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Porsche launches new 718 Cayman with 4-cylinder Turbo

Porsche launches new 718 Cayman with 4-cylinder Turbo

Porsche has launched the new 718 Cayman with four-cylinder turbocharged engines, redesigned dashboards and LED lights setting it apart from the previous model. Basic price for the 2-litre 300 hp Cayman is £39,878, with the basic 2.5-litre, 350 hp Cayman costing from £48,834: a difference of £8956.

Porsche Cayman now cheaper than Boxster

The new list prices position Cayman below its soft-top Boxster sibling, which starts at £41,739.00 for the 2-litre manual. Add £1922 for PDK, taking the pre-options price to £43,661. Boxster S starts at £50695: £8956 more than the 2-litre car: same as the 718 Cayman.

Porsche 718 Cayman interior

There are subtle differences under the skin, with firmer springs and anti-roll bars and tweaked damper settings. Steering is ten per cent ‘more direct’ and rear wheels are a half inch wider, general increased lateral grip. The Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV) electronically-controlled rear limited slip differential is an option. Brakes have been upgraded, now with 330mm front discs and 299mm rears. 2-litre Cayman uses the previous Cayman S calipers, while the 718 Cayman S gets 911 Carrera calipers, with 6mm thicker discs.

Outgoing Cayman was quite a pretty car and the new one looks pretty similar to me. Front end is maybe a bit sharper, with bigger intakes and new LED running lights. 918-style LED headlamps with four-point daytime running lights are an option. The rear now has a gloss black badge panel with four brake lights, which Porsche says “appear to float freely”.

Porsche 718 Cayman Grey 1

The Cayman will need more than floaty brake lights to capture buyers imagination. Porsche sports cars (i.e. sports cars and not sports SUVs) now account for something like 30% of sales and the 911 takes the lion’s share of that. Caymans are hard work in the used market and struggle to find buyers quickly, even when keenly priced, which keeps trade demand and residual values challenging.

Company car users have been known to opt for Caymans and no doubt will continue to do so, but it’s hard not to wonder about the strength of support amongst private buyers for Cayman, given the cost of a reasonably-equipped example and the number of more versatile premium alternatives now available.

Having a relevant, desirable sports car other than the evergreen 911 is important to preserve brand perception/positioning for the SUVs, so the four-cylinder engines and price drop to below the soft top probably make sense. They make much more sense than diluting the 718’s place in history by pimping those numbers on the back of a Cayman, regardless of how floaty the brake lights are.

30,000 Porsche Macan Diesels recalled for emissions in Germany

30,000 Porsche Macan Diesels recalled for emissions in Germany

Porsche is amongst a group of manufacturers who have issued voluntary recalls for a total of 630,000 vehicles across Germany to address irregularities with diesel emissions systems, after being listed as real-world emissions offenders by the German goverment.

Porsche sells a variety of diesel engines in the Macan and Cayenne SUVs: two model lines which now make up 70% of all Porsche sales. The Cayenne Diesel’s 3-litre V6 Turbodiesel produces 262 hp at 4,000 rpm and the Cayenne S Diesel’s 4.2-litre V8 Turbodiesel produces 385 hp at 3,750 rpm. Both are EU6 compliant. The TDI option in the Porsche Macan S Diesel is the 3-litre V6 making 254 hp at 4,250 rpm and a collosal 580Nm of torque from 1,500-2,500 rpm. This Porsche Macan diesel engine is now subject to emissions recall in Germany.

Cayenne Diesel pulled from US sale by Porsche Cars North America

No mention has been made of the Cayenne’s V6 TDI, which achieves the same excellent torque output, but which Porsche Cars North America voluntarily removed from sale at the end of last year, after it received a notice of violation from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the 2015 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Audi declined to follow Porsche’s example and left all of its 3.0 V6 TDI models on sale.

Figures shared by Autocar magazine says that the recall includes 32,000 Macan diesels. As in the case of the VW diesel issue, early murmurs on Macan forums suggest that a number of owners will not have their cars corrected. This is despite a series of tests carried out by ADAC in Germany which show that the Porsche Macan S Diesel emits over four times more NOx in the “real-world” WLTC emissions test versus the the NEDC test used by EU officials.

Australia sues over Porsche 3-litre diesel emissions

Since the dieselgate emissions scandal broke, Volkwagen has repeatedly claimed that its 3-litre V6 TDI engines are clean and compliant, despite the engine’s withdrawal from sale in the US. Despite these assertions, Australian lawyers representing more than 13,000 VW owners in a class action suit covering almost 100,000 VW diesel cars sold in Australia from 2009 to 2016 added the 3.0 V6 TDI to its lawsuit at the end of 2015.

“Volkswagen has made denials that have subsequently proven to be untrue every step of the way,” said class actions lawyer, Jason Geisker. “It denied the initial test results that uncovered this global scandal and also denied that its 3.0-litre vehicles sold in the USA were affected, before later admitting that these engines did have defeat devices fitted.”

NOx Emissions causing 50,000 premature UK deaths per annum

The latest emissions recalls in Germany are based around how emissions outputs are recirculated ‘post-treatment’, with some manufacturer systems venting them to air above a certain ambient temperature, rather than pumping them back into the engine. Manufacturers including Alfa Romeo, Chevrolet, Fiat, Ford, Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Renault are also implicated. So far only Audi and Opel/GM have stated that they will apply the updates on every affected car in Europe.

The official line is that no single authority is forcing Porsche and these other manufacturers to bring their most heavily polluting diesels back and sort out their emissions systems, but it is impossible to believe that manufacturers would spend money to do this voluntarily. Given that WHO research data now suggests that NOx emissions cause as many as 50,000 premature deaths per year in the UK alone, there is also a question mark over the actions of VW, Porsche and other marque owners who choose not to have the software corrections applied to reduce the NOx emissions of their vehicles.

Owners opting not to apply emissions-reducing software fixes

Owners who choose not to apply software that reduces poisonous gas emissions from their vehicle tailpipes are breathing the same air as everyone else, but justify overlooking these excessive emissions by claiming that the software updates would make their cars less powerful and damage engine internals. The fact that the recall has been left as voluntary by the German authorities means that the manufacturers can sidestep their legal responsibilties to reducing air pollutants, while also claiming that owners have not been disadvantaged and do not deserve compensation, as they like how their cars work. All that money spent on political lobbyists by car manufacturers across the EU this continues to pay off, but meanwhile, children are forced to breathe highly polluted air.

You may regard this as an overdramatisation, but a 2010 exercise to monitor London’s air pollution illustrated the scale of the emissions problem most effectively, when the UK capital used up its annual allowance for NO2 emissions in the first three weeks of measuring. A 52-week allowance used up in three weeks, and diesel engines that are now an average of nine times more polluting against permitted standards means there is no excuse for owners of affected vehicles to sidestep the emissions fixes.

We are still in the early days of this emissions scandal. There can be no doubt that diesel engines and car manufacturing as a whole will face a lot more scrutiny in the months ahead – unless the industry hires even more lobbyists.

Röhrl-approved tyres for classic Porsche sports cars

Röhrl-approved tyres for classic Porsche sports cars

Porsche has just added a bunch of new N-rated tyres to its list of approved rubber for older Porsche sports cars. The fact that Stuttgart’s release considers anything pre-2005 as classic is something we’ll gloss over for now – not going there on a Friday afternoon.

Porsche N-rated Tyres on Classic 911s

The Porsche tyre N-rating system is a subject of much discussion amongst classic 911 owners: probably in the top three conversation starters along with “what oil should I use?” and “I once turned down a 964RS for £20 and a half-eaten steak and kidney pie.” Not fitting N-rated tyres to your old Porsche won’t make it fail the MOT or invalidate your insurance, but there may be some comfort in fitting tyres which Porsche has tested on your classic. It also leaves you with plenty of headspace to worry about the engine going bang or whatever people worry about these days.

Classic Porsche tyres N-rated 1

Pirelli, Continental, Michelin and Bridgestone all have rubber on the latest classic Porsche N-rated tyre list. As impact bumper 911s are closest to my heart, it’s nice to see that Continental Sport Contact tyres continue to be available in 205/55 and 245/45 ZR16 for 7- and 9-inch Fuchs wheels as fitted to my Carrera 3.0 (albeit the Sport Contacts on my car at present are not N rated). For those who follow a Porsche-approved lifestyle, 959 owners are stuck with Bridgestone RE71s (plenty noisy at 80dB), 964RS drivers have a better choice of Sport Contacts, Michelin Pilot Sport 2, Pirelli P Zero Rosso or Trofeo R compounds, while 924 Turbo drivers have the Sport Contact, Pilot Exalto 2 or P Zero Rosso to choose from.

Porsche Tyre Test Drivers

Porsche invited Walter Röhrl along to help with approvals, the former World Rally champion offering input based on a long history of driving classic Porsche models. Many of the current works drivers also have a classic 911 tucked away somewhere – would be interesting to see one of them drifting a pre-’73, abusing a set of N-rated tyres (Pirelli CN36 or P6000 if you must have the N). It is also interesting to see Walter leaning on a pair of P7Rs (sexiest tread pattern ever IMO) but those tyres are not on the Porsche approved list as far as I can see: P7 Cinturatos yes, but not P7Rs.

Classic Porsche tyres N-rated 2

“The driving properties in the early years were not as full or balanced as they are today,” says Walter. “The new generation of tyres is more fitting than ever to the driving style of a challenging sports car.” Porsche tyre tester, Dieter Röscheisen, said of the newly-approved tyres: “The new tyre releases will make it possible for classic models to follow the curve into the modern era with exceptionally good and balanced driving properties.” (I imagine it is more likely that a PR person said this. My hope is that Dieter was overexcited after spending an afternoon shredding 993 RS rear tyres and couldn’t elucidate.)

Classic Porsche tyres N-rated 4

I don’t have N-rated tyres fitted to any of my five old Porsches. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest, as my cars are eternal works-in-progress and only one of the Porsches is currently road legal (a classic 2004 SUV model). I have a set of part-worn 205/55 16 Bridgestones for the 924 Turbo, which will be next to go on the road. I like Sport Contacts on the 911, but tend to lean toward Michelins as my overall tyre brand of choice: they drive so well, right down to the wear bars. All that will go out the window if you can now get P7Rs to fit the 911, as they are soooo s-e-x-y.

Track day fans on my 911 forum at impactbumpers.com use a load of different non-N-rated tyres on long road trips and pretty intense driving conditions and no big problems reported there. Bridgestone S-02s have long been a good choice for spirited ’74-’89 911 driving if you can get a set to suit: you can still buy 205/55 and 225/50 16s in Porsche N3 rating from places like Camskill, but I don’t think 245s are easily available.

Testing with an original Brumos Porsche 911 RSR

Testing with an original Brumos Porsche 911 RSR

Opened my emails yesterday morning to find a late-night message from the Yorkshire Bullet: Mark Bates from EB Motorsport. “Testing at Silverstone with Tuthills tomorrow, come over for a catch up if you’re free.” Five minutes later, I had thrown on a Tuthill top and was in the Cayenne, en route to Silverstone.

After eleven sunny Northamptonshire miles, I arrived at the circuit and found the garage but no sign of Tuthills. Instead, Mark was there with top man Neil Bainbridge from BS Motorsport and a smart RSR in Brumos colours. Tuthills had asked Mark to come down and test drive the RSR with the owner (who also owns a few Tuthill-built cars), trying the setup and suggesting some tweaks ahead of the car’s first outing this year for the CER race at Spa Francorchamps.

Brumos Porsche 911 RSR Ferdinand Magazine 1

After many race miles in the two EB 3-litre racecars and the super 1965 911 that did so well at Goodwood last year, Mark is an excellent 911 test driver and has previously set up a number of non-EB 911 race cars, for circuits in the UK and Europe. He jumped at the chance to try an original RSR, making a five-hour round trip to have a go. The great weather was a real bonus.

Having already made a few misguided assumptions that morning, why hold back and break the habit of a lifetime, so I shot straight into another one, assuming this was the replica Brumos car built by Tuthills a few years ago, now fitted with BS Motorsport 3-litre power. Asking the owner about the new engine’s recipe, he smiled and put me straight. “This is the RSR that won the 1973 Mexico 1000 kms.”

Brumos Porsche 911 RSR Ferdinand Magazine 2

Brumos Porsche 911 RSR 911 360 0865

Chassis number 911 360 0865 was delivered to Peter Gregg at Brumos in April 1973 (happy 43rd birthday). Fitted with the 911/72 engine – a naturally aspirated 2808cc flat six making 308 bhp at 8k rpm – the car was sold to Mexico’s Hector Rebaque, who owned it until mid 1977. In the years he had the car, Hector took three wins in Mexico City, twice on the famous 1000 kms race.

After Hector, the car went to Guatemala for a while, eventually ending up with our friends at the Blackhawk Collection, who sold it back to Europe: first living an Italian collector for twenty years, and then to another Porsche collector in Monaco, who had it restored by the now-defunct Scuderia Classica at the start of this decade. I don’t yet have the full story of how the current owner came to possess it, but watch this space.

The track day was organised by my next-village neighbours at Goldtrack, who run a tight ship and bring in some very nice cars as a result. Parked up amongst the latest supercars and plenty of race machinery, this air-cooled classic Porsche turned few heads beyond the cognoscenti, until Bates turned the key and got the engine started.

Brumos Porsche 911 RSR Ferdinand Magazine 3

Porsche 911 Track Day Noise

Even with tailpipe extensions, intended to mute the exhaust a touch for track day dB meters, this Porsche has a proper bark on startup. The engine has a tight, pursed tickover that is so much sweeter than the all-bass soundtracks of later Porsches sporting exhaust systems apparently designed originally for industrial chimneys. I feel an audiophile comparison of most attractive tickovers coming on.

Rolling out into the pitlane, the roofline of the tall RSR runs well above the massed Radicals, Ginettas and Scuderia Ferraris that dominate Silverstone’s start-of-race-season track days. But with 300 bhp pushing less than 1000 kilos along, it goes down the road rather nicely.

“I’ve already spun it once,” Bates confesses. “Fourth lap, pushed a bit too hard and the back just came around. It’s not what our car would have done.” I asked him what else felt different to his own 3.0 RSR build, which has proved so successful in historic racing in the seven years he’s been racing it, winning back-to-back Masters Historic titles and last year’s Nürburgring Trophy race (rumour has it that Germany’s cancelled the race now the English have won it).

Brumos Porsche 911 RSR Ferdinand Magazine 5

Porsche 911 RSR 2.8 vs 3.0-litre

“They are quite different cars. Ours feels sharper after so many years of development. It’s lighter – closer to 920 kilos than the 970 or so of this one – so our brakes bite harder and suspension has a bit less to do. It’s not quite surgical in its precision, as no air-cooled car could ever be surgically precise, but our car is very sharp and reactive to drive. This one feels authentic to the period: very 1970s.”

Testing went well, with the RSR showing a clean pair of heels to most modern machinery. It flew past me on the old pit straight, holding its own against a featherweight Radical and shrugging off modern 991 GT3 RS and new BMW M3s. The delight in seeing real RSRs used with such glorious abandon – the owner encouraging Mark to thrash it and see what it is utimately capable of – was a joyous experience. Ultimately, it was left to Mark to decide how hard he drove it.

Testing at Silverstone with @eb33racing in an original 2.8 RSR #brumos #porsche911 #cultofporsche

A video posted by The Cult of Porsche (@cultofporsche) on

“It’s not my car and we’ve already been ticked off for noise and told to keep it under 7k rpm, but there’s enough going on to see what could be looked at. Our car runs lower gear ratios, which offer more opportunies to exploit the engine’s torque. We have some suspension tweaks specific to our car and this year we also have our own dyno-developed exhaust system coming. That makes a difference to the power on tap.”

“It’s been a good morning and we’ve learned quite a bit, changing tyre pressures and moving some ballast around,” said Neil, who has extensive personal experience of racing 2.8 and 3.0-litre RSRs. When I suggested that he may have been one of the last people to race a proper 2.8 RSR around Silverstone in period (not including club races and historics since then), he had a think before sharing a great story of racing a non-turbo RSR against an Autofarm 934 back in the day. But that’s a tale for another time.

Porsche Boxster 718 Launch Photos

Porsche Boxster 718 Launch Photos

Our man in Portugal, José Luis Stock, recently sent me some photos from the official press launch of the Porsche Boxster 718, the turbocharged four-cylinder car which Stuttgart has seen fit to rebrand with the iconic 718 label, presumably to head off criticism that real Porsche sports cars have flat-six engines. Personally, I don’t think anyone would have been that bothered and they could have left it alone, but what do I know.

José is the brother of Fernando Stock, famous Portuguese rally driver of the 1950s who took a Porsche 356 to the Monte Carlo Rally back in the day. José is a man who still loves his Porsches, so it must have been a pretty cool experience to walk into a car park and find the very latest Porsche sports car parked in front of him: yet another upside to living in sunny Southern Europe.

Porsche Boxster 718 launch 4

Porsche Boxster 718 reviews

Reviews of the Porsche Boxster 718 have been circulating for a week or so, and the general consensus amongst road test editors is that it’s a reasonable effort. EVO magazine’s Dan Prosser is one of my Porsche road test benchmarks and his review of the new Boxster S was an interesting read, particularly for his robust remarks on the character of Porsche’s new four-cylinder engine.

Porsche Boxster 718 launch 1

“Even with the sports exhaust fitted, the new engine is fairly characterless in the way it sounds,” says Prosser. “It doesn’t want for volume at idle and the sound is a dirty, gruff sort of warble with Subaru undertones, but it isn’t tuneful. Unfortunately, it doesn’t improve once on the move and with the roof up it’s actually very droney. The note does harden over the final 1000rpm, but the long and short of it is that the Boxster is no longer a car that can be enjoyed for the way it sounds.”

Not quite what the Doctor would have ordered if he were still with us, and even less so when the price is factored in. The new Boxster S costs a staggering £50,695. Add five grand more for ceramic brakes, a grand for 20″ wheels and £1100 for Sport Chrono Plus. Hard to believe that a new Boxster S is the best thing you can do with £60k of hard-earned, but UK Porsche sales are up year-on-year.