Porsche Really Needs to Put This Rally Car Into Production

The Cayman GT4 Clubsport concept hits the course this weekend

August 16, 2018 9:00 am
Porsche Really Needs to Put This Rally Car Into Production
WRC 2018 © Daniel Roeseler

At the end of July, video surfaced of Porsche testing out a new rally car — and the howl of the engine has been the soundtrack of our dreams ever since. Now, finally, we’ve got some details.

Officially a concept version of the Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport, it’s modified for the FIA R-GT (rally) category and making its way to ADAC Rallye Deutschland in Saarland, Germany, for the next four days.

Basically, it’s the Clubsport race car you’ve ogled more than once, now with all the rally fixings: a front-mounted light bank, full underbody protection, roof scoop and “an energy-absorbing foam element … in the doors.”

Porsche Rally Concept (6 images)

The main components carry over from its predecessor, such as the 3.8-liter flat-six engine that puts out 385 HP and the Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) dual-clutch transmission.

Romain Dumas is the lucky sumbitch taking it out on the course tomorrow, a French Porsche factory driver with two 24 Hours of Le Mans wins and a recent Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record under his belt.

If that’s not enough of a resume, he also occupies the driver’s seat in the preview video we mentioned:

Sure, he can handle better than we could ever hope to, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to get our hands on this rally concept stat. Fortunately, that isn’t a pipe dream.

“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,” says Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser, Porsche AG’s VP of Motorsport and GT Cars. “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.”

“To translate: whoop as loudly as possible as the GT4 course car passes you, and the no-doubt-on-its-way 718 Cayman GT4 will come in R-GT rally spec, too,” writes Top Gear. We concur.

Anyone got a pad in Saarland we can crash on for a long weekend?

Photos via Porsche

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