Great – so it will sound like a Subaru.

Excellent. Soon it will cost you much less to have your doors blown off by a Cobalt SS.

It’ll still cost way too much for what it is. What’s it going to be? $40k instead of 50k? Gee, I’ll take a dozen, then.

Remember in Gone in 60 seconds, when they still the silver Boxster, and they are at the stop light to see a Blue Civic ready to street race them, my money was on the Civic, if only it was not the cops…..

Ohooo…. and that Civic if you didn’t know, had 300Hp and it was on the cover of every tunner magazine before the movie was out, I wanna see a rematch…

@Z06ified –I would hope Porsche would use a smoother firing order and an equal length turbo manifold, so hopefully it would not sound like a Subaru.

@yarddog82abn –The problem is, even if the Civic/Cobalt is faster in a straight line, it’s still a Civic/Cobalt. The Civic is a great A-B car (the Cobalt is trash trash trash, I drove one for 6 weeks as a rental and it was not base.. what an awful vehicle, stupid torsion beam rear suspension and crap everything), the new Si is even pretty fun to drive, but.. they’re economy cars at the end of the day. Have you driven a Boxster, have you felt the way they drive? It’s a wonderful thing. The Cayman even more so.

Am I the only one excited about this? I do love 4-cylinders (and rotary engines), especially potent turbocharged ones. What I’m more excited about is “significantly lighter” –that’s the best thing I’ve heard from any car company in a long time! What next, it’s smaller and has less sound insulation?

If every car on the road could be a lot more like the Lotus Elise I would be SO happy

So are they actually going to engineer a specific Porsche engine or just steal the 2.0T from Audi/VW?

Most economically priced ever? Wow, I seem to remember the 914/924/944’s that could be purchased for the same money as a VW can now, even counting inflation.

I’m suprised they haven’t had a 4 cylinder, it’s not like you can’t get the same power out of a H-4 2.0L from Subaru as Porsche has been getting out of their H-6’s for decades.

Nice one Johnny! Took the words right out of my mouth on that one.

Nothing brings a smile to my face quite like blowing the doors off some rich yuppie in his Boxster. They always look so bewildered when they lose.

Time to get a real sports car boys.

@ Kansei… funny, if the Cobalt is such trash why does it hold the FWD world record at the ring? Man I hate how everyone disrespects these cars.

Cobalt and Cobalt SS are different cars. People trash the Cobalt and generalize the whole line. But the SS is a very different story than any other Cobalt. So if your Cobalt sucks, don’t just think the Cobalt SS sucks, too. That’s like getting into a 914 and then saying every Porsche sucks because you hated the 914.

The Boxster and the Cayman are phenomenal cars to drive. So balanced and smooth. It’s a different feeling watching it go by and driving one (of course). You will never be disappointed driving one of those. So if Porsche is keen on making a 4 banger…. I can’t wait to test it out.

why does everyone think its going to sound like a subaru?
i guarantee itll be much more akin to VWAG 2.0t.

Kansei… you’re not the only one excited about this. I have driven the cayman and boxster and the feel is so precise it makes you look like a better driver.

Also, a note about the “over 200 hp.” Porsche Engineering was hired by Chrysler to help them boost out on the Caliber RT. When they were done that thing was pushing 300HP. I believe Chrysler decided to dumb it down to 285 HP afterwards. So expect this four banger to have significantly more than 200 HP.

This the result of Porsche getting too close to Audi. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.

DUDE a 2.0t boxster?!?!?!?!?! that would be SIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccckkk

Kansei, YES, I agree. We have an Outback (4-cyl) and that thing sounds horrible; horrible. Like a diesel without any oil in it.. or somethin’… Does anyone remember when Lotus used 4-cylinder engines? Wait, they still do (but, they’re from Toyota I guess). Those old, big, turbo-charged Esprit’s were pretty fast if I remember right.

VW’s 2.0T is a gas guzzling piece of ****. Look at the Passat 2.0T. That 200HP garbage gets identical fuel consumption to a Toyota Avalon with a 3.5L V6 engine. The difference is that Avalon has additional 68HP+. VW makes garbage engines. They just like to talk about HOW they do it, as opposed to WHAT they accomplish. Just like their crappy Audi A8s with aluminum frame–yet ends up being the heaviest in the class. No wonder Porsche bought those morons out.

I can’t say for sure if a smaller engine and less cylinders mean better economy, keep in mind a 4cyl solstice with a sub 3000 pound curb weight gets the same gas milage has a heavier, more powerful Corvette. but that being said, If some one could sell a boxster with the FSI Audi 2.0 putting out around 215-220 horsepower for around 33,000 I would buy one tomarrow.

LS7, wtf are you talking about?? first any turbo engine uses more gas. Who gives a **** when comparing a 2.0t to a heavy v6 from toyota. And where the hell did you pull that completely wrong info on the weight of the Audi A8 because its actually the LIGHTEST in the class moron! We a 2006 Avalon with that engine and never got above 29mpg. I now have a 2008 passat 2.0t and average 31mpg combined! and it doesn’t feel like driving a boat like the Avalon. We drove the avalon from Cleveland to Toronto and had it on cruise and only averaged 27.3mpg, the passat cruised the same at 70mph but averaged more than 33mpg! The heavier engine made the handling worse. And the 0-60 is at most just .2 second slower than the 3.5 which uses more gas when driving it hard! You clearly don’t know **** about those cars so stop talking!

By far the best news is the significantly lighter weight. The Boxster is already sub 3000 lbs. Drop another couple of hundred pounds and this thing will have magical handling. The Boxster/Cayman is already such a great drivers car, this will just make it even better.

If they will just put the power of the 4 cyl on par with the current base 6 cyl they will have a winner. What I am afraid of is that Porsche will stick to its heirarchy and hobble to 4 cyl engine to keep people buyng the more powerful 6 for more money. That 6 is already being hobbled to keep it from being as powerful as the 911. Porsche needs to forget about the heirarchy and just concentrate on makng the best sports car that it can regardless of the model.

As great as a performer as the Cobalts SS is, you got to admit it’s still uglier than almost every car in it’s class.

I love the fact that they might put a 4cyl in the Boxter. I think the weight advantage will be well worth the price and handling should go up with a lower weight. the only issue i have is that traction might arise with the current setup, but my guessing is that it can easily be resolved.

idrinorbarsaku: You f.ucking retard. This is exactly what I am talking about. Who CARES? The end-user driver cares. He cares about how much power he gets out of an engine, by using how much fuel. That is the BOTTOM LINE in real life, when it comes to measure efficiency. And VW’s 2.0T is pure garbage in that aspect. As for the A8, why not google some numbers? A “porky” Lexus LS460 is 4260lb. Grandpa Caddy DTS is 4100lb. But guess what? It is 4321lb for a base model A8. Loaded up, it can reach 4700lb. So f.uck you, VW brainwashed fanboy. Your queer executive car company finally got bought out by proper engineered car company–Porsche. Thank heavens. Maybe you’ll actually start making cars that are efficient, instead of that garbage they’ve been making for the last god knows how long years.

LS7 ur a champ way to tell it like it is. the A8 is an overweight over-luxurious piece of shi.t and there’s so much electronic driver assists that ur not even driving a real car anymore because it does everything for u. on the other hand, a lightweight Porsche with an MR drivetrain and still lots of power in a compact 4banger?
i’m nursing a semi hard just thinking about it.

4 cylinder engines can be great, and with the sort of turbo that Porsche used on their 911 Turbo, I can imagine obtaining a car that would be very fuel-efficient, very powerful and with literally 0 tubor lag (variable blade profile…). Add direct injection and I can imagine it reaching 300hp without too much trouble at all.

I have a 2003 Saab 9-5 Aero, with a 2.3L ecotec, pushing 260hp, and it’s so much fun to drive, and it pulls very hard. Now this is only GM, so translate the knowledge and skills of Porsche into this equation and think of how nice it could be.

LS7:
None of the cars you listed have AWD, which is notorious in adding weight (differentials and extra gearing) and why don’t you throw in the real competition of the car, the S class, the 7 series and the LS460?
Ohh, well, the S class weights as much WITHOUT AWD, and if you opt for 4matic you’re looking at 200 extra lbs over the A8. As for the Lexus 460, again, picking similar equipment, AWD, you’re again at about 200 lbs more than the A8. But wait, worse of all, the 7-series, obviously RWD, weights in at the same as the A8 with its quattro system.

Now you may, stupidly enough, think that AWD is not a useful feature, and that’s fine, you’re entitled to your opinion on that, but please enlighten me as to how the A8 is “the heaviest in its class” and “porky”…

Next time do your research instead of typing anything, and feel free to check my numbers on the respective official sites if you want to waste some time…

Oh, and did I mention that the 2.0T from Audi won “International engine of the year” for 3 years running?

LS& those are NONE of the A8 class! thats why i said you were wrong because i thought you were comparing it to the Mercedes s550 and bmw 750. You clearly have a biased opinion towards gm so i’m not even going to continue arguing. how do you even compare a piece of **** dts car! you only do it if you are being ****ed in the ass by GM! ****ing retard.

Aexcorp, you are 100% correct!
LS7, how can that engine be such a piece of **** if it won so many awards? you gm loving bitch. you wish you could afford some of those cars. you talk about porsche taking them over as if you know everything about porsche and like you have one sitting in their driveway. I hate people like you who pretend to know everything. you your ****ing facts straight before posting fag!

WOW……
All I sead was I will like to see under-dog tunner cars vrs. high-end “sports-named-cars”, that’s all……

who cares, they are just cars and not worth arguing over!