RE: Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport - official!

[kambites]

wildman0609 said:

Its to do with proportions, Modern car design needs to meet many EU and federal safety requirements, one of the biggest of these is pedestrian impact. This brings the bonnet line above hard points by around 120mm, depending on material used and shape of the front of the car. With the front of the car now unnaturally high the rear needs to match otherwise it will look cack. Now with a high waist line on the car it will look silly with small wheels. If you look at many designers initial concepts of cars they have massive wheels, these always get smaller with development loops.

And yet the 18s on this look sooo much better than the 20s(?) on the road car.

[PorscheGT4]

why has it not got 420BHp ?

we all know the GT4 is detuned so why have the race car detuned , seems odd.

[After_Shock]

GroundEffect said:

It comes with racing slicks and probably very little exhaust treatment hardware...

Sounds perfect for a trip to Tesco in winter!

[kambites]

I decided long ago that the only people who want a "racing car for the road" are those who've never driven a racing car on the road.

Obviously "racing car" is a very broad term, but in the main they're thoroughly unpleasant things to drive on public roads.

[UltimaCH]

Just what is needed for the 2016 track season. I want very much!

[RacerMike]

PorscheGT4 said:

why has it not got 420BHp ?

we all know the GT4 is detuned so why have the race car detuned , seems odd.

If it had 420bhp, they'd end up getting BOP'd (Balance Of Performance) to equalise its laptime against the Ginetta, Aston, Lotus etc. This would likely be done with extra weight (generally how the regulators make a powerful car slower) which then causes tyre management issues as the race goes on. Around 380bhp seems like the sweet spot for GT4 as it sits it slap bang in the middle of the Ginetta and Aston in terms of power.

[El Guapo]

sidesauce said:

nickfrog said:

"Ooh, get you, showing a bit of sidewall..."

And that's why I don't get very low profile road tyres. Surely if that doesn't work for a track car, how can it work for a road car ?

Two words - aesthetic preferences marketing horsest.

FTFY

[Bonefish Blues]

GroundEffect said:

IrishAsal said:

The important question is.. why isn't this road legal?

It comes with racing slicks and probably very little exhaust treatment hardware...

I'm sure you could trailer it into your local Kwik Fit

[sidesauce]

El Guapo said:

sidesauce said:

nickfrog said:

"Ooh, get you, showing a bit of sidewall..."

And that's why I don't get very low profile road tyres. Surely if that doesn't work for a track car, how can it work for a road car ?

Two words - aesthetic preferences marketing horsest.

FTFY

Er, no. As someone else pointed out before, impact/crash regulations have made most road-car designs compromised because of things like minimum height requirements, small wheels now just look silly aesthetically on cars due to higher waist/bonnet lines. People (and I include myself in this) generally don't like cars that look 'under wheeled'. That being said I've noticed that the new R8/Huracan and this Porsches sidewalls have higher sidewalls than what we've become accustomed to.

[sidesauce]

kambites said:

And yet the 18s on this look sooo much better than the 20s(?) on the road car.

I disagree. Much prefer the look of the 20s, this just looks odd to me.

[IrishAsal]

Bonefish Blues said:

I'm sure you could trailer it into your local Kwik Fit

That's what I mean. Slick tyres aren't road legal, but does that automatically make the car not road legal?

[xRIEx]

El Guapo said:

sidesauce said:

nickfrog said:

"Ooh, get you, showing a bit of sidewall..."

And that's why I don't get very low profile road tyres. Surely if that doesn't work for a track car, how can it work for a road car ?

Two words - aesthetic preferences marketing horsest.

FTFY

Yep, pretty much. The uninformed proportion of the general public are led to believe that bigger wheels are linked with sporty cars, so they want bigger wheels on their car so it looks sporty. Manufacturers therefore need to fit the biggest wheels they can get away with, without completely bksing the rolling circumference of the wheel and tyre - so bigger wheels eat into the profile of the tyre to keep as close to the desired rolling circumference.

[nickfrog]

sidesauce said:

kambites said:

And yet the 18s on this look sooo much better than the 20s(?) on the road car.

I disagree. Much prefer the look of the 20s, this just looks odd to me.

To me it looks like a function led track car on the optimum wheel size rather than a fashion led road car on less than optimised wheels size and tyre profile.

[MrBarry123]

So the price means it's cheaper than what regular GT4s are being "sold" for?

[ChrisW.]

The maximum power may be capped to avoid penalties, but it's still got the torque of a higher power engine.

Weight penalties play havoc with both tyres and brakes particularly in any endurance racing..

And the higher profile tyres provide more resilience when riding kerbs ...

I think this is very well judged ....

[OlberJ]

kambites said:

I'm not aware of any major racing series that allows tyres as low profile as many modern "sporty" cars come with so who or what is the fashion copying?

About as close as ig gets.