The Cayman GT4 is back, and so is the Boxster Spyder. Get excited, folks. This time they're called the 718 Cayman GT4 and 718 Spyder (not Boxster) respectively, and the mid-engine Porsches are packing even more punch than before. We absolutely adored the Cayman GT4 and Boxster Spyder when we drove them a few short years ago, and this duo promises to be better yet.

We'll talk about them as a pair, because the upgrades are pretty much identical across the board. Sitting amidship is a 4.0-liter naturally aspirated flat six engine. Porsche says it's a new engine, and it develops 414 horsepower and 309 pound-feet of torque on its way up to an 8,000 rpm redline. The new 4.0-liter is based-on the same family of turbocharged engines in the new 911, but Porsche has re-engineered it for a non-boosted application. Don't mistake it for a de-tuned version of the 911 GT3 engine that makes 500 horsepower and 339 pound-feet of torque, though — that one revs out to a glorious 9,000 rpm. The engine in these cars uses Porsche's adaptive cylinder control technology, so in low-load situations, it's able to temporarily interrupt the injection process in one of the two cylinder banks. For now, it looks like a sizable upgrade over the 911 S-derived 3.8-liter flat-six that came in the previous generation of these cars.

Porsche enthusiasts will be happy to know that both cars come equipped with a six-speed manual transmission only. There's an auto blip function that can be toggled on and off, so no worries if you'd like to heel and toe on your own. Both the coupe and convertible feature identical 0-60 mph sprints of 4.2 seconds. Interestingly, that's exactly the same as the previous GT4. The coupe will top out at 188 mph, while the Spyder gets to 187 mph.

Improved suspension is obviously on the table as well. Adaptive dampers with Porsche's PASM system are standard. The ride height has been lowered 1.18 inches compared to a standard Cayman or Boxster, and the system allows for manual adjustments of camber, toe, ride height and anti-roll bar settings. Just like before, these cars borrow some parts from the 911 GT3. Specifically, these two borrow the front axle and brakes from that car. The iron rotor size is identical front and rear at about 15 inches in diameter. Larger Porsche Ceramic Composite Brake rotors are optional, offering a 50 percent weight savings over the iron rotors. A mechanical limited-slip differential with torque vectoring is at the rear. Big 20-inch wheels are standard, wrapped in 245-section-width in front and 295-section-width in back. You'll have oodles of grip on tap, as Michelin has provided its sticky Sport Cup 2 tires for duty. Both traction control and stability control can be completely turned off if you so desire, and a Nürburgring lap time at least 10 seconds faster than before is promised.

We'll let the photos do most of the talking for the way these things look. In short, they're exactly what we thought they'd look like, and both are stunning. Porsche developed a new sport exhaust system for both these cars, so we'll expect them to sound even better than they look. The interior isn't short on Alcantara, with the material wrapping the steering wheel, shift lever and centers of the seats. To aid quick shifting, the gear lever is reportedly 0.39 inch shorter than a regular 718 equipped with a manual — it's the little things that count. Air conditioning and Porsche infotainment are fitted as standard, and since it's a Porsche, there will be options aplenty to choose from. One thing you should note if the 718 Spyder strikes your fancy is that it's a manually-folding soft top. Lower weight reigns supreme over conveniences here. Speaking of weight, we're still waiting on curb weights for these two.

If you want one, we'd suggest you get Porsche on the line quick. They're available to order now, and will reach dealers in spring 2020. No stringent production limits have been set yet. The 718 Cayman GT4 starts at $100,450, including the $1,250 delivery charge. The 718 Spyder is a hair cheaper at $97,550.

Pick one: the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 coupe or the 718 Spyder -- hardtop or soft top. You may never need another sports car again.

Indeed, the exciting new midengine 911 RSR race car revealed at Goodwood last week and intended for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s LMGTE-Pro championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTLM categories, is basically just a Cayman underneath -- Porsche’s “entry level” car. This interesting tidbit was mentioned offhandedly by Porsche’s Markus Atz, project manager for Porsche’s GT line.

While numerous 911 variants get more power, more tire and more grip, the Cayman GT4 and its cabriolet variant, the Spyder, could just be Porsche’s most enjoyable and affordable performance cars, relatively speaking.

The new 718 models were developed by Porsche Motorsport, but not necessarilyas race cars. You could just as easily use them on the street. Or drive them to the track, race all weekend, then drive home, as the tradition says. Wherever you take them, the 718 Cayman GT4 and Spyder offer what Porsche promises to be “unfiltered driver’s car character and track-oriented performance.”

The mid-mounted heart of the new cars is based on the same flat-six engine family that powers the 911 Carrera S models, except that the 911 versions are turbocharged. The naturally aspirated 4.0 in these 718s is strengthened from top to bottom to handle the higher 414-hp output with a forged-steel crankshaft with larger main bearings. The rocker arms have hydraulic valve clearance compensation to handle the 8,000-rpm redline. All four camshafts offer Porsche’s VarioCam adjustments for greater torque and power across a wider range of engine speeds. Highly accurate piezo injectors control the high-pressure direct fuel injection for more precise combustion. There’s even a fuel-saving adaptive cylinder control system that shuts down one bank of cylinders then the other in 20-second intervals when you’re cruising at steady, slower speeds.

All this is connected to a six-speed manual transmission, the only trans available with the GT4. It comes with a dual-mass flywheel pulled from the 911 GT3, a three-quarter-inch-shorter-throw shift lever and auto blip, the latter which you have to engage via a button on the console.

In between the mid-mounted engine and the rear-mounted transmission is a standard mechanical limited-slip differential. It locks up 22 percent under acceleration and 27 percent under decel, same as on previous models. Then, Porsche Torque Vectoring grabs the inside disc brake on acceleration to send torque to the outside wheel in a corner for better performance.

For brakes you get a choice of cast-iron rotors or Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes, or PCCB, with six-piston calipers front and four rear. Iron discs are 380mm front and rear, while PCCBs are 410 front and 390 rear. If you’re really serious about that racing stuff you’ll get the ceramic brakes, not just for better performance but because they account for 50 percent less unsprung weight.

Both Cayman coupe and Spyder GT4s roll on 20-inch forged wheels wrapped in 245/35ZR-20s front and 295/30ZR-20s rear. The cars I drove had Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s.

How does it all work? Oh, man.

My first drive was around a track way out on the bonny moors of Scotland called Knockhill Racing Circuit. No, I’d never heard of it, either. But it is a delightful, if slightly bumpy, eight-turn whoop-dee-doo built mostly for club racing.

“It’s short but really tricky,” said our Porsche host. “More like a roller coaster. You will like it a lot.”

My first drive was, remarkably for the Northern Moors, on a dry surface. Sure, the sky hung heavy and sullen gray like some kind of brooding Jane Austen novel about hopelessness and woe, but European racers were used to handling this stuff and so, in theory, could I.

I set out in a Cayman GT4 with both ESC and Auto Blip in the on positions and the ride set to comfort. The first thing that impressed me in this car was the magnificently powerful engine. The 414 hp offers 29 ponies more than the previous GT4. Both power and torque peaks come at fairly high rpm: 7,600 for power and 5,000-6,800 revs for the 309 lb-ft of torque. On a racetrack, keeping the revs up is not a problem, since you’re always bumping up against the rev limiter anyway in your quest for the fastest lap time of the day.

The hard-topped Cayman GT4 weighs only 3,199 pounds, so those 414 hp can move the whole thing around really well. Zero-60 takes just 4.2 seconds, and top speed is 188 mph. It is light and tossable, about as close to an original 718 as I would imagine you could get today, given all the trappings required of modern cars.

I was banging off of Knockhill’s painted race curbs with glee almost straight out of the box(ster). There was no warmup lap. The 718 loved this kind of treatment, blasting up through the gears and requiring only the slightest of pauses between upshifts. Downshifts with Auto Blip were a joy, and I found myself doing it just to hear the engine rev and match the transmission perfectly each time.

Coming back down to the track surface after a curb bash resulted in a slight pause while the LSD decided what to do, and then the electronic brains from Stuttgart eased the power back onto the road at a rate that kept the car from spinning out. Without electronic aids I would have certainly added too much throttle for the corner exit and wound up facing backward on the track. So thank you, stability management.

I found myself timing my upshifts to miss Knockhill’s biggest bumps, one at the end of the backstraight and the other in the middle of the front straight. Shifting while the wheels flew over these bumps resulted in something of a hiccup in power delivery, which could be avoided by doing it before or after.

I got in eight laps that session. A second session was halted in the first lap when the GT3 pace car I was following konked out.

That was it for the first day, but the second day started with a street drive of the Spyder. In the rain. On roads that could be charitably described as a lane and a half wide. And of course, I was driving on the wrong side of the road, as they do here in Bonnie Scotland. So I didn’t really thrash on the car much. I did try out sport mode and comfort mode back to back and found there wasn’t a lot of difference between the two, even over the fairly bumpy rural roads I drove. The GT4 wasn’t uncomfortable at any point during the street drive. You could drive it all day to work, especially if you had a particularly terrific road-course route you could take home.

Back at the track in the pouring rain I got to take some hot laps with former F1 and Porsche 919 driver Mark Webber. Much to my surprise, he was faster than me. Where I might enter turn 1 with a high degree of timidity, Webber just attacked it like a ravenous dingo. The back end got a little loose on the first turn, a cresting downhill right-hander, but Webber just thwapped in some countersteer and powered on.

“Wow, these tires are amazing,” I said.

“It’s not the tires, it’s the driver!” Webber countered.

Both were impressive. In the right hands the GT4 could really be a blast. A fast blast.

I was granted more laps behind the wheel in the rain later in the day. Only once did I over-throttle and get the rear end out, but with judicious gas-pedal application for the rest of the session I managed to keep the car in line.

Whenever I drove the previous GT4, and the Cayman R before that, I quickly tagged them as some of my favorite cars of all time, especially for the relative price. At $97,550 for the Cayman GT4 and $100,450 for the Spyder, they cost a lot less than a McLaren 570S or Ferrari 488 GTB. In the right frame of mind, they might be almost as much fun to drive. Look for them in Porsche dealerships next spring.

PORSCHE 718 CAYMAN/SPYDER GT4 SPECS

On Sale: Spring 2020
Base Price: $97,550
As-Tested Price: N/A
Drivetrain: 4.0-liter naturally aspirated H6
Output: 414 hp at 7,600 rpm, 309 lb-ft torque at 5,000-6,800 rpm
Fuel Economy (EPA City/Highway/Combined): N/A
Pros: So much fun on track or street
Cons: Still a six-figure sticker