Porsche goes back to 4

[dicklague]

According to the CLEAN FLEET REPORT

Engine Downsizing Gains Ground | Clean Fleet Report

400hp BOXER 4 ???


Porsche Goes Back To Four
Porsche has more of a challenge. This subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group doesn’t make very many cars and specializes in sports cars (even though its current best-seller is an SUV) and has an image that is key to its sales success.
Boxster Engine Downsizing Gains Ground
PORSCHE BETS ON A POWERFUL FOUR
Even though the company’s heritage is in small displacement engines, in the more recent past that image and sales were tarnished with some four-cylinder models concocted in partnership with VW. the 1969-76 914 was ridiculed as a VW-Porsche and was finally dropped when Porsche returned to a focus on its higher-end sports cars.
Like the engine offered in the 914 – and Porsche’s larger six-cylinder engines – the new engines will be horizontally-opposed or “flat fours” and will be produced on the same assembly lines. Compared to the offerings of the 70s they will bring considerably more technology and may produce almost 400 horsepower in some versions. The current 2.7/3.4-liter six-cylinder engines in the Boxster and Cayman production from 265 to 340 horsepower.
They should aid the Boxster and Cayman models in which they’ll be available by reducing weight and thus boosting handling and braking.
“We will continue with the downsizing strategy and develop a new four-cylinder boxer engine, which will see service in the next-generation Boxster and Cayman,” said Porsche CEO Matthias Muller, in an interview with Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport magazine. “We will not separate ourselves from efforts to reduce CO2,” he added.
Of course reduced CO2 translates into better fuel economy which, while not a major focus of Porsche buyers, is a concern for the corporation that produces them.

[Dirty911]

This engine, plus hybrid system developed in the 918 could make a pretty interesting boxster...

[Flojo]

AMG is quite popular with their boosted 4-cyls... so why not porsche?
F is down to 6 cyls...

[redridge]

4 cylinders are just about perfected nowadays... very bullet proof. But, its not gonna sound the same.