With the launch of the 911 GT3 RS and its all-new powerplant on the way, Porsche has also let it slip that the entire 911 range is actually heading toward a major transformation, something that will bring major improvements in terms of both performance and fuel consumption. Speaking with Autocar, Porsche’s head of R&D, Wolfgang Hatz, admitted once again that the flat-six in the upcoming GT3 RS is actually part of an all new engine family which will eventually find its way under the trunk of every 911 model in the future – in turbocharged guise.
In case that wasn’t obvious enough, it seems that apart from the GT3 and GT3 RS variants, each and every 911 model will be turbocharged in a few years, leading to confusion as to why the 911 Turbo is still named that way. Perhaps Porsche will simply drop the "Turbo" name altogether. When the new flat-six starts rolling out across the range, it will eventually end half a century of naturally-aspirated Boxer engines.
The long-rumored turbocharged flat-four engine is also still coming, with Hatz confirming that it will power the facelifted Boxster and Cayman from early 2016. What he didn’t confirm was a return of the 912 nameplate, which would essentially be a four-cylinder entry-level 911. Another model that was long-rumored and then somehow went off the radar is the so-called "project 988," which the Porsche R&D boss said that it may come by the end of the decade "at the latest," powered by an all-new V-8 engine that the automaker is currently developing for the third generation of the Cayenne and the second generation of the Panamera.
Click past the jump to learn what other surprises Porsche is preparing for the future.
Porsche 911 Family Will Go Turbo; Sub-918 Model Also Planned originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 20 January 2015 14:00 EST.
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