Find Reviews by Make:
Appearing alongside the 911 GT3 RS, the Porsche Cayman GT4 made its debut at the 2015 Geneva Auto Show.
The first Cayman to be granted a GT badge, its motivation comes via a 3.8-liter flat-six pulled from the 911 Carrera S, pushing 385 horsepower to the back via a six-speed manual. Nought to 60 comes in 4.2 seconds, with speed peaking at 183 mph.
The Cayman GT4 also pulls from the 911 GT3 parts bin, while aero maintains its grip on the road. Other options include Porsche’s Sport Chrono package, ceramic composite brakes and carbon fiber seats.
Price of admission begins at $85,595, with U.S. dealerships receiving the model starting in July.
37 Comments on “Geneva 2015: Porsche Cayman GT4 Debuts...”
Read all comments
Two words to describe this: everyday supercar.
I agree. This car makes my mouth water.
The big question is if the Cayman GT4 will be as fast around a race track as the 911 GTS…
The GT4 is faster. The GT4 matches the Nuerburgring lap time of the 911 GT3. The GT4 has 45 less HP than the GTS, but less weight and GT3 suspension pieces. It would be very intersting to see a comparison. They say 4.2 0-60 above, but Porsche is notorious for being very conservative on those numbers, so it doesn’t have much value.
I’ve seen a few discussions in the Porsche forums of people debating a 997 GT3 and the Cayman GT4.
I’m not sure lap times are that important. This is a street car that will occasionally will be tracked. What’s important is that it be comfortable and well mannered, so as to give its driver a good experience. Lap times are only important to drivers in competitive events.
“Sorry kids, Dad just used your college tuition fund on a Cayman GT4. Community College isn’t all that bad…builds character!”.
Seems like a reasaonable trade off :)
In an odd departure for Porsche, $85K seems like a very good price for a car of this caliber…at least until you figure out that the one you want has tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of additional options. Still, I love it.
The GT4 model will come pretty well equipped. Yes of course there are options, but in this category, I would expect most users to add modest options. Unless they are tracking the car of course, and truthfully, this car is built for racers.
I hope so. I definitely want it, though. Who needs that silly 911, anyway?
Well, I assume that’s sarcasm, but there are trade offs. The GT4 is track purposed, so likely a rougher ride than a Carrera. 911 will have more space and technically a back seat if you want to call it that. Probably better all around as a daily driver. But….the GT4 will be on my short list for my next car.
The ironic thing is, I doubt dealers will stock Cayman GT4s.
Caymans will usually sell in S trim with about $15k of options. My local dealer has mostly these with PDK, stickered at $75-85k.
I don’t doubt it. The GT4 will have specialized application. I would bet that most dealers will have none of these. This is not a high volume model by any means.
“In an odd departure for Porsche, $85K seems like a very good price for a car of this caliber”
Even more intersting, Porsche apparently made an annoucement that they are going to produce a pure track version of this car.
Beautiful.
They just made my dream car. It is of course infeasible but oh man does it feel close and how I would I love to put a bar and harnesses in this and take it on track with PCA.
Is it safe to say that the 911 has been replaced by the Cayman as the Porsche “drivers” car? Not that I’m remotely in the market for either, but in my eyes there are serious diminishing returns for the 911 premium with each new Cayman.
Definately arguable. The 911 will no doubt be marketed at teh flagship, but the Cayman is the better car when it comes to chasis dynamics. Up until now it was hampered by smaller engines.
I read an article about 6 months ago and Porsche has realized that the Cayman does not currently cannibalize 911 sales, so I’m sure that’s why the GT4 has now appeared. A lot of track guys have been asking for this one.
I drive a 911, but as mentioned above by Marone, the Cayman with a mid-engine platform should prove superior in handling now that it has a proper engine. The advantage to the GT4 is that it will likely hold it’s value very well and will be expensive in the used market. The previous Cayman R is the closest competitor and it’s still quite a premium. The advantage to the 911 is (in my opinion), a better everyday daily driver. A little more space both in driver room (I’m 6’3″) and in space. Most Carreras will be a little more forgiving for road use than the GT4 I’m guessing. But in reality, the GT4 better competes with the 911 GT3 as a track car. A GT4 compared to a Carrera and most other road and GT cars isn’t really an equitable comparison. The GT4 is far more pupose driven than most road cars.
I’m very excited about the GT4 and curious to see how it sells. Lots of guys in the 911 forums are interested in this car.
If you want the closest thing you can get to a manual GT3, your choices are the GT4 or a manual GTS. Driver and passenger room in the 981 Cayman is actually quite good, much less cramped feeling than the 987 Cayman.
I expect that initial GT4 sales will be quite good. The question is how it does in subsequent years after the hoopla has died down. And I also agree that dealers probably won’t stock the car, but be happy to order it for you.
If it follows the depreciation of the GT3, the depreciation will be glacial. Might as well buy a new one. Buying used probably won’t save you much until the car is pretty old.
Is the glacial depreciation due to the added cost of options like ceramic brakes and sport-chrono? Maybe a used one will command $60K in three years, but its owner will have paid over $100K for it instead of $85K.
Hard to tell with special edition Porsches. Look up a 93 or 94 RS America for example. OTOH, I can’t see a 50th anniversary 911 holding value like that with just a few doodads and a special paint job added.
The RS America was just a used car for a while. I should know, as I probably drove two of them more than I’ve driven all other 911 variants combined. They’re collectible now, for reasons that escape all logic, but that doesn’t mean that many of the original owners saw good residuals when they traded them in on 993s, or gave up on Porsches for the usual 964 reasons.
I’ve never really been a Porsche aficionado but these sporty versions of the Cayman (GTS, GT4) are REALLY growing on me….
I drove a 911 (non S) before I bought my Cayman S. The only dynamic thing that I was able to discern from the test drive was the 911 rode noticeably better. I didn’t see it being worth the extra 20k to me at the time.
Glad the comments are so positive – this was the last of the 981 exteriors I was responsible for as a designer at Porsche and the engineering team behind it is fantastic. I left for new pastures before I could drive it, but it’s sure to be an absolute blast on road or track….
Good job. The Cayman always looked a little off to me, but it really comes together with this iteration.
Have you thought about contributing a ‘Saturation Dive’ to TTAC?…
What is that??
I looked at buying a Cayman/Boxster for the second time in my life last year, the original Boxster was horrible, I hated it so much that I did not even want to drive it back to the dealer and almost called them to come pick it up. Drove the newest Cayman last year and it was okay, but the seats were awful, I had pain in my back after the drive, but even ignoring that, the car did not blow me away. The salesman had me drive a 911 after that even though I was not looking at them and to me the car was significantly better than the Cayman and worth the premium. Rode a lot better, better seats etc etc. I think the huge amount of 911s over Boxsters/Caymans on the road pretty much reflects my sentiments. I imagine the GT4 should be better than the current Cayman, but I still don’t know if it would be better than a 911, I have my doubts.
There is no car worth a pain in the back due to a mismatch between your body and the car’s seat. That said, an ordinary dealer spec’ed Cayman is unlikely to have the 18 way adjustable sport seat option at nearly $4k, which is a similar option at a similar price in the 991. With the GT4, you can also go a step further and get full buckets for around $4.7k – same look and price as those in the 991GT3. Are either of these exactly the same? No idea, but the GT4 supposedly goes to the GT3 parts bin and for the small production run it would make sense.
re: “…the original Boxster was horrible, I hated it so much that I did not even want to drive it back to the dealer…”
i strongly disagree with your statement and many others apparently did/do as well. i still own and operate the ’97 boxster i purchased new eighteen years ago. and i still have car magazines printed at the time which were unanimous in crowning the boxster as the undisputed winner among all the new/competing sports cars in its class [eg. the original bmw z3, the m-b slk]. the original boxster was also credited as being the model that ‘saved’ porsche. it received multiple “car of the year” accolades and in one instance was even proclaimed “car of the decade.”
eighteen years and more than 98k miles into my experience, it still remains an absolute joy to drive!
This thing looks awesome. I somewhat doubt there will be any deals to be had on this in Canada for a while though. There is already someone here trying to sell his allocation of one for $10K.
http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/van/cto/4915131091.html
Back to basics 911. Well done, Porsche.
Don’t know about yellow, though.
Love the GT4 and the price is not too crazy, relative to past cars, but I think this could have been the GT-S and sold for 10k cheaper, 385HP is ~50 more HP than a 25K-30K Genesis, Camaro, Mustang, 370Z etc etc. for $65K? Not saying its still not a bargain, just hate those facts!
Although again, as fast an even a Z06 or Skyline GT-R is, this car is a drivers car on another level I am sure! That is very valuable!
A thing of beauty. Porsche must have finally moved the 911 $ufficently up market to allow a big motor in the Cayman….what will the aftermarket guys do now ?
Actually from talking to a shop that mods Porsches, one of the big issues for them is cracking the Porsche encryption codes that keep on getting more sophisticated. As for what they will do in the longer term once those codes finally get cracked is the same thing they have done in the past. These are normally aspirated engines and you can only get a big jump in hp/torque by turbo-charging them. After that, there will be the usual suspension/exhaust tweaks, etc.
These guys will still be around in the short term