Porsche's 718 Cayman GT4 ePerformance Race Car Is One Heart-Pounding EV

The first hint that the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 ePerformance is no ordinary race car comes during the safety briefing. If the dashboard lights turn red, Porsche’s handlers explain in an ominous tone, we will have to exit the car by perching on the door sill before leaping as far away as possible. If we make the mistake of touching the vehicle and the ground at the same time, Porsche warns, we may be in for a shock, possibly ending up charred to a crisp as if we had personally angered Zeus.

The second clue is the noise. What starts as a monotone whir as you trundle down pit lane becomes a shrill shriek the instant our chauffeur—Porsche Formula E reserve driver and IndyCar hotshoe Simona de Silvestro—nails the go pedal. Despite the Cayman nameplate, there’s no sonorous thrum of a flat-six here, but instead a high-pitched scream as the ePerformance’s two electric motors rocket the car into the first corner of the track at the Porsche Experience Center in Franciacorta, Italy.

Revealed earlier this summer, the Cayman GT4 ePerformance prototype is a follow-up to the radical Mission R concept that we drove last year. While that concept focused on a futuristic design, the GT4 ePerformance acts as a test bed for Porsche’s electric powertrain development, previewing what’s next for Porsche’s customer GT racing program and suggesting what we might see from the upcoming electrified 718 Boxster and Cayman.

The GT4 ePerformance’s shape is familiar, mimicking the curves of its gas-powered counterpart and riding on the chassis of a 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport. But the bodywork, constructed from a natural fiber composite and stretching 5.5 inches wider than the Clubsport upon which it’s based, hides a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive setup capable of up to 1073 horsepower.

That figure represents the all-out Qualifying mode, but even in Racing mode, the ePerformance is capable of 603 horsepower. The 82.0-kWh battery is split into three sections—one mounted up front, one behind the driver where a Cayman’s engine would typically be found, and the final pack residing in the passenger footwell, forcing us to sit with our legs angled upward like a Formula 1 driver. In Racing mode, the battery lasts approximately 30 minutes, and thanks to a 900-volt electrical architecture, Porsche claims the prototype charges from 5 to 80 percent in 15 minutes at a maximum rate of 350 kW.

Acceleration in the GT4 ePerformance is head-snappingly violent, the oodles of horsepower pinning you to the seat and compressing your organs as the vehicle launches forward. Even de Silvestro, who earns a living piloting high-performance track monsters at top speed, seems impressed. “It’s got a lot of power,” she says, with the added thrust of all-wheel drive making it “quite fun.”

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On the track, de Silvestro doesn’t hold back, slinging the ePerformance from corner to corner, the electric motors’ instant torque hitting with full force before she slams on the brakes, the four-point harness straining to prevent us from flying through the windshield. The ePerformance devours corners, attacking the curbs and rapidly slithering its way through the tight and twisty track. With around 3400 pounds to move, the ePerformance takes some wrangling, but the immense amount of power prevents the car from feeling flat-footed.

As we turn back onto the main straight, the ePerformance shoots forward at a brain-scrambling rate. We push toward 150 mph, and the world turns to a blur, as if we were aboard the starship Enterprise after Commander Sulu activated warp speed. The ePerformance squirms under heavy braking into Turn 1, regenerating energy while keeping us out of the wall. Whereas a road car may recover only around 3 percent of energy through braking, prototype project manager Björn Förster tells us, the ePerformance is capable of recuperating around 50 percent of the juice it spends on acceleration. Having all-wheel drive helps acceleration, but as Förster explains, the main advantage of the front-mounted motor is extra energy regeneration under braking.

While the performance from the GT4 electric prototype is incredibly impressive, what stands out most is the sound. The whine may never elicit quite the same soul-stirring reaction as the resonant howl of a Porsche flat-six, but the rise and fall of the rpm from the electric motors is riveting and otherworldly, building to a swell as the ePerformance accelerates, the audio cues helping to make sense of the immense speed. Unlike most roadgoing EVs, where the lack of sound fails to match the force of acceleration, the GT4 prototype provides the audible theatrics to match the mind-blowing performance.

After the roller-coaster ride, we ask Förster what aspect of the ePerformance he’s most proud of. Is it the prodigious amount of power? The energy recuperation? Or the fast-charging 900-volt architecture?

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It’s none of that, according to Förster. It’s topping the expectations for an EV and showing car enthusiasts that electric cars can bring the emotion and character that made us fall in love with cars in the first place. The future is definitely going to look, feel, and sound different, but if the 718 Cayman GT4 ePerformance is any indication, we have reason to be excited.

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