Porsche Tests Rally 718 Cayman GT4

Porsche’s motorsport department in Weissach is pushing ahead with the development of a Cayman GT4 Clubsport designed to comply with FIA R-GT rallying regulations. Porsche investigated the idea of turning a 981 Cayman GT4 Clubsport into a rally prospect last summer, revealing a concept car at the 2018 ADAC Rallye Deutschland. However, this new car is based on the motorsport-only 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport revealed at the very beginning of January 2019. The new rally 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport performed its first demonstration run, wearing studded snow and ice tyres, at the Porsche Winter Event held before the GP Ice Race in Zell am See in Austria. Porsche works driver, Richard Lietz, performed driving duties.

The 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport is powered by a 3.8-litre flat-six engine producing 425hp, several of its body parts are made of natural-fibre composite materials – a first for a Porsche vehicle. Porsche aims to enter this new variant into the R-GT class of rallying, the category has relatively low operating costs because vehicles retain a very close affinity to their production counterparts. Porsche hopes that the new type of GT4 will be ready for the 2020 rallying season. We have yet to see a road-going 718 Cayman GT4. Hopeful

Porsche’s planned return to rallying with the GT4 follows a long history of success in the sport. It claimed overall victory at the Dakar Rally in 1986 with the 959, and the 953 (based on a four-wheel-drive version of the 911) also won the famous Dakar event. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Vic Elford and Björn Waldegard took legendary Monte Carlo Rally victories in Porsche 911s. In more recent times it has been privateer teams flying the 911 flag in the sport, even Porsche’s works drivers Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas have taken on private rallying projects