[DennisAN]

Originally Posted by M4SGK1986

Apparently to save money porsche made both cylinder heads the same , rather than on left hand and one right hand, thus the need for an intermediate shaft to drive the timing chain at each end of the engine.

The intermediate shaft design also performs the 2:1 gear reduction from the crankshaft speed to the camshaft speed, thus lowering the velocity of the long chains going out to drive the cams by the same amount. This is a significant benefit.