Originally Posted by vtgts300kw

Chris Harris is ****ing disgusted with the name of this thing.

Originally Posted by Chris Harris

In 1967 Porsche built its first dedicated racing car based on the 911, it was called the ‘R’ for ‘rennen’, or ‘racing’. To homolgate the machine for the GT class required a production run of 500 vehicles, and that wasn’t possible so the car was built as a prototype.

The bodyshell was made by Karl Bauer and featured GRP front wings, bonnet, boot lid and bumpers. Even the dashboard had plastic elements. The side glass was replaced with Perspex and the rear window was 2mm thick plastic. The doors were aluminium and everything that could have a hole drilled in it to make it lighter did, like the floor.

By the time they’d finished stripping the kilos away, the car weighed 830kg. And that included the most spectacular motor ever fitted to a 911: the Carrera 6’s 2-litre flat 6.

Using titanium rods and running in eight bearings, surrounded by magnesium cases it produced 210bhp at 8000rpm and sounded, indeed still sounds, about as good as any engine ever made. Do the maths for yourself on this one: in 1967 the 911R had a power to weight ratio of 254bhp per tonne: nothing else came close. When people talk about the 2.7RS being the true lightweight, they are sadly mistaken –it’s an S-Class next to one of these. 24 were built.

Imagine Porsche taking a GT3 RS, re-shelling it in carbon, adding a Carrera GT motor and entering it into Le Mans and you have an idea of the scale of the changes.

The 911 R was, and is, the most extreme representation of the Porsche 911 ever to wear number plates, this is why the ‘R’ moniker has been used so sparingly by Porsche. Occasionally a full-house race car will warrant it, to show the level of upgrade it represents over the previous machine, like this year’s GT3 R which is an altogether more serious package than a GT3 Cup.

But now, after 43 years absence, Porsche has decided to use this hallowed badge on a street car once again.

The Cayman R: a Cayman S with another 10bhp, that weighs 55kg less than a Cayman S. That’s it.

I have lost the will to write anything more on the subject, even though it'll probably be a decent drive.