Skip to main content

Porsche goes rallying, and it’s not with the model you’re thinking of

The Cayenne, not the 718 Cayman, is the Porsche model best suited to venturing off the beaten path. It’s four-wheel drive, it benefits from decent ground clearance, plus it boasts a sufficient amount of wheel travel. And yet, the German automaker has turned its smallest coupe into a rally car for the first time.

Built to GT4 specifications, the 718 Cayman rally car isn’t a wild, one-off design study developed merely to turn heads on the auto show circuit. It’s a running, driving, and — importantly — braking machine that leverages Porsche’s vast expertise in the world of racing and uses it to break new ground.

Though the 718 recently downsized to a turbocharged flat-four engine, the rally car retains a naturally aspirated, 3.8-liter flat-six rated at 385 horsepower. The mid-mounted six spins the rear wheels through a dual-clutch automatic transmission controlled via steering wheel-mounted paddles. Porsche added several parts to help the Cayman tackle trails. It sits a little bit higher than a stock 718 thanks to suspension modifications and it’s equipped with a light bar between the headlights. Full underbody protection ensures it won’t leave its oily bits behind.

The Porsche 718 Cayman will make its competition debut during the ADAC Rally Deutschland taking place between August 16 and 19. Company officials will decide whether to move forward with the development of a GT4-spec rally car based on the Cayman — or on another one of the company’s cars — in the coming months. If it arrives, it will be as a race-only model, not one that’s legally driveable on a public road.

“I would like to invite every interested driver and team principal to visit the service park and take a close look at our rally concept car. Based on the feedback and the interest from potential customers, we will then decide by the end of the year whether we’ll develop in the mid-term a competition car for near-standard rallying based on a future Porsche model,” explained Frank-Steffen Walliser, Porsche’s vice president of motorsport and GT cars, in a statement.

The idea of turning a sports car into a rally machine isn’t new. 911s with off-road-ready modifications often competed in rally events during the 1970s. In the 1980s, Porsche dropped its 959 supercar on silts and entered it in the grueling Paris-Dakar rally. It gloriously won the event in 1986.

Editors' Recommendations

Ronan Glon
Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
This is how you work off festive excesses — if you’re in space
The International Space Station.

If working off all of the extra calories you consumed in recent days involves little more than lifting the remote, selecting a show to watch, and putting it back down again, then you’re probably doing it wrong.

Take a look at how current space station inhabitant Matthias Maurer is tackling the challenge and you should get a better idea about the recommended course of action to take.

Read more
If you still hate mobile games in 2021, you’re not playing enough of them
A town square diorama in Fantasian.

It's 2021 and I can’t believe we’re still dunking on mobile games.

For more than a decade, mobile games have been something of an industry laughing stock in the eyes of self-proclaimed “hardcore” gamers. They’ve long had a reputation for being simplistic cash grabs that prey on players through seedy microtransactions and overly addictive gameplay. Those criticisms aren’t unfounded; there’s certainly some sinister undertones in seemingly harmless games like Candy Crush. But mobile games aren’t just Candy Crush -- and they haven’t been for years now.

Read more
PAW Patrol dogs will get you where you’re going with new Waze feature
Characters from the PAW Patrol.

Waze likes to roll out fun features from time to time, and the latest one is timed to the launch of PAW Patrol: The Movie.

Aimed at kids, or, more accurately, parents who are eager to keep their little ones entertained on long drives, Waze users globally can now get driving directions from Ryder and his loyal team of rescue dogs.

Read more