Porsche makes GTS a sound investment

ALL THE GROWL OF THE GT4.. AND A WINNER ON THE ROADS

Back in 2016, Porsche fitted a new four-cylinder turbo engine to its Boxster and Cayman sports cars, badging them the 718 after a race car it built in the late 1950s.

The idea sounded like a winner for well-heeled petrolheads.

Such a pity the engine didn’t sound so glorious.

It made the Boxster and Cayman 718s better to drive and faster. But sales dropped off because it sounds like a Beetle if you’re being polite – or a pig farting if you’re not.

The option if you mourned the loss of the six-cylinder engines was to buy a Cayman GT4 with a 4.0-litre engine borrowed from the 911 but without the turbochargers and a bigger capacity by a litre.

Porsche launched the second generation Cayman GT4 last year which we tested. Not cheap but the best sports car you can buy for any money.

Or it was until the new Cayman GTS arrived which we tested before lockdown.

For starters it uses exactly the same engine as the GT4 which means a 4.0-litre flat-six that’s naturally aspirated.

The only difference between the GT4 and GTS is that in the former the motor revs to 8,000rpm and in the latter it’s 7,800rpm. With the lost 200rpm goes 20bhp, but you won’t notice on the road because the GTS still has 394bhp and the same 431Nm of torque.

Porsche will have only done it for marketing reasons so that the GT4 is still top dog. So what do you lose having by buying the Cayman GTS?

Again, not much you’ll notice on our roads.

Firstly it doesn’t have the same aerodynamic package as the GT4 because the rear wing has gone

and there’s no underbody diffuser. Bang goes 100kg of downforce at 150mph.

Also the front suspension on the more extreme car has rose joints whereas the GTS’S suspension has standard rubber bushes.

Rose joints are what you find on racing cars – they make the suspension geometry more accurate but transmit more shocks from the road.

You’re going to love this car if you’re a traditionalist because like the GT4 it comes with a six-speed manual gearbox – well, almost the same but with a slightly longer gear lever movement.

It’s a lovely gearbox to use and has an auto-blip function that raises the engine revs a little as you change down a gear.

Unless you really need the two small rear seats there’s no reason to buy a 911 over this car.

The Cayman GTS is lighter, slimmer and more fun to drive by some margin. I like the 911 a lot, but this is where my money would go.

The engine is absolutely fantastic. It doesn’t have a huge amount of power under 3,000rpm so you’re encouraged to rev it which sounds wonderful with the exhaust set to sporty.

The GT4 comes standard with carbon ceramic brakes but they’re a five grand option on this car.

If you were going to drive on a circuit on a regular basis they’re worth it – but for road use you won’t have much trouble with the standard steel set-up.

The GTS has less sticky and slightly narrower tyres than the GT4 which you can just about notice if you push the car hard through a corner. But the car

It’s lighter, slimmer and more fun to drive than the 911 by some margin

handles so well it’s immaterial. On the simple steering wheel you’ll find a knob that, when twisted, selects between Normal, Sport and Sport Plus settings in the car’s standard Porsche Active Suspension Management system.

Normal gives you sharp handling with a comfortable ride and the next two stiffen things up.

My favourite sports car of the moment is still the Alpine A110, but only in its cheapest and simplest form.

The argument for buying the more powerful A110S – launched last year – over this new Porsche is rather hard to make.