Track Tested: 2021 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 vs 2021 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 4.0 (Hagerty)
We took two of the greatest performance utensils on the market today — the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 and the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 — to a track to answer one very important question: Paring knife, or meat fork?
Consider this metaphor I just made up: If a Porsche is a paring knife, small but potent, a fast Mustang is a fork. Still sharp, just larger and more blunt. Both help food reach your mouth, but one has no interest in artsy shaping. It just wants to stab hunks of meat.
Now meet two of the greatest performance utensils we’ve seen. The 2021 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 weighs more than 4100 pounds and makes 760 hp and 625 lb-ft from a supercharged, 7500-rpm, front-mounted, 5.2-liter V-8. The 2021 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 4.0 weighs more than 3200 pounds. It makes 414 hp and 317 lb-ft from a naturally aspirated, mid-mounted, 8000-rpm, 4.0-liter flat-six.
A $74,000 Ford and a $100,000 Porsche. Ford named the GT500’s V-8 “Predator.” The 12-psi Eaton blower in that Mustang displaces nearly three-quarters as much air as the Porsche’s entire engine. You can order the Ford with the Carbon Track Pack ($18,500), as we tested: aero bits and anti-lift fillips, 20-inch carbon-fiber wheels (the front barrels are plasma-coated for resistance to brake heat), manually adjustable suspension paired with the standard electronically adjustable shocks, track-ready Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s.
The GT4 can be had with Cup 2s. It’s also rear-drive and adjustable for setup. Other similarities are thin on the ground. The Porsche’s engine is essentially the twin-turbo 3.0-liter from the latest 911, bored and stroked, minus the turbos. Its heads, manifolds, rods, and pistons are new. The front axle is ported over virtually unchanged from the more expensive 911 GT3, Porsche’s only other naturally aspirated sports car. Where the Ford offers only a fiendishly effective seven-speed twin-clutch, the GT4 can be had with either a superb six-speed manual, or, new for 2021, an excellent seven-speed twin-clutch.
In one corner, the most powerful engine ever bolted into a mass-produced Ford. In the other, an expensive Stuttgart flyweight. Remarkably, these machine turn and stop with each other. Which do you need? More important — since road cars aimed at track duty are a luxury — which do you want?
(photo credit: Andrew Trahan - Hagerty)
