Porsche 911 GT3 996–992.2 vs Porsche Cayman GT4 981–982
“The 911 GT3 is an engine you build a weekend around; the Cayman GT4 is the mid-engine car you get comfortable in quickly and can actually live with.
The engine gap is the one thing nobody here disputes. Zygrene, who has run the two back to back more than anyone on this page, puts the GT3's flat-six "on a whole different plane of existence" and "so far beyond the engine of the GT4 in terms of response, sound, power delivery, emotion." Chris Harris says the GT4's motor "doesn't feel as special as a 911 GT3 engine because it's not" and then calls it pretty spectacular anyway. Tedward, a GT4 owner, found his car a little light on horsepower and, next to a GT3, a touch sterile.
What the GT4 gives back is ease. Savagegeese adapted to it quickly where the GT3 took time to learn, it "soaks up the bumps better than the GT3," and Carfection disagrees "fervently" that a GT3 is a car you live with every day. Its limit is at the back: the strut rear never gives the corner-entry confidence of the GT3's multi-link.
The GT3 is the event; the GT4 is the one you'll use. How much the event is worth is where the money argument starts.
You want the engine first and everything else second. You'll take the firmer ride and the longer learning curve for a flat-six that revs higher and sounds like nothing in the Cayman, and for a rear end you can trust on the way into a corner.
You want a GT car you can drive hard on day one and drive home afterwards. The softer ride, the mid-engine balance and the manual matter more to you than the higher redline, and you'd rather keep the difference in price.
Is the engine worth the premium? Zygrene says the GT3 is "easily worth $30,000 more" as a driving experience; Doug DeMuro calls the GT4 "almost as good of a car" for far less money. If the flat-six is the reason you're buying, GT3. If you want the balance, the ride and the gearbox, GT4.
Two splits. On handling, Zygrene's track time favours the GT3, with more rear traction on corner entry and a strut rear he calls the GT4's limitation, while Savagegeese found the GT4 the quicker car to get used to and Autocar argues the middle is simply the right place for a circuit car's engine. On value, Zygrene would pay the premium every time and Doug DeMuro thinks the GT4 gets you nearly all the way there. Worth knowing: five of the sixteen videos are Zygrene's, so the pro-GT3 chassis case rests largely on one driver, and the GT3s on this page run from 996 to 992.
Performance
“I have a GT 4 and why I love that car it was just a little plate in the horsepower department... the gt3 kind of solved that problem”
“it doesn't feel as special as a 911 GT3 engine because it's not but it's still pretty spectacular”
Handling
“Rear traction on this car on corner entry is definitely much more confidence inspiring compared to the GT4.”
“I think that's a limitation of the strut suspension. Even with the DSC controller, it doesn't make it fully confidence-inspiring if that makes sense. Not like a GT3 with multi-link rear.”
“I adapted to it very quickly whereas when I got into the GT3 or GT3 RS it took me some time to get used to the Dynamics of that car”
“As Engineers will tell you the best place to put an engine for a car that spends a lot of time on a circuit is in the middle.”
Fun to drive
“that is particularly relevant because today one of those will also set you back about the same amount of money and that I think is definitely a quicker car but a hair less engaging”
