Porsche’s new four-cylinder engines herald a brave new world of performance downsizing

By Stephen Edelstein June 3, 2014

2013 Porsche Boxster — Image used with permission by copyright holder

For the past several years, Porsche has been in a power race. It’s dramatically increased the power of its traditional boxer-six engines, and broadened the use of V8s, formerly an unorthodox configuration for the Zuffenhausen carmaker.

Now, that trend appears poised to reverse itself. A new range of four-cylinder engines will soon hit the market, giving efficiency a seat at the table.

CAR revealed important details about these engines, which will come in three flavors to start. A 1.6-liter version will produce 210 horsepower, a 2.0-liter version will be good for 286 hp, and a 2.5-liter version will produce 360 hp.

With power outputs that high and displacements that low, expect all engines in this family to feature turbocharging and direct injection. Each engine will also feature the same horizontally-opposed boxer configuration as the company’s signature six-cylinder motors.

The 2.0- and 2.5-liter engines are expected to find their way into the Boxster, Cayman, and Cayenne, with other models likely to follow as Porsche grapples with stricter global emissions standards.

The 1.6-liter version is reportedly in limbo. It was apparently intended for a “baby Boxster” sports car that could have spawned Audi and Volkswagen siblings, but has now been shelved.

There have been four-cylinder Porsches before, including James Deans’ 550 Spyder and the recently-unveiled 919 Hybrid racer (although its engine is a V4), so these downsized engines aren’t much of a stretch. They’re certainly less sacrilegious than the diesel engine offered in the Cayenne.

So Porsche is going back to its roots in a way, although it will probably run afoul of fans who think – in this day and age – a car with such a small engine can’t be a “real” Porsche.

Each Porsche excursion into a new market segment has led to increased sales and, judging from the new engines’ estimated power output, it looks like enthusiasts won’t be left behind on this one.

Editors' Recommendations

Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

Cars

Hybrid model will be ‘highest performance 911 of all,’ Porsche CEO says

base 2020 porsche 911 carrera breaks cover with 379 horsepower 4

The Porsche 911 is getting a hybrid variant, but it won't be all about gas mileage. In an interview with Top Gear, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume said the hybrid will be the meanest 911 of all. Considering the performance capabilities of the previous 911 Turbo, GT3, and GT2RS, that's a tall order.

"We have said the next 911 could add a hybrid version. That will be the highest performance 911 of all," Blume said. The 911 will not be a plug-in hybrid, like many of Porsche's current road cars, Blume said. That will minimize the size of the battery pack, helping to keep weight down, according to Blume. Extra weight isn't as big of a deal in an already-heavy vehicle like the Cayenne than it would be in a sports car. Packaging a larger battery pack and charging system could also prove difficult in the 911's smaller footprint.

Cars

Porsche will use discarded F1 tech for a new hybrid supercar, report claims

porsche hybrid supercar with f1 powertrain report 918 spyder

Since the 918 Spyder went out of production in 2015, Porsche has been without a flagship supercar. But a new report claims Porsche is working on something even more extreme than the 845-horsepower plug-in hybrid. Autocar reports that Porsche wants to use a discarded Formula One hybrid powertrain in a 918 successor.

Porsche hasn't been involved in Formula One for decades, so where did it get an F1 powertrain from? The automaker recently considered an F1 comeback, and engine development got far enough along that the leftovers from the program could be used for a road-going supercar, Autocar claims. Autosport previously reported that Porsche had 40 people working on an F1 powertrain program, with the goal of entering the series in 2021.

Cars

Technologies that can still save the internal combustion engine

2020 Aston Martin Vantage AMR engine

If you’ve watched too much news recently it’d be easy to believe that we’re well on our way to a world with self-driving cars that all run on electric power. As these things usually go, the latest and greatest gets all the attention, but the tried and true doesn’t get as many headlines. The good old internal combustion engine (ICE) has been powering the world for over a century now, and despite the much-needed technological advancements in electric vehicles, gasoline power is not going away anytime soon. There’s no doubt that gas-burning engines have done serious damage to our environment and are a major contributor to the overall warming of our planet, but there may be a way to have our cake and eat it too.

Instead of arguing about whether or not ICE should go away, I'm going to focus on the ways it might evolve to remain relevant in the face of an industry that is moving toward an electric future and a world that desperately needs to reduce its production of carbon before it’s too late. The gearhead in all of us could formulate several dozen reasons why liquid-dinosaur-burning engines need to stick around (“The sound!” or “The power!”), but the reality is that the future won’t welcome gas-burning engines with open arms as we have in our lifetimes. The people working to fundamentally change how internal combustion engines function may be able to change that, at least a little – to usher the dirty, old technology into a new age.
Reinvention
In order to remain relevant, the internal combustion engine may need to be reinvented. It has carried on in the automobile relatively unchanged for several decades, so it’s not surprising that an evolution is in order to keep the gears turning. Companies like Koenigsegg are working to push ICE engineering to new frontiers by recreating parts of the ages old design. The company is pushing its Freevalve technology to market, which uses pneumatic actuators to open and close valves, rather than the traditional camshafts that have powered internal combustion engines for so long. Engines equipped with the technology will be able to run on diesel, gas, and/or alcohol without being modified mechanically – at least in theory. It can also shift between two-stroke and four-stroke cycles. The company believes that its technology can produce an engine that is completely CO2 neutral.