So how does a $200,000 used Porsche work on track? Well, like it was built for it.
After a couple laps in the GT4 Clubsport (in air-conditioned comfort, it’s worth noting), my first thought was that I felt a bit bad that I was driving Patrick’s car so slowly. I wanted to give it an adequate workout and post a respectable time, but I also didn’t want to hurt a nice reader’s expensive car. So I cruised around and figured we’d just apologize to him later for not laying down a real time.
Then we downloaded the VBox data after a few laps and saw that I had “cruised” to some of the fastest laps we had ever turned at the FIRM. The real triumph of the GT4 Clubsport was the ease and comfort with which so much of its potential could be accessed, even by someone who had never driven it before.
If I had a complaint about the car on track, it was the brake pedal. And it’s not so much a complaint, but an observation on a factor that takes some getting used to: Much like the MX-5 Cup car we tested a while back, whose very stiff shifter seemed out of character against the rest of the car’s featherlight controls, the GT4 Clubsport’s unassisted braking is direct and offers exceptional feedback–but also feels quite heavy.
The rest of the controls simply feel much lighter, like the electro-hydraulically assisted steering or the crisp, clean response of the shift paddles. The brake application feels out of character compared to the rest of the car, despite its objective excellence.
Yeah, it’s a petty complaint–the brakes have such good feedback you’d swear you were squeezing the rotors directly between your own toes–but it does take some getting used to. The brakes demand a heavy stomp where the other controls can be delicately delivered in air-conditioned comfort.
Handling-wise, even though we were testing on some well-cycled used slicks that were barely getting to full temp during our short sessions, the Cayman felt intuitive and planted. Attitude adjustment was available through any control–steering, brakes or throttle–depending on what the situation demanded.
Throttle response was fairly linear, too, and the engine had a nice, broad torque curve–but not so broad that you couldn’t easily and precisely shift just on feel. The power had a nice swell to it that didn’t completely backload the power delivery to higher rpm, but I could also easily balance throttle inputs at lower rpm to maintain stability.
Particularly impressive was shift performance in a corner. If you needed to upshift while you were still loaded in a corner under throttle, the engine management was tuned perfectly to seamlessly select the next gear and maintain thrust without upsetting the chassis. No kick in the back from engagement of the next gear, and no corresponding overloading of the rear tires, but also no loss in acceleration momentum.
Overall, the GT4 Clubsport struck me as an extraordinarily raceable car that would be excellent in traffic. From the driver’s seat, you’ve got a very nice idea of the size of the car–which is more compact than a lot of its GT4 gridmates.
The mid-engined configuration puts the driver very close to the center of mass of the car, which is very close to the actual center of the car, giving you an excellent perspective on what the mass around you is doing at all times and how it’s loading each tire. And excellent sight lines, which can be at a premium in a race car loaded with safety systems, gives you a great idea of where each corner is in space as well.
It was tough to pick a comparison for the Clubsport for our VBox data analysis, so we grabbed the data from the other factory-built race car we tested at the FIRM, the Mazda MX-5 Cup. We noticed we were braking harder in the Mazda–credit that to the Mazda’s assisted braking system–but once we got more attuned to the Porsche’s pedal, our brake applications were more appropriate for the GT4 machine.
What we saw in the Porsche under braking was the excellent feel of the brakes paying off in smooth roll-off on corner entry. I was able to carry braking practically all the way to many apexes, just rolling off the deceleration progressively as cornering forces built and changed the tires’ priorities.
Also impressive on the data was the near invisibility of the shifts in the Porsche. Most modern dual-clutch gearboxes shift very quickly, but you can still see a noticeable drop in the rate of acceleration as each higher gear is selected.
In the Porsche, the speed trace climbs at a nearly constant rate, even through multiple gears. It’s a tribute to that wonderfully flexible 3.8-liter engine and well-spaced gears being selected instantly with the perfect amount of torque cut on shifts to prevent overloading the drive wheels.
Even though we were testing on well-seasoned rubber, we saw several sustained lateral g-loads of over 1.3g in both directions. And this was all while the car never truly felt like it was working too hard.
If the front tires overloaded, you’d feel it instantly in your hands through the wheel. If the rears overloaded, the car let you know through your hips and butt that the back was trying to get ahead of you. Never dramatically, always with respect, and progressive enough to give you plenty of time to figure out how to deal with it.
Ultimately, the 1:14.67 lap was the third fastest we had ever recorded at the FIRM, behind a C8 Z06 Corvette and our own C5 project car. And the lack of drama behind the wheel communicated the fact that there was probably a lot of potential left in the car.
The ease with which we achieved that very impressive time was maybe the most significant takeaway from our time behind the wheel. The car simply never punished you or did anything unexpected. It let you access a tremendous amount of its potential while demanding very little of the driver.
Yeah, $200,000 is a lot of money, but the value proposition is pretty easy to see from behind the wheel.
