Article content The Porsche 718 is the “junior” sports car in the Porsche lineup and it suffers from seemingly interminable little brother syndrome just like the 914 which preceded it some 45 years ago. The 718 is smaller and lighter than a Porsche 911 and with an equal engine to a 911 you could reason that the 718 would be able to outdo its famous big brother on track. But Porsche has a habit of short changing the 718 (née Boxster/Cayman) and seemingly always finding a way to handicap it.
The original 914-6 was only fitted with Porsche’s lowest-output 6-cylinder even when the sportier versions were dimensionally identical. The standard 718 GT4 model has a great engine but was hampered by intergalactic gear ratios (whether you chose the PDK or the manual) which had it doing 132 km/h in second gear! But as a swan song for the gasoline-powered 718, Porsche finally delivered and made the 718 everything we knew it could be. Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS gets the engine it always deserved The Porsche 718 GT4 RS came out in 2022 so I am a little late to the party but I had to drive one while these are still around.
The tasty recipe to make a 718 GT4 RS is to take one part lightweight 718 chassis and stir in one Porsche 911 GT3 engine. That’s the basic idea but it’s not that simple if you look closer. Dimensionally, the big issue with shoving a 911 GT3 motor into a Cayman is that it uses large vertical intake stacks that are not compatible with the 718’s mid-engine packagi.