I do like the car, it ticks a lot of the right boxes, and no onehas driven one yet, so its speculation but, so far cant say on spec I love it. Part or what made the 997 Gt3 special was the motor. The new 991 motor is elss exotic than the metzger motor but still special. The cayman Gt4 does not have a dry sump, it does not have titanium conrods or lightweight crank, these are things that make a motor highly responsive, there was also comment in the evo video about tallish gearing. I know these things to heart having recently built a motor and gearbox for my track car, and paid great attention to low reciprocating mass, and gears more for track, even though low internal mass does not change HP. The GT4 seems to me more of a superlaive street car, at least in terms of drivetrain, and I am sure its trackable to a degree. Now I am not saying the GT4 should have a 9k redline 991 Gt3 motor, not least because such a motor would be inapropriate for a stick. But what we have here is a warmed over cayman with great suspension. My bet is the reviews will say this thing can have more go because the suspension is certainly up to it. I am sure the GT4 is a great car, maybe in time will be seen as one of the greats. But in contrast to say GM who goes all out with the vette or z28, ie how possibly fast and great handling can we make it, the Gt4 looks like a german marketing special. How exciting would the GT350R seem with a regular coyote motor, the flat plane carnk spec is 50% of the excitement. And w eknow a flat plane crank is about responsiveness more than Hp. Within the confines of a stick and limited development, they would have made a truly epic machine by incorporating some Gt3 motor bits too. 1973 Rs porche, the motor and gearing were a big part of the picture. Maybe porche still too afraid to make the cayman too good, as it is it looks like they are 2/3 of the way there. The money was spent on the suspension and stiffening the body, now lets see the rest of the package, In any event all my comentary is based purely on spec releasd so far, my gues is it wins evo pcoty, and porche decides to amp it up firther, my guess if sucessful this is GT4 Mk1 and an RS coming.
Looks like the GT4 is sold out even before a wheel turns in any type of review. In some ways this amkes it more sucessful than the Gt3, which is easily available for msrp and even off the showroom floor. Hopfully that is a message to porche that there is still a robust enough market for a viceral track capable stick car, and that this is a good niche formula to serve.
The 911 is P's meal ticket. They do not want the 4 to encroach the 3. Some nice tweaks would be good. Perhaps the Alfa will force some change ?
If that is true, the #1 reason is because of the stick and the 2nd the semi gt3 spec package. If it was pdk it would not have sold so fast. Way too many paddle shifts cars out there and they are boring. Porsche studied the market and listened to the customers demand seen an opening and took it. Smart move !!! Just my 2 cents
Certainly a lot of excitement and expectations surrounding this car. My local dealer had a dozen deposits within days of the release.
I dont think its that porche studied the market so much as responded to the howling response from the porche faithful. This car has two deletions the faithful demmand, no pdk and no centrelocks. In time maybe it will also have titanium conrods etc. With allt he tech crammed into the GT3 the cayman GT$ is now free to grow to the max, it will always be "lesser" on paper spec because its stick and does not have rws.
Surely Porsche studied the market! If they listen to the porsche faithful they would still all be air cooled. LOL They know most cars in its class are some kind of paddle shift cars. In different interviews they've always said they might do manuals on very special cars and this is a special car as you can see it's hot. They know there is a strong demand not just from porsche faithfuls but ferrari faithfuls also. They already said it's in it's own class by it's self. Porsche has the cayman, cayman S, caymanGTS and now cayman GT4 They knew they could sell it. Again My 2cents
PORSCHE CAYMAN GT4 REVIEW: IS THE MIGHTY 911 GT3 TREMBLING IN ITS BOOTS? CHRIS HARRIS FINDS OUT https://grrc.goodwood.com/road/drives-and-rides/porsche-cayman-gt4-driven Image Unavailable, Please Login
"Given the disparate nature of those requirements I think Porsche has done a superb job, but and heres the rub I wouldnt sell my 991 GT3 to own a GT4 unless I was absolutely obsessed with the manual gear change. The bigger cars engine is on a completely different level, and it offers more options to play with lines and angles at speed on a circuit. And it is way, way quicker and more aggressive." Probably sums it up.
Depends on whether Porsche is struggling to make its numbers or needs the RS to homologate a more capable race car. On balance I think unlikely.
Yep once you have something close to a Gt3 mtoro ina Gt4, then different story. The good part its a stick, no centrelocks.
Thye say given the huge sucess of the Gt4 a RS is a very real possibility and they are strating work. BTW you cant buy a GT4 all sold out. I guess its a stick thing.
IMHO that's the strategy they should have chosen... 991 GT3 and Cayman GT4 with manual gears, and GT3 RS and GT4 RS for the 1/10th nuts... No one makes more money than Porsche per car, they could certainly have afforded to do both gearboxes in these road racers.
Dealer confirmed 600 us production. 9 out of 9 918 customers have ordered them. Likely no allocation for non 918 customers from my dealer. He did say they have not received from PNA their allocations on the GT4. But the 918 customer allocation is confirmed of 9 units.
I would guess 600 US production would rise if there's demand. I haven't looked at Cayman US sales stats in a while, but I recall they were below 100/month for a long time (the 981 reboot really helped), lagging far behind the 911 and SUVs, and behind the Boxster, IIRC. That includes PDK manuals and three-pedal manuals. So, we were seeing about 1,200 Cayman base/S sold for several years. 600 GT4's sounds like a generous run for the US to start. After the initial rush, I suspect there will be an ample supply. A GT4 RS, though, could be a rare bird...
