Porsche Cayman GTR

Porsche owners may be the most hard-core of sports car owners. For one, they’re dedicated to a car company that has won more than 23,000 international races, and far more endurance races than any other. A company that, but for the strange aberration of an SUV that apparently can only be explained by admitting it saved the company, is exclusively sports car through and through. Ok there was this off-shore racing boat with 928 V-8s, a tractor, Harley’s V-Rod, and, well, let us just say that Porsche is more Performance Car than any other car company.

Since 1947 they’ve never produced any vehicle with 4-doors, but for the aberrant Cayenne, explained above.

There are more racing parts for Porsche owners and more racing web sites and more racing everything, for Porsche owners.

Porsche enthusiasts wait for Porsche to come out with souped-up versions, the “RS.” It’s not just a little more horsepower, or fancy racing stripes. Porsche doesn’t put little “LE” badges on car, charge more, and expect people to pony up. When Porsche soups up a car, it is typically, the rumor goes, the car their engineers really wanted to build to begin with – the car they tested on the track, and the car they will, or would, race. It is usually called their “RS” for “Race Sport.” That is the version of the car that is the most balanced, the most “complete” and perfect.

Notice also that as the supercar wars heated up, Ferrari produced an Enzo, Mercedes the SLR, and Porsche’s Carrera GT came out with an initially underwhelming impression. A normally-aspirated V-10, it wasn’t exactly the fastest or the most outrageous. But as more and more reviewed it, the real beauty showed – it was a truly finished car. Imminently drivable, pleasurable, hand-layed carbon fiber everywhere, and the grain was even symmetrical. Porsches have always been extremely well thought out and useful every day cars.

Switch gears one more time for another interesting factoid soon to be “Connected” with this car – a man named Horst Farnbacher was the best car-preparer in the Porsche Supercup series. That’s a series of races that precede each F1 race. The cars are identically prepared, and sealed, Porsches. The only variables are the driver’s skill, and the ability of his head mechanic to set up the car for that track, using only suspension tweaks. The best mechanics in the world compete in that super-high-pressure and super-high-visibility contest. Farnbacher won it two years in a row. He’s good with preparing Porsches.

So now what does that have to do with this car?

Many believe Porsche’s mid-engine Cayman may actually be a better platform than the 997’s, even better than the Boxster’s, which has some limitations for actual racing, and was never intended for intense competition. The Cayman has a suspiciously-large hole, right where the Carrera GT’s motor is, and some really solid engineering throughout. Enthusiasts go weak on the knees thinking of the potential. To keep the Cayman priced below the Boxster, Porsche underpowered it. No problem, say the Faithful – we’ll just wait for the “RS” version.

Porsche announced January 30th that they would not be making a Cayman RS.

FarnbacherLoles knew what to do. Most of it they won’t tell anyone. And with only 57 miles on the odometer, they were still fine tuning.

But we do know they put a Porsche 997 3.8 litre “S” motor in it, along with the special $16,900 X-51 power kit option, which means revised cylinder heads, different exhaust headers and camshafts, more aggressive profiles, and different intake plenum, as well as the standard tweaks to exhaust and engine mapping. Its horsepower went up from 295 to 375 (and 405 hp in some versions), with torque at 306 ft-lbs at 5,000 rpm, all without supercharging or turbo-charging. That’s just good old-fashioned solid horsepower, and it comes from an understressed motor, rather than one that’s been upped to within an inch of its life, as aftermarket “tuners” tend to do.

As a result, this Cayman has more horsepower than last year’s Porsche GT3!

Yet it retains all of Porsche’s electronics and diagnostics, unmolested. A Porsche mechanic can simply plug his diagnostic computer up to it for service. Nothing too exotic, just everyday drivability and reliability.

We also know that Farnbacher included a unique adjustable suspension, and added 19-inch lightweight rims, and a 997 nosepiece, which allowed for more effective factory-tested aerodynamics.

We know that Farnbacher designer Kip knew to keep the best stuff, and just tweak it here and there. He made a custom carbon fiber rear spoiler, but it of course retains its Porsche automatic adjustment.

In another justified accommodation to the new power and performance, they imported special Porsche GT3 seats from Europe, and added tasteful carbon fiber pieces at just the right places inside.

We know that Porsche says their X-50 kit drops 0-60 times for the 997 to just 4.4 seconds, that this Cayman is lower, thinner, and lighter than a 997, and that Porsche is notoriously “conservative” with its official performance figures.

And most importantly of all, since FarnbacherLoles showed us what their Cayman GTR could do in person at Sebring, we now also know that we don’t really care what mysterious potion they used! This car is one fantastic, complete, mind-blowing piece of machinery. Have you ever seen a Porsche that could smoke its tires like that? No chemical or road-surface trickery, either, kids. It smoked ‘em over and over for our demanding photographer. Unlike so many tuner cars that could smoke their tires for us, this one handled without any evil trait whatsoever. Go, stop, turn. It was intuitive and imminently balanced. It seemed like it wanted to accelerate forever, yet would sit and purr all day. It was hard to imagine a road that this GTR couldn’t carve up and tame. Even better, it was hard to imagine a road that this GTR couldn’t make enjoyable to drive.

And it sounds so sweet. Porsche has a special bunch of auditory engineers, a group occasionally hired by another enthusiast company known for its sound, Harley-Davidson. It defined meekness – precise power under control.

The gang at FarnbacherLoles are master tuners, and on behalf of Porsche enthusiasts everywhere, we thank them for making a Cayman that truly deserves the “RS” badge.