04:58 Gears are so long on this car.
05:00 I don't understand what Porsche's trying to do.
05:02 It's like putting a manual on the car
05:04 and then making one gear, second,
05:06 work from zero to 75 miles an hour.
05:08 You never need to shift.
05:09 (car engine revving)
05:12 I broke the calculator out
05:15 and did some calculations on this.
05:17 And okay, 4.1 seconds to 60 is pretty quick.
05:21 Porsche had put normal gear ratios in it.
05:23 Something like a first gear that maxes out at 35
05:26 and a second that maxes out at like 65.
05:29 This thing would do zero to 60 in three and a half seconds.
05:32 That beats every 911 except for the Turbo and the GT3.
05:37 Maybe those conspiracy theorists are onto something.
05:40 (car engine revving)
05:43 And of course, with all this talk about how fast it is,
05:46 it's important to remember this isn't just a Cayman
05:48 with a big motor.
05:49 It has the GT3's front end, the whole thing.
05:53 Shocks, springs, bars, everything comes from the GT3.
05:57 The Cayman doesn't need that car's active rear steering
06:01 or complicated multi-feature suspension
06:03 because it doesn't have to deal with an engine
06:05 that's cantilevered out behind the rear wheels.
06:07 So it keeps simple struts back there.
06:10 On a bumpy, twisty back road,
06:12 the Cayman feels a lot like a slot car.
06:14 Turn in is ludicrous and there's so much grip
06:16 that you really can't get over this car's limits on the road.
06:20 But we can on the figure eight.
06:22 I have in my grubby little fingers
06:24 a list of the fastest 911s
06:25 to ever make it around the figure eight.
06:28 And it turns out the last Cayman we tested,
06:30 the GTS, this car's little brother,
06:32 did it in 23.8 seconds,
06:35 beating every 911 except for the big hitters
06:38 like GT3, GT2, GT2 RS.
06:41 We think this one's gonna be faster.
06:42 So the goal is beat the Cayman GTS's 23.8
06:46 and see how close we can get to the GT3's 22.8
06:50 because that is the fastest 911
06:51 we've ever tested around the figure eight.
06:53 (upbeat music)
06:56 (engine revving)
07:03 (tires screeching)
07:06 There's just so much power and that engine sounds so good.
07:15 The gearing, that long gearing,
07:17 is actually a benefit here
07:18 'cause I never have to shift second gear
07:19 the whole time around.
07:21 Unbelievable on the brakes.
07:23 Such great immediate bite.
07:25 And then mid-corner understeer.
07:28 (tires screeching)
07:31 Fix that with power.
07:33 (tires screeching)
07:35 I wonder how it would do if we put it in sport mode.
07:38 For the suspension, stiffens the shocks a little bit.
07:41 I kind of wonder if that's gonna send this thing sideways.
07:44 Yes.
07:45 (laughing)
07:46 Yeah.
07:46 Yeah.
07:47 (tires screeching)
07:48 And it becomes a little bit of a handful.
07:50 I think the sport button on this GT4
07:55 is there for the perfectly smooth racetrack.
08:02 Where you don't encounter any bumps.
08:04 Even the little bumps on the figure eight really upset it.
08:07 (tires screeching)
08:10 It doesn't like to turn the way a GT3 does.
08:14 It doesn't let you really throttle adjust it.
08:16 Once you're in the middle of a corner,
08:19 you either come in completely sideways
08:21 and then you're fighting it the whole way.
08:23 Or it just kind of understeers.
08:26 (tires screeching)
08:31 Boom.
08:32 (engine revving)
08:34 It's a lot of fun and it sounds good,
08:36 but I don't think it's gonna beat the GT3 around this.
08:39 (engine revving)
08:41 Jesus.
08:44 (laughing)
08:46 (tires screeching)
08:48 All right, clean lap.
08:50 Let's look at the results.
08:52 It is 23.5.
08:55 Well, we beat the GTS,
08:57 but we didn't quite get to where the GT3 is.
09:00 Really all that surprised,
09:01 but that is a seriously fast time.
09:04 (tires screeching)
09:07 Cayman may not beat the GT3 on the figure eight,
09:11 but this is a really fast over the road car.
09:13 It's so easy to drive quickly.
09:15 And that is of course due to the mid engine.
09:18 We all know that the 911's got this huge rule book.
09:21 Thousands of pages of rules and charts and appendices
09:24 and don't do this or it's gonna do that.
09:27 Remember that the amount of throttle removal in percent
09:30 is equal and opposite to the rate of change
09:32 of the resulting yaw moment, Y times two C squared,
09:36 as explained in paragraph two,
09:37 subsection B of volume eight of chapter two
09:41 of the 911 driver's manual entitled,
09:43 How Not to Hit a Tree.
09:45 Nope, no rule book.
09:51 Just point into the corner, foot on the floor and go.
09:55 It's easy to drive.
09:56 I'm not exactly sure that's such a good thing.
09:59 I mean, what would you rather do?
10:01 Take a class that you have to study for and work
10:04 and learn something or get an easy A?
10:07 It's fast.
10:09 I'm convinced there are not too many cars on the road
10:11 that could keep up with this thing on a back road.
10:13 I wouldn't mind working a little bit harder.
10:15 It says GT on the back of this Porsche,
10:27 so of course that means it's all about the track.
10:30 And this one, unlike the other GT car at the moment,
10:33 the GT3, is available with that ultimate
10:35 poser-proof manual transmission.
10:37 Remember, even though modern automatic cars
10:43 tend to be faster around a racetrack,
10:45 let's remember one thing.
10:46 You're not gonna set a lap record.
10:48 You're in your underwear watching me on YouTube
10:50 and I'm not gonna set a lap record
10:51 because I'm not Randy Pope.
10:53 (upbeat music)
10:55 You're not Carlos.
10:58 Put your seatbelt on.
10:59 (engine revving)
11:02 This corner's flat, bud.
11:05 - Oh, yeah, well.
11:07 - Really?
11:08 Flat on the brakes?
11:09 - Out of steering.
11:13 - Oh my God.
11:13 - Out of steering, Jake.
11:14 (laughing)
11:15 - That's because it understeers.
11:16 (tires screeching)
11:18 You know what?
11:19 I kinda don't care.
11:20 That motor is like unbelievable.
11:23 (engine revving)
11:26 - It sounds closer than it does in the neck.
11:30 - Well, it is close.
11:30 It's right there.
11:31 - Oh, right there, yes.
11:32 - It's back to the head.
11:33 (engine revving)
11:36 Porsche did such a good job of integrating that exhaust.
11:39 That (imitates engine revving)
11:42 With the exhaust, with that mechanical noise,
11:44 I could drive this all day, every day, just.
11:46 (engine revving)
11:49 - I'm in love with that.
11:50 - Woo!
11:51 (engine revving)
11:53 - Gears last forever, though.
11:55 80, 300 miles an hour in a second.
11:58 - Gear's tall.
11:59 - Gear's very tall.
12:00 Porsche loves to do that.
12:02 - Yeah.
12:02 - I don't really know why.
12:03 (engine revving)
12:06 - Yeah, that feels like you gotta wait a while
12:08 to get to the power band.
12:10 Power band's delicious, but it's way up high in the revs.
12:13 - Oh, look, at least this thing has so much mid-range torque.
12:16 I mean, if it had a regular Cayman engine,
12:18 it'd be really painful.
12:20 But, you know, once you're at three, four grand,
12:22 it really starts to wake up.
12:23 (engine revving)
12:26 - What's funny, Stu?
12:28 - Well, there's this sport button that's there
12:31 to pretend that you're the one doing the driving.
12:34 Really, it's a German guy that sits in the front
12:35 and flips the throttle on your way down.
12:37 - Oh, okay.
12:38 - And so he says, "Oh, look at you.
12:39 "It's a perfect downshift.
12:41 "It's like a double-clutch gearbox.
12:43 "It's perfect."
12:44 (engine revving)
12:46 - It just saves some warranty money on bad downshifts.
12:49 - On bad downshifts, yeah.
12:50 (engine revving)
12:52 Then there's the crappy ride button,
12:54 or in this car, it's kind of like an oversteer button,
12:57 because as soon as you get on it,
12:59 it loves to just fling itself sideways on corner entry.
13:02 (engine revving)
13:03 So you can't be nice to it if you're horrible like this.
13:06 (engine revving)
13:07 See?
13:08 (engine revving)
13:11 Oh, oh, snake in!
13:14 (engine revving)
13:17 Yeah, you just sit down in this chair right here
13:19 and let me show you how it's done.
13:21 - Ooh, those fine words.
13:23 - Come on, Georgia style.
13:25 (laughing)
13:26 - All right.
13:27 (upbeat music)
13:29 (engine revving)
13:42 - You're crazy, man!
13:44 (laughing)
13:46 - This is where I got a little too much ABS,
13:54 and I think it was 'cause of the way the road crests there.
13:56 - I think it's because the Porsche engineer in the trunk
13:59 is pulling the stop button.
14:01 - You're crazy!
14:03 You're about to kill us all!
14:04 (engine revving)
14:06 - Most powerful thing ever,
14:07 and it feels so good to get on the gas,
14:09 just feel the thing pulling hard even at 5,000 RPM.
14:13 (engine revving)
14:16 The feeling of this Cayman is good.
14:19 Right here through this fast kink,
14:22 it's really rough,
14:23 and the shocks absorb the bumps so well.
14:25 And I think that little wing
14:27 is helping keep the rear planted.
14:28 (engine revving)
14:31 - I hope so, 'cause we were all over the place
14:33 and I was scared out of my mind.
14:34 - I was asking Kim Reynolds to look up
14:36 on minimum speed through there,
14:38 because the feeling is that this is one of the quickest cars
14:41 we've ever tested through that very fast fourth gear,
14:44 110 mile an hour kink.
14:45 - I hope so, because I don't ever
14:47 have to pass with that ever.
14:48 (laughing)
14:49 - Never, again. - I do.
14:50 More, more! - No, no!
14:52 (engine revving)
14:54 - It takes a lot of power to start to balance the car.
14:57 In other words, it has really, really good traction.
15:00 It puts the power down so well that it creates understeer.
15:03 (engine revving)
15:04 - Did we all think this much power in a Cayman
15:07 would never happen because it would
15:08 overwhelm the chassis of the car?
15:10 - Oh, I never thought that, Jason.
15:12 - Well, everyone else did.
15:12 - I've always wanted a Cayman to have more power.
15:15 - You want everything to have more power, though, right?
15:18 - Yeah. - And I caught, okay.
15:19 - It still has less power than, say, the GT3.
15:22 (engine revving)
15:23 Or the old 911 models.
15:24 - But it's faster than a base 911.
15:26 It's got more power than a base 911,
15:27 and it's faster through the quarter mile.
15:29 And I didn't look up the lap times.
15:31 I'm betting it's faster.
15:33 - I think that's okay because of the wing.
15:35 - Wing? - Yeah.
15:36 - Makes it look like a race car.
15:37 (engine revving)
15:40 (engine revving)
15:43 (engine revving)
15:46 (engine revving)
15:49 (engine revving)
15:51 (engine revving)
15:54 (engine revving)
15:59 (engine revving)
16:07 (engine revving)
16:14 (engine revving)
16:19 (engine revving)
16:22 (engine revving)
16:27 (engine revving)
16:32 (engine revving)
16:37 (engine revving)
16:42 (engine revving)
16:49 (engine revving)
16:51 (engine revving)
17:00 (upbeat music)
17:17 - It looks like we're being a little hard on the GT4
17:19 with all this talk of understeer and long gear ratios.
17:21 It's only because we're holding this car
17:23 to the highest possible standards.
17:25 This is a Porsche GT car.
17:27 And in terms of lap times, oh my God.
17:29 Tangs with the big boys.
17:31 Things like the Ferrari 458 Italia
17:33 and the Audi R8 V10 Plus.
17:35 Hugely fast lap times.
17:37 (engine revving)
17:39 And the understeer, well, you know,
17:43 it was a lot worse than we thought it was gonna be.
17:45 So we brought in Porsche
17:46 and they did some adjustments to the suspension
17:48 and it got a little better.
17:49 Not quite enough.
17:51 With that said, we could spend the next six months
17:55 tuning this car to be perfect at all times
17:57 and it'd be the best six months of our lives.
17:59 (engine revving)
18:02 The fact that this car costs the same amount
18:05 as a base 911, it is no wonder it's completely sold out.
18:10 You can't have one.
18:12 Neither can we.
18:12 What was that, Randy?
18:14 What'd you say?
18:15 - That I hate this (beep) car.
18:17 It won't turn in.
18:18 You know, I think he's just making excuses
18:20 'cause he was so far away from that apex
18:22 he could've mailed it a postcard.
18:23 No!
18:24 - We waiting, we going?
18:25 (beep)
18:29 Soon as I start talking, see?
18:33 And it turns out the last Cayman we tested,
18:36 the GTS, this car's little brother,
18:38 made it, you mother (beep)
18:40 And I'm not gonna set a lap record
18:42 because I'm not Randy Post.
18:44 (upbeat music)
18:47 And you're not Carlos.
18:48 (laughing)
18:51 And I'm not (beep)
18:54 (laughing)