Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 vs Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE | TRACK ATTACK | Episode 4

so today we posed the question if you have about a hundred thousand dollars to spend what's the best street legal track toy out there well the obvious choice is the cayman gt4 the porsche fanboy favorite but today we're going to put it up against the 650 horsepower monster from detroit the camaro zl1 1le will the cayman stack up against this beast and will it prove truly worthy of the gt status today we're going to find out this is track attack [Music] the porsche cayman was introduced in 2006 as a mid-level sports car offering from porsche it has been a great sports car since its inception and often praised for its superior handling characteristics over the company's flagship 911 model this is due to the fact that the cayman is a mid-engine platform versus the 911's rear engine layout the 911 has been offering its race-derived gt2 and gt3 class variants over several generations now this upgrade takes the 911 from a great sports car to a street legal race car with powertrain suspension aero and interior upgrades this creates an entirely new driving experience and brings the car to supercar levels of performance if the top tier gts cayman is not enough sports car for their prospective cayman buyer then porsche has another option the gt4 just as the gt3 and gt2 cars are the race inspired cousins of the 911 the gt4 is the street legal race version of the cayman with performance upgrades borrowed from the gt3 this cayman is ready to hit the track in true racecar fashion the gt4 has numerous upgrades over the base gaming for increased performance and a race car experience porsche's gt department decided to use an already winning formula and build off of the success of their previous cars the front suspension and brakes are taken from the 911 gt3 it has adaptive dampers from the gt3 rs the seats are pulled right out of the 918 spider the steering wheel is said to be inspired by the 918 as well even the engine is bored from the 911 but in this case the gt4 uses a 4 liter 8 000 rpm board stroked and turbo free version of the 992 generation 3 liter engine the rear suspension setup is an all new element and unique to the gt4 and in an effort to further increase performance it also has increased downforce over the previous models and can generate up to 330 pounds to help with high speed grip and stability i'm a really big porsche fan i love the brand respect their racing heritage i used to own and compete in a 911 myself so sitting here in the newest iteration of the cayman especially in gt4 trim i should be super excited but somehow i'm not this car though comes equipped with a 4 liter flat 6 engine revving to 8 000 rpm and making over 400 horsepower and it even has a real honest-to-god manual transmission so you think this would be a recipe for one of the best porsche cars ever made yet somehow it's not don't get me wrong this is a porsche it's an excellent sports car you can bring it to the race track you can beat it all day long and it'll smile and keep turning out consistent lap times while doing so this is a gt4 this is a gt race car from porsche when i compare this to something like the gt3 it just doesn't have that same zing to it the gt3 is a street legal race car when you push that thing around a race track heck when you even drive it on the street it's an experience the the handling of the chassis the engine brakes just everything about it is an experience to behold this car though just doesn't quite do that for me so first off let's talk about the engine this 4-liter engine isn't a true gt engine it's not derived from the racing cars this is actually a modified street car in [Music] it's from the 3-liter turbo 911 they take it out rip off the turbos make it a four liter and yes they do a whole bunch of work to make it into a really good naturally aspirated engine but that's just it they made it a really good engine porsche usually isn't big on mediocrity usually they're going for the moon it's go big or go home that's the way porsche does things the gt3 is a great example of that yet in this car the engine feels like it's a very good engine but not a spectacular engine and of course we still have a manual transmission in a gt car that's awesome but what happened to the gear ratios why did they make such long gear ratios that simply just don't match the power band with a car like this that is supposed to be made for performance and yet the gear ratios certainly don't help that now another small gripe i have about this being a gt car is actually the interior when i sit here and look around it's very nice interior but i think about a gt3 and how it feels more race car it's got more alcantara everywhere has carbon fiber everywhere this car has a sprinkling of each but it's not enough to make it feel that much more special than the regular cayman in fact i've driven the newest cayman in gts trim with all the performance options on it around this track and this car doesn't feel too much different than that to be honest yes i do like the naturally aspirated engine far better than the turbo 4 yet ironically for this price point i would probably want the turbo four [Music] at least you have a more usable power band and you have the pdk with the better gears so you kind of feel like you actually have a little more performance out of that one especially for low speed corners that engine just makes amazing torque at almost any rpm so it can really haul you out of the corners with this engine you really have to keep the rpms up to make it move but with these gear ratios sometimes you just can't depending on the corner all this combined this just doesn't feel like a race car for the street it just feels like a sports car and it's not that that's a bad thing porsche makes some of the best sports cars in the world and i truly believe this is one of them i just don't think it's a true gt race car in troops fashion of course after saying all these negative things about the car we have to talk about some good things and yes this car certainly has them the one thing we have to mention right off the bat is the handling porsche certainly didn't compromise in that area i have to say without a doubt this is the best mid-engine car i've ever driven and i've driven an awful lot of them it's just everything about this car porsche dialed in right the steering input the way the car rotates the grip the front end balance the rear balance the way it transfers weight the way it puts the power down the way it even squats under braking just everything about this car in terms of any part of handling dynamic is just sublime it's just amazing that's there's no other way to describe it so porsche definitely get that part right it's just too bad the rest of it they didn't [Music] porsche is not the only company that understands clients want track day special variants of their sports cars chevy seems to understand this as well and this is the proof the camaro zl1 1le this car features all the supercharged v8 goodness of the zl1 but then adds on a host of track focused components that turns this into a track weapon packing 650 horsepower and 650 pound feet of torque and capable of producing 1.1 gs of lateral grip this is not a car for the faint of heart the reason it can achieve such impressive carving forces is because it comes equipped with dynamic suspension spool valve dampers from canadian company multimatic it also possesses solid mount bushings and some of the most aggressive arrow allowed on a street car in fact this arrow is so aggressive the european government deemed it too dangerous to pedestrians and banded for sale in their market with a car this hardcore we had to find someone just as track focused enter jen grey jen is a very seasoned go-kart racer with years of experience and wins under her belt she also likes taking her car control skills to the limit by competing in ice racing growing up around race tracks has given jen the passion and knowledge any good race car driver needs to succeed having a corvette as one of her track toys makes her already intimate with the brand and the right person to give us her insights on the zl1 1le [Applause] i'm going to start off by saying i don't really have too many expectations coming into driving this car i've never actually driven a camaro of any sort on the track let alone something this specifically built for the track so i'm honestly just excited to see how it's going to perform in perspective to any of the other cars i've driven like my corvette or any other car so in my personal opinion before chevy released this spec of the camaro i kind of think that the camaro has kind of fallen onto the back burner when it came to cars at least track cars built by chevy i mean come on you've got the camaro that thing is a track weapon and i think they really focus a lot of their time and effort into that car so i'm really excited to see this car and kind of bring camaro back to the forefront for chevy's so initial thoughts this thing is crazy i'm going to give it a little bit of a shot here to feel the 650 horsepower oh my god oh wow okay yeah that is insane okay you can really feel the power that is crazy so i did get a bit of wheel spin coming out of that corner just because it really does have so much power it is so fun so i obviously expected this car to be quick in a straight line because let's face it it has a ton of power as we just saw on the straight but i kind of am not sure how it's going to perform through these tight sections so i'm going to try and start speeding it up a little bit here to kind of see how it's going to react in these tight kind of technical turns here a little bit of oversteer so honestly i am a little bit pleasantly surprised i mean i totally expected this to be obviously great on the straight but i didn't really expect it to be able to be as responsive as it is in the corners and for such a huge car it feels shockingly nimble which is kind of weird to say but it really does so as you can see i can't help but smile driving this thing holy does the dual exhaust ever sound amazing in this car wow i was really excited that i got to drive the manual version of this car i am a manual girl my c5 corvette is manual and honestly i just really like how the manual drives compared to an automatic obviously as a race car driver you kind of want to be able to feel the car a bit under you and i've never actually used active rev matching on any car and surprisingly i don't mind it i mean i know that there's a lot of mixed reviews by people who are manual drivers who are used to you know heel toe downshifting like actual racing drivers so let me just try it here again so basically as soon as you shift down it matches the rev for you you don't have to do it with your foot which is kind of weird for me to get used to because i'm so used to doing it with my foot but it is useful and if you have like a newer driver someone who's new to track days and might not be comfortable doing that themselves maybe it's a good feature to kind of get them used to what it's supposed to be like and then they can obviously start doing it for themselves all right so under braking these bremo brakes are really good honestly i didn't expect such a big car to be able to brake so efficiently but i do have full confidence coming into the braking zones that the car is going to stop and i'm not going to fly off the track which is always good to know i would certainly recommend this car to someone who's kind of just looking for something fun reliable balanced and honestly overall just what i would consider to be a successfully built track car i mean you've got so many of the integrated features like active rev matching the adjustable suspension i mean there's so much that you get in this car and that can be adjusted to your liking when it comes to your track day that i certainly think that this would be a great option if you have the money go for it seriously go for it it's so fun like i haven't had this much fun on a track day in a car in a long time [Music] even though these cars are street legal we prefer to have them arrive at the track in true race car fashion in the back of a high-end car transport trailer our friends at safe auto always make sure the stars of the show arrive safely and in style they only use state-of-the-art holy custom enclosed trailers safe auto offers an array of services including their support and transfers as well as personal vehicle transport they also provide car storage in a brand new 40 000 square foot facility safe auto brings over 50 years of industry experience to the game and is the best choice for car transport and storage in ontario what if a street legal race car is not enough and you want something a little more purposeful to race in what is the alternative one option is this car a professionally race prepped porsche 944 this car is part of a fleet of 944s available to rent from one of our partners ultra ray motorsports they are a race team and retail outlet based out of oakville ontario ultra ray provides a turnkey arrive and drive program for anybody who wants to dip their toe in wheels wheel racing without having to break the bank everything is provided including food and coaching you just have to show up and have fun with decades of racing experience ultra ray motorsports is the place to race [Music] so both these cars are excellent options if you want a street legal car and of course today we're very lucky to have jen with us to share her opinion on these two wonderful cars thanks for joining us today jen yeah thanks so much for having me i had such a fun drive time driving the camaro and it really i lived my expectations to be honest so the one thing though i have to say wasn't my favorite thing about the porsche was actually the character so i think you saw in my review when i was driving it that it's a great car don't get me wrong very good sports car but it just doesn't have that gt race car appeal to it for me at least i know a lot of people like it just didn't do it for me the engine is just pretty good like everything about the car is pretty good it doesn't have that race car appeal again you did the review in the camaro what was your take on that what was the character like did you feel it was like a race car or kind of a sports car what was your take on it i mean to be honest i see where you're coming from and obviously had an amazing time driving the camaro as well but i wouldn't say that it's race car territory although i did have a lot of fun in it and it did have a lot of race car elements so it's kind of hard to say but i think that i kind of share a lot of your opinion when i when i say that definitely it's not at that level where i could kind of call it race car territory but it was obviously still fun and such a good sports car especially considering that you drive it on the street as well so can't really ask for more than that i would say so but then again you're probably biased with that considering most of your career you drove a go-kart i'm sure everything else by comparison feels soft and muted right yes 100 i'm used to very down to the ground like you know you know but but i mean this was this is kind of similar to your go-kart it it kind of had that feel too it you could really tell that you were driving the car you're putting in all the inputs you can really feel the car under you which i did like it's similar to a go-kart in that sense for sure so to find out a bit more about the cayman gt4 today we're very fortunate to have a special guest we have dirk densheta from polycaro motorsports he's the team manager and he's going to share his insights with us today dirk come on in thanks for coming out today so we really appreciate you taking your time to come out with us today dirk so first thing i want to know is really what's kind of your role entail with uh policaro and what do you guys do with your motorsports team uh well i oversee the whole motorsports program uh in last year or 2019 we uh campaigned two uh gt3 cup cars in the uh canada cup series and uh sponsored by ufo and uh we actually came in the second team championship cool all right so we had a 2018 and a 2019 cup car and that's what we did for the motorsport side we also support a lot of client cars with cayman gt4 club sports and cup cars and just track ready street cars so then you're the guy talk about porsches and gt cars and all that performance stuff clearly so the first thing i want to know is why is the cayman in my opinion not gt car-ish and by that what i mean is when you drive a gt3 it does feel like a race car still not as much as of course as the cup cars but as far as road cars go it's a race car right now when i reviewed the gt4 it was an excellent sports car i was very impressed with it it did very well and i loved it however i still don't feel like it's really a true gt car in the same spirit as the gt3 what's your take on that what's your opinion well i think you know it is in my opinion it is a true gt car uh it has a lot of the features built into it from the factory that i would consider make it a gt car such as adjustable suspension upgraded brakes uh a lot of the bushings are monoball or you know but there's an absence of rubber for noise suppression things like that so you do get a much harsher feel in the car as a normal street going version uh and it is it has the adjustments necessary to allow it to just dance a little bit more on the knife edge when it comes to track driving uh i do think that the gt that came in gt4 is downplayed slightly from the gt3 when you compare them apples to apples obviously they do have to keep little brother down uh the wrong a little bit you know um but definitely i definitely think that uh the 2020 version is an improvement on the last one for sure so we kind of know that the camaro has pretty aggressive suspension in terms of the porsche how adjustable is that compared to the camaro uh well i mean i can't speak for the camaro i do know that obviously it has a coilover style setup and there's you know camber toe adjustments that can be made i think one of the things the porsche still does bring to the table is although the amount of adjustment is limited there are the adjustments they do give you are huge so the coilovers are height adjustable uh the camber you know one of the things that it does bring over from the club sport is the lower adjustable control arms so it actually you can shim them make them wider give them a wider track uh you know stance uh for the actual geometry of the suspension uh so the options that they give you to adjust they give you quite a bit of adjustment but they limit others so it's not a full spectrum they just give you a bunch of little things in both the auto solemn track horse and in the drag race what do you think is going to happen who's going to come out on top well i have a bias obviously but i would say probably in the drag race i think i would know who that might you know be the best of that um uh with the autocross though i still believe that uh or i would expect to see the gt4 uh with the advantage there just from the mid engine and the nimbleness of it that's would be my expectation but i guess we'll see oh okay i'm sitting here waiting for my next turn watching jen go through in that big camaro that is a big car to push through the autocross course but i gotta say watching her go though she's handling it quite well she's definitely starting to get a feel for that car starting to rotate better i'm noticing she's definitely figuring the course out that's for sure you can tell she's picked up a lot of speed that was a good run nicely dungeon nicely done so so again how was your first autocross experience oh my gosh it was so fun but i gotta say i definitely do need some coaching that's okay because when you first start doing autocross it is a very different experience than driving on the track or carting or anything frankly you've done so um i gotta say that watching you it looked like your runs were still really good i think he did a good job let's face in this case i definitely had the better car i think for the road course uh maybe maybe not i think for autocross unfortunately i had the advantage and i've done it a couple more times than you unfortunately but i gotta say you did a very good job for your first time so nicely done thank you i appreciate it are you ready for the times yes i guess i guess which one do you want to hear first the camaro or the porsche let's go with the porsche the porsche okay so the best time out of the three runs in the porsche was a 44.25 wow nice that was my best run so your best run was a 51.24 so you know it was so close we're both under a minute so you know it's kind of toss up is close enough we could say you're the winner around the winner it's the same thing right exactly exactly we can say that yeah exactly you know i had the car advantage so let's just call it a tie everybody wins right i like that i like that so what was your input though first time doing autocross what'd you think about it honestly it was really cool just to see how the car kind of operated through the tighter sections that you can't really exactly get on an actual track so it's really cool to see how it performed in that kind of situation right drag race between the porsche and the camaro the beauty and the brawn i know the porsche is going to take it off the line i don't know what's going to happen after that [Music] he wanted to stall did you hear it did it stall it pretty much did like i was already going and it wanted to stall were you flooring it the whole time yeah weird the tires on the camaro had seen too many track days and even launch mode was struggling to find grip on the straight after several more attempts at launch mode and manual launches the results were the same our director and ontario time attack champion jay sang hopped in in an attempt to try and save with time running out on our track rental we knew we couldn't let the camaro leave with such a crushing blow on the drag strip so we swapped cars for one more attempt jen in the porsche and me and the camaro with launch mode letting us down i went for the manual launch option as well [Music] so now that we've watched both the drag race and the autocross section of the episode i really want to know your opinion dirk was it what you expected i'm really interested let's start with the drag race well so i was pleasantly surprised with the graduates to be honest i mean i kind of thought the horsepower would be a huge huge advantage like just a mind-boggling advantage but obviously traction is always an issue um so i was yeah i was very pleasantly surprised to see how they were still within you know arm's length with each other so that was a good thing for me to see so now that we've seen both the drag race and the autocross it's time to see the hot laps now dirk what are your predictions i'm curious to know well i'd like to say my favorite is the one behind me uh pleasantly surprised by the previous results though so honestly i think it could go either way yeah let's find out wow [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so [Music] so these two cars were remarkably close in the hot lap section dirk what do you think about that i mean considering the camaro on paper has a lot more than the porsche i have to admit i think the porsche you know held its own given everything yeah you know i was pleasantly surprised i mean i i think i kind of knew what might happen the potential there yeah um but yeah i was surprised and you know what that's great competition breeds excellence so you know it's all about pushing the limits for for everyone and uh again i think you know um there are street cars still at the end of the day right and i'm really impressed to see both of them doing uh what they did so thanks so much for coming out today derek and sharing your time and your insights with us i really appreciate somebody with your level of experience especially around porsche and the motorsports coming out and you know sharing this information with us and you know just chatting and picking your brain um thank you so much and we really look forward to maybe having you out again soon i'd love it it was a pleasure to be here thanks for having me today we found out you can't really go wrong with either option they're both excellent street legal track toys they're both a lot of fun they're both great performance i think it really comes down to price point we know there's a big difference between the two cars so what do you think yeah so i agree obviously i had a lot of fun driving the camaro you had a lot of fun driving the porsche i think yeah it really just comes down to how much you're willing to spend and do you want to pay the porsche tax and speaking of porsche tax again there is a big difference let's face it um one car is sub 100k and one is quite a bit past 100k it's not like you're talking a 5 000 difference so i'm sure that would definitely weigh into a lot of people's decision i'm sure so at that point which one would you go with jen let's start this first let's say price wasn't an option which one would you pick you know what i'm gonna stick to my roots even if price wasn't an option i'd have to go with the camaro i mean i'm just picturing myself even driving it on the street i would feel so much cooler driving this car i just have to say i mean obviously the porsche is amazing too and i really think that these guys are both winners but yes my final answer would be camaro what about you so you don't want to look cute driving around in the porsche no i'm cute enough on my own come on for me if price wasn't an option i think all things considered i hate to say this but yes i'd go with the camaro i would it it really is just a fantastic car it's got more performance it really does it's a little scary to drive its limits but at the end of the day i like that actually so yeah i would now let's say if price was an option i'm assuming we'd both go for the same thing so i guess all things considered i will say the camaro won the day i guess yeah i mean they're so evenly matched but yeah i'm gonna have to give it to the camaro for this one all right so i guess we both agree the camaro is the clear winner today good job chevy you know how to build a street legal track car obviously and we'll find out soon with some more really exciting chevy products speaking of which make sure you check out our next episode hit the like and subscribe button so you do not miss it when it hits the youtube channel because we will be reviewing the c8 corvette again but this time we're going to be doing the recommended gm alignment and we're also going to be putting some sticky rubber on it and we're going to be putting it up against a bigger contender this time so how good is the new c8 we're going to find out on the next episode so be sure to check us out then and we'll see you at the track [Music] you

Channel: Track Attack Canada

Views: 37,764

Rating: 3.7954545 out of 5

Keywords: #cars, #car, #bmw, #auto, #carporn, #supercars, #carlifestyle, #instacar, #luxury, #automotive, #supercar, #carswithoutlimits, #luxurycars, #dodge, #dodgedemon, #demon, #dragrace, #topgear, #car review, #track, #track review, #trackattack, challenger, #drone, #fpvdrone, #cayuga, #trackday, #top gear, #torontomotorsportspark, #honda, #throttle house, #donut media, #car reviews, #gm, #chevrolet, #chevy, #huracan, #general motors, #zl1, #camaro, #1le, #cayman, #gt4, #porsche, #718

Id: sBOCzV2rVT8

Length: 35min 7sec (2107 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2020