CAYMAN GT4 RALLYE IS GO
GT4 rally car prepped for 2020 FIA R-GT season
The wait goes on for the production version of the 718 Cayman GT4. In the meantime, Porsche has confirmed that a new rally version of the car is go for competition in 2020. The motorsport department in Weissach is officially developing the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport to comply with the FIA R-GT rally series regulations.
Porsche says the decisive factor in this decision was the positive response at the launch of the Cayman GT4 Rallye Concept Car at the 2018 ADAC Rallye Deutschland, where Romain Dumas drove the concept study, based on the previous 981 GT4, as the course car. Now the car has had its first demo run on snow at the Porsche Winter Event held before the GP Ice Race in Zell am See, Austria in mid January. Piloting the concept car was local hero Richard Lietz, who currently ranks third in the Fiaworld Endurance Championship GTE-PRO category.
Porsche has also confirmed the new rally car will be based directly on the recentlyannounced 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport race car, unveiled in early January. Thus, power comes from a revised 3.8-litre flat-six engine producing 425hp. Porsche says the focus for the new car was not only performance, but driveability and sustainability. To that end, several body parts are made of natural-fibre composite material for the first time.
For the record, the R-GT series regulations were introduced by FIA, the world’s governing motorsport body, for the 2011 season. The aim of the concept is to give customer teams and private drivers a chance to take on the significant sporting challenge of rallies in a cost effective way. For the 2014 season, the regulations were again extensively revised. Customers can contest events around the world with R-GThomologated vehicles. Highlights include the famous Monte Carlo Rally and the legendary Tarmac stages of the WRC round run on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.
As for Porsche’s rally credentials, well, there’s overall victory at the Dakar Rally in 1986 with the Porsche 959. The Porsche 953, based on a four-wheel-drive version of the 911, also won the Dakar Rally. In the late sixties and early seventies, Vic Elford and Björn Waldegard celebrated major triumphs with the Porsche 911 at the legendary Monte Carlo Rally. Not too shabby, then.