Fewer Teeth, Sharper Bite

Porsche’s “crocodile” coupe now has two fewer cylinders and smaller engine capacities, but higher performance thanks to turbocharging.

- Shreejit Changaroth

PORSCHE’S original 718 model is a sleek little two-seater roadster sporting a flat-4 engine mounted amidship.

With two camshafts on each bank of the horizontally opposed engine block and the cylinders fed by a pair of Weber carburettors, the naturally aspirated 1.5-litre engine produces 142bhp at 7500rpm.

That is a healthy output even by today’s standards, and it helped the 718 win the legendary Targa Florio race in 1959, 1960 and 1963. The 718’s successor, the 904, also has its motor in the middle, but was designed as a pretty hard-top coupe with an engine capacity of 2 litres, good for 198bhp. That was in 1963.

The mid-engine flat-4 layout only returned this year in the 718 Boxster, a heavily revised version of Porsche’s third-generation (model code 981) boxer-roadster.

Its coupe sibling, the Cayman, is the latest to bear the same 718 moniker, although “904” would have suited it fine, in my opinion.

The biggest change with the new 718 Cayman is the powerplant. In place of the naturally aspirated flat-6 is a 4-cylinder, also horizontally opposed but with a single turbocharger to boost torque and power.

The base Cayman’s engine displaces 1988cc, with its bhp hitting the 300 mark for the first time and its maximum torque at a constant 380Nm between 1950rpm and 4500rpm.

The Cayman S has a slightly larger, 2.5-litre flat-4 engine with an increased cylinder bore dimension and, more interestingly, a variablegeometry turbocharger (VTG) to further eliminate any hint of lag.

Thus far, only the 911 Turbo has benefitted from VTG technology, which is not currently found in any other petrol-engined car.

There’s also Dynamic Boost Function, which keeps the throttle open when the accelerator is released (fuel injection is cut off), so that charge pressure does not drop significantly and boost resumes without delay when horsepower is demanded.