Porsche Will Build A Cayman GT4 Race Car

In proof that Porsche loves us and wants us to be happy, they didn't just slap "GT4" badges on the back of the latest, greatest Cayman for the lulz. According to Sportscar365, they're going to build a race car out of it.

Porsche CEO Matthias Müller said that the GT-spec Cayman race car will be revealed by the end of this year at last week's Geneva Motor Show. However, Porsche Motorsport North America President Jens Walther wasn't able to confirm many other details to Sportscar365:

All we know is that Mr. Mueller, our CEO, announced at the Geneva Motor Show that Porsche is working on a race version of the Cayman GT4. We don't know the characteristics or performance window of the car but since it's based on the GT4 street car, we can kind of get an idea where it's going to be landing.

I'm going to make a wild guess here (totally out of nowhere, pulled from my buttocks, I know) and bet that it will land in GT4, alongside cars like the Aston Martin Vantage GT4. GT4 cars are eligible to compete in Pirelli World Challenge's GTS class, among other things.

It's a notch below the GT3 spec, and would back up Walther's claims that the new Cayman racer will be an entry-level platform.

Caymans have also dominated the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge's ST class in recent years, so making an official factory platform for those classes makes sense.

Walther claims that the goal is to produce a safe, standard race car that will keep costs down.

"At the moment, because every team has a different philosophy, you have a lot of variation in there. Variation in a competitive environment always means costs," he explained to Sportscar365.

Standardizing the car with shared parts among different teams will bring the costs of running a Cayman down, and Porsche certainly hopes that will bring the number of Porsches being raced up.

With 385 horsepower and an honest-to-goodness manual transmission on the options list, the Cayman GT4 is the little barrel of fun that many trackrats wanted from Porsche. Motor Authority reports that Porsche Motorsport boss Andreas Preuninger hasn't ruled out the idea of building a GT4 RS yet, either. Now everyone's new favorite Porsche platform is about to have a bit more race cred. Rejoice!

Photo credit: Porsche/AP Images