[Perfectlap]

The power bump the Cayman has received in the past was necessary to compensate for the higher center of gravity, otherwise on equal power the Boxster would be quicker. And that would throw a fly in the ointment of selling the Cayman as the stepping stone car for the eventual Carrera upsell.

I'm not so sure that the aero considerations as far as the rear wing are the same for Boxster and Cayman due to the higher COG for the Cayman. For instance in the Cayman R vs. Spyder head to head in Excellence Magazine with J. Van Overbeek driving, everyone one of the Boxster's laps was faster than the Cayman R's and the Boxster had nothing more than the duck bill. If you read Van Overbeek's feedback, it seems that a Cayman really needs the rear wing whereas the Boxster can easily find grip without it. The side intakes are not such a big deal, definitely not anything to tip Porsche's hand one way or another. And another (essentially) Boxster GTS variant that costs the same as a GTS but isn't an actual GT4? Sounds a bit clumsy vs. simply offering an actual GT4 option for the Boxster on the configurator.

I used to agree that you wouldn't see a Boxster GT4 to protect the Cayman as a "stepping stone" car. But the pricing and turn key power on the Cayman GT4 tells me someone pretty high up there is going against the grain. If they would finally expose the 991 to a faster mid-engine car, then I see no reason why they would then protect the Cayman. They've burned the bibles at Porsche and are taking BMW's M power approach to all their models.