Porsche Cayman GT4

Over in our new Car Q&A section a visitor left a question about the why the Porsche Cayman GT4 has 10 more horsepower than the Boxster Spyder. Since the power plant of both cars comes from the 911 Carrera S, why don’t they both have the same output?

Furthermore the 911 Carrera S outputs 400 horsepower and 430 horsepower with the power kit, so why don’t the Cayman or Boxster offer this type of horsepower? Well, we all know that Porsche wouldn’t detuned the cars, so there must be another explanation.

Click past the jump (or scroll down if you came directly to the full article) to find out how the Cayman GT4 is able to make 10 horsepower more than the Boxster Spyder.

The poster of the question asked if the re-worked air intakes on the Cayman GT4 provides a ram air affect which attributed to the extra horsepower. While it is possible that the intake does provide some performance benefit, we doubt that it provides the extra 10 horsepower.

In case you couldn’t tell from my earlier comment about detuning, it was sarcasm. Porsche has a long history of detuning their engines to make sure cars stay in their place in the model lineup.

In fact earlier this week, I was talking to someone that works for Porsche Cars North America about reviewing the GT4 and Spyder. I mentioned that I would like to compare them to the 911s and he said that he would shy away from comparing the two and if he did that the 911 should come out on top.

This just further confirms that while the Boxster and Cayman have come of age, the 911 is still number one for Porsche (outside of cars like the 918 Spyder). This will likely be the case for a while still, although the GT4 has made huge strides and is quicker than the standard 911 Carrera (outside of it being optioned with PDK and the Sports Chrono Package).

So, to answer the question about the air intakes. I don’t believe they make the difference, tuning (likely through the car’s computer) is what accounts for the difference in power.

What do you think about all of this? Let us know in the comments and head over to our new Car Q&A section to ask your own questions (no need for a login to ask a question).