The Old(986) and the New(718)

[thstone]

Originally Posted by lkchris

Porsche is forced into this "mistake" by current emissions and consumption laws. It's smaller and turbocharged for every manufacturer in Germany.

Yes and no.

Everything in engineering is a tradeoff. It bothers me that the automotive press seems to simply accept that turbo's were the only possible solution to the problem.

If I were in charge of engineering at Porsche, I'd have thrown out 600 lbs of what I consider to be useless weight in a Boxster. This weight reduction alone would have yielded +3 to +4 mpg - the same as the mpg improvement between the 986 and 718 models.

986 manual mpg: 17 city/24 highway
718 manual mpg: 20 city/26 highway

[Ben006]

Originally Posted by thstone

Yes and no.

Everything in engineering is a tradeoff. It bothers me that the automotive press seems to simply accept that turbo's were the only possible solution to the problem.

If I were in charge of engineering at Porsche, I'd have thrown out 600 lbs of what I consider to be useless weight in a Boxster. This weight reduction alone would have yielded +3 to +4 mpg - the same as the mpg improvement between the 986 and 718 models.

986 manual mpg: 17 city/24 highway
718 manual mpg: 20 city/26 highway

Even Lotus don't follow that spirit anymore.

From a sports car enthusiast point of view, sure, you can remove 600lbs off of a boxster and make it better for you.
From an average Porsche customer point of view, it won't!

And the boxster is already not that heavy compared to most cars.