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If you listened closely to Porsche freaks back in February, you heard a collective, worrying gasp. The sports car maker announced that the redesigned 2017 Boxster and Cayman models would jettison their six-cylinder engines, a long-time Porsche staple, for turbocharged flat-fours. The cynic's reaction? Flat four-cylinder engines are the domain of Subarus, old air-cooled Volkswagens and introductory Piper Cub and Cessna hobbyist aircraft. Not a thoroughbred sports car.
But as a company, if you don't adapt, you die. Doing more with less is the inescapable mantra in the slowly encroaching post-petrol automotive age. Incremental improvements in fuel economy and emissions with each succeeding engine update is now normal. Long-held conventions now challenge Porsche and other sports car makers, as both efficiency and emissions blankets cover more of the usable internal combustion space. These immutable forces dictate a move from large six-cylinder engines to smaller turbocharged sixes and fours with turbocharging on top. This shift to smaller, turbocharged engines enables a larger total performance envelope, delivering the outright power and torque that sports car customers expect while enabling engines to meet stiffening EPA regulations.
In addition, Porsche - both standing by itself and with its Volkswagen corporate parent ? spend more money on R&D as a percentage of revenue (roughly 5.6 percent at last count) than any other automaker. Which brings us to the redesigned 2017 Boxster and Cayman and their new four-cylinder engines. Though known largely for their lusty flat-sixes, Porsche is no stranger to fours. To find the last road-going four-cylinder Porsche, you must return to the 1990s for the 968. More recently, Porsche races their 919 Hybrid sports prototypes in the World Endurance Championship series with an unconventional turbocharged 90-degree V4 engine, assisted by roughly 400 hp through electric drive and totaling nearly 1,000 hp between combustion and electric power. In addition, before the 911′s debut in 1964, Porsche had only built cars with four-cylinder engines.
More Power, More Performance
I focused on driving the 2.5-liter S engine in a manual transmission Cayman. Beyond the power output of 350 horsepower and 309 lb-ft of torque (the base car offers 300 horsepower and 280 lb-ft of torque), this powertrain simply does not feel like a turbocharged engine, but like a much larger engine. With outstanding grunt just off idle, a stout midrange and soaring high-winding power at the top of the tach, the S reaches 60 mph in merely 4.0 seconds and has one of the broadest usable powerbands I've encountered in years, from about 1,800 rpm right up to the 7,500 rpm rev limiter. Serious arrest-me-now power hits at just 3,500 rpm.
Sound-wise, aficionados prefer more cylinders rather than fewer because it makes and engine's song more complex and rich. And while the idling 718 engine burbles a somewhat low-rent voice closer to Subaru than Spyder, that song changes to a valve-tappet hammering, hard-edged wallop at high revs.
However, what truly impresses is a bit esoteric, though remarkable. The 718 shows a total absence of flywheel effect, hesitation or lag from throttle application, despite being turbocharged, a format that often precipitates lag. That's a genuine engineering achievement that requires charts, graphs, computational fluid dynamics and quadratic equations to explain, but the result is pure joy and liveliness uncommon in turbo engines. Not even the purest purist could find fault with this kind of rapid response. Think of it as performance therapy.
A Chassis That Reads Your Mind
Polonius may have said "neither a borrower nor a lender be," but that is perhaps an esoteric goal in post-Shakespeare suspension design. In the pragmatic world of engineering, Porsche already did the hard work elsewhere, and therefore lifts the front suspension from the 911 Carrera and fits it to the new 718. An optional sportier, stiffer suspension makes things even more athletic and nimble with higher-rate springs, adjustable dampers and lower ride height. They've also mastered steering in the post-hydraulic age, employing electrically-assisted steering with a pinpoint feel and life.
The 718 twins talk to the driver more directly and with clearer definition than prior Boxsters and Caymans and this follows a strategic pattern. Because Porsche now builds sedans and SUVs ? to the initial consternation of those purists ? the company is acutely aware of the dangers in softening the sports car line-up. With each successive four-door or SUV, Porsche also sharpens the sports car side of the house and the 718 Boxster and Cayman continues that recent process of telepathy through the wheel. Ronald Reagan may have been the great political communicator, but he was quasi-mute compared to the 718 Cayman S.
Inside, bold gauges with eminently readable dials and digital readouts rule the instruments in the 718 twins, plus a thoroughly re-thought dash and multifunction display. And though there are numerous buttons, many use pictograms rather than letters, improving quick deciphering. The manual transmission's tidy-shifting gear lever is perched quite a bit higher than in most cars, but adapting is easy.
With a $67,350 starting price including destination and handling charges, the 718 Cayman S costs a fair penny, but so does a therapist. Optioned like my tester, the financial commitment grows considerably, to $93,725. And that's not even the sharpest end of the table. The theoretical tippy top of the 718 range with every conceivable custom option would induce arrhythmia at well over $120,000; I stopped calculating the insanity at $121,205.
As autonomous cars and pure electrics threaten an uninvolving future in automobiles, it freshens the soul to pursue simple fun. And the new 718 Boxster and Cayman dole that out in spades.
Read more on Forbes.
