Quote:
Originally Posted by Davil
Agree. It's not a track car ar all. Fantastic road car that is quite capable on a track. The Cayman is a track car not so much fun on the road.
"Feel And Fun Matter, Big Time
The delivery is the defining difference. The Cayman's strength is also its (relative) Achilles' heel: It belongs on a racetrack, and it just doesn't find its magic on the street until you're on the bleeding edge. Problem is, that's really asking for trouble considering how fast it is. You just can't get into a cosmic groove with this car until you're driving right to the absolute limit of the road; it feels like a dance on the very edge of sanity with no margin left before catastrophe. You just wish you could enjoy the GT4 more before you extend yourself to such a hair-raising level.
We're not saying whatsoever the car isn't enjoyable before the last tenth. Rather, this 718 is so good and so precise and so isolating that it doesn't feel like you're really challenging it until the last bit, and that makes it less exciting to drive in most realistic circumstances than it should be. A lower-spec Cayman isn't as quick, but it tends to feel more emotional, more engaging, and more fun on the road. Again, though: If track work is your bag, the 2021 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 is your lunch.
The ABS issue Pobst reported is part of the problem. American roads are even bumpier than the Streets of Willow, and often in braking zones. It's one thing to feel the pedal momentarily go wooden and the braking g-forces drop when you're staring down a wide-open runoff area on a track; it's another entirely on a mountain road. The thing is, the Porsche will stop. The feeling only lasts a split second, but it shakes your confidence. It takes at least a half dozen of these "oh crap" moments before your brain accepts the car will stop regardless of what the pedal tells you in the moment.
Rear damping is also an issue Pobst reported during our last Best Driver's Car competition. Although the Streets of Willow's small, high-frequency bumps didn't trigger it, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca's few big bumps better approximate real-world mountain roads. Driving on California's famed Angeles Crest Highway, it felt as if the front and rear ends weren't working in sync. Just as Pobst said, the rear is underdamped, leaping off of bumps after using up all of its short suspension travel on the compression stroke. It just never feels fully settled, even if it hangs on like a rusted vice grip."
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Pobst also flat out said the GT4 was all around the better car.
Again, don't agree here. The GT4 is surely aimed at the track primarily, but as an owner can tell you its as compliant if not more so on the street than the CS. The GTS is aimed at the street which is why it is more comfortable.
I don't particularly care for turbo engines, so an NA engine will also put much more emotion and charm in a car than a boring and awful sounding turbo. The GT4 is as much fun at 20 mph as it is 120 mph. Unlike most here, I have actually driven both...
From Dan Prosser
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Even with its adaptive dampers set to their softest setting, the M2 CS rides firmly. It's always busy and taut, but never crashy. Even so and
given the money you'd be spending, I would hope for the kind of sophisticated, absorbent damping you find only in the very best performance cars and only from time to time. You get it in GT Porsches, in certain Lamborghinis and, unexpectedly, in the 2012 Mercedes-AMG C63 Black Series as well. Those cars glide across a bumpy road as though on a pocket of compressed air, soaking up intrusions and levelling out compressions, but while keeping their bodies under firm control. I had anticipated something similar from the
M2 CS, but instead found toughness and a lack of composure over bumps."
Like the BMW it
(GT4) rides with a certain firmness that never quite turns uncomfortable, but its
suspension does a better job of smothering poor surfaces while keeping the mass of the body in check."
Right there, the GT4 even is more compliant which is what I experienced driving them back to back. Porsche is the best in the business when it comes to suspension set up with rebound and dampening and has been this way since the 991 was introduced and they continue to evolve it and lead the pack, same as the do with PDK, their manual gearbox, the list goes on and on...