There’s nothing inherently undesirable about a four-cylinder Porsche, as long as the rest of the car is worthy of admiration. For most of the years that the 912 was offered, as an example, it outsold the 911. Throw in the 356, the 550, the 914, the 944, and the 968, and it’s probable that the Porsche of the pre-Cayenne era did more four-cylinder volume than six. Now, if the rumors can be trusted, the Stuttgart company’s future may begin to closely resemble its distant past.
Consummate industry insider and nice-thing-about-all-cars-sayer Georg Kacher has a piece in CAR where he claims to have seen Porsche proprietary data on a new engine family:
Porsche 1.6 flat four 210bhp
Porsche 2.0 flat four 286bhp
Porsche 2.5 flat four 360bhp
Quoth Kacher, “According to CAR’s sources, the Boxster/Cayman and Cayenne will get the flat-fours first. A six-speed manual or seven-speed twin-cluch PDK transmission will be offered.” The 1.6-liter was supposed to be for the “baby Boxster”, and its future is uncertain.
I’d like to see the return of the 912 to the Porsche lineup. The 991 could theoretically drop beneath the 3,000-pound line with a lighter engine and running gear. Such a car would do a lot to restore the luster of the marque with those of us who prefer the scalpel to the broadsword.
Turbo-4 powa!
Jack doesn’t spell it out, but I guess turbos are assumed with the kind of bhp/liter listed.
..but if left electro-sonically un-molested, will the Porshuh 4-banger sound like a Subaru? The Subie exhaust note sounds like an engine that’s not running on all cylinders.
If you’re referring to the Subie rumble, that was due to unequal length exhaust headers, not the engine. The ’15 WRX lost the rumble due to equal length headers. I liked the rumble :-(
Do people really lust after 912’s or was it just what was within budget at the time they bought one?
I had a 924 and always wanted the 944 turbo but couldn’t justify the scratch and back in the day there was even more “mystique” than there is now.
I can’t see anyone buying a boxster or Cayman and opting for the flat 4 over the 6 unless its making more pow-ah….and as anyone even passingly familiar with the marque knows, it’ll be a frosty day in hell before Porsha lets that happen.
call me shallow and vain but don’t let me miss last call…
With or without nostalgia for the 912, a 4 cylinder 911 is a matter of when not if (and so is a hybrid). As a result you can be assured of two things:
1. The cars will still be a very entertaining drive.
2. Self professed Porsche purists will continue to complain.
2. Self-professed is the correct qualifying term there. Any true purist knows the Type 356 and the 550 Spyder ran 4-cylinders. What could be more pure than those two cars?
A CayBoxster with a 286HP 2.0 four in what should be a lighter car? Sounds good to me.
So, the 2.0L will have 26 more bhp than the original 911 Turbo? Sounds good to me!
And lots more weight.
“Boxster/Cayman and Cayenne will get the flat-fours first.”
Boxer-4 for Cayenne?
A turbo 4 makes plenty of sense in the base Cayenne. The base V-6 has always been kind of a dog by Porsche standards. I assume most buyers buy them anyway for the brand, not the performance–most of them I see on the road have the badges removed. Might as well give it decent fuel economy.
Porsche has never done a front-engine boxer …
Makes the idea of buying a used 2014 Boxster in three years sound even better.
Porsche – whatever you do, add lightness.
Team up with Lotus!
Works for me, as long as it is indeed a lighter vehicle.
Begun, the media seeding has.
But guessing powertrain strategies is still one of the greatest pleasures. I can’t resist.
Next step: announcement of a 1.8 f4 t (4 cyl version of the 2.7, obviously)
– 340 hp / base version
– 380 hp / wtf 10k more for 40 hp more version
– 460 hp combined / plug-in including 120 hp extra
The other day I was alongside a new Boxster while highway traffic moved along only haltingly. The Boxster’s dark grey coat made it nearly disappear into the asphalt, and when the stop-start farted the motor back into life I had to ask myself how a 4 banger could improve this parlous circumstance. Because I definitely wasn’t noting how high and wide Helmut’s latest shhportstahh has become. Definitely
We in the US probably won’t ever see those cutie-pie little engines. Only the abroad will have the expensive fuel and govt regulation pushing them into 1.6L cars. And our fat old pricks in 911s will be robbed of a whole set of unworthy and confused paupers to belittle.
Makes one cry a little
(actually, in real life I know a neighbor with an old 993. Nicest guy you ever want to meet. But this is the net, and I’m being provocative, I guess)
The Porsche 919 is powered by a turbocharged 4 cylinder engine. Perhaps it will pave the way for consumer acceptance of 4 cylinder road cars.
BTW, Le Mans is next weekend (June 14-15).
In the top class its Toyota vs. Audi vs. Porsche vs. Rebellion.
Delish. Would love another option for a small, light-weight mid-rear.
Sorry, won’t get it. “Road hugging weight” beats “add lightness” every time. The consumer has spoken.
Considering that a fairly basic Boxster or Cayman is approaching $60,000, I could care less what Porsche does. There was a time when I lusted after their cars, but now I’d feel like a chump paying this much for a car.
This sets up the next Deadly Sin for Porsche: charging more for the 4 banger than the 6
If anyone could pull it off, it’s Porsche. They could create a lightweight simple sports car, something of a throwback to the 550/Speedster/912. Make it slow, I don’t care, the faithful would buy them because its the latest thing, the poseurs would buy them because they are cheaper, and guys like me would buy them because we long for the days of the simple Porsche.
As far as I know, they do this on a regular basis*. They just charge more for the thing than a loaded porsche. Gotta make that $23k profit profit/car somehow.
* haven’t there been recent rs (cayman?) and speedster models? I’m getting a little fuzzy on trying to remember various collector edition porsches.
I don’t think Porsche is interested in selling a lower priced sports car. They pretty well proved that when they priced the Cayman higher than the Boxster.
The only “value” proposition that interests Porsche at the present is value for its owner, VW. Porsche commands a premium for its brand and that premium is not likely to change until someone mounts a successful challenge. Jag’s F Type is the closest thing to a challenge that currently exists, but its pricing is similar to Porsche.
4 cylinder Boxsters and Caymans?
Yeah that’s great and all but what I want is a new 944, because by the time I can afford to own a Porsche of any vintage most of the old ones will probably be dead.
928 or nothing!
Panamera – 2 doors = 928.
Why Porsche doesn’t just make a 2 door Panamera already confuses me, it would probably sell if it was actually a half decent 2 door V8 GT.
Because the market for GTs is miniscule. The market for crossovers is huge. Porsche’s next vehicle is much more likely to be a baby crossover, built off the Audi Q1 or Q3. That’s why they will need the small 4 cylinder turbo motors.
64% of Porsche sales are crossovers, which means that Porsche is the CUV company, that occasionally dabbles in sports cars.
I somehow don’t think a 360 hp 4 cylinder mini crossover is going to happen, but then again, they made a 540 hp Cayenne and that’s just insane.
Of course, if they can make said hypothetical 360 hp small crossover handle well, that could be quite entertaining.
Bah. All of the 912 buyers WANTED the 911, but couldn’t swing it. Do the 912s even have the “coffee grinder” engine sound that the aircooled 911 lovers enjoy so much? I don’t think so.
My sister had a late 60’s 912 for a while. She and her husband thought it was an “investment” and that they would make a bundle of money off of it after a few years of enjoying it. Before they committed the money, I told her not to buy it – look for a 911 instead. My feeling was that that you may not lose any money on a 912, but you aren’t going to make any money either, at least not in the short term that they were thinking of. Shortly after they got the car it needed a clutch and the carbs overhauled, so there went several thousand bucks out the window on top of the purchase price.
Fast forward a few years and they were looking to sell it – it took forever for a buyer to materialize. They even had a guy from Germany give them a deposit, then he flaked out and never contacted them again….needless to say they kept the deposit!
When it finally did sell, they took a several thousand dollar loss on it (not counting the repairs, which makes the loss even bigger). So much for the investment – if they had held onto it a few more years their plan may have worked.
I don’t think Porsche really wants to make a flat-four turbo for fear of being shown up by Subaru! What with IMS failures in Porsche’s water-cooled engines and the recent GT3 engine fiasco causing total engine failure, a few Subie head gasket problems seem like loose change by comparison, and it wasn’t their turbo engines anyway.
I see it all now: 20 years in the future, old turbo 4 boxer engines in Boxsters will be replaced by turbo 4 Subies being sold as crate engines on Ebay for less than it takes to crane out the engine from a Boxster after you’ve turned it upside down.
There was a company working on a Subaru swap for the Boxster. They had it completed, but I don’t think it ended up working out to create the kit. But I just saw that Renegade Hybrids has completed their LSx swap kit for the Boxster (and the 996). I have been keeping my eye out for Boxsters with blown engines. I did find a 996 C4S cabrio with no engine (but still has a supposedly perfect 6sp manual) for only $11k, has me very very tempted. If my GTI sells soon I might go for it.