Matt Farah – noted cat enthusiast and host of The Smoking Tire – recently took delivery of a seriously bananas Porsche Boxster Spyder. Now, a Boxster Spyder is already pretty cool, being the most hardcore version of Porsche’s mid-engine drop-top that you can get, but Matt went ahead and did something most of us would never imagine: He had a shop rip out the zero-mile motor and rebuild it into a monster.
That engine is known as the DeMan 4.5, and while it starts with Porsche’s already-great 4.0-liter naturally aspirated flat-six, the end result would make a GT3 soil itself in fear. That’s because the DeMan 4.5 is good for a whopping 565 hp and, more importantly, 439 lb-ft of torque. And while it’s pretty doubtful that Matt will sell you his Boxster, I’m happy to say that if you’ve got the cashish, there’s another way.
Enter this For Sale ad on the noted Porsche enthusiast forum Rennlist for a 2020 Cayman GT4 with the same drivetrain setup as Matt’s car. Being a GT4, it’s even more desirable to hardcore track rats thanks to its GT3-derived suspension and the added rigidity of a fixed roof. The catch is that if you want it, you’ll have to fork over around $200,000 or around twice the going rate for a standard, low-mileage GT4.
The owner of this GT4 says the car was converted by DeMan in February of 2022 and, with a 98-octane tune and catted headers, is good for around 545 hp. The car comes with a few extras, notably several cases of octane booster which means that you can run this thing on the street on pump gas, and a few aftermarket bits that should improve your quality of life, such as a full Xpel clear bra and ceramic coating.
Is this the raddest hardcore sports car you can buy right now for around $200,000? Yes. It would likely embarrass the hell out of most exotic cars at your local track days. As evidence of this, the owner included in-car footage of himself at Virginia International Raceway turning in a 2 minute, 17 seconds lap per his own data logger, which isn’t unimpressive, especially not accounting for driver skill. I’d suspect that with a real hot shoe in the car, this would easily do under two minutes.
So, if you’ve got deep pockets and are ready to out-Farah the Smoking Tire host himself, go make a Rennlist account and cut a big check.