Porsche has been accused of intentionally "holding back" the mid-engine Cayman and Boxer line, to "protect" the more expensive rear engine 911 models.
Cars with mid-mounted engine are believed to inherit better balance and less understeer than rear engine or traditional front engine vehicles. Despite this inherit advantage, Cayman and Boxster never received the bigger displacement or turbo-charged engines. Cayman and Boxster also did not have a track-oriented "GT" trim, unlike 911 which used to have not one but four - GT3, GT3 4.0, GT2 and GT2 RS.
Was it just unfavorable market conditions or was it because of Porsche making a conscious effort in preserving the historical 911 line as it's most performant sports car?
The introduction of a track oriented Cayman GT4 with a roll-cage, single lug nut rims and aggressive rear wing, should serve as a signal that whatever 911 protection policy there might have been, no longer applies.
When you look past the track-ready looks, there is a constant, slightly disturbing feeling that Porsche still has not cut all the chains and let the Cayman completely loose in the wild.
Instead of 430 horsepower which you get from the same engine in Carrera GTS, Cayman GT4 has to make use of 390. Instead of a PDK gearbox, Cayman GT4 gets a laptime-unfriendly manual. Instead of trying to raise the bar in street-legal performance, Porsche GT division is taking a subset of technology they already had with 991 GT3, and applying it to the Cayman.
Width this approach it would be surprising if a car built with 911 GT3 leftovers was able to beat the GT3 around the Ring or anywhere else. And Porsche is not expecting or wanting us to expect the GT4 to do that.
According to Porsche head of GT cars Andreas Preuninger, the ballpark Nurburgring time for Cayman GT4 is "under 7 minutes and 40 seconds". This is nowhere near the 911 GT3 7:25. However, despite its many corners (more corners than in any other circuit in the world), Nordschleife should be categorized as a fast track and, therefore, it rewards more powerful cars.
Tracks where Cayman GT4 will shine the brightest should be smaller and slowed down by low speed corners, where power to weight ratio outweighs pure power and mid-engine balance and turn-in bite becomes crucial.
In such environments we will, hopefully, see some surprise results from independent tests, which will disrupt the established hierarchy in Porsche's model line.
Such "surprise results", however, are not guaranteed - hence the word "surprise". The advantages of mid engine cars are only theoretical, unless backed-up by real-life tests. Therefore it is also probable that the 911 platform, with all of it's state-of-the-art goodies, such as rear wheel steering, has actually surpassed the Cayman platform, and would yield better laptimes even with all other variables being equal.
