First Drive: 2022 Porsche Cayman GT4 RS Review

Porsche spends a lot of time making its ultimate car. There’s been umpteen ultimate versions of the Porsche 911 which have had some variety of the famous RS badge applied to denote they are the very, very top of the line. But this is the first time that those two letters, which stand for RennSport (or Racing Sport) have been applied to the smaller sportscar.

There’s also long been concern that some of the faster versions of the Cayman are pushing right into 911 territory, making the more famous brother a little redundant. On the face of it the new Porsche Cayman GT4 RS will just make that differentiation even more difficult. It’s as fast as a 911 GT3, but undercuts its bigger brother by about £20,000. But, Porsche insists they are different cars. The GT3 is for the track, the GT4 RS is for the road. And then they released a Nürburgring lap time... so is this really the ultimate Porsche for the road? Or Porsche’s worst marketing nightmare?

To become the GT4 RS the Cayman has been inflated and pumped up from almost every possible angle. We have to start with that rear wing, upon which a state dinner could easily be held. It’s not small and does dominate the car in a way that the standard GT4’s more modest rear appendage could never do. But it is just one part of a large increase in aero power for the RS. Its mounts are now swan-necked like the ones on the 911 GT3, while below the diffuser has grown to add more downward suction. There’s also a pair of exhausts which Porsche liken to those on the 935. Whether or not that’s a working comparison, we’ll leave to you.

The Cayman GT4 was already a pretty vent-ey car, with a wide mouth and big blowholes behind the doors, but the RS takes it up a notch. There are NACA ducts on the bonnet, aero exits on top of the front arches, extra intakes for the new manifold instead of rear side windows and aggressive aero inserts in front of the front wheels. 

You absolutely cannot miss the GT4 RS even if you tried. But the good thing is that, while there’s an awful lot going on there, it works, especially with the character of the car.

There are several red flags the moment you approach the Cayman GT4 RS. Not just the extravagant exterior, but the incredible bucket seats – looking like something from a dungeon rather than a car – the five-point racing harness and the existence of that Nürburgring lap time. Together they set the GT4 RS up as something hard-edged and menacing.

But the numbers start to blur the edges of that angry vision. Equipped with a 4.0-litre flat-six derived from the one in the Porsche 992 GT3 Cup car, the GT4 RS will hit 62mph as fast the 911 GT3, but it does so with relatively little uplift over the Cayman GT4 – itself an utterly manageable machine. The GT4 RS gets 500PS (368kW), a decent 80PS increase over the standard GT4, which means the RS can hit 196mph, but peak torque is 450Nm (331lb-ft), a relatively small 30Nm higher than the GT4. 

That perhaps speaks to Porsche’s insistence that this car is for the road. There are no absolutely manic numbers to be found on the spec sheet. Weighing in at around 1,400kg the Cayman hardly needs to be pumped up to produce excellent performance. 

The engine is an absolute masterpiece too, it will happily rev right round to its 9,000rpm redline, screaming like a demented banshee the entire way – well until 8,500rpm when the sound just goes nuclear. That new manifold means it breathes so freely that throttle response is incredibly crisp, with each movement soundtracked by the wail of combustion and the rasp of induction. 

The chassis is nicely balanced, despite having been stiffened up for better performance. The Cayman GT4 RS is blessed with bespoke settings for its springs, shock absorbers and rollbars. The car feels instantly stiffer, jiggling over bumps more than a Cayman might otherwise do, but the real masterpiece here, hidden below that opera star of an engine, is the use of Porsche’s Active Suspension Management (PASM) with a ride height sitting 30mm lower. The system, long seen on the Porsche range, does excellent work soaking up and communicating the bumps and craters of a British B-Road. While you can feel that the GT4 RS is stiff, you can also sense the dampers doing their work, stopping that judder from rattling the GT4 into several balls of metal.

Hook all that together and it’s an addictive proposition. The engine pushes you on and on, making far more noise than 60mph really warrants, adding drama to every movement. The steering is lightweight, perhaps too lightweight, but full of connection, and the chassis will apparently put up with anything. The Michelin Pilot Sport 2s provide adequate grip (2 Rs are available as an option) with the nose able to dig in without much protest. There’s some slight understeer there, but it’s that instantaneous complaint that disappears when the tyres find traction a fraction of a second later. The rear is mostly set fair through the corner, but if all four-litres of action are called for from the engine you can finish a corner off with the most satisfying of slips. 

The most incredible moment driving the GT4 RS is when you realise the confidence it’s sending your way. Despite the drama and fury of that engine, it’s a confident experience at the wheel. The GT4 RS never feels like it’s going to bite you, to react to an input with the anger it seems to harbour and dismiss you to the sidelines. Instead, it works with you, growing your confidence from corner to corner. 

There are no Sport or Sport Plus settings for the GT4 RS, just individual adjustments for the PDK double-clutch gearbox, the dampers and the ESC and traction control. The gearbox, a seven-speed, is excellent, and in sport mode, the combination with the engine as it barks its way through the gears will send a tingle through your spine. Yes, it is perhaps questionable whether a car can be the ultimate road toy if there’s no manual option, but the PDK is not a detriment. 

The dampers' harsher setting is very harsh, and doesn’t seem to add enough to its cornering to make the compromise in ride quality worthwhile. We didn’t spend any time with the GT4 RS on a track, but I think this is where that firmer setting would come into its own.

The Cayman GT4 RS’s insides stick very much to the Porsche 718 blueprint. It’s not the tech bonanza that the 911 or Taycan have become, with no binnacle of screens and only a simple touchscreen in the centre. There’s even still a proper stick to control the gearbox, rather than Porsche’s current toggle that pervades across the range.

The RS touches are kept to the things that you come into contact with. First, there are those extraordinary bucket seats. Sculpted from alcantara and carbon, they look uncomfortable – with little adjustment, but in fact, hold you perfectly. Yes, a larger driver might spill out, but the support provided is excellent. Then there are the belts: a five-point harness as standard, supplemented by a standard belt. The big harness is a nice addition but feels superfluous to the reality of the excellent car. Finally the wheel, a standard piece of Porsche-looking kit, but shorn of any additions. This is a pure steering implement, no buttons or dials to be found. It’s brilliant in its simplicity. 

Yes, the Porsche Cayman GT4 RS is a more hardcore version of an already sporty car, but don’t let that make you think this is some kind of stripped-back mid-‘90s special. The GT4 RS is still filled with kit despite its rather lairy look. 

Two-zone climate control, a digital radio, electric windows, cupholders, Bluetooth, sat-nav and even Apple CarPlay are standard for you £108,000.

Has Porsche managed to make two separate but justifiable cars in the 911 GT3 and Cayman GT4 RS? It’s easy to argue that they are so close they’ll be hard to market, but I think they have managed to make two legitimate cars.

The GT4 RS is a cacophony of sensations, there is very little to keep you from anything that’s going on. With little sound deadening from that massive engine you could very nearly receive a massage from the cylinders, the sticky Michelin rubber picks up stones and flings them onto the unprotected floor and the noise of the intake and exhausts is a visceral experience. Together they make this one of the most incredible experiences you can have in a car that seems realistically usable on the road.

The Cayman GT4 RS is an automotive grin of a car, guaranteed to just leave you smiling from ear-to-ear after a few minutes at the wheel. It sounds cliché but to sew together a series of corners in the RS feels satisfying and exhilarating. OK so the steering could be better weighted and to live with it would be an absolute nightmare but they are minor foibles. Is this the best car that Porsche has ever made? Almost definitely not. Is it the one that I’m left desperate to jump back into first? Absolutely.