If you have even a passing interest in fast cars, then you gotta love the sound of a howling all-atmosphere six-cylinder Porsche powerplant. Luckily, it looks like that’s exactly what we’ll be hearing from the next Cayman GT4, as confirmed by Porsche’s head of GT car development, Andreas Preuninger.

Continue reading for the full story.

The Full Story

Stuttgart is currently busying itself with testing the next Porsche Cayman GT4 at the Nurburgring, which means it won’t be long before we see it prowling city streets in full production guise. Naturally, this leads to speculation as to what it’ll bring to the party, and although the 718 Cayman comes rocking a turbo flat-four powerplant, it’s looking like the Cayman GT4 will instead go all-motor six-cylinder.

Essentially, the new go-faster Cayman will come equipped with a detuned version of the 911 GT3’s 4.0-liter flat six-cylinder. With the outgoing model peaking at 380 horsepower, the new one is expected to dole out more than 400 horsepower.

To coincide with the extra bit of power, performance is also expected to get a bit of a bump, undercutting the current Cayman GT4’s 0-to-62 mph sprint of 4.4 seconds. The new car will also likely see a small increase over the current model’s 183-mph top speed.

In a recent interview with our friends over at the U.K. publication Autocar, Porsche’s head of GT car development, Andreas Preuninger, said, “Natural aspiration is one of our main USPs. At Motorsport, we think we can achieve throttle response and immediacy a little bit better with an atmospheric high-revving engine than any kind of turbo.”

Preuninger also confirmed that there are currently no immediate plans to build GT cars powered by a four-cylinder engine.

As for the transmission options, Preuninger also hinted that customers will be able to select between either a manual or a PDK automatic. “The aim is to always have the choice,” he told Autocar. “Now we’ve started with that strategy with the GT3, let’s hope that it pays off.”

Finally, Preuninger mentioned that Porsche will try to cut down on the number of buyers who buy GT cars to flip for profit. “If you do it, you won’t get the next car,” he explained.

This is all very good news for enthusiasts. With so many other makes and models going turbo to make the power expected from a sporty platform, it’s comforting to know Porsche will stick it out with a naturally aspirated option, at least for the foreseeable future. Paired with the option for a three-pedaled transmission, and Porsche is looking more and more like a bastion of the “pure” driving experience.

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References

Read up on our speculative review of the Porsche Cayman GT4!}