Porsche plans new 911-beating boxer four-cylinder for Cayman and Boxster

By Joe Mahan March 28, 2014

Alright Porsche purists, whether you like it or not, Porsche is preparing to launch a new four-cylinder Boxer engine in the Boxster and Cayman.

Don’t like the idea? Maybe you should. This is no humdrum four-cylinder. It might actually be a 911 beater.

According to Automotive News, the engine could produce as much as 395 horsepower. No nose-thumbing should be going on here, as that is already more horsepower than the current flat-six-powered Cayman GTS that makes a romping 340 hp.

To reassure you; Boxer-fours are nothing new to Porsche. Flat fours found their way under the hoods of the 356, 912, and 914.

As a matter of fact, the 944 also had a thumping four-cylinder, which was one of the largest displacement four-cylinders ever made at 3.0-liters.

Whether or not the backwards-engined fiends find it acceptable doesn’t matter, because Porsche seems to know what it’s doing.

Personally, I am looking forward to a lighter, higher-reving, screaming boxer four in the future of amazing German engineering. To me, it’s a good thing the flat-six is getting chopped.

To the those Porsche purists who say otherwise, just tell them, “Auf Wiedersehen!”

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Joe Mahan is an intern at Digital Trends working in the Cars section. He is currently a Junior at the University of Portland…

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