Board Botschaft (Executive Board Member Column

by Carey Spreen, Region Vice President

Occasionally I read or hear someone say that the four-cylinder 718 Boxsters and Caymans don’t sound like “real” Porsches, perhaps implying that they are less desirable than “real” Porsches.

When Porsche built and sold its first car in 1948, designated 356/1, it was based on Volkswagen parts and components, so naturally it had a flat four-cylinder engine. Porsche continued to build the 356, in all its many iterations, through 1965, and all 76,000 of them had four-cylinder engines. A few of them along the way (fewer than 1,000) were produced with the Ernst Fuhrmann-designed four cam engine, which were also the first road-going Porsches to wear the “Carrera” moniker. These cars were among the most expensive and powerful street Porsches available at the time. Depending on displacement and tuning, the output of these engines ranged from 100 hp for the early 1.5-liter motors to 130 hp for the 2.0-liter, with racing versions in the 904 putting out as much as 180 hp.

When the 911 was introduced in 1963 as a 1964 model, it was Porsche’s first road car with more than four cylinders. When the first 911 Carrera variants came out in the 1970s, 356 diehards of the day wore T-shirts claiming that “Real Carreras Have Four Cams,” confirming that four-cylinder “snobs” exist too!

Even after the introduction of the 911, Porsche continued to offer four-cylinder models continuously through the 1995 model year: the 912 (’65-’69) and 912E (’76 only), the 914 (’70-’76), and the 924/944/968 transaxle models (’77-’95). Notably, the 1988 944 Turbo S (and the identical 1989 944 Turbo) had 30 more horsepower than the contemporary 3.2-liter Carrera, had much more neutral handling than the 911, and, comparing base prices, listed for about $2,500 more than the six-cylinder coupe. None of the folks who bought the 944 Turbo seemed to care that it didn’t have that six-cylinder sounds.

After 1995, there were no more four-cylinder Porsches until the 2017 model year, when the 718 replaced the 981 Boxster and Cayman, and the base Macan was introduced with the corporate VW 2.0-liter in-line four as its powerplant. True, it’s not a Porsche-designed engine, but with 250 hp, the base Macan is no performance slouch.

Engine development during that 21-year stretch between the last 968 and the first 718 made some great strides. The turbocharged 2.0-liter flat four in the base 718 makes 300 hp, which is 35 hp more than the outgoing 2.7-liter six of the base 981. Similarly, the turbo 2.5-liter four in the 718 S model makes 350 hp, again 35 more than the outgoing 981 S. Both base and S models are 0.7 seconds faster to 62 mph than the sixes that they replaced. A bonus is that these four-cylinder engines are essentially the same design as the six-cylinder units with two cylinders removed; they use the same technology as in the turbocharged 3.0-liter engines in the 991.2 and later models.

And although this article has mainly focused on production models, I would be remiss in not mentioning the success of the 919 Hybrid, which won Le Mans overall in 2015, 2016, and 2017. The 919 had a twin-turbo 2.0-liter V4 powerplant producing about 500 hp in racing trim, and 710 hp in the 919 Evo version. That’s a lotta horsepressure for a four!

Anyway, four-cylinder power and performance, at least for the 718s, is more than a match for their six-cylinder predecessors; arguably, the biggest difference is the sound that a four makes vs. the sound of a six. This could be considered mainly subjective – admittedly a high-revving flat six sounds better to most people than a four, even if that four can rev just as high as the six. To some, that’s enough of a difference to dismiss the four as something they would not consider owning, and that’s their prerogative. But based on the history that Porsche has with four-cylinder engines, I think you will agree that a Porsche four is absolutely still a Porsche!

I suppose that statement depends on the definition of a “real” Porsche, so I thought I would provide a little history on four-cylinder Porsches, and you can decide if they are “real” or not.