Cayman, Boxster and 911 to Remain 6-Cylinder

Motorhead · Feb 17, 2013

Porsche says fuel consumption and emissions are central to its future engines but has ruled out fitting a four-cylinder engine to either its 911 supercar or Cayman and Boxster sports cars; and manual 'boxes are to continue:

http://www.caradvice.com.au/214790/porsche-911-cayman-remain-6-cylinder-manual-gearboxes-continue/

That's put an end to all the speculation then......!

Jeff

flat6 · Feb 17, 2013

That's interesting to know and all makes sense. Sounds like the sports cars will remain unique to porsche design and the others cars will tap into VW group engines as much as possible, which also makes sense. Now that they can convert the PDK transmission to be manual lever operated they'll I expect they'll be able to keep a manual in the portfolio for relatively small development cost. With that in mind, do you expect the next major mechanical revision of the boxster/cayman to have a PDK derived 7 speed manual like the 991?

BrianJ · Feb 17, 2013

Not what Porsche Head of R&D says in March "Car" interview. "We have not yet decided when we will start production of the small turbo engine or which car it will be in. But it will not be in the 911 - the 911 is a six-cylinder, that's the right engine. On the Boxster, a four cylinder may present an opportunity...."

Motorhead · Feb 17, 2013

ORIGINAL: flat6 That's interesting to know and all makes sense. Sounds like the sports cars will remain unique to porsche design and the others cars will tap into VW group engines as much as possible, which also makes sense. Now that they can convert the PDK transmission to be manual lever operated I expect they'll be able to keep a manual in the portfolio for relatively small development cost. With that in mind, do you expect the next major mechanical revision of the boxster/cayman to have a PDK derived 7 speed manual like the 991?

That's quite possible 6. I wouldn't have thought that there's a big difference between the 991 and 981 PDK transmissions other than turning the final drives through 180 degrees and jiggling with the ratios. Torque capacity clearly isn't an issue. The advantages that I can see are: 1) a 7th gear gives an overdrive ratio to aid the fuel economy and emission figures; and 2) there's only the one basic transmission design and one supplier (I think that Getrag supply the Boxster/Cayman 'box whereas ZF supply the PDK transmissions). The disadvatages are that a PDK-equipped Cayman is about 30kg heavier than the manual 'box car and from what I've read so far, the change quality of the 7-speed manual 'box is inferior to that of the 997's 6-speeder. Edit: I note that the 991 PDK is 20kg heavier than the manual car. Presumably this is mainly due to the extra weight of the PDK's multi-disc clutch pack, but that still means that a 7-speed PDK-based manual 'box is still 10kg heavier than the 6-speed Getrag 'box.

ORIGINAL: BrianJ Not what Porsche Head of R&D says in March "Car" interview. "We have not yet decided when we will start production of the small turbo engine or which car it will be in. But it will not be in the 911 - the 911 is a six-cylinder, that's the right engine. On the Boxster, a four cylinder may present an opportunity...."

Who knows what's going on Brian and indeed who to believe? But I note that the team leader of engine development, Dr Martin Constien, was quoted in the article (15th Feb) as saying that a turbo 4-cylinder is not for the Cayman, which will always be 6-cylinder. He also said that a turbocharged engine would represent challenges for the more compact Cayman and Boxster because space for intercoolers and additional air intakes would need to be added. But he said nothing about not using a normally aspirated 4-cylinder engine in the Boxster though..! Jeff