Your next Boxster could be a Turbo 4 - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Porsche9 · 09-08-2014, 09:53 PM

Not so sure about a turbo 4 but am sure it will be interesting. RIP flat six?

Video: Four Cylinder Porsche Boxster Caught Driving On City Streets

MacGrad · 09-08-2014, 10:03 PM

At the rate I'm able to afford Boxsters, I think I'll be driving a flat 6 for a long time. :-)

Retroman1969 · 09-09-2014, 04:26 AM

Same here.

Flat-4s are part of Porsche's history as well so it's not exactly sacrilege, but I'm not a fan of the idea. Part of my love for Boxsters is their seamless power and acceleration. Neither 4cylinders nor turbos are known for seamless operation. Combine the two and I see a Boxster with a lot of peaks and valleys in the power delivery.
Hopefully I'm wrong.

Jake Raby · 09-09-2014, 04:30 AM

Sweet. Now they can just buy engines from Subaru.

I cut my teeth on 4 cylinder Porsches, my record from one is 670HP on alcohol with 40 PSI boost. This should be fun.

Chuck W. · 09-09-2014, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake Raby

I cut my teeth on 4 cylinder Porsches, my record from one is 670HP on alcohol with 40 PSI boost. This should be fun.

I can picture it now. It was an 8th grade science project, right?

BIGJake111 · 09-09-2014, 12:09 PM

Ah the day the boxster is powered by an engine similar to the heart of the Subaru forester. Really though it isn't terrible, however, I'd rather it be a NA 4 in a light weight car, sure they could get at least 250 that way. If only cars got lighter over the years and not heavier. A modern 914 of sorts would be great, however, this likely won't be the case because the Porsche assumes we want sat nav cup holders and 16 way power seats these days. So if they keep it light and NA (and consiqiently a lower price) it'll be awesome, maybe give up the price and give it a carbon fiber chassis. The 4c is pretty good thanks to this. The only alternative to turbos id be okay with is an electric supplement, again only if the weight can remain low.

jacabean · 09-09-2014, 04:29 PM

i think the turbo is going to be great as long as it sounds like a Porsche . Real easy to boost up power without spending stupid money . We can all run with the STI's and EVO's . sign me up I should be able to afford one in 2025 .

thstone · 09-09-2014, 04:57 PM

No thanks. I'd buy another 986 and put a 3.6 in it before I'd ever buy a Porsche with a Turbo-4.

Tucker2 · 09-09-2014, 05:01 PM

My wife's 328 has a turbo 4 banger. LOVE THAT MOTOR. I've said to her countless time's I'd would be thrilled to have it in my cars.

Can't wait.

BIGJake111 · 09-09-2014, 06:29 PM

Oddly enough had the ability to drive an Audi tt turbo today, I see that it's "fun" but an NA engine is just so much more grown up and welcoming. It's fast and efficient but just meh.

BruceH · 09-10-2014, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thstone

No thanks. I'd buy another 986 and put a 3.6 in it before I'd ever buy a Porsche with a Turbo-4.

I would agree.

Perfectlap · 09-10-2014, 06:28 AM

Correction, your next Boxster could be a turbo.

VW can keep their engines in their not-as-marked-up-for-maximum-profit cars, danke schon...

But if they get smart and offer a flat 8, that will go over much better. Problem is... not as profitable.

True roadsters need NA engines. 4,6 or 8 take your pick. A flat 4 would be nice but it would have to be in an ultra light Lotus Elise type Porsche roadster.
(at which point people would complain that it doesn't have enough power for them)
But none of that is what VW is trying to do, they're just trying to boost the margin over what they could otherwise get in a VW car with the same sort of engine.

Jake Raby · 09-10-2014, 06:48 AM

Trust that lots of this is being done to meet CAFE in 2016.

BYprodriver · 09-10-2014, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake Raby

Trust that lots of this is being done to meet CAFE in 2016.

That + the tax China & other countries add on cars with more than 2 liters displacement engines = everyone is developing 2.0L engines.

Perfectlap · 09-10-2014, 10:05 AM

but going forward CAFE will be tied to footprint/sales for each model. A big car like the Taurus will not be required to be as fuel efficient as a small car like a Scion IQ. But that probably means the Panamera and Cayenne will need to do more of the heavy lifting as far as fuel economy since they're expecting the fleet average to go up ~4%. But those CAFE calculators are always so inflated... 35 mpg usually means like 26 mpg in the real world, Like the one guy who sued Toyota saying his Prius under no driving conditions ever achieved the sticker's mpg. So ~26 mpg real world is a very attainable goal for 2016.
Not to mention ignoring the standard altogether carries very small fines per car when you're talking about a car company like Porsche that makes ginormous profits on a small number of sales compared to the big three. I'm sure that the Turbo 4 hits at the heart of the profit issue, as in there will be even more for $$$$ for VW vs. sticking with the current Boxster/Carrera NA engines. Somehow I don't think that means higher quality engines in the Boxster.

thstone · 09-10-2014, 11:29 AM

Anyone else here remember Porsche's last try at a Turbo-4, aka the 931 or more commonly known as the 924 Turbo?

Yeah, it took 5 years to convince a total of 13,616 people that it was a good idea.

BIGJake111 · 09-10-2014, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thstone

Anyone else here remember Porsche's last try at a Turbo-4, aka the 931 or more commonly known as the 924 Turbo?

Yeah, it took 5 years to convince a total of 13,616 people that it was a good idea.

Will a new boxster manage that weight though?

Perfectlap · 09-10-2014, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thstone

Anyone else here remember Porsche's last try at a Turbo-4, aka the 931 or more commonly known as the 924 Turbo?

Yeah, it took 5 years to convince a total of 13,616 people that it was a good idea.

well Porsche only convinced 2,600 North Americans that the 993 was a good idea in its final year too.

Generally I think people buy what looks nice. They have no interest in the mechanics.

Gelbster · 09-10-2014, 12:49 PM

Hopefully it will help the sagging prices of the older 6 cylinder cars.
Even the 4 cylinder 968 was a failure .I suppose their best 4 cylinder effort was the 944 turbo ? The 968 S turbo could easily keep up with the 911 -it might have been a winner? But they only produced 16 -yes less than 20 !
So the future of Boxster 4 cyl turbos depends largely on how market driven or CO2 driven the Product Planners are ?
I begin to doubt is Porsche is going Green-mad when they make pronouncements like this:
“We will not separate ourselves from efforts to reduce CO2.”
Why not let the market & customers choose? If Porsche does not ,some customers will just move on when they sell their 6 cylinder Boxsters.
I confess that rather than the 4 cylinder Subaru motor that some have proposed, the LS1 is far more appealing. Just my 2c

Jake Raby · 09-10-2014, 01:08 PM

To prepare for CAFE more and more on- demad type systems are being implemented. Electric, on demand power steering, and on demand water and oil pumps are just some of them.

And remember, in 2016 engines have to live on 16 grade oil.

The failures that we'll see from that should make retirement easy for me :-)