Porsche Cayman GT4 RS v McLaren 650S Spider: Shootout!

[V8Andrew]

RSbandit said:

V8Andrew said:

Hi there this is my 650s they used.

Fair play for lending your car to them, Plato can really pedal...I've had passenger laps with pro drivers in various cars over the years and it is truly eye opening for a mere mortal! The 650s is a stonking bit of kit when you consider a GT4 RS is 2.5x the price in the used mkt...just doesn't make sense...I'm happy about this tho as it makes McLarens in general quite affordable!

It was a fairly easy decision to let them have the car. We’ve both been motorsport and touring car fans 20 years or more so getting to meet Jason, and be driven by him in our own car was a no brainier! His driving in the wet was particularly impressive to me as that car has nearly bitten me a couple of times in damp conditions never mind a monsoon.

[nebpor]

What a great video - Plato is heroic on those wet laps!

[12pack]

Certainly having the same tyres would be the most fair, but even with V8Andrew’s PS4S’ I would consider the 0.7 sec difference, while physically significant (for a 1:25 lap) to not be statistically significant. Meaning - if Plato repeatedly ran the two cars, would it really be consistent offset, or would it be a wash?

For an alternate conclusion (or a testament to how far the GT4 RS has progressed as Plato said, compared to a 991 GT3 RS) see this where Chris Harris’ 650 on “worn street tyres” compared favorably.
https://www.topgear.com/videos/chris-harris-drives...

[davek_964]

V8Andrew said:

Huracan spider is about £140k minimum

I really wanted to try one of those this time - but the fact that it's a real soft top vs the hard top of the McLaren ruled it out for me. I was still tempted by the coupe, but it just didn't live up to the McLaren useability (e.g. luggage space).

V8Andrew said:

It was a fairly easy decision to let them have the car. We’ve both been motorsport and touring car fans 20 years or more so getting to meet Jason, and be driven by him in our own car was a no brainier! His driving in the wet was particularly impressive to me as that car has nearly bitten me a couple of times in damp conditions never mind a monsoon.

You're a brave man. Letting him drive my car in those conditions would have been very very far from a no brainer for me!

[macdeb]

12pack said:

Certainly having the same tyres would be the most fair, but even with V8Andrew’s PS4S’ I would consider the 0.7 sec difference, while physically significant (for a 1:25 lap) to not be statistically significant. Meaning - if Plato repeatedly ran the two cars, would it really be consistent offset, or would it be a wash?

For an alternate conclusion (or a testament to how far the GT4 RS has progressed as Plato said, compared to a 991 GT3 RS) see this where Chris Harris’ 650 on “worn street tyres” compared favorably.
https://www.topgear.com/videos/chris-harris-drives...

An excellent video and display of exactly how good McLarens are, an unbiased opinion from a guy who can seriously drive and put across a view without a personality issue. (I must have watched his video with the pre-production MP4-12c 20 or so times that made me decide on actually getting one). Met him couple of times and seems just same feet on earth bloke.

[V8Andrew]

12pack said:

Certainly having the same tyres would be the most fair, but even with V8Andrew’s PS4S’ I would consider the 0.7 sec difference, while physically significant (for a 1:25 lap) to not be statistically significant. Meaning - if Plato repeatedly ran the two cars, would it really be consistent offset, or would it be a wash?

For an alternate conclusion (or a testament to how far the GT4 RS has progressed as Plato said, compared to a 991 GT3 RS) see this where Chris Harris’ 650 on “worn street tyres” compared favorably.
https://www.topgear.com/videos/chris-harris-drives...

You also have to factor in that the timing equipment is me or my wife with a stopwatch rather than something professional. Probably accurate to within 0.2+-
We don’t think Jason would have got that much more out of the cars with more laps. He clearly knows castle Combe very well indeed. He may have been a bit more careful with our 650s than the GT4RS press car which he was doing donuts in which my wife enjoyed as passenger…

That video is quite excellent from Chris Harris who is a well known Porsche fan. A 991.2 GT3 had been on our list of possible future cars, but on the basis of that video there is no point.

[V8Andrew]

davek_964 said:

V8Andrew said:

Huracan spider is about £140k minimum

I really wanted to try one of those this time - but the fact that it's a real soft top vs the hard top of the McLaren ruled it out for me. I was still tempted by the coupe, but it just didn't live up to the McLaren useability (e.g. luggage space).

V8Andrew said:

It was a fairly easy decision to let them have the car. We’ve both been motorsport and touring car fans 20 years or more so getting to meet Jason, and be driven by him in our own car was a no brainier! His driving in the wet was particularly impressive to me as that car has nearly bitten me a couple of times in damp conditions never mind a monsoon.

You're a brave man. Letting him drive my car in those conditions would have been very very far from a no brainer for me!

I want to want a Huracan but no Lamborghini doors on a Lamborghini plus the extra cash?! I’ve had the privilege of driving an Aventador SV spider and I enjoyed the theatre, sound and performance. The practicality was lacking, and the price is a level above what I would afford. Always keep coming back to the value the 650s represents.

I suppose letting him drive the car had some element of risk associated with it, the risk was worth the reward which is a great video of the car. Honestly the drive home 200 miles in the dark and torrential rain with other traffic probably had more chance of accident.

[12pack]

V8Andrew said:

I suppose letting him drive the car had some element of risk associated with it, the risk was worth the reward which is a great video of the car. Honestly the drive home 200 miles in the dark and torrential rain with other traffic probably had more chance of accident.

Thank you for that - enjoyed the video.

[rawenghey]

Great video. I really like Plato, he seems like such a sound guy. He has the subjective responses of a proper petrol head too.

He either said directly or seemed to suggest that the GT4RS has the better engine, better balance and a better gearbox, but on like for like tyres we all know it's not going to compete with the 650S. Also, if you put the 650S on cup tyres, it would also seem fair to strangle its engine by 150bhp to make that equal too. All pointless comments really, as we know they're not really comparable cars: one is a carbon tubbed supercar and the other is the ultimate expression of what is a £50k sports car platform.

Overarching points for me are: the Maccas are such good value on the used market and Porsche's GT engines are masterpieces.

Edited by rawenghey on Thursday 30th March 09:36

[andymc]

WCZ said:

vs a 675 would have been a more fair comparison price wise!

there have been a couple of GT4 RS's that have changed hands for £300k which is 765lt levels too!

wow if you can drop 300k on one of those you would have thought you'd be on the Porsche list

[Streetbeat]

Or youve already been blacklisted for flipping previously.

With such low numbers is probably a collector and it will be hidden away.

[WCZ]

andymc said:

wow if you can drop 300k on one of those you would have thought you'd be on the Porsche list

there's people making money all the time who haven't had the chance to buy previous porsches or were even unaware of the process to do so

[andymc]

very true

[RichardCHXX]

very silly

[ChrisW.]

Streetbeat said:

Or youve already been blacklisted for flipping previously.

With such low numbers is probably a collector and it will be hidden away.

Which is ironic because Porsche VIP chosen few are being encouraged by dealers to take a sequence of cars they think will sell secondhand at "overs" ... but swop their old car at list for the new car at list ... allowing the dealers to do the flipping since they are not allowed by Porsche to sell new cars at "overs".