Porsche Cayman GT4 Undisguised!
Yep, fair enough: the 718 Cayman GT4 is the worst kept secret in all of automotive, and has been strutting its stuff in front of any lens it can find for what feels like years. On track, on snow and on road, there aren't many places it hasn't been seen. But the extensive testing, and fervent following of that testing, has been for good reason: the 981 GT4 was sensational, and this version needs to be at least the car that was. We want it to be good, Porsches needs it be good - hence the constant papping. Seeing the car as it will look in the showroom has revealed no great surprises, though the opportunity to look at a car blemished only by tape and bugs remains an exciting one. Points of note here are the chunky rear wing, a noticeably different front end to a 718 - see the vents on the trailing edges, the chunkier intakes and the more aggressive front diffuser - plus new daytime running lights.
This particular car is also sporting the ceramic brakes and what could be a Clubsport-spec half cage, this one potentially tasked with setting a Nordschleife lap time. The last car recorded a 7:40, a time Porsche will expect to beat at some point. Given the work that has gone into making the 4.0-litre flat-six in the 911 Speedster Euro6d compliant, it would have to be assumed that that engine will power the GT4 and upcoming Boxster Spyder. Using a bit of logic - first time for everything on PistonHeads - we'd expect the GT4 to have 410hp. There or thereabouts. The GT3 gained 25hp in the swap from 3.8-litres (albeit a different engine) to 4.0-litres, and applying that to the old GT4's 385hp gives a figure comfortably beyond 400hp and a nice, round 100hp less than the Speedster engine. Otherwise, there really is nothing else left to say. Honest. The speculation, conjecture and guesswork has been exhausted - all that's left now is to see the car. Sources suggest it'll be at the Festival of Speed in July, which isn't far off now.
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The Cayman GTS & GT4 will almost certainly hold their value better than 鈥済arden variety鈥?911 Carreras and Caymans. That鈥檚 what always happens with limited production variants, when those variants have a meaningful performance bump not available as an option on other models. 2400 GT4s were built for North America alone, which probably means more than 5000 are out there globally. Interestingly, the 997.2 Carrera GTS coupe is rarer. As the fastest version of the non-Turbo 997, it might be an even better bet for holding value. The analogy might be the M491-package air-cooled cars of the 1980鈥檚. These fetch a serious premium over regular 911SCs and 3.2 Carreras. 997 Turbos are still (barely) in your price range, and going up from there. They鈥檙e remarkably low-production. Rarer than mid-engined Ferraris and Lambos of the same year, IIRC. 991 Carreras and 718 Boxsters/Caymans are just at the beginning of their depreciation curves, so rank them down if you鈥檙e very sensitive to value retention. Other than that, drive one of each and pick the one you like. Everyone I know who has a Cayman or a newer Boxster likes it. Personally I find the older (986/987) Boxster loathsomely torque-less and the newer ones - along with the 991 - unforgivably lacking in steering feel. But, every time I drive any variant of the 997 coupe I get a little giggly and start checking my bank balance to see if I can buy it. 35k, and I just don鈥檛 think they鈥檙e going to get that much cheaper.