Extranatural Aspirations

A six-speed manual translates the motivation coming from a 4.0 liter naturally aspirated flat-six. The free breathing engine produces 413 bhp and 309 lb-ft of torque. Those are very healthy figures for the 3130 lb (1,420 kg) car, but roughly one Kevin Hart short from the 500hp 339 lb-ft provided by the GT3. Porsche says that this engine is based on the same engine family as the current turbo engines in the Carrera family, distinguishing it from the 4.0 liter engines found in the Speedster, GT3, and GT3RS models. Unless this is for some sort of packaging issue, I say that this is a missed opportunity for Porsche to provide the same engine in a proper mid-engine layout. Apparently there is still someone at Porsche who enjoys the pained cry of internet conspiracy commenters. Cracking a smile and raising their villainous eyebrows every time they see a sentence starting with, “Why can’t Porsche just give the Cayman…..blah, blah, blah!” Delightful pain.

Update

When asked why they did not use the 4.0 liter engine from the GT3, a representative from Porsche said that they did not want to create a rival to the GT3. In addition to potential sales cannibalism, they said that they could not create a GT4 with a GT3 engine with the rigid valve-train and all the other motorsport kit for under 100.000 Euro.

With that said, I still think they could find a real audience for a GT4RS with a 500 hp unit. That is just an idea, but one that they may look to build with another variant of the newly created 4.0 liter. We will see.