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Motorsport

Porsche’s 718 Cayman GT4 racecar has a 6cyl engine

Worried the GT4 might lose its atmospheric engine? The race version brings hope

Published: 04 Jan 2019

This year, Porsche will show us a new Cayman GT4, the first with the ‘718’ prefix in front of its name. Given the old GT4 has a truly wonderful, turbo-free flat-six engine in it – and all the 718s we’ve seen so far, um, don’t – there’s been some concerns about what form it’ll take.

We might be able to cast our worries aside, though. This is the 718 GT4 Clubsport racecar, a precursor to the road-going version. And it not only has a 3.8-litre flat-six in it, but one with 40bhp more than its predecessor: a potent 420bhp.

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It comes mated exclusively to a six-speed PDK paddleshift gearbox in this Clubsport, but the road car will no doubt come with a manual when it arrives, given that was such a hallmark of the old GT4.

There are naturally lots of motorsport touches – a proper harnessed bucket seat, a welded-in roll cage, lightweight suspension components from the more senior 911 GT3 Cup car – and something else rather more unique to the Clubsport. Namely, some organic materials.

Yep, the doors and rear wing are made of something called ‘natural-fibre composite material’, by-products of agriculture (such as hemp) that apparently have similar weight and strength properties to carbon fibre.

So if your new year’s resolution was to go organic, you can genuinely start with the racecar you buy. Providing you have the £130,000 plus VAT (so £156,000) required to buy a 718 GT4 Clubsport, that is…

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