Sensibly enough, Audi originally quashed all talk of a “baby R8.” As Ingolstadt belongs to VW and Porsche’s playing MEIN! MEIN! MEIN! with VW, the brand overlap between Audi’s existing mid-engined range-topper (excluding the uber A8) and Porsche’s venerable ass-engined Nazi slot car (P.J. O’Rouke) was already slightly… uncomfortable. Our own Jay Shoemaker described the Audi R8 as a Porsche 911 created from a clean sheet of paper (and some metal bits, presumably). The idea of a mid-engined R4 going head-to-head with the Boxster/Cayman duo is, obviously, “ill-advised.” In these crazy times, that pretty much makes the R4 inevitable. AutoExpress— who never met anything with four-wheels it didn’t absolutely adore– absolutely adores the new R4, despite the fact that it’s not been built. “Sports car fans are in for a real treat!” Sit sports car fans Sit! Treat! Treat! I hereby declare AE an irony-free zone. “It’s the result of a rumoured joint venture with Porsche – so the project will produce a new platform to underpin Coupé and Roadster versions of the R4, and also provide the basis for the next Boxster and Cayman. It’s these core sellers in the Porsche line-up that the R4 will target.” Riiiiiiight.
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And yet another example where corporate mergers can stifle competition to the detriment of the consumer.
If this is true then the Boxster might be moving to a transverse inline-4. I know that “platform” has become a very loose term, but I can’t see a longitudinal horizontal-6 and a transverse inline-4 going in the same mid-engine “platform”.
This would actually be a pretty good marketing strategy for Porsche. The performance of the Boxster/Cayman would no longer need to be capped below the 911 because the 911’s price premium could be justified by the use of a “pure” Porsche horizontal-6, while the Boxster/Cayman would use the VW/Audi 2 liter direct injection I4.
If VW gets a cheap (<$30K) version of this car I might have to buy. Or maybe I’ll just pick up a clean good condition 914 for four figures. . . Depends how this depression/recession goes.
If it’s as sleak and nice looking as the A5/S5, this will be exciting to see come out. If it happens. Quattro, please!
I would be breaking stereotype if I didn’t insist upon a TDI variant!
–chuck
“I am nothing if not consistent”
I see it has that stupid string of Christmas lights around the headlights that I guess is a new Audi styling theme like the ridiculous dustbuster grills.
Its fun to watch a company that makes nice cars that i want announce future nicer cars I want. Audi is not the only such company but they are all non-US. Oh well.
So what do we all porsche/vw/audi nowadays?
PAG?