718 GTS 4.0
I have over 150 ChatGPT conversations about Porsche. One hundred and fifty. Tortured that poor fella with questions like “how does the throttle mapping differ between 991 4S and 992 GTS” and “explain me why NA high-rev feels scary after turbocharged cars” and “compare the steering feel of 718 GTS vs 911 Turbo S in slow speed corners”. At some point I could identify exact Porsche model and generation by just the sound of an engine. And explain to you why 911 4S 991 has probably the funniest throttle mapping that makes NA engine to feel like turbo.
This is the writeup I wish I have read a year ago when procrastinating my car choice. Not a spec sheet. Not a comparison table. A story of how a car found me - through wound, fear, obsession and proper german engineering.
German Engineering
I have honestly hated cars in my teenage years. Dreamt about dirt biking and road biking. This maximalism though has slightly calmed down during early adulthood with rather utilitarian logic emerging - that cars are convenient. So back into early 20s I have been driving reliable BMW X5, diesel, only slightly younger than me and was extremely happy about it.
I have been forced to sell my first car in order to stay afloat. And it ended up that it turned out as initial capital for my quantitative trading operations back in 2023.
Since then it has been rather an emotional wound that by sacrificing my first car I have moved forward to a somewhat financial independence. And the itch for a proper appreciation ritual has been floating somewhere around me. That it has all started with a car being sold. It has to lead somehow to another car.
And funny enough quantitative zero-sum chapter of my life has indeed ended with another car. But the process and thinking behind it is rather something that could be viewed from “beautiful engineering and proper research” point of view.
Cars Spree
Nomading around the world doesn’t lead to a car purchasing itch. But finding good enough place to settle for sometime and call a new home does. Especially if it’s a car heaven such as UAE.
Car rentals here are blazingly simple after being exposed to proper EU and UK bureaucracy. You just text a guy in WhatsApp and car is at your doorstep in an hour or so. The first car I have rented been loaded Corvette C8. As per my childhood prejudgements than muscles > anything else. And car felt really great at that time. Then came spree of numerous G wagons that have converged to 2 door Defender as a proper Jumeirah daily, ifykyk.
When throwing a corporate party for one of my teams I have learned that their favorite car is Porsche. So I have rented some Porsches for them. And oh man they have been happy with that. After proper road trips season around mountains and coastal runs I have decided to rent Porsche myself. As a birthday present. Proper 911 Turbo S, red leather and white exterior, carbon ceramic brakes and maxed out spec. Exactly how it’s done here in Emirates.
The Turbo S Awakening
At first I didn’t get that car. Stiff over the bumps, with it’s bum bizarrely jumping behind you.. Weirdly long inhale before ludicrous jump even on the throttle half-flooring. Small and firm steering wheel. Brakes biting as a crocodile with 100-ton jaws. Sound of a lawn-mower on steroids or slightly broken pit bike. It all has felt weird and out of place after other cars I have been driving.
So I have decided to skip meta thinking on why this car might be that great as other people describing it and decided just to drive it with less mental overhead. And that was the best decision after all. After dailying it for several days and one proper road trip for ~900km I have became the biggest fan of Porsche.
It has been almost as realizing that everything I have been driving before was rather false. Vague and opaque steering. Soft but un-informative. Throttle pedal living its own life instead of working jointly with a driver. Sounds, sometimes roaring, but rather misplaced. That things suddenly came true for my old driving experience. While Porsche gave me the feeling of how exactly car should be felt in your hands.
Turbo S rental started to expectedly biting my wallet so I have decided to explore other models in order to see whether I will feel there the same.
Chasing the Dragon
Next car on the list ended up being blue 911 GTS 4 Targa. And it was a very different beast. I haven’t been driving proper NA cars before that point. Most of the mileage done on an old turbo-diesel of mine. 10 different G63 with the same dynamics of an angry bear, always itching to stand up “on its back legs”, with a proper roar of giant kitten at the same time. Then Turbo S - inhale-and-punch-you-in-the-back kind of beast. I have honestly scared the roar that been coming from behind my back.
This was.. well… rather so boringly linear. And with an uncomfortable high pitch scream I haven’t really faced before. So it was a fear at first. Fear of exploding with the car when pressing the throttle. After some time and slow incremental increase of throttling I have understood that nothing will explode, but the instincts and reflexes haven’t caught up to it.
What I didn’t understand then - and what took me almost a year to learn - is that naturally aspirated high-rev is a completely different language. My brain was wired for turbo. Inhale, punch, done. NA doesn’t work like that. It rewards you gradually, linearly, and the magic lives at the top of the rev range. The “boring” was my turbocharged brain failing to read the car. Not the car failing to excite me.
Then after numerous instagram reels that I have been still watching at that time - strategic decision about trying the 911 GT3 has emerged. Several hours later, breathing like a horse after exhausting desert crossing. Bucket seats - because popular. And modded steering (I guess for track). Aaaaand - expectedly it was too far from my learned distribution at that time. Same problem amplified. Too much for me. Too uncomfortable and hard to understand. So I have returned to Turbo S that I understood at that time.
But the seed was planted. The GTS Targa had shown me a whole dimension of Porsche I wasn’t equipped to read yet. It would take time.
The Crash
Then the thing happened that changed everything.
Rented what was listed as a “911 4S” - turned out to be a base Carrera in malicious guards red. Didn’t care much at the time. Did 1400km across mountains and deserts with that car. Beautiful drives. Good days.
Last rental day. Calm drive home. Maybe 60 km/h. Braked before a bump, started accelerating gently after - maybe 30% throttle. Something hit the right front wheel. Car lost traction. Went on its belly. I managed to slide it to the side and stop safely.
The wheel had self-dismounted. Just came off. At 60 km/h on a calm drive home.
Rental company persuaded me it was 100% my fault. Scammed me for the damage. I was young enough in Dubai and stressed enough to not fight it properly at first. But I was frightened - not because of what happened, but because of what could have happened. That same wheel at 180 on the mountain road I had been driving days before. That same wheel in a tunnel.
PTSD came fast. Panic attacks in taxis on accidental braking. Lost trust in rental cars completely. Lost trust in driving for a while.
I tried to sue. Then decided - focus on what I know. Made 20x the money I’ve lost that same month in quant trading. Proper “best revenge is massive success” type of closure.
But the engineer in me couldn’t let it go. Did my own investigation. Tracked the VIN to a car totaled in Indiana at 2,800 miles. That car went through 8 totaled-car-sale auctions in USA before arriving in Sharjah where it was poorly restored and put out as a rental. The wheel situation made perfect sense after that.
Stopped renting for a while after this. The Porsche dream went to sleep.
Background Hum
That white bird of the Turbo S has opened my eyes towards the world of german engineering genius condensed in Porsche cars. Other cars became kind of bitter for me. Things like Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren - too uncomfortable and raw. Other less sporty cars - not enough “enthusiastic”.
So it all went to the background hum. Through the PTSD. Through months of not driving. Through the trust being broken. The dream persisted anyway - just quieter.
New form of procrastination has emerged - configuring different 911s in a Porsche Configurator. Late nights scrolling through spec sheets. Trying some of them if they have been available for rent - from a trusted place this time, carefully vetted - when there has been a need to do proper driving instead of uber here and there. Nothing interesting. Other priorities. But the hum never stopped.
718 and the Mid-Engine Era
So there is a prejudgement in 911-big-boys-club that 718, or Boxster, is a “poor man’s Porsche”. I knew about that and had a slight form of that prejudgement too. But once for the pure sake of experimentation I have decided - why not, let’s try.
First 718 I have tried has been the dark-blue base Boxster. Nothing special I would say. Apart from:
- Absolutely new dimension of feeling from steering. Some playful edge to driving a car I have never feeled before
- 4 cylinder engine that sounds like a lawn mower. This time for real.
It has hit at first “Naaaaah, maybe it is a good car, but I am not sure”.
Next attempt has been the red 718 GTS 4.0. Boxster. During the infamous UAE floods of 2024. And oh man this one changed things. Rented from a place I could finally trust again - that detail mattered more than the car itself at first. The floods bonded us somehow. Other rental cars drowning around the city while I was caring for this one like it’s mine. Moving it to higher ground. Covering it. Checking on it. Brotherhood type of thing - forged by disaster, per se.
Then almost a year of no renting. PTSD still lingering. Busy. Traveling. The red GTS memory slowly composting in the background.
Summer 2025 - silver 718 GTS 4.0 with Tiffany-blue calipers. This is the click. The real one. Not “oh this is a nice car” type of click. But the full body “THIS is the car I have been looking for” type of click. Fun at reasonable speeds. Connected. Playful. Every input answered honestly. Not the stainless steel rocket precision of 911 that seems fun at 150+ km/h - but a car that is genuinely, irresponsibly fun at the speeds you actually drive on Dubai roads.
The Decision
So this precise moment of “Tiffany calipers click” has initiated yet another spiral of thinking and comparing different models. But this time with a much stronger incline of “yolo, let’s just buy a car”.
Tortured ChatGPT comparing feelings. Not specs - feelings. How does the mid-engine layout feel versus rear-engine at 80 km/h in a curve. How does the NA flat-six scream differently when you are sitting on top of it versus behind it.
I have learned about PASM, PDCC, and many more fancy Porsche specific words. Could identify the exact model + generation by just the sound of an engine and explain how the throttle mapping works on it.
Two anchors emerged from all this chaos. First - mid-engine layout. 718 puts the engine behind your back and in front of the rear axle. It rotates around you. 911 is a rocket and you are sitting at its nose. Beautiful, but different. Second - maximum fun at safe speeds. 0-60 and 60-120 km/h maximizer. Not a 200+ km/h precision instrument.
Second thoughts existed. Of course they did. 911 4S kept whispering. 718 GT4 RS kept screaming. But the two anchors held every time I tested them against another wave of doubt.
Converged: 718 GTS 4.0 Cayman.
Pulling the Trigger
June 2025 after those Tiffany calipers - “THIS is the car”. But 100k+. Decided to think about it.
Months of procrastination followed. Instagram reels. Configurator sessions. PTSD-induced hesitation whispering “do you really need a car after what happened”. Was between 718 GTS 4.0, 911 4S, and 718 GT4 RS. The three kept rotating in my head like a broken carousel.
Traveled. Surfed Passe de la Ambulante near Le Morne, Mauritius. Got properly washed by 3-4 meter overheads to the reef. Sitting in the ocean after, processing the fact that waves this size can just decide you don’t exist - the thought crystallized. We live once. Shall buy Porsche young rather than wait for some imaginary “right time” that will never come.
Texted car specialist: “718 GTS 4.0 Cayman, full red leather interio, comfy seats, fun color, maxxed spec”.
Market was tight. Best option surfaced only month later - Boxster version, agate metallic + red leather. Beautiful spec. Deal fell through last moment. Proper gut punch.
Then MY car surfaced. Dark blue + espresso leather Cayman. Sat in it. Decided to buy.
Day One
First day with the car has been brilliant. Solved all procrastinated bureaucracy in one sweep - as if the car unlocked some form of executive function. Bought beans at a roastery. Randomly met a double Emmy award winning video production guy there. Got stopped by police first time in 3 years in UAE - document check en masse. The universe was clearly celebrating, per se.
Took slow onboarding. Normal mode only at first. Was afraid. The PTSD doesn’t care that this is YOUR car now. It reminds you anyway.
Several days later - tried Sport. Shocked. Different car entirely. The flat-six wakes up and starts talking to you in a language that the GTS Targa tried to teach me a year ago. Except now I could hear it.
Sport+ tried only after a month. Six months in - still shocked by Sport+. Raw and visceral. The kind of raw that the GT3 was - but now I have the vocabulary to read it.
The connection now is something I couldn’t have imagined during the rental days. I feel tire pressure changes through the steering. Feel air temperature through the throttle response. Hold the throttle and KNOW the speed without looking at the dash. Motorcycle-level connection on 4 wheels. That thing I was chasing through all those rentals - it was this. It was always this.
Pushing harder now. Ludicrous 0-60 launches in 1st gear, catching the car with the steering wheel as the weight transfers. Proper grin-inducing chaos.
What it taught me - what a Porsche actually IS. Meticulous attention to every detail that matters for driving. The car has 2008-era multimedia in a 2025 car. Not perfect all around. But perfect exactly where it needs to be perfect. That is proper engineering philosophy. That is what I have been looking for all along - not just in cars.
Connection
So now I am driving the car that brings me perfect feeling of a connection. Proper Avatar style connection with nudges connecting here and there.
Imagine being so connected to a car - that you can notice the 5-7 degrees drop in temperature at night just because you are going slightly faster after a corner with the same throttle applied (more air density = slightly more horsepower).
Or imagine car that is moving just by your thought, surfing throught thread of cars like a small but very confident tuna.
Or car that still gives you the smile after the 100th time you do a proper launch in Sport+: the gear shift from 1st to 2nd at ~60 km/h is still visceral, it’s like the “jump of a car at a full” or a proper sci fi “hyper-leap”.
Or imagine singing together with the car - where you scream a song, but car sings with its beautifully engineered engine roaring up to 8.5k RPM.
Or cruising comfortably, thinking thoughts about the next thing I would overengineer, and then happily deciding the new domain - flooring it until you and car are the one.
That is exactly what I’ve been trying to find. And this is exactly what I have found.
P.S. It turns out that with Claude Code development you need proper multi tasking in order to avoid overfocus on one session and claude micro management. At least this is how it works for me. So decompression for me is one clean and concise Claude Code session and writing this post.
P.P.S. Those 150 ChatGPT conversations? They are still there. Sometimes I open them and read through the early ones - where I was asking basic questions like “what is PASM” and “why is GT3 so uncomfortable”. Proper archaeology of a slowly converting Porsche fella.