Yahoo Autos Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Manthey Racing Tested: Man-o'-War
From the November/December 2024 issue of Car and Driver.
An orange-colored sunrise, a 1.9-mile road course all to ourselves, and a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Manthey to race around it. It's the type of scene typically interrupted by an alarm clock. We took the most aggressive version of Porsche's mid-engine two-seater to Grattan Raceway near Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the same reason you eat breakfast cereal with a spoon: because it's the right thing to do.
The kit from Manthey (pronounced mahn-tie) takes an extreme track weapon right to the lunatic fringe. Manthey fits a larger wing and canards on the front bumper. The additional carbon-fiber pieces reduce weight slightly but contribute 372 pounds of downforce at 124 mph (an increase of 196 pounds). The wing's extra force is so great, it requires bonding reinforcements to the hatch and body. Manthey also includes four-way manually adjustable dampers (replacing the standard electronically controlled units), offers 20 percent stiffer front springs, and dials in lots of camber.
Manthey Racing is as seasoned at prepping street cars for racing circuits as Chili's is at prepping baby-back ribs. Since 1996, Manthey has been busy collecting trophies, including a 1997 win in the Porsche Supercup, a victory at its first 24 Hour of Le Mans in 1999, and, more recently, taking first in last year's DTM season.
Manthey joined Porsche's motorsports efforts in endurance racing in 2013 and today builds performance parts catering to owners of the 911 GT3/GT3 RS and 718 Cayman GT4/GT4 RS who crave more.
Some 41 U.S. Porsche dealerships are certified to install the $53,946 kit (front fender louvers and a Gurney flap tack on another $5890). One dealer we spoke with told us the installation typically takes 20 hours, which adds up to nearly $6000 in labor. All in, with the $15,640 magnesium wheels—which require the $13,250 Weissach package—$8000 carbon-ceramic brakes, and the $167,495 cost of a 2025 GT4 RS, you're looking at spending at least $271,862.
Unchanged is Porsche's skull-shaking 4.0-liter flat-six that revs to 9000 rpm. Belting out 106 decibels at full throttle, the six's song gets the tiny hairs in your inner ear dancing like the inflatable tube guys outside a used-car dealership.
We hit 146 mph on Grattan's straightaway before putting the 16.1-inch front rotors to work. Butterflies fill the stomach in Turn 1, as the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R tires cling like Saran Wrap. While the Manthey managed 1.16 g's on the skid-pad—up from the standard GT4 RS's 1.11 g's—we averaged 1.19 g's through the off-camber Turn 3.
Manthey's suspension setup adds more negative camber to the front and rear. With extra toe-out up front and toe-in for the rear, the Manthey turns in even more sharply than a GT4 RS.
It doesn't take more than a full lap to conclude that the GT4 RS Manthey is greater than the sum of its woven parts. It wasn't long before we found ourselves comfortably lapping Grattan as quickly as 1:23.5 without much sweat. That's 3.0 seconds ahead of the 414-hp 718 Cayman GT4 we previously tested at this track.
For those of you who are wringing your hands at the sight of this Cayman's price and wondering what kind of maniac would buy this over a GT3 RS, the answer is likely the kind who owns both.
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