Porsche has been on fire this year when it comes to new car releases.
We’ve seen the Tesla killing Taycan as well as the latest model 911 introduced in the space of a few short months. As 2019 runs out of gas one more Porsche makes it off the assembly line – the special edition 718 Cayman GT4 Sports Cup. It was officially unveiled at the Hockenheimring (Germany) in October this year at an event Porsche calls, ‘Sportscar Together Day.’
The stunning 718 GT4 Sports Cup marks 15 years of Porsche’s Sports Cup and coincided with the finale of the season. “The large meeting of our customers and fans directly at the race track provides the ideal backdrop for the premiere of our 718 Cayman GT4 Sports Cup Edition,” said Alexander Pollich, CEO of Porsche Deutschland GmbH.
Exterior
The first thing you notice about the Sports Cup GT4 edition is the striking exterior.
Only two colors are available for this model; black or white. The white model features bold highlights in “Guards Red,” emphasizing the model’s motorsport background.
A dual red stripe with the Porsche logotype also extends over the roof of the car, biased towards the driver’s side and the door sills have a thick red stripe extending towards the curvaceous rear fenders and containing the bold ‘15’ moniker. Red side mirrors and the struts supporting the rear wing carry the red moniker through to the rest of the car.
The final icing on the cake is the Porsche logotype in red on the rear wing.
Interior
Inside the exquisite interior, the red motif continues but is offset instead with a black leather backdrop.
The driver’s seat is distinguished from the passengers by a red Alcantara center panel, and the seat embroidery (including the GT4 insignia) is also done in red. This technique extends outwards to the dash stitching, the stitching around the gray Alcantara center armrest and individual floor mats with black leather borders and the hallmark red stitching.
The passenger’s side decorative trim and body sill guard are made of carbon fiber and are inscribed with “718 Cayman GT4 Sports Cup Edition.”
Other subtle touches include the red seatbelts, redshift pattern and “Porsche 15 Jahre Sports Cup Deutschland” embossing on the center console.
Drivetrain
Under the hood, everything is standard 718 Cayman, right down to the throaty 4-liter, 6-cylinder naturally aspirated motor.
You can expect 414 horses and 309 pound-foot of torque. In a world of super and turbocharging, this is one of the last great engines which is incongruent with its gasoline mileage of only about 21.8 mpg.
In addition to this, you can make your Porsche more environmentally friendly by offsetting your carbon emissions. There is no automatic transmission available, but all the other latest Porsche goodness like PASM (Porsche Active Damping Suspension Management) which we discussed when we introduced the 911 is available as standard, lowing the ride by about 1.18 inches for improved track performance.
This is further supplemented by driver aids like traction control for the limited-slip differential, ABS, and EBD.
Although Porsche has not specifically put a cap on the production figures, they have said that the GT4 Sports Cup Edition will only be available for a short period of time, but for those of us Stateside, the bad news is that it’s only available from the 88 German dealers.
So, if you want one really bad, you’ll have to get in touch with Porsche Germany to see if you can get one shipped over. On the plus side, if you get past all the US Import red tape, Porsche is throwing in an indoor car cover with a double red stripe. The Cayman is first and foremost a track machine, and a commemorative model like this will prove a solid investment.