Yellow Submarine

For those who want a new 718 Cayman with a six-cylinder but were worried they won’t have the coin for the forthcoming—and as-yet unrevealed—hard-core GT4 variant, we come bearing good news: According to a well-placed source, Porsche will once again offer a six-cylinder engine below the Cayman GT4 and Boxster Spyder line-toppers.

The exact positioning of the new variant wasn’t made explicit, but it could possibly fill the gap between the GTS and GT4/Spyder while offering subtler exterior looks along with a more refined cabin with more sound deadening, additional luxury trimmings, and more comfort-oriented seats than the stripped-out and hard-nosed GT4. In that way, it would be a 718 analog to the 991.2 911 GT3 Touring. There’s also a chance the new model will simply be the next GTS.

If sixers do make their way into the 718’s general population, we’d love for the 718 Cayman and Boxster S models to ditch their 2.5-liter turbo fours and revert to six-cylinder power. That would leave the torque-rich but aurally unconvincing 2.0-liter turbo-four to the base 718 models and create a more compelling reason for shoppers to upgrade. There are also a number of Porsche aficionados—including one of our own contributors—who remain unmoved by four-cylinder powerplants.

There’s also the question of which six-cylinder will be used. Rumors continue to swirl around the potential for a detuned 4.0-liter from the 991.2 911 GT3 or the current 992 Carrera’s twin-turbo 3.0-liter unit, but our money is on the 3.8-liter flat-six from the 991.1 (2012–2015) 911 Carrera S/GTS and 981 Cayman GT4.

Crucially, the 3.8-liter is the engine found in the recently unveiled 718 GT4 Clubsport race car pictured above, and that model’s predecessor used a 3.8-liter in the exact same spec as its road-car sibling. The new Clubsport’s 420-hp figure is also a reasonable jump over the old GT4, and slots in perfectly underneath the new 911 Carrera S, as did the older car. It’s certainly possible that the GT4 gets the 420-hp version of the engine, with the lower-spec car coming in somewhere around 400. Porsche loves to space out its offerings into thin niches in terms of both power and price.

However the details shake out, we can’t wait to hear a six-cylinder wail in Porsche’s smallest sports cars again.

mithiral67

I read that as there being a healthy bump between the gts and gt4, this would fill a large gap.

erik_plus8

Thank you very much, Yellow!

That is really interesting and indicates two things:
A) Porsche considers the experiment with the 4-cyl turbos a total disaster
B) Porsche really wants to continue selling the mid-engined cars and will by this keep them competitive (or rather leading) in the segment
Yay!

mithiral67

Per Automotive News - Units sold in the USA for cayman and boxster by year.

blackholescion

Great figures. General downward trend in this segment since 2006 but not a unmitigated disaster people make it out to be. The boxster is unique because less people are buying convertibles, full stop, and especially 2 seater convertibles. But the cayman sales are down 10-15% which can be any number of factors. The reintroduction of a 6 cylinder isn't going to make those sales shoot up through the roof. In 2006, Porsche sold 7000 cayman cars. Even with the 981 release, they barely sold half that in a year. The first 3 years of cayman sales (2006-2008) account for 40% of total cayman sales to date (2006-2018).

SToronto

MotorTrend Article on engine and tranny.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/pors...urce=instagram

greggmorton

ExMB

All MT is doing is quoting that car article from days ago. Copycats! No original thought. Bleh

groundhog

It looks similar to the roll out last time

Leakage of info prior to Geneva included an official interview with EVO mag in the first week of Feb (2015)

Looks like a bit of information has been spilled to a few sources - wouldn't count on the reliability

Geneva

Goodwood
Catchpole drove it at Goodwood in July 2015.

JAhmed

Yup. In the age of the internet, most of these car mags just tend to regurgitate "news" from each other.

MT, Automobile, C&D, R&T...most of them are hot garbage

Dr.Bill

Sadly, the original 'source' may have been rumors from a thread like this one! Then it gets repeated as fact and goes downhill from there.

JAhmed

Yup! That's why, as amusing as this thread is, I'll just wait for a press release from Porsche

Juli

Today I was at the factory in Zuffenhausen.
Before lunch I saw a just produced black GT4 crossing the street to the Exclusive Manufaktur.
The street car has the same bumper and wing as the Clubsport version.
After my visit to the musuem and lunch I had a factory tour, at the beginning of the assembly line I saw a finished 718 Boxster Spyder dashboard.
The dashboad had yellow contrast stitching, lower part was covered in Alcantara and the rev counter stated "Spyder" (redline at 8.000 rpm).

9872SpeedYellowCS

This is actual useful info right here, a tach reading

ABusLux