After two fabulous years with my Cayman R, I decided it was time for a change. I loved the CR from day one. It was a very worthy replacement for my much missed 964 Carrera 2. A car that I owned and evolved over 9 years and thought would be difficult to replace with a more modern Porsche. However the CR filled its boots without a problem. It always felt special to drive. Felt that little more focused than a CS. And always felt frisky and edgy when pushing on. Very playful and great fun. Not to mention a fair bit quicker than my track focused 964 around a circuit. I found 4 seconds around Oulton Park and 8 seconds around Spa (part thanks has to go to the PDK).
But now I have waved goodbye the CR but will always think fondly of it. [
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Its replacement is a 2 year old GT4 in Racing Yellow. [
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Now, I've only had the GT4 for a few days and have been nowhere near a track with it yet but I can already say this is also a more than worthy replacement. And dare I say it a big step up. Again, it feels very special. It's not been frisky or edgy so far but that's not surprising given its higher limits. Limits I'll never push on the road because that would be irresponsible and detrimental to one's license! But what it does even with road driving is give me a sense of drama. It looks and feels like a junior GT Porsche....which is exactly what it is. It's a real grin factor car. A real head turner. Both by the way it looks and the way it sounds. Some dismiss the GT4 because it doesn't have a motorsport engine. Well that might be true but it's a damn fine engine in my opinion which sounds fantastic and drives fantastic. The zing and howl of the CR at the top of the rev counter is replaced by the bark of a 911. I actually think the ability to drive it on the torque at lower revs is a plus factor for the car. I don't feel any inclination at all to keep it in the lower gears to make it scream. And I already think that the GT4 is a more compliant road car than the CR and more suitable to the terrible road surfaces that we have to day.
I think the first owner of my GT4 created a very nice spec for it - sports plus seats (2 way), PCM and telephone, BiXenon PDLS, Digital radio, Sound plus, smoking package, Sport chrono, yellow stitching and belts, seat heating and even the 12 O'clock steering wheel marker in yellow. Until now I had been a bucket seats bloke but decided that sport plus seats were all I needed this time around. They're brilliant for road driving. While I'm sure I'll miss the body hugging effect of buckets on the few track days I do now, I'm sure I'll cope. But I certainly won't miss the extra £5K+ that a similar spec GT4 would have cost me if I'd insisted on 918 buckets.
Why did I change, considering that a GT4 is roughly twice the price of a CR? Well it wasn't just because of the increased performance. That would be silly just to reduce circuit times with my skills by only about 2 or 3 seconds. I changed because I wanted to own and experience a GT car and avoid the regrets of never doing it (as many say, life is too short). And already I can say that that experience is worth it! [
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