Given your choice of chassis with the same engine, would you choose a rear-engine car or a mid-engine one? The reality is that most of the people who can afford one can buy both, but for us regular folks all we can do is dream and bench race our favorite. This is the first time that Porsche has seen fit to equip the mid-engine car with a proper 4-liter high-revving GT3-spec flat six, and the experience is impossible to replicate in anything else. I think I’ll always go for the manual-transmission GT4, but the PDK-only GT4 RS is maybe the most impressive sports driving experience Porsche has ever built. It’s just a spectacular piece from every measure. I don’t think the same can be said of the GT3. It’s pretty cool, but it’s not GT4 RS cool.
Don’t believe me? Just watch Harry Metcalfe flog this yellow beastie on wet November roads in old Blighty. You might change your mind.
“Nothing like the GT3. Completely different feel. Very direct. I’m not fighting the steering, it’s just pure,” says Metcalfe during the test drive. His list of gripes with the car is extremely short, but I can’t help but agree with each and every point. It’s a little too aggressive for the street, and should have been offered with the manual. It’s a little too expensive. That’s pretty much it. Everything else about it is uncompromisingly great. This is a car that probably shouldn’t exist and maybe will never exist again. If the Cayman goes all-electric with the next generation, we could be looking at the last purely RS mid-engine car from Porsche. And that just convinces me more that it should be available with a stick.
Given the choice between the two, it’s pretty much a no-brainer to me. GT4 RS is the choice over a GT3 every single time. It’s just a more special car. And it’s maybe the last of its kind.