Wednesday 22nd October 2014

Four-cylinder Cayman at the Nurburgring

Not a video for the Porsche purist! See the four-cylinder Cayman in action here

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It's a little over three years ago since PistonHeads called the four-cylinder Boxster and Cayman, but they're finally out in the open. And you can listen to it in the video here.

While we don't know exactly which of the three engine options powers this particular Cayman, we can categorically say that it ain't no six-cylinder. Although purists might be spontaneously combusting at the thought of a four-cylinder Porsche sports car, we're quietly optimistic.

Looks familiar, sound is very different

The 924, 944 and 968 were all great cars in their own way. If even the Cayenne and subsequent Macan SUVs can't poison the Porsche brand, surely there's little chance of a budget 1.6-litre Boxster being toxic?

A Porsche for the masses sounds like cause to celebrate, not to commiserate. The mid-mounted flat-four should keep the centre of gravity in a close to ideal location. If it embraces new material technologies to reduce the kerbweight, we could be dealing with a baby sports car that's both achievable and aspirational. Good news for PHers and good news for the car market in general. There is no news on a launch date yet but sometime late next year seems likely.

See the vid here.

 

[Maldini35]

A lighter, sharper, 4 cylinder model makes sense in so many ways.

Hopefully they'll keep working on the sound.

[scarecrow]

So what power are these 4 cylinder versions expected to produce?

[Gorbyrev]

Turbo flat fours can sound very, very good (burble!).

[323ti]

As long as it's a flat four, if it's cheap and light with useful torque, I'm still in!

And edited to add: I'm old enough to remember that the 968 was a much better handling car than the contemporary 964-series 911. Must have something to do with engine location and balance...

Edited by 323ti on Wednesday 22 October 13:05

[TomEP]

Always going to happen at some point with engine downsizing being prevalent throughout the industry. I don't think the porsche brand is at all purist anymore so it doesn't really matter.

keeps the value of the my old 993 up!

[Terminator X]

Real shame to see the brand watered down. Profit above all else it seems.

TX.

[FrankUnderwood]

Terminator X said:

Real shame to see the brand watered down. Profit above all else it seems.

TX.

If the average emissions of the Porsche range were helped by the four cylinder and the money being bought in kept high spec models in production (e.g. GT3) then actually they're keeping the brand alive.

I don't disagree with a four cylinder sports car, however I think some of the sensorial aspects will be challenging for Porsche to develop.

[dukebox9reg]

Terminator X said:

Real shame to see the brand watered down. Profit above all else it seems.

TX.

Yes because Porsche have no history making 4 pot cars.......I think you'll find the 4s came before the 6's.

You could argue that the 914 was the original boxster/cayman and that had 4 pots and a 6 pot.

I can't see how a 4 cylinder in these is really watering it down. At least its still a flat 4 rather than an inline.

[renrut]

How long before we start seeing Caymans with droning 4" exhausts like many an Impreza?

[britsportscars]

Terminator X said:

Real shame to see the brand watered down. Profit above all else it seems.

TX.

Don't think it's profit, it's down to the emission laws. Aston Martin produced the Cygnet to reduce the overall emissions produced by AM models for these laws.

[Pablo16v]

Terminator X said:

Real shame to see the brand watered down. Profit above all else it seems.

TX.

Why? Porsche has a history of using 4 cyl engines to good effect, and if it helps sell more cars then great!

[George29]

britsportscars said:

Aston Martin produced the Cygnet to reduce the overall emissions produced by AM models for these laws.

Emissions had nothing to do with the Cygnet.

[Baryonyx]

Gorbyrev said:

Turbo flat fours can sound very, very good (burble!).

Will Porsche being using an unequal length manifold to give that Subaru warble? I doubt it!

[HeMightBeBanned]

What's all the fuss about? It sounds pretty decent to my ears and no doubt they'll continue to work on the noise. The idea of a lighter, more fuel efficient but still fast Porsche is no bad thing. Right?

[Zoon]

Super/Hyper cars never had hybrid drive trains either but environmental pressures introduce new engineering challenges. Does it matter if a car no longer has a V10 engine if the performance/sound can be matched with less cylinders? Purists will say yes, but technology evolves for the better sometimes, sometimes not.

[dukebox9reg]

Baryonyx said:

Gorbyrev said:

Turbo flat fours can sound very, very good (burble!).

Will Porsche being using an unequal length manifold to give that Subaru warble? I doubt it!

Subaru doesn't even do that anymore.

[zeppelin101]

If they make a feature of it being turbocharged then that would be nice.

There is something slightly disappointing about a lot of newer cars that deliver a lot of torque at low engine speeds but suffer at higher RPMs by feeling a little flat and don't encourage you to use all the rev range.

It almost wants to feel a little bit old school I guess, but with current technology it won't be the lag fest that its 80s/90s turbocharged predecessors were.

Whether that will be the case or not...

[heebeegeetee]

There can't be too many lengthy periods when Porsche hasn't had a four-cylinder in the stable.

[Dale487]

[quote=323ti]As long as it's a flat four, if it's cheap and light with useful torque, I'm still in!


I couldn't agree more.

And isn't anything made after the 356, diluting the brand - the first every 356 was a mid-engined flat four roadster (just like the Boxster).

What will this do for 6 cylinder Boxster & Cayman used values?

[Kookanoodles]

"Porsche purist": someone who has never heard of the 356.