By tradition, this pair is cheaper than the Cayman - from 5,867,000 rubles. Boxster costs 70 thousand more. They are almost a million rubles more expensive than 350-horsepower "esks" with four-cylinder engines and added 300 thousand relative to the GTS 2.5 modifications sent to rest.
Porsche mid-engined twins have always been highly rated by enthusiasts. However, not everyone accepted the transition of the Boxster / Cayman line to supercharged four-cylinder engines with a rude voice and a slight turbo lag. As, by the way, and the introduction of the index 718, as if historically justifying the rejection of six cylinders.
The appearance of the atmospheric "six" 4.0 on the Cayman GT4 and Spyder launched last year was predictable. But its implementation on the younger versions of GTS came as a surprise. Although this move fits well with the new rule for GTS cars, according to which they get derated engines from older models. Like, for example, the Panamera in 2018 or the updated Macan GTS, which I will briefly talk about at the end.
The jump from two and a half liters to four and from 365 to 400 forces without a trace erases the supercharged version of the GTS that existed for a couple of years from history and makes me mentally return to the atmospheric "power plant" of the generation 981. I am driving just such a Cayman in the Russian amateur Porsche Sport series. Challenge, so I can easily identify genes inherited 718 GTS 40
What is perhaps most surprising about the new four-liter 9A2 engine is that it is based on the twin-turbocharged 3.0 boxer engine that debuted in the Porsche 911 during the 2016 facelift. It is quite unusual to see a three-liter turbo engine turn into an aspirated 4.0, but this is precisely the path taken by the Porsche engineers.
Compared to the top models GT4 and Spyder, for which the Porsche GT division is responsible, the engine is derated by 20 hp and produces its 400 hp at 7000 rpm instead of 7600. Here the cutoff is shifted from eight thousand rpm to 7800. Maximum torque the moment (420 N • m at 5000 rpm) remained the same, but its curve begins to decline from six and a half thousand, while the GT4 and Spyder's shelf lasts a little longer, up to 6800. Responsible for the power units of the Porsche 718 and 911 Fabian Zink assures that all changes are achieved with the help of software.
On paper, it looks like the motor is strangled and less exciting. And how can we not recall the sad example of the 3.8 engine from Carrera, which got into the GT4 and Spyder of the 981 series ... Fortunately, this time nothing happened. The four-liter engine rushes to the red line with a ferocity that leaves no room for regret. You can only wish that the limiter was triggered later. But this means that everything is going as it should on the way to the cutoff. I will say more. Leaving you just a few minutes to compare the GTS 4.0 and GT4 versions, I doubt you will find any difference in power at all.
As befits a naturally aspirated boxer from a Porsche, the engine responds to gas with the speed of an electric discharge. Which is not even a metaphor in the age of wire-controlled chokes. There is no discernible delay between the movement of the floor accelerator and the precisely measured acceleration impulse. From 3000 rpm, four liters are already pulling strongly, followed by a pronounced pickup at five and a half thousand, and in this most meaty part of the range, the pressure does not subside until the tachometer needle hits the limiter.