While the look of the next generation 911, codenamed the 991, is no longer a mystery, many other details of the car have been shrouded in uncertainty – but that’s starting to change.
Wolfgang Hatz, executive vice president of research and design at Porsche, was in a talkative mood at the recent release of the 2012 911 at the Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen, Germany. He relayed a bit of new information about the car – and hinted at even more – in an interview with Car and Driver.
First, Hatz shed some light on the design of the intriguing new seven-speed manual transmission. Despite the dizzying gear count, the gearbox will have an intuitive shift pattern: reverse will be located up and to the left, the first six gears will be in a normal, three-up, three-down pattern, while seventh gear will be up and to the right. A lockout on seventh gear will prevent overly ambitious 4-7 upshifts.
The gearbox, which shares many of its internal components with Porsche’s seven-speed PDK transmission, is a compact design, with so much room saved in the engine compartment that “a flat-eight will fit,” according to Hatz.
Government fuel standards be damned, there will be no four cylinder option for the new 911. “I don’t want a turbocharged base model,” Hatz told Car and Driver. “I love the character of the naturally aspirated engines.”
Hatz wasn’t talking specifics on a rumored hybrid 911, but he did affirm that the upcoming 918′s electric axle would fit in the 991.
Finally, Hatz stated that “We have a lot of plans for this 911. It has a bright future. The 911 derivatives will increase.”
Which is good, as the 20+ variants of the current 911 clearly left Porsche at something of a disadvantage when it came to niche markets.
References
1.’What Hatz Told…’ view
