Taking on Targa Tasmania with Porsche’s Cayman GT4

Australia’s Targa Tasmania rally requires competitors to race on highways, through villages and down narrow lanes. There’s nothing else like it.

Few experiences approach the euphoric highs and shattering lows of Targa Tasmania.

Soaring through the air in a bright green Porsche on the last day of this year’s rally, we crashed to earth later upon hearing three competitors died in the rally – two of them in a similarly green Porsche on that very same jump.

Porsche’s Cayman GT4 in action at Targa Tasmania 2021.

Regarded as the toughest test of a performance car and its driver this country offers, the event proved its status in tragic circumstances this year.

Competitors race for six days at unlimited speed on a wide variety of closed roads crisscrossing the island. High mountains, flat plains, thick forests and scenic villages play host as the event unfolds across more than 2437 kilometres of driving.

Targa Tasmania takes place on a wide variety of closed roads.

You can’t turn a road car into an Australian Grand Prix contender or join the Bathurst 1000 grid, but you can enter your Sunday drive in the world’s longest tarmac rally.

More than 300 cars take the start each year. Dozens fail to finish.

The entry sheet reads like the ultimate shopping list of a petrolhead lottery winner – sure there are Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Maseratis, but also Dodge’s Viper, Nissan’s GT-R, Holden’s Monaro, and more.

Competitors race across through than 600 kilometres of Tasmanian scenery.

Porsche bravely entered a pair of sports cars alongside customer entries in the Targa Tour, encouraging motoring journalists to put its coupe to the test.

Customers who want to experience Targa Tasmania without transforming their car into a racing machine with a roll cage and six-point harnesses can accompany the rally as part of a “spirited tour” capped at 130km/h.

Dozens of Porsches join a speed-limited “tour” event each year.

This gives tour entrants a taste of Targa without helmets, roll-cages or the pressure of timed competition.

The 130km/h speed limit is more than enough to challenge cars and drivers across thousands of corners in the event.

Adapting to Targa takes time. It’s easier with a spellbinding vehicle.

This year’s race took part in conditions that were treacherous at times.

The 718 Cayman is Porsche’s entry-level sports car - smaller and lighter than the iconic 911.

But there is nothing entry-level about the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4. It has a muscular 4.0-litre six-cylinder engine with 309kW of power held in check by huge spoilers, fat circuit-ready tyres and an extremely liberal traction control system assuming anyone spending about $230,000 (plus optional extras) on a track toy will be comfortable with skids from time to time.

No racetrack can match the raw beauty of Targa stages.

Now available with Porsche’s seven-speed “PDK” dual-clutch automatic transmission, the paddle-shift gearbox was a godsend in trying conditions.

It delivers crisp changes exactly when required during racing stages, and buttery-smooth transitions on the open road. While the gearbox adds about $4800 to the bill, it is well worth it for people who want to extract the maximum performance from themselves and their car.

The Cayman GT4 was sensational to drive at Targa.

It shifts far quicker than you or I could hope to and never makes mistakes, allowing drivers to focus on their steering, brake and throttle inputs.

That makes it more effective but less engaging than the traditional manual version.

Which was just fine at Targa, where driver engagement is in thick supply.

The Porsche’s precise controls offer consistent responses, delivering the exact amount of steering, stopping or power requested of the car.

Porsche’s Cayman GT4 is built for motorsport.

Its non-turbocharged engine delivers impressively linear thrust all the way to the redline, and the Cayman’s mid-engine balance was the perfect foil for tricky conditions.

If cars are tools, V8 beasts such as Ford’s Mustang GT are rubber mallets – there’s a heavy weight at the front of the car, and plenty of wallop when you drop the hammer.

The mid-engine Cayman is like a fine Japanese chef’s knife, perfectly weighted front to rear as an instrument for connoisseurs savouring precision.

The Cayman’s impressive precision makes it suitable for Targa racing.

Which works in your favour on roads covered with frost, gravel, standing water or decaying asphalt.

Grip at Targa can vary dramatically from corner to corner, making the Cayman’s second-skin accuracy a vital asset.

It swivels around you like planets circulating the sun, your hands and feet at the centre of a solar system of driving pleasure.

This Cayman communicates its intentions clearly, the steering wheel fizzing with feedback as the suspension exerts taut control of the car’s mass.

A mid-engine layout with rear-wheel-drive is the same combination found in F1.

Outstanding ergonomics afford clear vision ahead necessary for surgical placement on the road. We pushed the car in wet and dry conditions, with confident speed on grippy surfaces and great caution on perilously slick stages.

A tidy little powerslide to finish a tricky stage on the last day crowned a week of driving nirvana.

Targa can deliver a lifetime’s driving thrills in six days.

The sort of thrills sought out by experienced racers Leigh Mundy, Dennis Neagle, and Shane Navin who tragically died at Targa this year.

Forests, villages and highways play host to Targa racers.

Navin was killed when his Mazda RX-7 left the road in wet weather on the longest stage of the rally. Mundy and Neagle died when their Porsche 911 smashed into a tree after a jump in sunny weather on the final day.

Their deaths shattered the rally racing fraternity.

As with all competitors, we were heartbroken by the news.

Event winners Ed Maguire and Zak Brakey quietly accepted trophies after wrestling their monstrous Dodge Viper to a hard-earned victory. No-one sprayed champagne.

Ed Maguire drove a Viper to victory at Targa Tasmania in 2021. Picture: Aaron Wishart

The risk and thrills of Targa are intertwined.

It’s a much more challenging event than a regular race or track day, as drivers must attack hundreds of distinctly different corners rather than the same carefully manicured corner hundreds of times.

There really is nothing quite like Targa Tasmania.

Targa Tasmania takes place on closed public roads.