PORSCHE
Founded by Ferdinand Porsche in Stuttgart, Germany in 1931, Porsche initially only offered consulting services and motor vehicle development services, building no vehicles of their own. One of the first projects they received came from the government and it’s what brought us the first VW Beetle, to this day one of the most successful cars ever built. The first real Porsche, the Porsche 64, came in 1939 and it was developed with most of its components coming directly from the Bug.
The original design from the Beetle carries on with each new generation of the 911, getting ever closer to perfection. The rear-mounted engine layout was originally implemented by Ferdinand to improve aerodynamics, however it gave Porsche engineers decades of challenges with regards to weight distribution and handling…Yet they never failed! This of course didn’t stop them from bringing out mid-engine gems such as the 959, Carrera GT, GT4 or the 918.
Porsche today is a benchmark for most sports cars, hypercars and luxury cars. They have produced countless dream cars over the years, but some deserve more praise than others…and praise they got!
GT4
The standard Cayman derives from the Boxster and was first launched in2006. The idea was to take the mid-engine, rear-wheel drive lay out of the Boxster and stiffen up the chassis by closing the roof. The result was spot-on and were it not for marketing purposes the Cayman could have easily become a better performance vehicle than its bigger sister, the historic 911. Over time however Porsche couldn’t resist fitting bigger power units and better suspensions (along with better brakes and the whole shenanigans).
Though all versions deserve praise and are possibly the best bang for buck you could ever find, the pinnacle of the Cayman series came with the GT4 model, and each iteration just keeps improving beyond expectations. Calling this model the benchmark is an understatement. As I just said the latest model is always the best for now, but one of the best reviews is this one by Mr. Harris.